veeam backup and replication best practices deploy and configure vmware

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Veeam Backup & Replicationfor VMwareVersion 6.x

Best Practicesfor Deployment & ConfigurationMarch, 2013

Tom Sightler

Solutions Architect, Core Products

Veeam Software


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2013 Veeam Software.

All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval

system, or translated into any language in any form by any means, without written permission

from Veeam Software Inc (Veeam). The information contained in this document represents the

current view of Veeam on the issue discussed as of the date of publication and is subject to change

without notice. Veeam shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained

herein. Veeam makes no warranties, express or implied, in this document. Veeam may have

patents, patent applications, trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights covering

the subject matter of this document. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property oftheir respective owners. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from

Veeam, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents,

trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

Important Please read the End User Software License Agreement before using the accompanying softwareprogram(s). Using any part of the software indicates that you accept the terms of the End User

Software License Agreement.


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CONTENTS

CONTENTS.................................................................................................................... 3

CONTACTING VEEAM SOFTWARE............................................................................... 5

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT ............................................................................................ 6

COMPONENTS OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... 7

VEEAM BACKUP SERVER ........................................................................................................................... 7

PROXY SERVER .......................................................................................................................................... 8

REPOSITORY .............................................................................................................................................. 8

Windows Server ................................................................................................................. 8

Linux Server ......................................................................................................................... 9

CIFS (SMB) Share ................................................................................................................ 9

OPTIONAL COMPONENTS ........................................................................................................................ 9

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager ........................................................................... 9

Veeam Backup Search ..................................................................................................... 9

U-AIR Wizards................................................................................................................... 10

Veeam Explorer for Exchange ................................................................................... 10

INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROCESSES......................................................................... 12

BACKUP .................................................................................................................................................. 12

Onsite Backup .................................................................................................................. 13

Offsite Backup .................................................................................................................. 13

REPLICATION .......................................................................................................................................... 14

Onsite Replication .......................................................................................................... 16

Offsite Replication .......................................................................................................... 16

RECOVERY

&V

ERIFICATION .................................................................................................................. 18

SureBackup ....................................................................................................................... 18

Recovery ............................................................................................................................ 19

UNDERSTANDING VEEAM BACKUP & REPLICATION OPTIONS ............................... 21

HOW IT WORKS:BACKUP METHODS ................................................................................................... 21

Reversed Incremental ................................................................................................... 22

Forward Incremental..................................................................................................... 22

HOW IT WORKS:TRANSPORT MODES ................................................................................................. 24

Direct SAN ......................................................................................................................... 24

Virtual Appliance ............................................................................................................ 24

Network Mode ................................................................................................................. 25

HOW IT WORKS:RETENTION POLICIES ................................................................................................ 26

DE-DUPLICATION ................................................................................................................................... 26

COMPRESSION........................................................................................................................................ 27

INDEXING AND SEARCH ......................................................................................................................... 27

DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS ........................................................................................ 29

SMALL-SIZE ENVIRONMENT OR PILOT:SIMPLE DEPLOYMENT ........................................................... 29

MEDIUM-SIZE OR LARGE-SCALE ENVIRONMENT:ADVANCED DEPLOYMENT ................................... 30

LARGE,DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT:DISTRIBUTED DEPLOYMENT................................................... 33

INTERACTION WITH VSPHERE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT ........................................ 35


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VCENTER SERVER ................................................................................................................................... 35

Health .................................................................................................................................. 35

Capacity ............................................................................................................................. 35

Connectivity ..................................................................................................................... 35

Maintenance .................................................................................................................... 36

IMPACT OF SNAPSHOT OPERATIONS .................................................................................................... 36

Snapshot Creation ......................................................................................................... 36

Snapshot Open ............................................................................................................... 36

Snapshot Removal ......................................................................................................... 37

How to Mitigate? ............................................................................................................ 37

SECURITY ................................................................................................................................................ 39

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY ..................................................................................................................... 39

Veeam Backup Server Connections ........................................................................ 39

Backup Proxy Connections ......................................................................................... 40

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager Connections ............................................. 42

RESOURCE PLANNING AND OPTIMIZATION ............................................................ 43

PLANNING FOR THE SOURCE ................................................................................................................. 43

PLANNING FOR PROXIES ....................................................................................................................... 45

Physical or Virtual? ......................................................................................................... 45

Sizing ................................................................................................................................... 46

Choosing Transport Mode .......................................................................................... 47

PLANNING FOR REPOSITORIES .............................................................................................................. 47

Understanding the Impact of IOPS on Backup Performance ........................ 47

The Cost of Forward Incremental............................................................................. 48

Estimating Repository Capacity ................................................................................ 48

Deduplicating Storage Compatibility .................................................................... 49

Examples ............................................................................................................................ 49

SIZING VEEAM BACKUP &REPLICATIONSERVER................................................................................. 50

PLANNING FOR DATA RECOVERY &VERIFICATION ............................................................................. 51

Connection to NFS Server ........................................................................................... 51

Reaching Optimal Performance ............................................................................... 51

JOB SETUP .................................................................................................................. 53

OBJECT SELECTION ................................................................................................................................ 53

SETTING DE-DUPLICATION AND COMPRESSION LEVEL....................................................................... 54

CHOOSING BACKUP METHOD .............................................................................................................. 55

LOAD BALANCING ................................................................................................................................. 55

PLANNING FOR DR: CONFIGURATION BACKUP ....................................................... 57


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CONTACTING VEEAM SOFTWARE

At Veeam Software, we value feedback from our customers. We care about assisting you quickly

with technical support. Our mission is to listen to you and build the tools that you need.

Customer SupportShould you have a technical concern, suggestion or question, please visit our Customer Center

Portal atcp.veeam.comto open a case, search our knowledge base, reference documentation,

manage your license or obtain the latest product release.

Online Support

If you have any questions about Veeam Backup & Replication, you can use the following

resources:

Full documentation set atVeeam documentationpage

Community forum atforums.veeam.com

Company Contacts

For the most up-to-date information about company contacts and office locations, please visit

www.veeam.com/contacts.html.
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ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

This document addresses the key factors that must be considered to properly deploy the Veeam

Backup & Replication solution (version 6.0 and later). It explains deployment and configuration

options, as well as backup methods available, and describes the impact of these choices.

The document is intended primarily for solution designers and architects. To receive the fullbenefit of the information presented, at least intermediate level of knowledge of VMware virtual

infrastructure and a basic understanding of Veeam Backup & Replication are required.

The following issues will be addressed in this document:

Architecture and main components overview

vSphere virtual environment considerations

Job setup and scheduling

Scalability and sizing

Deployment strategies

Hardware integration Application-specific considerations

Reference architectures

To read more about Veeam Backup & Replication, you can refer toVeeam Technical

Documentation page.

