Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware

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Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware

Version 6.x

Best Practices

for Deployment & Configuration

March, 2013

Tom Sightler

Solutions Architect, Core Products

Veeam Software

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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 of their 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 software program(s). Using any part of the software indicates that you accept the terms of the End User Software License Agreement.

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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 Support

Should you have a technical concern, suggestion or question, please visit our Customer Center Portal at cp.veeam.com to 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 at Veeam documentation page Community forum at forums.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 full benefit 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 to Veeam 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 to Veeam Backup

& Replication - Architecture and Components online 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 job’s 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 the connectivity 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):

• A physical machine used 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 machine used 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 the Planning for Proxies section 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 Server

In 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 the interactive 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 & Verification section.

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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 two backup 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 virtual infrastructures 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 to Enterprise 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 Veeam’s 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 Veeam Backup 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/catalog and 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 guest OS 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 the Veeam Backup & Replication Help and U-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 database files 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 of Microsoft 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 the Veeam Backup & Replication - How It Works online 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 other and 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 agent accesses a VM image and copies VM data using one of VMware transport 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 agent deduplicates similar blocks of data and writes the result to the backup 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 the How It Works: Backup Methods section of this document, Veeam Backup & Replication Online Help, or How It Works online 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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files, restore points and so on. This metadata file facilitates import of backups and mapping of backup jobs to existing backups.

Onsite Backup

Backup to Windows or Linux-based Repository

To back up to an onsite Windows or Linux-based repository, you need to deploy a backup proxy on a server that has access to the source datastore, and point the backup job to this proxy. 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 LAN:

Backup to SMB Share

To back up to an onsite SMB share, you need a Windows-based proxying server that has access to the SMB share. This can be either the Veeam Backup server or another Windows server added to the Veeam Backup & Replication console. In this scenario, Veeam Backup & Replication starts the source-side and target-side agents on the same server. Backup data is sent from the proxy to the target SMB share over LAN.

Offsite Backup

The common requirement for offsite backup is that one Veeam agent runs in the production site (closer to the source datastore), and the other agent runs in the remote target site (closer to the repository). During backup, the agents maintain a stable connection, which allows for

uninterrupted operation over WAN or slow links.

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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 a target-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 be located 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 to detect 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 the same 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 empty virtual 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 of replication 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 a proxy 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 shouldn’t be any issues related to the license, since Veeam is licensed 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 & Verification

The 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 then started 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 in the 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 a VM 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 soon as 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, Evaluator’s Guide and U-AIR Wizards User Guide; you can also view the Veeam Backup &

Replication - How It Works online training video.

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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 VMware’s 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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The first option is a feature called Synthetic Full. This feature takes the old full backup and the incremental backups in the chain to combine them into a new full backup. This method requires no additional I/O on the source VM, however, it creates significant I/O on the target. This I/O can sometimes cause an issue when using slower backup targets.

As part of creating a synthetic full, Veeam offers the option to transform the incremental segments into reverse incremental backups, providing a hybrid approach that allows many of the benefits of both the reverse and forward incremental methods, at the cost of additional I/O on the target.

A synthetic full can be created on specific days of the week, and as often as every day, or as little as once a week.

The other option for starting a new backup chain is simply to schedule the job to perform an Active Full backup at specific intervals. This will, of course, have some impact on the source storage as it is a standard full backup, which will require retrieving all data from the source storage, but this can be scheduled for once a week (or once a month, or various other schedules) to meet the environments retention policy requirements.

Below are some pros and cons of full backup method:

Advantages Consideration

• Backup files are not changed after they are written - this is important when writing to a dedupe appliance

• Easier for GFS style staged retention policies -just copy weekly VBK’s and delete unneeded incremental backups

• Works well with dedupe storage - required full backups are highly deduped with previous fulls

• Backups can continue even when earlier backup files are being used by virtual labs - this is important if utilizing SureBackup

Requires one of the following:

• Synthetic Full – takes significant amount of time and I/O on target storage (2x read, 2x write during synthetic full operation)

• Active Full – a periodic full backup which impacts production. Note that it uses more raw space (not typically an issue when used with dedupe storage)

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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 job starts.

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 deployed on 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 copy of 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 unavailable option 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 1

Assume 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 27^th day, 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 the full 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-duplication

De-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 less memory 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 can produce 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 target option is recommended for backup to SAN, DAS or local storage. The SAN 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 target option is recommended for target NAS and onsite backup/replication. It provides a better deduplication ratio and reduces the file size due to reduced data block sizes (512 KB).

• The WAN target option is recommended if you are planning to use WAN for offsite backup/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.

Compression

Another 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\or de-duplication tools to store created backups.

• Low (Dedupe-friendly in v6.5 UI) – this is an optimized compression level for very low CPU 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 the

deduplicating appliance.

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

• Best (Extreme in v6.5 UI) - provides the smallest size of a backup file but will reduce backup 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 won’t 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. The architecture of the solution supports on-site and off-site data protection, operations across remote sites and 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: Simple Deployment

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 physical or 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 server locally.

• 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 the recommended 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 or Large-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 to Physical 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 replication and failover.

With Veeam’s 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 Deployment

The distributed deployment scenario is recommended for large geographically dispersed virtual environments with multiple Veeam Backup servers installed across different sites. These backup servers are federated under Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager:

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Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager collects data from Veeam Backup servers and enables you to run backup and replication jobs across the entire backup infrastructure through a single pane of glass, edit them 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 so on.

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 be able 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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