Backup repositories are locations for storing backup data and auxiliary files on the target side. You can assign the role of a backup repository to any Windows or Linux server added to the list of managed servers in Veeam Backup & Replication, or to any shared SMB folder, to which the backup server has access.
To add a backup repository, follow the next steps.
Step 1. Launch the New Backup Repository Wizard
To launch the New Backup Repository wizard, do either of the following:
• Open the Backup Infrastructure view, select the Backup Repositories node in the inventory pane and click Add Repository on the toolbar.
• Open the Backup Infrastructure view, right-click the Backup Repositories node in the inventory pane and select Add Backup Repository.
Step 2. Specify Name and Description
Specify the desired name for the repository and a description for future reference. A default description contains the time at which the backup repository was created and the user who created it.
Step 3. Choose Type of Repository
Select the type of repository you would like to add:
• Microsoft Windows Server with local or directly attached storage. In this case,
Veeam Backup & Replication will deploy a Veeam agent on the Windows server connected to the storage system. The agent is responsible for data processing tasks, enabling
efficient backups over slow connections.
• Linux Server with local, directly attached or mounted NFS storage.
Veeam Backup & Replication will start a Veeam agent on the Linux server connected to the storage system every time when the repository is addressed by a job. The agent is responsible for data processing tasks, enabling efficient backups over slow connections.
• Shared folder using CIFS (SMB) protocol. This type of storage cannot run a Veeam agent.
If you select a shared folder as a backup repository in the off-site backup scenario (that is, the shared folder is located off-site) and your connections for sending VM data are slow, it is recommended to deploy a backup proxy closer to the backup repository.
Step 4. Specify Server or Share
This step depends on the type of backup repository you selected at the previous step.
Microsoft Windows Server or Linux Server
From the Repository server list, select the necessary Windows or Linux server to be used as a backup repository. The Repository servers list contains only those servers that have been added to Veeam Backup & Replication beforehand. You can also click Add New on the right to add a new server to be used as the repository.
Click the Populate button to see a list of volumes connected to the selected server, their capacity and free space.
Windows Share (CIFS)
In the Shared folder field, specify the UNC path to the shared folder you want to use as a backup repository. Enter credentials of an account with administrative privileges on the share.
Specify the way in which VM data should be written to the shared folder:
• If you are using fast connections, select the Directly from backup proxy server option to write VM data directly from the source-side backup proxy to the repository.
• If you are planning to perform off-site backup over WAN connections, select the Through the following proxying server option and specify an additional Windows-based
proxying server on the target side you are planning to use for moving data to the backup repository.
Step 5. Configure Path and Load Control Settings
In the Location section, specify the path to the folder to which backup files should be stored. Click Populate to see the capacity and available free space on the selected volume.
In the Load control section, set the necessary values to limit the number of concurrent tasks for the repository. If the specified threshold has been reached, a new task using this repository will not start. To learn more, refer to the Limiting the Number of Concurrent Tasks section.
You can also limit data ingestion rate to restrict the total speed of writing data to the repository disk. Limiting the number of concurrent tasks and data ingestion rate will help you control the load on the repository and prevent possible timeout of storage I/O operations.
If you plan to use a deduplicating storage appliance, click Advanced to configure additional repository settings:
• For storage systems using fixed block size, select the Align backup file data blocks check box. Veeam Backup & Replication will align VM data saved to a backup file to a 4Kb block boundary. This option provides better deduplication across backup files, but can result in greater amount of unused space on the storage device and a higher level of
fragmentation.
• When you enable compression for a backup job, VM data is compressed at the source side before it is transmitted to the target. However, compressing data prior to writing it to deduplicating storage appliance results in poor deduplication ratios as the number of matching blocks decreases. To overcome this situation, you can select the Decompress backup data blocks before storing check box. If data compression is enabled for a job, Veeam Backup & Replication will compress VM data, transmit it over LAN, uncompress data on the target side and write raw VM data to the storage device to achieve a higher deduplication ratio.
Step 6. vPower NFS
This step of the wizard is not applicable for Hyper-V environments. Skip it and proceed to the following step.
Step 7. Review Properties and Components
After the wizard checks for existing components, you can review the repository properties and installed components.
Select the Import existing backups automatically check box. Veeam Backup & Replication will scan the repository folder for existing backup files and automatically add them to the
Veeam Backup & Replication console under the Backups node. If the repository folder contains guest file system index files that were previously created by Veeam Backup & Replication, select the Import guest file system index check box. The index files will be imported along with backups, so you will be able to search for guest OS files inside the imported backups.
Step 8. Finish Working with the Wizard
You will see real-time processing results in the log. Wait for the required operations to be performed. When the wizard completes adding the backup repository, you can review the log information. Click Finish to exit the wizard.