Document Revision History

Revision # Date Description of Changes

Revision 1 28/01/2013 Initial version of the document for Veeam Backup & Replication v6.x

Revision 2 11/03/2012 Minor text edits and graphics update.
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COMPONENTS OVERVIEW

Before planning your Veeam Backup & Replication deployment, you should understand how the

solution works, know the factors that can influence performance, availability, storage space,

security and scalability of the solution. You should thoroughly understand solution architecture,

know what your options are, and then decide which best meets you needs.Veeam Backup & Replication leverages the capabilities of a virtualization hypervisor to provide

comprehensive backup and replication of the virtual machines that are running within the

virtualized environment. With VMware vSphere, the hypervisor is used to take consistent

snapshots of the virtual disks attached to the VM, and Veeam Backup & Replication uses this

snapshot to create either a replica of the VM, or a compressed, deduplicated backup copy of the

VM.

The core components of the solution are:

Veeam Backup Server the brain of the solution, responsible for job management and

scheduling, indexing tasks, and general orchestration of the backup and replication

environment.

Proxy servers the muscle for the solution. These servers read data from the VM

snapshots, deduplicate and compress that data, and send it on its way. In the case of

replication, they also receive the replica data and write it to the new replica, acting as the

data movers to transfer data from the source to the target environment.

Repositories these systems provide the memory, storing backup images for future

restores, and important meta-data used during backup and replication. A repository may

be a Windows or Linux server or a NAS device which supports CIFS access.

The sections below describe these components in more detail; you can also refer toVeeam Backup

& Replication - Architecture and Componentsonline training video.

Veeam Backup Server

The Veeam Backup Server is the center of the Veeam Backup & Replication architecture. It is here

that all backup jobs are defined, managed, and monitored. The scheduler then executes these

jobs, communicating with vCenter, taking snapshots, allocating proxies and repositories and

monitoring job progress.

The typical workflow of a backup job is as follows:

1. Scheduler starts Job Manager processes based on each jobs configured schedule.

2. Job Manager connects to vCenter to enumerate objects in the job and places them in

the job in the order specified during the Job creation wizard.

3. Job Manager verifies repository availability (online, concurrent process limit not

reached).

4. Job Manager selects for object for processing and elects most efficient proxy

available taking into account factors such as processing mode, proximity to data, and

current load.

5. Job Manager assigns the VM backup to a proxy and performs the required setup such

as application-aware processing, snapshot creation, hot-add processing, and others.

6. Job Manager assigns any session-specific settings, such as bandwidth throttling, and

instructs proxies to begin the data transfer.

After object processing is completed, the Job Manager cleans up, gathers stats, and moves to next

object, starting over at step 4.
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After last object is processed, the Job Manager gathers all backup information and global job

statistics, and exits.

Proxy Server

The primary role of the proxy server is to provide an optimal route for backup traffic and enable

efficient data transfer. Therefore, when deploying a backup proxy, you must understand theconnectivity between the backup proxy and the storage with which it is working.

Depending on the type of connection, the backup proxy can be configured in one of the following

ways (starting from the most efficient):

Aphysical machineused as a backup proxy should have direct SAN access to the storage

on which VMs reside, via a direct Fiber Channel or iSCSI connection. This way, the backup

proxy can retrieve data directly from the storage in the most efficient manner.

A virtual machineused as a backup proxy will use the VMware Hot-Add feature to access

VM disks on the storage. This type of proxy also enables LAN-free data retrieval.

Guidelines for sizing and configuring your proxy servers will be provided in thePlanning for

Proxiessection later in this document.

Repository

A backup repository is a server location used by Veeam Backup & Replication jobs to store backup

files, copies of VMs and metadata for replicated VMs. Technically, a backup repository is a folder on

the backup storage. Note that each job can use only one repository as its destination storage, but

one repository can be used by multiple jobs in parallel. You can balance the load across your

backup infrastructure by setting up several repositories in your environment and limiting the

number of parallel jobs for each one.

In the Veeam backup infrastructure, you can use one of the repository types described below.

Windows ServerIn this configuration, the storage can be a local disk, directly attached disk-based storage (such as a

USB hard drive), or iSCSI/FC SAN LUN, or any device that appears as a drive letter at the system

level.

Note Network drives mapped in user profiles will not work as they are only available during theinteractive login session. If necessary to use them as repository locations, please select the

CIFS/SMB repository and provide the full UNC path and authentication information.

On a Windows repository, Veeam Backup & Replication deploys a local Veeam agent (when you

add a Windows-based server to the product console, Veeam Backup & Replication installs a set of

components, including the Veeam Backup Proxy Service with Veeam agent, on that server).When any job addresses the repository, the agent on the repository establishes a connection with

the source-side agent on the backup proxy, enabling efficient data transfer over LAN or WAN.

Windows repositories can be configured to function as vPower NFS Servers. In this case, Veeam

Backup & Replication will run the vPower NFS Service directly on the backup repository (namely,

on the managing Windows server to which storage is attached) and provide ESX(i) hosts with

transparent access to backed up VM images stored on the repository. For more details, refer to the

Planning for Data Recovery & Verificationsection.


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Linux Server

The storage can be a local disk, directly attached disk based storage (such as a USB hard drive), NFS

share, or iSCSI/FC SAN LUN in case the server is connected into the SAN fabric.

On the Linux repository, Veeam Backup & Replication deploys and starts the Veeam agent when a

job addressing this repository is launched. The agent establishes a connection with the source-side

agent on the backup proxy, enabling efficient data transfer over LAN or WAN.

CIFS (SMB) Share

CIFS (SMB) shares do not support Veeam agents, therefore data sent to the SMB share is written

directly from a proxy server assigned to the job (by default, the role of such a proxy server is

performed by the Veeam Backup server). However, if you plan to move VM data to an offsite CIFS

repository over a WAN link, it is recommended that you deploy an additional proxying Windows

server in the remote site, closer to the CIFS repository. Veeam Backup & Replication will deploy a

Veeam agent on that server, which will improve data transfer performance: the efficient Veeam

traffic stream will be sent between two proxies while keeping the CIFS traffic local to the storage

device.

Optional Components

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is an optional component intended to simplify the daily

management and administration of the Veeam Backup and Replication environment. This

component is typically deployed when you have multiple backup consoles/sites to manage.

For example, an organization may have two Veeam Backup servers: one in production

environment, used for backup jobs, and another at the DR site, for the replication jobs. For such

scenario it is worth installing Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager to have visibility across twobackup servers (sample scenario will be described later in this guide).

