Tag: Veeam Backup & Replication

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5 Backup Server Recovery Scenarios

Imagine a disaster, in which the virtual infrastructure has to be restored from scratch.

All is lost except the backup files, which are still available on at least one repository, preferably immutable, on-premises or in the cloud.

To restore the environment you have five different options that are a function of how the Veeam Backup & Replication protection and resilience architecture is designed and implemented.

Note 1: Veeam Backup & Replication will hereafter be referred to as. VBR.

Scenario A (Restoration from scratch):

  • You have not made an application-aware backup of the server VBR.
  • You have not performed application aware replication of the server VBR.
  • Export of server DB configuration is not available VBR.
  • You want to restore production workloads immediately.

What to do?

Step 1A: Install Veeam Backup & Replication.

How to: From Veeam’s website(https://www.veeam.com) download the latest version of VBR.

(direct link -> https://www.veeam.com/products/data-platform-trial-download.html?tab=cloud-plugins).

Picture 1

Note 2: VBR can read Backup files created with earlier versions.

The simplicity of installing Veeam Backup & Replication makes it easy, fast, and can be done in unattended mode.

(https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/silent_mode.html?zoom_highlight=Unattended&ver=120)

In this step, just clicking “next” to complete the operation is often sufficient.

Note 3: It is recommended that you use your license file (which can be downloaded from my.veeam.com) although the Community Edition (unlicensed) is often sufficient for most restores needed at this stage.

Step 2A: Add the production virtual infrastructure where you want to restore workloads protected by VBR.

How: after completing the first step, from the console of VBR add the virtual infrastructure (Menu: “Inventory” -> “Vmware vSphere“-> “Add Server“) (Image 2).

picture 2

The following steps depend on the type of Hypervisor (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, …) but are always very simple.

Step 3A (optional): Add backup proxies.

Even if we are operating at the recovery level, improving the performance by adding backup proxies is always a good idea.

Step 4A: Adding Veeam backup repositories.

The last preparatory step before starting restores is to add the repositories with the backup data.

How: from the console, select “Backup Infrastructure,” “Backup Repository,” and then “Add Repository” (image 3).

Picture 3

Step 5A: Starting the restore

How: from the console of VBR select “Home,” “Backup,” “Disk imported,” the VM you want to restore, and right-click to start the restore process (Image 4).

Picture 4

Note 4: Recovery can be instantaneous. With this mode, VMs are started directly from the backup repository. In this option, the repository serves as the data store (for VMware the DataStore) for the virtual environment.

(Instant VM recovery was invented by Veeam more than a decade ago and has since improved its performance and flexibility.)

Now your production architecture is back up and running!

https://www.veeam.com/blog/restoring-infrastructure-from-scratch-with-veeam.html

Scenario B: The VBR is a virtual server.

  • You have made an application-aware backup of the server VBR.
  • You have not performed application-aware replication of the server VBR.
  • Export of server DB configuration is not available VBR.
  • You want to restore the server immediately VBR.

What to do?

Step 1B: Make a download of the utility “Veeam.Backup.Extractor.exe” from Veeam’s Download site.

(https://www.veeam.com/products/data-platform-trial-download.html?tab=extensions).

Picture 5

Note 5: There is also a command-line Extract option for Windows and Linux platforms.

Step 2B: Start Extract, select the backup of the VBR, and once the files of the VM-VBR are copied them to your preferred VMware datastore.

Now from the vCenter register the VM you just copied.

(Image 6)

Note 6: A command-line extract option is available for Windows and Linux platforms.

Note 7: It is possible to automate and simplify copying to the VMware Datastore by publishing an NFS network share as mentioned in the following article:

https://www.virtualtothecore.com/veeam-extract-utility-quick-restores-without-veeam-server

Step 3B: After completing the recovery of step 2B, start the VBR and carry out the standard operations of use (see Step 5A).

Scenario C: The VBR is a physical server

  • You have made the application aware backup of VBR by creating the recovery media.
  • Export of the configuration file of (VBR).
  • You want to restore the server immediately VBR.

What to do?

Step 1C: Make the recovery media available to the Physical Server VBR (via Network or USB).

Step 2C: Start the Bare Metal Recovery operation by selecting the necessary backup (image 7 and image 8) in the recovery step.

