Veeam Backup Design Question

[Treeeman]

Hello,

i need some ideas and inspration for a customer installation.

VMware Environment:
Customer has two datacenters. Both Datacenters are connected over a 40GB/s Ethernet Trunk and 16GB/s SAN.
There are 5 ESXi 5.5 Hosts in each Datacenter managed by a virtual vCenter Server within on VMware HA Cluster.
All VMs are stored on two 3PAR (one in each Datacenter) which are replicated (for transparend failover).
From 3PAR Perspective Storage Snapshots are supported.
There are about 150 VMs within this HA Cluster and about 5 physical Servers (Domain Controller, Management Server, and some non critical Servers).

Backup Environment:
Right now customer is using Backup Exec 2014.
There is a virtual Windows VM with BE2014. This is just the Management Interface for BE (so called "Central Administration Server"). It is for creating Backup Jobs, save Catalog and automatic delegation Backup Jobs to one of the available Media Servers. In each Datacenter is one physical Backup Exec Media Server with a Dual Port FC HBA connected to the SAN. So in Case of a Media Server Error he is still able to do Backups and Restores with the still existing one.
All Backups are firstly stored on a VTL created on a HP StoreOnce connected over two 8GB/s FC Ports. After that all Backups are copied from VTL to a physical HP Tape Library which is located in the other Datacenter, also connected over 8GB/s FC.
VTL and MSL are presented both physical Media Servers at the same time with FC Zoning. The Backup Exec Central Administration Server controls which physical Server is able to access the VTL and MSL so no Tape Access Errors occur.

My Challenge is to find out if Veeam is able to replace Backup Exec in this environment.
If yes, the huge question is how the "perfect" Design looks with the existing hardware? Is it useful to still use both physical Servers in each Datacenter as a Transport Proxy and create a Veeam VM for management? Or are there other good ideas? Is it able to give two physical Veeam Proxies access to the same Tape Library without getting Tape Access Conflicts? I know the primary Backup Repostiry have to be a local Harddrive or a Network Share. The HP StoreOnce also has two 10GB/s Ethernet Ports. So i would be able to delete the VTL, create a Share and store the Backups on the Share.
Also customers wants at the last day of a year a full backup on the physical Tapes so he can take this tapes out of the library and store it within a safe.
I dont have any practical experience with Storage Snapshots. Is it a good Idea using Storage Snapshots with 3PAR? Stable? If i understand Storage Snapshots correctly the Backups will not be faster but there is less impact on my VMs (because Less time between VMware Snapshot Creation and VMware Snapshot Deletion). Other Benefits using Storage Snapshots?

Thanks for any help.

Kind Regards
Marco

[Shestakov]

Hello Marco,
Yes, Veeam Backup and Replication can fulfill the user`s requirement.

If yes, the huge question is how the "perfect" Design looks with the existing hardware?

Existing infrastructure makes perfect sense and D2D2T is also what we recommend.

Is it useful to still use both physical Servers in each Datacenter as a Transport Proxy and create a Veeam VM for management? Or are there other good ideas?

Direct SAN is the preferable method in a case backup proxy has a direct access to the production storage via a hardware or software HBA.
Virtual Appliance method also shows good performance. You may have 1 on each host for faster processing.

Also customers wants at the last day of a year a full backup on the physical Tapes so he can take this tapes out of the library and store it within a safe.

Since the plan is to have D2D2T backups, you can configure another backup to tape job to run once a year and make a yearly backup. Now, in v8 you can use a simple workaround. Starting from v9, tape GFS retention will be built-in.

I dont have any practical experience with Storage Snapshots. Is it a good Idea using Storage Snapshots with 3PAR? Stable? If i understand Storage Snapshots correctly the Backups will not be faster but there is less impact on my VMs (because Less time between VMware Snapshot Creation and VMware Snapshot Deletion). Other Benefits using Storage Snapshots?

Storage Snapshots are to speed up backup and replication. Backup from Storage Snapshots uses storage snapshots for VM data processing, which reduces impact of backup activities on the production environment and lets you dramatically improve RPOs.
Thanks!

[Treeeman]

Hi,

thanks for your reply.
So if i understand you right, i "simple" use the existing Environment.
I install (like with BE) one virtual Veeam Backup Server (for Management). I connect the two physical Servers, like already, to the SAN for direct SAN Backup. I will install the Components "Veeam Transport Proxy" and "Veeam Tape Server" on the both physical Servers. With the "Veeam Tape Server" i will be able to access the Tape Library from both Veeam Proxies without access problems.
The StoreOnce will be connected over 10GB/s Ethernet to store the Backups.

Setup fine?
Other Reccomendations?

Additional Question:
In Backup Exec i am able to create Partitions for Tape Library Slots.
So i am able to create a Partition for Tape Slot 40 - 47 to copy my Backups at the end of the year to this Partition (8 Tapes). So it's easy for my customer to identify the Tapes from the yearly Backup.
I think this is not possible in Veeam v8. Is there something in v9?

Thanks!
KR
Marco

[Uglybob]

our environment is nearly similair to this one.

You cant share a tape library with backup exec... BE doesnt share.