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager federates Veeam Backup servers and offers a consolidated view

of these servers through a web browser interface, so that you can centrally control and manage all

jobs through a single pane of glass, edit and clone jobs, monitor job state and get reporting data

across all backup servers. Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager also enables you to search for

indexed Windows guest OS files in the current and archived backups across your backup

infrastructure, and restore these files in one click. For more information on guest OS indexing,

please refer to the section below.

Note Using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager to perform file search is recommended for virtualinfrastructures with a number of indexed VMs under 100; alternatively, use Veeam Backup Search.

You can install the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager components on the same machine, either

physical or virtual, co-install components with Veeam Backup & Replication, or set up all

components separately on the machines meeting appropriate system requirements. For detailed

information on installing and configuring Enterprise Manager, please refer toEnterprise Manager

User Guide.

Veeam Backup Search

Veeam Backup & Replication enables you to perform quick and accurate searches for guest OS files

in a backed up VM without the need to restore it. This can be useful, for example, if a file you need
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has been deleted on the VM and you want to restore it from a backup. Once you find a necessary

file, you can use Veeams file-level restore to recover the file from the VM backup.

Note At present, the search functionality is supported for Windows-based VMs only.

To be able to perform a search within the VM image backup, you need to enable file indexing in

properties of a corresponding backup job. When such a backup job is run, Veeam Backup &

Replication creates a catalog, or index, of the VM guest OS files and stores index files on the VeeamBackup server in the C:/VBR Catalog/Index/Machines/[vm_name]folder. Creation of index is

extremely fast and has minimal impact on network and VMware environment.

Once the index is created and stored on backup servers, the indexing service on Veeam Backup

Enterprise Manager performs index replication it aggregates index data for all VM image

backups from multiple backup servers. This consolidated index is stored on the Veeam Backup

Enterprise Manager server in the C:/VBR Catalog/Index/catalogand is used for search queries.

With a relatively small number of backups, search for guest OS files in backups is performed with

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager. However, if you frequently need to search through a great

number of backups (more than 100 VMs or more than 10 million files), it is recommended to

configure the Veeam Backup Search - an optional component in the backup infrastructure that is

used for the purpose of search performance optimization.

Veeam Backup Search is installed on a dedicated Microsoft Search Server to streamline VM guestOS files search in large-scale virtual deployments. It uses Microsoft Search Server functionality to

crawl content in the shared VBRCatalog folder on the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager server

and to create a content index on the Search Server that is used to process search queries.

For detailed information on Veeam Backup Search, please refer to the User Guide.

U-AIR Wizards

Universal Application-Item Recovery (U-AIR), enabled by the Veeam vPower technology, allows

you to recover individual items from any virtualized application.

For such applications as Active Directory, Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Exchange, U-AIR is a wizard-

driven process that is, you can recover necessary items from applications using application-

specific wizards.

For other applications, U-AIR is user-driven that is, Veeam Backup & Replication starts the

application and all components required for its proper work in a virtual lab so that users can

connect to that application and recover items themselves.

U-AIR wizards are not tied to the Veeam Backup & Replication installation these are standalone

components that can be downloaded, installed and updated independent of the product release.

You can install U-AIR wizards on any machine in your production environment from which you

plan to perform the restore process.

For details, see theVeeam Backup & Replication HelpandU-AIR Wizards User Guide.

Veeam Explorer for Exchange

Veeam Explorer for Exchange is a free tool available to users of Veeam Backup & Replication

starting with version 6.1 (in all editions, including Free Edition). It allows you to browse Microsoft

Exchange 2010 database files and restore necessary items, such as mailboxes, folders, messages,

tasks, contacts and so on. Instead of fully restoring and starting the VM with the Microsoft

Exchange Server, you can use Veeam Backup & Replication capabilities to extract the necessary

Microsoft Exchange database from the backup file and then use Veeam Explorer for Exchange to

browse and restore individual items. Restore options include:

Exporting mailbox folders and items as Personal Folder Files (.pst)

Saving mailbox items as Microsoft Exchange Mail Documents (.msg)

Sending mailbox items as attachments via email
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Restoring mailbox folders and items into their original location (available only with Veeam

Backup & Replication Enterprise Edition)

Veeam Explorer for Exchange can be downloaded and installed independently from other Veeam

Backup and Replication components.

Important Consider that Veeam Explorer for Exchange requires full access to Microsoft Exchange databasefiles for item recovery. This level of access is usually granted to a very limited number of employees

within the organization. If you would like to allow less privileged users to perform recovery ofMicrosoft Exchange items from backups, you can use the Application-Item Recovery (AIR) wizard

for Microsoft Exchange.


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INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROCESSES

This section briefly reminds you of backup and replication infrastructure and processes. For the

detailed description, as well as for information on other processes (recovery verification, data

recovery, quick migration and so on), please refer to the User Guide and other product resources.

You can also view theVeeam Backup & Replication - How It Worksonline training video.

Backup

The backup infrastructure comprises the following components:

One or more source hosts with associated datastores

One or more backup proxy servers

Backup repository

The source host and the repository produce two terminal points between which VM data is moved.

Backup data is collected, transformed and transferred with the help of Veeam agents.

Veeam Backup & Replication uses a two-agent architecture one agent interacts with the source

host, and the other one interacts with the repository. The agents communicate with each otherand maintain a stable connection. All backup infrastructure components engaged for the job make

up a data pipe. VM data is moved over this data pipe block by block processing of a single VM

includes multiple processing cycles.

When a new backup session is started, the target-side agent obtains job instructions and

communicates with the source-side agent to begin data collection.

1. The source-side agentaccesses a VM image and copies VM data using one of VMwaretransport modes, as prescribed by the proxy server settings. While copying, the source-

side agent performs additional processing it consolidates the content of virtual disks by

filtering out overlapping snapshot blocks, zero-data blocks and blocks of swap files.

During incremental job runs, the agent retrieves only those data blocks that have

changed since the previous job run. Copied blocks of data are compressed and moved

from the source-side agent to the target-side agent.

2. The target-side agentdeduplicates similar blocks of data and writes the result to thebackup file in the backup repository.

After a backup job completes, the resulting backup file is written to the backup repository that you

have selected as a backup target. Veeam Backup & Replication creates a full backup file (VBK)

during the first run of a backup job. During every subsequent job run, it copies changes that were

made to the VM since the last backup, whether full or incremental. Depending on the backup

method you select, Veeam Backup & Replication handles incremental changes differently:

If you use the incremental backup mode, Veeam Backup & Replication saves

incremental changes to an incremental file (VIB) in addition to a full backup file (VBK)

on the backup repository.

If you use the reversed incremental backup mode, Veeam Backup & Replication

injects copied changes to the full backup file, and saves replaced blocks of data as a

reversed increment file (VRB) in addition to the full backup file (VBK) on the backup

repository.

Note To review backup methods in detail, you can refer to theHow It Works: Backup Methodssection ofthis document,Veeam Backup & Replication Online Help,orHow It Worksonline training video.

