Veeam Backup Server

[VMPAT]

Hi,

Could I please have clarification on a few issues with Veeam 6.5,

I notice that when I run a Replica job with Veeam Backup installed on a 2008 VM it mounts the disks in the disk management when running the Job even though I have not setup Direct San access via windows iSCSI, so my question is does this automatically happen on the Veeam Backup Server when it is a VM?

The other issue I have is that I have a VM that I have been trying to replicate over the WAN, I have selected only 4 of the 7 attached drives to replicate, due to the fact that I only have 2TB of space on the DR side and they other 3 disks are not critical data, this job fails with a number of errors that point to a few possible issues, however I would like to get some fundamentals correct before looking at cause of the errors.

To complete a successful initial seed do you have to do a full replication of the whole VM first before you select only the discs you want to keep replicating. I have also tried a seed/backup of the 4 disks I want to replicate to eliminate WAN link as an issue, but a test restore and and replication using the Seed both failed is this again because I have only selected the 4 disks when I did the initial backup seed?

I have a vCenter 4.1 licence for the server but it was originally setup as standalone ESXi as there was only one host which has now grown to a DR solution, with another host in the DR site. What benefit other than being able to add the vCenter server to the Veeam Backup server for centralised management i.e Hot add functionality, VM API functionality etc.

I also have 2 socket licence for Veeam can/should I run a veeam backup server in the Production and the DR site as long as my host only has one socket, at the moment I have one Backup server in the Production and a backup Proxy VM server in the DR that has automount disabled and the datastore attached via iSCI ?

Thanks again,

[veremin]

I notice that when I run a Replica job with Veeam Backup installed on a 2008 VM it mounts the disks in the disk management when running the Job even though I have not setup Direct San access via windows iSCSI, so my question is does this automatically happen on the Veeam Backup Server when it is a VM?

I believe it happens due to the fact that your VB&R VM is playing the role of default proxy and these disks are connected to it by the means of Hot-Add method.

To complete a successful initial seed do you have to do a full replication of the whole VM first before you select only the discs you want to keep replicating.

As for your second issue, it has been previously confirmed that you can’t use backup with excluded disk as a seed. For more information please see this topic.

I also have 2 socket licence for Veeam can/should I run a veeam backup server in the Production and the DR site as long as my host only has one socket, at the moment I have one Backup server in the Production and a backup Proxy VM server in the DR that has automount disabled and the datastore attached via iSCI ?

Yes, you can. Let your Veeam server deployed in production site be responsible for backup jobs and/or local replication, and the one at the DR site for the remote replication jobs. Thus, in disaster situation all functionality (Failover, Failback and etc.) can be performed by VB&R Server in DR itself without any problems.

Additionally, it might be worth installing Enterprise Manager to have visibility across two backup servers.

There also shouldn’t be any issues related to the license, since Veaam Licensing, as it’s mentioned in this sticky FAQ, concerns only with a “source” host.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[foggy]

I have a vCenter 4.1 licence for the server but it was originally setup as standalone ESXi as there was only one host which has now grown to a DR solution, with another host in the DR site. What benefit other than being able to add the vCenter server to the Veeam Backup server for centralised management i.e Hot add functionality, VM API functionality etc.

Another reason of having vCenter added to Veeam console is vMotion awareness. vCenter server tracks VMs across hosts allowing to match vMotion'ed VMs, while it is impossible to do that with ESX(i) hosts only (as a result, you will have to re-add VMs to the job every time you perform a vMotion task).

[VMPAT]

Thanks for the update, I have added a second Veeam backup server in the DR site and done some more testing, I still having some issues with replication, I see per KB article http://www.veeam.com/KB1054/.

Starting with Veeam Backup & Replication version 6.5 and vSphere 5.1, the maximum supported vmdk size is 1.98 TB, so even though you have VMFS 5 and block size 1MB and can create a datastore larger than 4 TB using VMFS 5 you can still only replicate a vmdk that is 1.98TB ? Is this a limitation of the the backup functionality too?

[veremin]

Yes, you’re completely right in your assumption.

In fact, the type of the job doesn’t matter at all, since be it backup job or replication one the snapshot creation is still needed, nevertheless, due to known VMware limitations it can't be done to vmdk-disk that is larger than 1.98 TB.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[VMPAT]

Thanks for the clarification, what is still a bit vague is does this apply to the combined size of the Virtual machine or per disk?

i.e. if I have a VM with 5 vmdk's that are larger than 1.5 but smaller than 1.98 TB so total size is 7.5 TB as long as I have enough space I can backup/replicate them.

or does it look at your total VM size and if it is over 1.98 TB you have hit the Configuration Maximums and it will fail?

[dellock6]

It applies to any single vmdk file, so you can safely create multiple 1.98 Tb disks and add all of them to the same VM.

Luca.