We moved 2 of the tape libraries to another spare server which is also used as a backup repository (30TB, exagrid got full). The 3rd library stayed on the BE server since you are going to need it for restores and we still use BE for the physical server backups but technically you can use Veeam EndPoint for this.. depending on the criticality of the service on those boxes and what flexibility you need.
The BE server is used as a proxy and we made the Veeam backup and Replication a VM. We have a physical proxy at our other site as both use FC to talk to the 3PAR for direct SAN copies. iSCSi is supported now if you have it.

We utilize 2 x 21000 Exagrid for backup repositories too and we can backup about 50TB to disk and then to tape in 3-4 days if all goes well.

120 VM
9 Hosts (4,5), 120VM, 70TB total Disk (3par)
1 VBR Server (VM)
2 x Proxy Servers (Physical, FC for DirectSAN).. one is our existing BE server which needs to remain for restores.
3 x Repository Servers (@ x Exagrid, 1 x 2012)
1 x Tape Server (Repository Server)

Hope the info helps with your design.

[Treeeman]

Hi,

sure you can share a (SAN-attached) Tape Library with Backup Exec.
You need the "Shared Storage Option" which is part of the "Enterprise Server Option".
My Customer is running this Setup with BE for about 4 Years without any issue.

So the question is still if Veeam is also able to share a SAN attached Library?
Whould be great. So both physical Backup Proxies whould be able to read/write to one Library.

Thanks!
Kind Rigards
Marco

[Uglybob]

Sorry Marco.. to be more clear, BE locks the tape library and wont share with other backup programs such as Veeam. This is the issue we had, hence why we moved the tape libraries to another server.

[skrause]

You might want to look at exposing the StorOnce as a CIFS for Veeam instead of using it as an FC VTL as I think that Veeam's integration with StorOnce needs to see it that way (I could be wrong). Otherwise your setup doesn't sound like it would be too difficult to convert to Veeam. Of course, if your StorOnce doesn't have the 10G connections on it that point would be moot.

I don't know if the tape partitioning is possible in Veeam v8 (I think it really depends on if your manufacturer has a decent driver) and I don't remember it being mentioned as a new feature during the presentation at VeeamON but you can probably do something similar with how you manage media pools. I think I might need to test out the library partitioning thing with the tape library we are retiring (was our BE library) in the next month and see as that intruiges me.

[Treeeman]

@Uglybob
Ok. That is true. Sharing Library with Veeam and BE will not work.

@skrause
Yes. I am planning to Connect the StoreOnce (over 10GB/s Ethernet) as a CIFS Share.

Customer is getting a new LTO6 Tape Library. The existing LTO5 Tape Library will be connected to one of the existing Backup Exec Servers. So i am still able Restore Files from old Backup Exec Backups. Additionally Customers will purchase a new physical Server for Veeam.
So Customer has 1x BE Server (with LTO5 Library) and 2x Veeam Server (with LTO6 Library).

But like i wrote before the big question is still if it is possible to share a SAN-attached Tape Library between two Veeam Servers?
If yes, both physical Veeam Servers are able to store Backups to StoreOnce (over CIFS 10GB/s Ethernet) and copy the Backups to LTO6 Library.
If one physical Server will fail Backup/Restore still possible without downtime.

[Shestakov]

Marco,
Why do you need 2 tape servers? As far as I understood you have only 1 tape library. So 1 tape server in the same location should be enough.
As for splitting tapes, you can create several media pools, choose which tapes to add there, and point backup jobs to the media pools. So tapes for yearly backups will not be used for other purposes.

[Treeeman]

Yes, there is just one Tape Library for Veeam.
The Idea behind the two Tape servers is in case of a hardware failure.
If one of my Tape Servers fail i am still able to Backup my VMs to StoreOnce AND offload my Backup to Tape. Without any intervention.
In the meanwhile i am able to bring the failed server back online.
No Backup or Tape Offloading interruption. No loosing of any Catalog Information because it is stored on the virtual BE Server (Central Administration Server).

With BE this concept works fine.

[Shestakov]

Rather than have a redundant tape server, I would backup the existing one and restore it in minutes in a case of disaster.
However you can grant role of tape server to another VM and make it work with tapes in a case the first one failed.
Thanks!

[skrause]

I am a bit confused as to why you would need instant access to tape restores at all times. If you are using StorOnce then you should be able to keep pretty much all of your backups on there for a long time with its dedupe and your tapes would be for off-site cold backups so they would need to be loaded anyway.

Veeam will store the information regarding what backups are on which tapes in the database on the management server just like in BE. With version 9, you will be able to have your media pools stretch across multiple libraries as well so you could just put in a second tape library on your second server (since compared to pretty much everything else you have there, tape libraries are relatively inexpensive) and have the media pool stretch to it. You might need to remove a tape from one library and load it in the other one.

[Treeeman]

ok, if the information regarding which backups are on which tape is stored on the management Server it should be pretty easy to reconnect the Library to another Server and do a restore from Tape.

I think i have all information i need for this setup.
Thanks to all.

[Shestakov]

That`s correct. Also consider using Veeam ONE reports such as Tape Backups and Tape Media Retention Period (more in v9) to check what is stored where and which tapes are to be expired.
Thanks!