Also, in addition to backup files, Veeam Backup & Replication creates a backup metadata file (VBM)

that contains information on the backup job, VMs in the backup, number and structure of backup
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Backup to Windows or Linux-based Repository

To perform offsite backup to a Windows or Linux-based repository, you need to deploy a backup

proxy in the production site, closer to the source datastore. In this scenario, the source-side agent

is started on the proxy server, and the target-side agent is started on the Windows or Linux

repository server. Backup data is sent from the proxy to the repository over WAN:

Backup to SMB Share

To back up VMs to an offsite SMB share, you should deploy a backup proxy in the source site and

an additional Windows-based proxying server in the remote site. The SMB repository should be

configured to point to the target-side proxying server. During backup the source-side agent runs

on the source proxy in the production site, and the target-side agent runs on the target proxying

server in the remote site. Backup data is transferred between the backup proxy and the proxying

server over WAN:

Replication

As well as backup, replication is a job-driven process; in many ways, it works similarly to forward

incremental backup:

During the first run of a replication job, Veeam Backup & Replication copies the whole VM

image and registers a replicated VM on the target ESX host.

During subsequent runs of a job, Veeam Backup & Replication copies only incremental

changes, and creates restore points for a VM replica so you can recover your VM to the

necessary state. Every restore point is in fact a usual VMware snapshot.


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When you perform incremental replication, data blocks that have changed since the last

replication cycle are written to the snapshot delta file next to a full VM replica. The

number of restore points in the chain depends on your retention policy settings.

Replication infrastructure and process is very similar to those used for backup. It includes a source

host, a target host with associated datastores, one or two proxy servers and a repository. The

source host and the target host produce two terminal points between which replicated data is

moved. Replicated data is collected, transformed and transferred with the help of Veeam agents. In

addition to source-side agent and agent hosted on a repository, replication process involves atarget-side agent that interacts with the target host.

The agent hosted on a repository works with replica metadata files.

Important Although the replica data is written to the target datastore, certain replica metadata must belocated on a backup repository. This metadata is used by the source proxy and thus should be

deployed close to the source host.

1. When a new replication session is started, the source-side agent operates in the same way

as in backup process.

In addition, in all cases when use of VMware CBT is not possible, the source-side agent

interacts with the agent hosted on the repository to obtain replica metadata in order todetect what blocks have changed since the previous job run.

2. Copied blocks of data are compressed and moved from the source-side agent to the

target-side agent.

Note In on-site replication scenarios, the source-side agent and the target-side agent may run on thesame backup proxy server.

3. The target-side agent then decompresses replica data and writes the result to the

destination datastore. Veeam Backup & Replication supports a number of replication

scenarios that depend on the location of the target host and will be discussed later in this

guide.

During replication cycles, Veeam Backup & Replication creates the following files for a VM replica:

A full VM replica (a set of VM configuration files and virtual disks). During the first

replication cycle, Veeam Backup & Replication puts these files to the selected datastore to

the ReplicaName folder, and registers a VM replica on the target host.

Replica restore points (snapshot delta files). During incremental replication, Veeam

Backup & Replication creates a snapshot delta file in the same folder, next to a full VM

replica.

Replica metadata (VBK) used to store replica checksums. Veeam Backup & Replication uses

this file to quickly detect changed blocks of data between two replica states. A metadata

file is written to the backup repository.

During the first run of a replication job, Veeam Backup & Replication creates a replica with emptyvirtual disks on the target datastore. If the Virtual Appliance mode is applicable, replica virtual disks

are mounted to the backup proxy and populated through ESX I/O stack. This results in increased

writing speed and fail-safe replication to ESXi targets.

To streamline the replication process, you can deploy the backup proxy on a virtual machine. The

virtual backup proxy must be registered on an ESX(i) host that has a direct connection to the target

datastore. In this case, the backup proxy will be able to use the Virtual Appliance transport mode

for writing replica data to target.

If the backup proxy is deployed on a physical server, or use of the Virtual Appliance mode is not

possible for other reasons, Veeam Backup & Replication will use the Network transport mode to

populate replica disk files.


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Onsite Replication

If the source and target hosts are located in the same site, you can deploy one backup proxy for

data processing and a backup repository for storing replica metadata. This backup proxy must

have access to the source host and to the target host at the same time. In this scenario, the source-

side agent and the target-side agent will be started on the same backup proxy. Replication traffic

will be transferred between the two agents (using low compression).

Offsite Replication

The common requirement for offsite replication is that one Veeam agent runs in the production

site (closer to the source host), and another agent runs in the remote DR site (closer to the target

host). During backup, the agents maintain a stable connection, which allows for uninterrupted

operation over WAN or slow links.

Thus, to replicate across remote sites, you should deploy at least one local backup proxy in each

site:

1. A source backup proxy in the production site

2. A target backup proxy in the remote DR site.

The backup repository should be deployed in the production site, closer to the source backup

proxy.


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Tip When planning for off-site replication, consider advanced possibilities to reduce the amount ofreplication traffic and streamline replica configuration replica seeding, replica mapping, network

mapping and re-IP.

In this scenario, the following connections need to be open between the Veeam Backup &

Replication components:

Veeam Backup server should have access to vCenter server, ESX(i) hosts, and both source

and target backup proxies. Source backup proxy should have access to the Veeam Backup server, source host, target

proxy, and source vCenter server.

Target proxy should have access to the Veeam Backup server, source proxy, target host,

and target vCenter server.

Important If you are planning for offsite replication over WAN, it is strongly recommended that you deploy aproxy server on the target side.

With a proxy server set up on the target side, the data will cross the WAN compressed and will be

uncompressed by the target proxy. Note that you also can seed the replica job by sending your

backup files offsite (using some external media, for example) and then have only incremental job

runs.

It is also recommended that you install an additional Veeam Backup & Replication server in DR site;

there shouldnt be any issues related to the license, since Veeam is l icensed by physical CPU socket

of source hypervisor host (where protected virtual machines reside), not by Veeam server. In this

scenario:

Veeam Backup server deployed in the production site will be responsible for backup jobs

and/or local replication

Veeam Backup server in the DR site will control the remote replication jobs.

Thus, in disaster situation all functionality (Failover, Failback and etc.) can be performed by Veeam

Backup & Replication Server in DR site without any problems. Additionally, it may be worth

installing Enterprise Manager to have visibility across two backup servers, and in case of failover

you can manually revoke licenses from the host that is down.

Replication bandwidth estimation has always been a challenge, depending on multiple

factors such as number and size of VMs, change rate (at least daily, per RPO cycle is ideal),


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RPO target, replication window. Full information about these factors, however, is rarely at

hand. As an option, you may want to setup backup jobs that mirror what you would do

with a replication job, and use the "transferred size" to calculate bandwidth (as this would

be the same amount of data used for replication).

