Veeam Backup Proxy

[andreas2012]

Hi,

With VSAN configuration there is recommended to have a Veeam Backup Proxy for each VSAN node.
If I understand correct, then If we have a VSAN system of 16 nodes, we should create 16 virtual machines and install the Backup Proxy feature on these ?

Why isn`t there like a Veeam Backup Proxy Appliance I can download instead... To have 16 VM`s with Windows Server 2016 gives extra administration tasks related to patching antivirus etc....

Comments ?

Thanks for reply

/Andreas

[foggy]

Hi Andreas, your understanding is correct, this is a recommended setup in case of VSAN. You can use existing VMs as proxy servers though, no need to have dedicated ones. Please see this thread for considerations regarding proxy appliance.

[HannesK]

Hello,
just to add: I saw customers simply doing NBD backup with the "all in one" physical backup server and they are happy with that. So maybe that could be an option for you

Best regards,
Hannes

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Well using existing VM`s that has other roles are not an option, the customer will not mix that, and also our proxy vms are not in the domain because of security issues. NBD not as fast as Hot add so guess that's out of the picture.... I think its strange that veeam does not have a appliance thing or is it just me

/Regards
Andreas

[HannesK]

Well using existing VM`s that has other roles are not an option

fully agree

NBD not as fast as Hot add so guess that's out of the picture.

that depends on the customer environment... the hot-add process itself can be slower than the backup itself... that's why I suggest to test it. I mean a 16 node cluster has 16x4GBit (assuming that each ESXi has at least 10GBit management port which can be used up to 40%) which might be fast enough.

[bdufour]

our current environment is using vsan, and ive tested network and hotadd transport modes and the performance was almost identical. i stuck with network, bc we are use production vms as proxies bc our servers are not really in use after 6pm, and with network mode it makes replicating and backing up these proxies (which again are production vms and need to be replicated and backed up) a lot easier than using hotadd.

[bdufour]

id also like to add that i have some jobs that do run during production hours and while using production vms as proxies, ive not seen anything alarming as far as performance to push me away from using these vms as proxies or move away from nbd. i wouldnt close the door on network mode until you've actually tested it.

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Thanks for good comments, I will have a check when it comes to network vs hot add...

[andreas2012]

Just a comment regarding this environment. The system contains 14 nodes, I do not have overview over the network, but I believe the esxi nodes are connected with 10gbit (How can I check this within vCenter?) The backup server is a physical server with 10Gbit Ethernet connection, that I know This is used as a staging server before it does backup-copy over to a NAS box.

The challenge is that the environment is production 24/7, so I thought it was best to used hot-add so the data will not interrupt/delay VSAN traffic ?
I am not an expert on this, so may be I should do some testing....

/Regards
Andreas

[bdufour]

no worries, glad to help. btw when i look at the bottleneck stats in my backup jobs, network is never the bottleneck. full 10ge backbone for virtual traffic, but our data domain backup appliance has 1ge nics so we are limited there. so if you have 10ge nics on your backup appliance you should be 10ge all the way through and will likely see better performance than me. if you want to check the speed of the nics from vsphere, select the node/host and look at 'networking,' drill down into physical adapter - if they are all 10ge (speed 10000), then everything, including management is 10ge. you can ignore the idrac nic if thats set up on yours.

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Yes I can see that there are connected 2x10Gbit nic for every vsan node, so then I guess I will have 10Gbit all the way.
Then the question is maybe nbd will be faster than hot add.... (guess I need to check that manually:) but again, using nbd will it interfere with VSAN traffic, like I said, this environment is 24/7 ....

Thanks for answers.

/Regards
Andreas

[bdufour]

the biggest reason i stuck with network, is bc, again, we use production vms as proxies that need to be replicated and backed up. with hotadd, a proxy cant be backed up or replicated while being used as a proxy (which is fine if u have stand alone proxies). network was the clear winner, also no consolidation errors anymore (which reared its ugly head up from time to time with hotadd) and not much diff in performance for us. all in all, its really depended on your environment and what u need. network was the clear winner for us, for you it may not be. but considering how easy it is to change transport modes on proxies and test all of this - i almost always recommend testing these things out for yourself.