Vmware/Netapp replication using Veeam

[Strecker25]

Hi all, we're building out our DR site and would like to use Veeam to manage replication/failover/failback.

Production site:
2xUCS 5108,8xB200M4
Netapp FAS8040/AFF8020 - NFS/VMFS datastores
Netapp E5660 for Veeam target

DR site
1xUCS 5108,8xB200M4
Netapp FAS2554

Originally we thought the replication jobs would be best, but we are finding the replication to be a bit slow and the failback time concerns me. Since we are licensed for SnapMirror on both ends, is there a way to utilize snapmirror as the datamover yet still be able to do spin up failover/failback with Veeam's workflow?

[foggy]

Hi Ryan, what are the bottleneck stats reported by your replication jobs? As an alternative, you could consider doing backup from SnapMirror and use this backup as source for replication jobs on target location.

[Strecker25]

The bottleneck is the target (FAS2554) which is expected since it's a pretty basic controller.

I'll dig deeper into this, but from the overview it looks like the steps would be:

1) snapmirror from PROD to DR
2) run a backup job (in addition to already running jobs) to "back up" the vm from the storage snapshot to the FAS2554 at the DR site
3) Create replication jobs to create VM's from the backups

That may work, but it seems like that would double the space usage? Both SnapMirror from prod to DR, and then a backup from SnapMirror into another datastore housing the Veeam backups?

[foggy]

You can configure SnapMirror as a secondary target right in the backup job and instruct Veeam B&R use it as a backup source. You can also configure snapshots retention to avoid unnecessary space utilization.

[Strecker25]

I may be misunderstanding dataflow, and I will test this tomorrow, but here is my understanding of how it would work.

Backup Job: FAS8040(Production site ) -->SnapMirror -->FAS2554(DR Site) --->Veeam pulls data back from DR disk ---> E5660 (Veeam target at production site)

Now the Replication job runs, with backup set as source. E5660 (Veeam target storage for backups) ----->FAS2554 (DR Site)


Unless I'm missing something here, there is no way in our scenario (production and backup storage at one location, DR storage at another site) to allow NetApp snapmirror and snapvault to do the data moving.

We would want this flow, with Veeam triggering the snapvault:

Replication Job: FAS8040 (production site) ---snapmirror/snapvault----> FAS2554 ---> Veeam then registers the replicated VM's in the DR cluster.

Maybe a feature request?

[foggy]

Backup Job: FAS8040(Production site ) -->SnapMirror -->FAS2554(DR Site) --->Veeam pulls data back from DR disk ---> E5660 (Veeam target at production site)

Now the Replication job runs, with backup set as source. E5660 (Veeam target storage for backups) ----->FAS2554 (DR Site)

There's not much sense in this in case E5660 is in production site, you'd need some backup repository located at DR site to optimally implement this scenario.

[JayTek]

Has anyone been able to successfully create replicas in a DR site directly from a NetApp snapmirror? I don't believe this is still an option in Veeam as I haven't been able to find a way to do it, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Thanks for your help.

[foggy]

Hi Jay, this is not currently possible. As a workaround, you can perform replication from a backup made from SnapMirror. Thanks.

[larry]

I use netapp and veeam. I use Veeam to control all the netapp snapshots, no Veeam jobs go over the WAN to DR, only SAN traffic but controlled from Veeam. I stop doing replication for DR, the reason is "With Instant recovery from my Netapp snapshot it takes only as long that it takes to boot the recovered VM. The recovered VM is already on the SAN so it is off to the races. I can also Instant Recover all VMs on the SAN at the same time if needed with all VMs running full speed. My SAN snapshots are now my replica's on the live SAN without using the space. Works the same way at the DR site using remote snapshots. I think the value of the Instant Recovery feature is not known until you need it. My DR tests love Instant Recovery "

Once the VM is running in DR just storage vmotion to where you want it to live.

I use Veeam created SAN snapshots for RPO 1 hour for last 36 hours. RTO 4 hours but can do in 2, a few VMs, RTO minutes
Veeam created remote snapshots RPO 1 hour, last 36 hours, RTO 4 hours
Veeam backup on disk RPO 24 hours for 90 days. RTO 4 hours
Veeam backup on disk off-site RPO 24 - RTO 6 hours 30 days
Veeam Tape RPO 24 hours RTO 24 hours - 7 years of data.

Some where I believe I posted my step up but if you want more info ask. I work for a bank and DR tests are a few times a year, my last test of a whole site took less than an hour. Before netapp/Veeam combo it took a whole day. To go from test to live just storage vmontion as the DR servers are already on the SAN, or use from the snapshot for a few days.


Also all file restores are done from the SAN snap shots now for speed, right click snapshot, click vm, restore files - Veeam will mount the snap shot and then clean up, it is that nice.

[orb]

Hi Jay, this is not currently possible. As a workaround, you can perform replication from a backup made from SnapMirror. Thanks.

I would love to see that one day without a work around.

Oli