Also, when replicating VMs to a remote DR site (or performing offsite backup), you can

manage network traffic by applying traffic throttling rules or limiting the number of data

transfer connections. See User Guide for more information.

Recovery & VerificationThe Veeam vPower NFS service is a Windows service that runs on a Windows-based backup

repository server and enables it to act as an NFS server. vPower NFS allows

Veeam Backup & Replication to mount a compressed and deduplicated backup file as a regular

VMDK file directly to the ESX(i) host via NFS, so ESX(i) hosts get transparent access to backed up

VMware VM images. The vPower technology is used to perform the following tasks:

Recovery Verification (SureBackup)

Instant VM Recovery

Multi-OS File-Level Recovery

Universal Application-Item Recovery (U-AIR)

SureBackup

SureBackup is developed to automate and simplify the backup verification process, one of the

most crucial parts of data management and protection. It is a feature that allows you to start VMs

directly from VM backups in a fenced-off environment and perform backup reliability and

availability testing as a routine part of the backup process.

To perform recovery verification testing, you need to create an application group required to

verify full functionality of backed up VMs, an isolated virtual lab where VMs should be tested, and a

recovery verification job.

An application group is a group of virtual machines that contains VMs running production

applications on which VMs to be verified are dependent. That is, it includes all

components and services that should be started to enable fully functional work of VMs

you want to test.

A virtual lab is an isolated virtual test environment where verified VMs with all

components required for their proper operation are started and tested. A virtual lab is

created using existing resources in your VI environment and ensures secure integrity and

functionality testing for backed up VMs.

A recovery verification job aggregates all settings and policies of a recovery verification

task, such as required application group, virtual lab to be used and backups of VMs that

should be verified in the created environment.

When a recovery verification job runs, VMs from the application group are published and thenstarted from backups in the required order and remain running while VMs from verified backups

are booted and tested.


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During verification, a backed up VM image remains in the read-only state all changes that take

place when a VM is running are written to redo log files that are stored on a selected datastore inthe production environment. Once the recovery verification process is complete, the redo logs are

removed.

When performing recovery verification of VM backups, Veeam Backup & Replication runs VMs

directly from backup files without restoring them to a production datastore. This is achieved by

utilizing the vPower NFS service a Windows service that runs on a Windows-based backup

repository server and enables it to act as an NFS server. vPower NFS allows

Veeam Backup & Replication to mount a compressed and deduplicated backup file as a regular

VMDK file directly to the ESX(i) host via NFS, so ESX(i) hosts get transparent access to backed up

VMware VM images.

Recovery

Veeam Backup & Replication allows you to perform both image-level and file-level restores of

backups and replicas. You can restore a virtual machine as a whole to start it on the target ESX

server, recover only VM hard disks, VM files (.vmdk. .vmx and so on) or VM guest OS files and

folders and save them on your local machine. VMs or files can be restored at any of the available

restore points.

Note The restore process is always performed via the network.

When performing instant recovery, Veeam Backup & Replication creates an independent

temporary copy of a VM in your VMware environment and immediately starts it (if necessary).

You can also use a recovered VM for testing purposes to ensure the VM guest OS and

applications are functioning properly. Instant VM recovery does not require you to extract aVM from a backup and move it across datacenter it mounts a VM directly from a

compressed backup file on a selected ESX host.


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The archived image of a VM remains in a read-only state to avoid unexpected modifications.

All changes to a virtual disk that take place while a VM is running are logged to an auxiliary file

on the Veeam Backup server or any datastore you select. These changes are discarded as soonas a restored VM is removed.

When you perform file-level recovery for Windows OS, the Veeam agent running on the target

host or backup repository mounts the VM file system to the local drive via Veeam's proprietary

driver. After that, you can copy necessary files and folders to your local machine drive and save

them anywhere within the network or simply point any applications to the files and use them

normally. The backup file or replica will remain read-only no matter what you do.

For details on data recovery and verification, please refer toVeeam Backup & Replication Help,

Evaluators GuideandU-AIR Wizards User Guide;you can also view theVeeam Backup &

Replication - How It Worksonline training video.
http://www.veeam.com/vmware-backup/help-center/http://www.veeam.com/vmware-backup/help-center/http://www.veeam.com/vmware-backup/help-center/http://www.veeam.com/vmware_vpower_eval_guide_6_5_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/vmware_vpower_eval_guide_6_5_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/u-air-usersguide_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/u-air-usersguide_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/u-air-usersguide_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/university/vb_6_hiw.swfhttp://www.veeam.com/u-air-usersguide_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/vmware_vpower_eval_guide_6_5_pg.pdfhttp://www.veeam.com/vmware-backup/help-center/


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UNDERSTANDING VEEAM BACKUP &

REPLICATION OPTIONS

Veeam Backup & Replication breaks down the work of backing up VMs into jobs. So, the only way

to determine the best setup and schedule for your Veeam Backup & Replication deployment is to

know your environment, understand various job options and their effect on performance,

scalability, as well as the storage and network infrastructure.

Each job can contain multiple vCenter objects which need to be backed up. They can be as

granular as individual VMs, or as generic as an entire datastore or even the entire datacenter (not

recommended except for very small environments).

Jobs also define the number of retention points for the objects within that job, and, while they can

be run manually, are typically assigned to a schedule.

When determining the best grouping of objects, job modes, and schedules for your jobs, you must

consider a multitude of factors, such as:

Number of VMs to be protected

Preferred object grouping (by OS, by application, and so on)

Amount of data to protected

Amount of changed data per VM

Frequency of protection (RPO)

Number of restore points

Archive requirements (Tape/Offsite)

Performance impact on environment (backup/replication window)

Veeam host resources available

Target storage capacity

Target storage performance

Target storage capabilities (hardware compression/deduplication)

Available bandwidth (for offsite backup or replication)

Now we will discuss related Veeam Backup & Replication options, to help you make a well-

grounded decision on deployment and configuration.

How It Works: Backup Methods

Veeam Backup & Replication offers two backup methods to back up virtual machines: reversed

incremental and forward incremental (default setting). However, before you start planning and

setting up your jobs, consider that whatever backup method you choose for one job (reverse or

forward Incremental, synthetic full, active full, etc.) is not necessarily best for all jobs.

It is strongly recommended that you choose job options individually for each job, considering their

pros and cons, as described later in this section.