Picture 7

Image 8

(https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/howto_baremetal_recovery.html?ver=60)

Step 3C: After completing the recovery of step 2C, start the VBR and carry out the standard recovery operations as indicated in Step 5A.

Scenario D: The VBR is a replicated VM.

  • You have not made an application-aware backup of the server VBR.
  • You have performed application-aware replication of the server VBR.
  • Export of server DB configuration is not available VBR.
  • You want to restore the server immediately VBR.

What to do?

Step 1D: Connect to the vCenter and search for the VBR already replicated.

Image 9

Step 2D: Trigger the failover of the VBR.

Image 10

Step 3D: Realize the management operations of VBR as per Step 5A.

Scenario E: The configuration of the VBR.

  • You have not backed up the server VBR.
  • You have not performed Server Replication VBR.
  • Export of the server DB configuration is available VBR.
  • You want to restore the server immediately VBR.

What to do?

Step 1E: Install VBR on the server (physical or virtual, see step 1A).

Step 2D: Perform a configuration reset of the VBR as indicated in the guide.

(https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/vbr_config_restore.html?zoom_highlight=configuration+restore&ver=120)

Image 11

Step 3D: Realize the management operations of VBR as per Step 5A.

Note 8: It is always a good idea to save the Backup server configuration.

Final Note: The advice is to strive to be able to use all the strategies described in this article so that if one is not available, a second one can be used.

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Replicas from Backup

27th July 2020 Update:

From now on it’s possible to create a replica Job from a backup copy job set-up as immediate copy mode.

https://www.veeam.com/kb3228

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In my last article, I talked about how to throttle the network when you need to perform replicas Job (click here for more details).

In this second article, I will show you how to replicate a VM using a Backup as a source.

The main three points are:

  1. Setting up a Backup Job
  2. Setting up a Backup Copy Job
  3. Setting up a Replication Job

Let’s go!

1. It’s quite easy to create a new backup job. If you didnìt read the guide, the next pictures will show the more important points:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture3

2. Now it’s time to configure the backup copy Job selecting the just created primary backup as a source.

Picture 4

Picture 5

To simplify reading the article, please pay attention to the name of the second Repository (XFS-Repo-DR)

3. Now it’s time to set up the Replica Job

Picture 6

Picture 7

This is the main point of the article:

Click on the “Source” Button (yellow row) and select the Repository XFS-Repository-DR as a source of the Replica, as shown in Picture 8.

Picture 8

The last steps are:

  • Completing the Replica Wizard creation
  • Running the job

Picture 9

To be sure that everything is working fine you can use any tools that check up the I/O on Repository.

In this article, I choose IOSTAT because it’s light, powerful, and easy to use on Linux Repositories

Picture 10 shows the disk status before the replica job is launched while Picture 11 shows the disk status when it runs.

Picture 10

Picture 11

Take care and see you soon!

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Object Storage Integration – Wasabi

Object Storage is probably the main Backup & Replication feature used by Veeam Customers since his release (9.5 u4)

Today I’m going to cover the improvment now available with version 10 and I’ll show you how it works when it is coupled with Wasabi Object Storage.

Why Wasabi?
The reason is quite easy.
Any Veeam SE has 1 TB of available data to work with and this is a very appreciated gift because I can test VBR features in my personal lab.

So thank you in advance Wasabi guys.

This is the first of three articles where I’m going to show how to implement the Object Storage integration with VBR

  1. Configuring Wasabi Bucket
  2. Implementing Backup and Replication
  3. Performing test of backup and Restore

Let’s start with the first point !!!

After registering to wasabi site (https://wasabi.com/), sign-in and discover the main menu. What surprised me immediately is how easily you can work with the platform.

From “Users” just create a user following the wizard where you need to type name (Picture 1), optionally create a group (Picture 2)  and in the select the right permission in page three  (Picture 3) 

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Now move on to the Access key menu and create the two keys. One good suggestion is to save keys on your PC downloading it. (Picture 4) 

Picture 4

Now it’s time to work with the Bucket menu and see how easy it is to create a new container (Picture 5).

Picture 5

Now we are ready to use it with VBR (Veeam Backup & Replication)

See you soon