VBR – Mac Backup

Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) version 11 has a new feature and Mac users will fall in love with it.

It is now available for the backup and restores of your MACOS files.

It supports the last Operating Systems starting from High-Sierra (Big Sur 11.X.X / Catalina 10.15.X / Mojave 10.14.X / High Sierra 10.13.6).

Note 1: The Veeam Agent for Mac (VAM) version 1 supports the M1 processor via Rosetta.

Note 2: The VAM supports consistent data backup with snapshots for the APFS file system.

In the other file systems, the backup is created via a snapshot-less approach.

Note 3: At the moment it’s possible to perform the backup of user data (with a custom scope too). The image of the entire machine and a Bare Metal Restore are not available yet.

The configuration steps are quite easy as shown in the official guide:

To recap, the procedure consists of:

  1. From the VBR console create a resource group using a flexible scope
  2. Copy the files generated from VBR to the MAC to protect
  3. Install the package to your machine and import the created configuration. (It allows the communication between VBR and the Mac)
  4. From the VBR console creating the backup policy and apply it

The following video shows how it works in a managed VBR architecture.

Take care and see you soon.

Veeam Backup & Replication – Agent Licensing

Today I’m covering how to enable VBR to use VUL licensing to backup Physical Machines (they could be server or workstation both)

If you need more details to understand better the implementation scenarios please refer to the three articles I already wrote

Veeam Agent  Part 1     Veeam Agent Part 2     Veeam Agent Part 3

As many of you already know it is possible to work with the free Veeam Agent version and a paid VBR version.

The only thing that this architecture allows is using the VBR repositories as a global backup container.

What customers forget is that you can’t have a mixed infrastructure composed of free and paid agents.

Let’s see an example:

An end-user with already 10 VBR sockets license has a new project to protect 30 workstations and he wants to use Veeam agent Free.

The end-user just has to install and set up on every single workstation the free agent to write backup data to VBR repository.

From VBR version 9.5.u4, Veeam is gifting 1 VUL license for every socket customer bought (up to 6 sockets). In our example it means the end-user can protect up to 6 Physical Server or 18 Workstation (1 Vul x 3 Workstation) for free or a mixed architecture.

What happens if you enable VBR to assign the gifted license from your VBR server?

First thing how to enable it? The next three pictures (Picture 1, 2 and 3) explain how to perform it

Picture 1

Picture 2

        Picture 3

From now on VBR will use the agent license up to consuming them.

In our example, the end-user will protect 18 Workstations but the last 12 will be out from the backup procedure.

Which is the solution?

Easy one, just Buying a new license pack.

Why you should have to buy new licenses?

There are at least three good reasons:

a) It is possible to manage your workstation architecture directly from VBR console.
b) There are more restore options.
c) Veeam support.

Gems:

1) One of the good news about the licensing of VBR v.10 is that from now on the license bought will be added to the gifted one. It means that you buy just a VUL packet (10 Vul) and have a total of 16 licenses.

2) If you have two license files (the first for VBR, the second for Veeam Agent) you have to merge them in just one license file.

The License rule and the procedure are available reading the following links https://www.veeam.com/kb3085  (rule)                         https://www.veeam.com/kb3116    (procedure)

3) Is there a turnback procedure?

Yes, please refer to the following KB https://www.veeam.com/kb2235 and contact Veeam’s support.

To Remember:

4) It’s not possible to protect VM with sockets and VUL license. It means that sockets license has the priority to protect VM with respect to VUL.

https://www.veeam.com/it/availability-suite-faq.html

5) Product comparison edition

https://www.veeam.com/it/products-edition-comparison.html

Take care

VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 1

In the last weeks, I’ve been requested to understand how to set up a strategy of remoting Backup Data when the source is a Veeam Agent.

The answer is not just the “Use the backup copy job” option because it can be used in one of three scenarios I’m going to cover in the next three articles.

So, let’s move fast forward

My Lab Environment is composed of VBR + 2 Windows 10 Physical Laptops

I do not cover the first part regarding how to create a protection group. There is more than one online guide that explains how to add a protection group to VBR.

My two suggestions are:

  1. Check if the Firewall ports are correctly open (click here)
  2. Check on Laptop if Admin share (c$) is available.

If the second point failed just follow this simple procedure. Launch a cmd as administrator and write the following command:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system /v LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Scenario 1: VBR as central Manager – VAW configurated as Server

Let’s see how to configure a primary VAW  backup Job

From the wizard select Windows Computer as shown in picture 1

Picture 1

from the Job Mode Select Server (Picture 2)

Picture 2

Now add the Backup Job name and follow the simple wizard (Pictures 3 to 9)

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Now you can check if the backup up has been completed correctly (Picture 10)

Picture 10

Now it’s time to configure a Backup Copy job and run it (Pictures 11 to 16)

Picture 11

Picture 12

Picture 13

Picture 14

Picture 15

Picture 16

Now you can see different restore points on disks (Pictures 17 to 19)

Picture 17

Picture 18

The last step is watching how many licenses have been used

Picture 19

In the next article, we are going to see what will change if we work on the “select mode” option.

VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 2

In this second article, we are going to cover what happens if we set up a VAW backup job working “managed by agent”.

Let’s see the main differences from the wizard (to know all the procedure please refer to the official guide or to my previous article)

Picture 1

Before going on, have a look at the manual to understand what happens in this scenario:

helpcenter.veeam.com (click here)

“Veeam Backup & Replication uses the backup policy as a saved template and applies settings from the backup policy to Veeam Agents that run on computers specified in the backup policy”.

In other words,  the policies are pushed to the VAW; So the laptop is able to protect its data even without a VBR start command.

Ok, following the wizard, input a backup name and select the Laptop to protect (Pictures 2 and 3)

Picture 2

Picture 3

After selecting Target and Repository it’s possible to complete the job creation (Pictures 4,5 and 6).

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Now check if the backup policies are correctly applied and then launch the backup job (Pictures 7,8,9,10)

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10

Checkpoint:

If you now try to create a backup copy job from the VBR console, you will find a problem because it is not available if you are going to select Periodic Copy (Immediate copy is available from version 11 of VBR)

Why?

Because in this scenario the policy commands the backup process. It’s like saying the Agent is the master of the backup.

How to go over?

  • Just select Immediate copy or
  • Add a new backup policy !” (Pictures 11 to 14)

Picture 11

To know: if you use a remote desktop and connect to your saved laptop, you can find the Veeam icons. When you click on them you get the classic interface (as standalone installation)

Picture 12

To Remember: from here you can not add a new job. You always have to set it up from the VBR console:

Picture 13

And the last thing? What about licensing? It consumes a single VUL

Picture 14

Wrap-up:

  1. If you need to have more than a copy, just create a new policy backup. My two cents are:
    a) Use a forever forward incremental chain.
    b) The repository should have a block cloning technology as ReFS/ XFS.
  2. If you plan to use a Backup copy job you have to configure the Agent as managed by the backup server or on the backup copy job select the immediate copy job.
  3. Licensing does not have any impact, it always uses a VUL license.

The next and last article will cover the workstation backup approach. See you soon

VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS/LINUX – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 3

Today I’m going to cover what’s happening if you set the protection policy up as a workstation.

In this article, I’m covering the Veeam Agent for Linux (VAL) also,  to widen the range of my site and answer friends asking me to talk about their workstation based on Ubuntu.

After creating the protection group  (please refer to the previous articles), let’s create a new job and set it up as a workstation job (image 1)

Image 1

Now add the laptop (ubuntu2 in my case) and follow the wizard pointing as repository the VBR server (image 2-5).

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

After completing the task, check that the configuration has been rightly applied to the laptop and then launch the first backup (image 6).

image 6

Now it’s time to connect via SSH to the Linux laptop and lunch  the command Veeam as root (image 7)

Image 7

it shows your backup status (image 8)

Image 8

and from here you can lunch the same job another time (image 9)

Image 9

But what happens if you try to add a new backup from this interface? As previously in Windows case, it is not allowed, because it is managed by VBR.

A good step is to check that the license work in workstation-mode (image 10)

Image 10

But if you remember well, my first goal was having a backup outside the primary site.

I already wrote in my last article (VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS/LINUX – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 2 ) how to set up a new backup job from the VBR console (I’m pretty sure you are now ready to do it without any help) (image 11 – 15)

Image 11

Image 12

Image 13

Image 14

After applying the configuration let’s start the Backup job

Image 15

This is what happens, It FAILED !!! (image 16)

Image 16

Why?

The answer is inside the workstation limitation that you can find on the following Veeam web page (Veeam Edition comparison).

https://lnx.gable.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1-art3.jpg

It is clearly written that if you use the agent as a workstation, you can perform the second/third backup job just writing backup data to a Cloud repository?

Veeam Agent uses case summary:

Backup Type Managed by BCJ + Backup Job to + destinations 1+Backup CC VUL
Server VBR Y Y Y 1
Server Agent N Y Y 1
Workstation Agent              Y                (immediate copy) N Y 1/3

 

1+ Backup 1+Backup CC VUL
Server Y Y 1
Workstation N Y 1/3

I hope the article series will help to set up correctly your environment.

Take care