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Reversed Incremental

With this mode, the first run of a backup job creates a full backup of a VM. VM data is copied block

by block, compressed using the selected compression level, and stored in a resulting full backup

file (.vbk). All subsequent backups are incremental, reading only data blocks that have changed

since the last job run utilizing VMwares built-in Change Block Tracking. During the incremental

backup, changes are injected into the .vbk file, modifying this file to reflect the most recent state of

the virtual machines it contains. The process also creates a reversed incremental backup file (.vrb).This file contains only the data blocks that were replaced during the incremental run. The full

backup file (.vbk) continues to contain the blocks which represent the most recent backup data,

but by overlaying the reversed incremental file (.vrb) Veeam can represent the previous state of the

VM as well since that file now contains the older blocks.

Below are listed some pros and cons of reversed incremental method.

Advantages Considerations

Uses absolute least amount of space

Granular retention (e.g. keep exactly 30

restore points)

Allow for forever incremental (no full

backups needed)

Requires significantly more I/O on target storage (1x

read, 2x write during backup). Typically slower with

dedupe, especially for high change rate VMs.

New backups cannot be run while restores or virtual

labs are running. Not recommended for dedupe appliances because

the large .VBK files are changed during every backup,causing the appliance to re-dedupe the file every

time.

Forward Incremental

When using the Incremental Backup method, a full backup file (.vbk) is created during the first

backup run, exactly like reverse incremental mode. However, subsequent backups save only the

changed blocks since the last performed backup (whether full or incremental) into an incremental

backup file (.vib) next to the full backup.

When using incremental backups, it is required that a full backup be scheduled occasionally to

start a new chain. Veeam offers two ways to create a new full backup.


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How It Works: Transport Modes

Direct SAN

In this mode, VM data is retrieved directly from Fiber Channel/iSCSI shared storage (Storage Area

Network, or SAN) using the VMware vStorage API for Data Protection. The process of data retrieval

in Direct SAN Access mode includes the following steps:

1.

The backup proxy sends a request to the ESX host to locate the necessary VM on the

datastore.

2. The host locates the VM and retrieves metadata about the layout of virtual disks on SAN,

or the physical addresses of data blocks, and sends the metadata to the backup proxy.

3. The backup proxy uses this metadata to copy data blocks directly from SAN.

4. The backup proxy sends data copied from the datastore to the target.

The SAN mode uses metadata on the layout of virtual disks on SAN to directly read data blocks off

SAN LUN, therefore providing LAN-free transfer of VM data.

Important VM processing will fail if direct SAN connection is not configured or not available when the jobstarts.

Virtual Appliance

This mode utilizes the SCSI hot-add capability of ESX to attach disks of a backed up VM to the

backup proxy VM or to the helper VM (depending on vCenter version you are using).


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In this mode, VM data is retrieved directly from storage through the ESX I/O stack, instead of going

through the network stack, which improves performance.

Important The Virtual Appliance mode is recommended and can only be used if the backup proxy is deployedon a VM running on ESX(i) host.

Please note that the ESX(i) host on which the backup proxy VM resides must have access to the

storage where disks of a backed up VM are located.

Network Mode

This mode can be used with any infrastructure configuration. However, when an alternative

transport mode is applicable, the Network mode is not recommended because of the lowest data

retrieval speed. It is the only applicable mode when the backup proxy is a physical machine and

the host uses local storage. In this mode data is retrieved via the ESX(i) host over the LAN using

NBD (Network Block Device) protocol.

The process of data retrieval in Network mode includes the following steps:1. The backup proxy sends a request to the ESX(i) host to locate the necessary VM on the

datastore.

2. The host locates the VM, copies blocks of data and sends them to the backup proxy over

the LAN.

3. The backup proxy sends the data to target.

Note The Network mode is not recommended because of low traffic throughput via the LAN (the copyof the VM disk usually contains a lot of data). In order to take the load off the LAN,

Veeam Backup & Replication provides two alternative modes: Direct SAN Access and Virtual

Appliance, described above.

Veeam Backup & Replication processes VM disks one by one. If VM disks are located on different

storages (that is, on the SAN and local storage subsystem), Veeam Backup & Replication will use

different transport modes to process VM disks. In such scenario, it is strongly recommended that

you enable the Failover to network mode if primary transport modes fail or are unavailableoption when configuring the mode settings for the necessary backup proxy.


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How It Works: Retention Policies

Veeam Backup and Replication defines retention as the number of restore points to keep for VMs

within the job. This is not measured by time, but the total number of points (files). It is important

to keep the schedule of the job in mind when selecting the number of points to keep.

Example 1Assume that you want to keep 30 days of backups, for a job that runs reversed incremental backup

once a day. You can configure 30 restore points and one backup a day.

However, if the administrator manually runs the job four times during the month, in addition to

the schedule, you would end up with 30 restore points in only 26 days. And Veeam Backup &

Replication will delete the oldest reversed increments when the number of backups allowed by the

retention policy is exceeded (that is, on the 27thday, in our example).

Example 2

For a job that is configured to run once a day, in forward incremental mode, with a full backup

once a month, with 14 restore points, Veeam Backup & Replication will take a full backup and then

13 incremental backups before it meets the minimum restore points. However, it cannot delete thefull backup or any of the incremental backups, because they are part of one continuous chain. If

the full backup was deleted, the incremental backups would not be usable, thus not meeting the

retention requirements.

Veeam Backup & Replication will neither delete the original full, nor the month full of incremental

backups until a new full and 13 additional incremental backups are run.

This means that Veeam Backup & Replication will, at times, have as many as 45 restore points (31

days for a full + incremental chain for a month, plus 14 days of the next full and incrementals)

before it can delete the previous months backups as Veeam Backup & Replication is committed

to keeping at least 14 restore points.

De-duplicationDe-duplication is applied when backing up multiple virtual machines that have identical blocks

(for example, if virtual machines were created on the basis of the same template), or in the case of

virtual machines with a great amount of free space on their logical disks (known as white space).

Veeam Backup & Replication does not store zero byte blocks or space that has been pre-allocated

but not used. With de-duplication, identical blocks or blocks of free space are eliminated, which

decreases the size of the created backup file. Veeam will also exclude the blocks used for the swap

file, thus reducing the amount of data even further.

If you use data blocks of small size to deduplicate a large backup file, the backup file will be cut

into a great number of data blocks. As a result, Veeam Backup & Replication will produce a very

large deduplication metadata table which can potentially overgrow memory and CPU resources of

your backup repository. Large data blocks produce a smaller metadata table that requires lessmemory and CPU resources to process. So, depending on the type of storage you select as a

backup target, Veeam Backup & Replication uses data blocks of different size to process VMs,

which optimizes the size of a backup file and job performance.

There are several storage optimization options available to you when configuring a backup job (or

a replication job):

The Local target (16 TB + backup size)option is recommended for backup jobs that canproduce very large full backup files larger than 16 TB. With this option selected, Veeam

Backup & Replication will use data blocks of 8 MB. Note, however, that this storage

optimization option will provide the lowest deduplication ratio and the largest size of

incremental backup files.


