VM larger than 2TB in size: How to backup it to a Qnap NAS?

[xunil321]

Dear all,
we have 2-4 VM's each having around 3-5 TB in size. VDR 2.0 is not suitable
because the size of the NFS storage presented to the VDR appliance by the Qnap device
is limited there to 2 TB, right?
Since I'm not familiar with Veeam B&R 6.1 I would like to ask you about best practices for
our scenario. Can B&R 6.1 be installed also as an appliance - if yes how can I do this -
or has is to be installed on top of a Windows system which has access to a SAN or a local (let's say)
SAS farm for the backup destination? Does the latter case mean that this the Network Mode?
Thanks for any hint!
Rainer

[foggy]

Veeam B&R should be installed on top of Windows, please see the system requirements section of the Release Notes document available on the product page under Resources tab.

Also, please review the list of supported backup repositories. For writing data to the target destination during backup, Veeam B&R uses the Network mode.

Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Rainer,

Basically there are four ways of using QNAP device as a backup repository, see below:

1. use iSCSI connection to the QNAP box from any backup repository server
2. deploy any Linux server and mount QNAP as NFS datastore, then add this Linux as a backup repository
3. write backups directly to the QNAP box via CIFS share
4. attach an RDM disk pointing to the QNAP LUN to your Veeam Backup VM/Backup repository, and format it with NTFS

All variants would work well, but If you are using Windows-based backup repository, I would recommend using either 1st of 4th approach, these options should be the most optimal ones in terms of backup job traffic data flow.

Hope this helps!

[Gostev]

...and for 4 RDM disk should be in physical mode of course, otherwise you will still run into the same 2TB limit.

[xunil321]

Guys, many thanks to you!. Things become now clearer to me.
To summarize is this a convenient way:
1. Installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit as a VM, B&R 6.1 running in this VM
2. Using Windows iSCSI initiator inside the VM to present the QNAP box to the W2k8
Server VM. Then the QNAP volume should appear in the Windows's Device Manager
and have to be formatted with NTFS, right?
OR is it better due to performance reasons
1. Connect the iSCSI QNAP box SAN to our ESXi 5.1
2. Create the RDM on this iSCSI storage using vmkfstools -r ....
3. Installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit as a VM hosted on our ESXi 5.1,
B&R 6.1 is installed in this VM
4. Add RDM to the Windows Server VM and format it with NTFS

Again many thanks for every hint!
Rainer

[Vitaliy S.]

Based on the feedback from our existing customers, iSCSI implementation in QNAP didn't seem to be quite solid, though their latest firmware might do a better job now.

[xunil321]

Dear Vitaly,
you are working for Veeam? As a newbie it is a great honor for me to talk and learn
from you! When I interpret your last comment correctly you would prefer, recommend
this implementation:
Deploy any Linux server and mount QNAP as NFS datastore
Right?
So long, Rainer from Bremen, Germany

[Vitaliy S.]

Rainer, actually I meant exactly the opposite, I suggested to first check how their latest firmware behaves with options number 1 and 4, as ,unfortunately, I couldn't find the most recent feedback on that. If everything works fine continue using the configured setup, and yes, I work for Veeam

[Gostev]

I've seen some happy customers with high-end QNAPs lately, and presumably they share firmware. So I would too go with 1 or 4.

[xunil321]

Meanwhile we have installed the 6.1 trial version and it is
running like a charm. Great tool!
Only one backup job did not run for a VM with 1.99 TB in size which is
hosting in a 2 TB datastore called TEST. B&R said:
Insufficient free disk space on production datastore TEST, only 900 MB are free.
Is it correct that B&R needs at least 2 GB free space or how much free space is
necessary for the datastore TEST?

Best regards, Rainer

[Vitaliy S.]

Here is an existing topic that explains this message in great details, please look it through: Free space on datastore.