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The Local targetoption is recommended for backup to SAN, DAS or local storage. TheSAN identifies larger blocks of data (1024 KB) and therefore can process large amounts of

data at a time. This option provides the fastest job performance but reduces the

deduplication ratio, because with larger data blocks it is less likely to find identical blocks.

The LAN targetoption is recommended for target NAS and onsite backup/replication. Itprovides a better deduplication ratio and reduces the file size due to reduced data block

sizes (512 KB).

The WAN targetoption is recommended if you are planning to use WAN for offsitebackup/replication. Veeam Backup & Replication will use small data blocks (256 KB), which

will result in the maximum deduplication ratio and the smallest file size, allowing you to

reduce the amount of traffic over the WAN connection.

The various recommended use cases for the different targets above are general rules of thumb, but

there may be situations where using the various modes makes sense outside of these scenarios.

For example, a very high change rate VM may see significant savings from using WAN target mode,

even for local backup or replication, and you may be willing to sacrifice the extra CPU load and

overhead for this benefit.

CompressionAnother means of reducing the size of a backup file is compression. Use of compression decreases

the size of created backups but affects duration of the backup procedure. Veeam Backup &

Replication allows you to select one of the following compression levels when configuring a

backup job or a replication job:

None - this option is recommended if you use storage devices with compression and\orde-duplication tools to store created backups.

Low (Dedupe-friendlyin v6.5 UI) this is an optimized compression level for very lowCPU usage and uses a very simple, fixed dictionary. This method can be a good

compromise when using deduplicating storage or WAN accelerators because, while it will

lower the dedupe ratio compared to no compression, it will send less data to thededuplicating appliance.

Optimal this is the recommended compression level providing the best ratio betweenthe size of a result file and time of the backup/replication procedure.

Best (Extremein v6.5 UI) - provides the smallest size of a backup file but will reducebackup performance if there are not enough hardware resources to keep up. In general,

this mode will create a backup file that is at most 5% smaller that Optimal compression

while using 100% more CPU resources. So, if you intend to use this compression level, it is

recommended that you install Veeam Backup & Replication on computers with modern

multi-core CPU (at least 8 cores per concurrent job is recommended). This method can be

useful for backup/replication across slow WAN links where bandwidth is at a premium

and the higher CPU wont be as impactful.

Indexing and Search

If you have a relatively small number of backups, you may use Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager

that can process indexing data by itself, without Veeam Backup Search installed. In this case, no

content index will be generated, which will allow you to save on disk space for storing index

content. However, if you are planning to use the file search feature for a large number of VM

backups in your backup infrastructure, it is recommended that you configure at least one Veeam

Backup Search server and add it to Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager.

So, before you set up indexing options for your backup jobs, consider the following:


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Though use of the backup content index streamlines the search process, the content

index itself can require significant space on disk.

If you choose to implement search without content index (that is, no Veeam Backup

Search installed), you will save on disk space, but this method can result in a slower search

process.

The capacity of a search server is limited and depends on the type of search server you

plan to use. If you have a large number of backup servers and/or require storing index

documents for a long period of time, you may want to deploy a number of search servers.In this case, the query processing and indexing load will be automatically spread across all

deployed search servers.

To coordinate proper indexing activities, Veeam Backup & Replication deploys an

executable inside a VM. This small executable is used only during indexing procedure and

is removed immediately after the processing is finished, producing minimal impact on VM

performance and stability. However, if you need to avoid any extra load on some of your

VMs, you can exclude them from indexing.


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DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS

Veeam Backup & Replication can be used right out of the box in virtual environments of any size

and complexity. Thearchitecture of the solution supports on-site and off-site data protection,

operations across remote sitesand geographically dispersed locations. This section describes

common

deployment scenarios to help you better plan your backup infrastructure layout,depending on your environment size, structure, geographical and/or organizational boundaries,

and data protection approach.

Small-size Environment or Pilot: SimpleDeployment

This scenario assumes you back up and replicate only a small number of VMs or evaluate

capabilities of Veeam Backup & Replication. For that, you can use a simple deployment scenario:

install one instance of Veeam Backup & Replication on a physicalor virtual Windows-based

machine.

Simple deployment implies that the Veeam Backup server fills several roles:

It functions as a management point, coordinates all jobs, controls their scheduling and

performs other administrative activities.

It acts as the default backup proxy for handling job processing and transferring backup

traffic. All services necessary for the backup proxy functionality are installed on the Veeam

Backup serverlocally.

It is used as the default backup repository.

In a simple deployment scenario all data is handled and stored on the Veeam Backup server locally.


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Example 1: All-in-one Physical

In a direct SAN environment, physical hardware with direct FC or iSCSI connectivity is therecommended option for maximum performance.

Example 2: All-in-one Virtual

Virtual hardware, however, can achieve acceptable performance in almost all environments, so this

can be the best option in some cases. Installing Veeam Backup & Replication on a virtual machine

will enable you to use the Virtual Appliance transport mode, allowing for LAN-free data transfer.

This scenario may be appropriate for development clusters or smaller special-purpose

environment within your infrastructure (for example, POC environment).

Medium-size orLarge-scale Environment:Advanced Deployment

For medium-size or large-scale environments, it is recommended to use the advanced deployment

scenario which moves the backup workload from Veeam Backup server to dedicated backup

proxies and backup repositories.

The essence of the advanced deployment is that the backup proxy takes off a part of Veeam

Backup server activities namely, it collects and processes data and moves backup traffic from


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source to target. In addition, the Veeam Backup server no longer acts as a storage location the

backup proxy transports VM data to the backup repository which is the location for keeping

backup files, VM copies, metadata and so on. The Veeam Backup server in this scenario functions as

a manager for backup proxies and repositories.

You just add servers to Veeam Backup & Replication and assign proxy and repository roles to them.

Veeam Backup & Replication will automatically install light-weight components and services onto

these servers. Backup proxies do not require SQL all settings are stored centrally, within the SQL

database used by the Veeam Backup server.

Example 1: Virtual Veeam Backup server, virtual proxy

Deploying Veeam Backup & Replication server on a VM allows you to leverage vSphere features

such as High Availability and vMotion. For peculiarities of physical and virtual proxies, please refer

toPhysical or Virtual?section of this guide.

With the advanced deployment scenario, you can easily meet your current and future data

protection requirements. You can expand your backup infrastructure horizontally in a matter of

minutes to match the amount of data you want to process and available network throughput.

Instead of growing the number of backup servers or constantly tuning job scheduling, you can

install multiple backup proxies and repositories and distribute the backup workload among them.


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Example 2: Backup with multiple virtual proxies

When using multiple proxies, Veeam Backup & Replication provides for dynamic distribution of the

backup traffic among these proxies:

A job can be explicitly mapped to a specific proxy.

Alternatively, you can let Veeam Backup & Replication choose a proxy. In this case,Veeam Backup & Replication will check settings of available proxies and select the most

appropriate one for the job.

The advanced deployment scenario can be a good choice for backing up and replicating off-site.

You can deploy a backup proxy in the production site and another one closer to the backup

repository.

Example 3: Off-site CIFS and multiple proxies

When a job is performed, backup proxies on both sides establish a stable connection, so this

architecture also allows for efficient transport of data over a slow network connection or WAN.

To regulate backup load, you can specify the maximum number of concurrent tasks per

proxy and set up throttling rules to limit proxy bandwidth. The maximum number of

concurrent tasks can also be specified for a backup repository; additionally, you can define

combined ingestion rate for it.

Another advantage of the advanced deployment scenario is that it contributes to high

availability: jobs can migrate between proxies if one of them becomes overloaded or

unavailable.


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Example 4: Scaling for Production and DR sites

Another option is to have one Veeam Backup server deployed in production site to be responsible

for backup jobs and/or local replication, and another Veeam Backup server installed at the DR site

for the remote replication jobs:

Thus, in disaster situation all operations can be performed by Veeam Backup Server in DR itself

without any problems.

Note Typically, it is recommended to deploy one proxy for backup & restore, and another for replicationand failover.

With Veeams restore capabilities to be used efficiently, you can also think of deploying a virtual

proxy per cluster for hot-add restore.

Large, Distributed Environment: Distributed

DeploymentThe distributed deployment scenario is recommended for large geographically dispersed virtual

environments with multiple Veeam Backup servers installed across different sites. These backup

serversare federated under Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager:


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Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager collects data from Veeam Backup servers and enables you to

runbackup and replication jobs across the entire backup infrastructure through a single pane of

glass, editthem and clone jobs using a single job as a template. It also provides reporting data for

various areas for example, all jobs performed within the last 24 hours or 7 days, all VMs engaged

in these jobs and soon.

Besides, using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager simplifies tracking license usage and license

updates across multiple Veeam Backup Servers. You can install one license on the Veeam Backup

Enterprise Manager server

and it will be applied to all servers across your backup infrastructure.


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INTERACTION WITH VSPHERE VIRTUAL

ENVIRONMENT

Veeam Backup & Replication interacts heavily with the vSphere infrastructure, and much of the

success of an implementation depends on performance and stability of this environment. In this

section we will discuss those interactions and note the items that should be considered for a

successful implementation.

While it is possible to use Veeam by connecting directly to the ESX(i) hosts, this section assumes a

vSphere environment with at least one vCenter server and that the Veeam Backup and Replication

server is integrated at the vCenter level as this is the best practice configuration in almost all use

cases.

vCenter Server

One of the most critical components of any vSphere environment is the vCenter server. This server

provides a single view of the entire virtual environment, and a central point of management.

Veeam Backup & Replication communicates with vCenter for many operations, so fast, stable

communications between Veeam Backup & Replication and the vCenter server are critical to

achieving a stable backup environment. Below are listed some of the important factors that should

be considered.

Problems with connectivity to vCenter are one of the top reasons for failed Veeam jobs, but having

a well performing vCenter server with reliable connectivity will mitigate this issue and provide a

strong backbone for a reliable backup infrastructure.

Health

The vCenter server must be reliable and always available when backup jobs are running. It must beable to answer queries and perform actions in a reasonable amount of time. If the vCenter server

performs poorly during normal operations, this should be corrected prior to implementing Veeam

Backup & Replication.

Capacity

For larger environments, with many concurrent jobs, especially jobs that run at short intervals,

such as Near-CDP, the load on the vCenter server can be significant. The vCenter server must be

able to handle this increased transactional workload to prevent random job failures due to

command timeouts.

Connectivity

The Veeam Backup & Replication server must have reliable network connectivity to the vCenter

server. It is generally suggested that the Veeam Backup & Replication server be placed in close

logical proximity to the vCenter server, but this is not always the best deployment option. In cases

where the Veeam server and vCenter must be deployed across a distance, the only real

requirement is that this connection be reliable.


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Maintenance

When maintenance is being performed on the vCenter server, best practice would dictate that all

Veeam Backup and Replication jobs should be idle, and Veeam Backup Service should be stopped.

This includes applying Windows updates, vCenter patches and upgrades, or any maintenance that

would require the vCenter service to be restarted or the system rebooted.

Impact of Snapshot Operations

Veeam Backup & Replication leverages the vSphere functionality for snapshots to create backups

of VMs.

When Veeam Backup & Replication begins the backup of a VM, it communicates with vSphere to

request a snapshot of the VM, and after the backup of the VM is complete, Veeam requests that the

snapshot be removed. The creation and removal of snapshots in vSphere creates a significant

impact on the environment that must be taken into account. Here we will discuss the various

factors that should be considered regarding this process, and recommend techniques to minimize

the impact of snapshot operations.

As a concept, vSphere snapshots are a simple technology. A VM generally contains at least one

virtual disk, which is represented by a VMDK file. When a snapshot is taken, VMware continues to

read blocks from the file as normal, however, for any new blocks that are written to the disk, these

writes are redirected to a new thin VMDK file called the delta file. Since the original VMDK file is

only being used for reads, it provides a consistent view of the blocks that made up the VM at the

time the snapshot was taken - this allows Veeam Backup & Replication to read this based disk as a

consistent image for backup and replication. When the snapshot is removed, the blocks that were

written to the delta file are read and written back into the original VMDK, and finally the delta file is

discarded.

As with many things in technology, although the concept is simple, the actual implementation is a

little more involved. The following is a quick look at the impact of various operations on the VM

and underlying infrastructure.

Snapshot Creation

The actual operation of creating a snapshot generally has only a minor impact: the snapshot file

has to be created, and there is a very short stun of the VM. This is generally short enough so that

it is rarely an issue except for the most time-sensitive applications.

Note For normal snapshot operation, try to keep the size of the vmdk disk under 1.98 TB, otherwisesnapshot creation may fail due to known VMware limitations. For details, please refer toVMware

Knowledge Base article 1012384.

Snapshot Open

Simply having a snapshot open for a running VM involves some performance penalty on the VM,

the ESX(i) host and the underlying storage. The host has to track the I/O, split writes to the

snapshot file, update the snapshot file metadata. This extra overhead, in turn, impacts the host

(primarily, with slower I/O). This is generally most notable for VMs with significant write load, and

has less impact on read performance.

From a storage perspective, VMs running with an open snapshot require the additional space to

store the snapshot data, and additional I/O load on the datastore. Once again, this is generally

more noted on systems with significant write I/O load.

Note Also, remember that vMotion cannot be performed for VMs with an open snapshot.
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