Add tape server to Veeam

First of all, open the Veeam Backup & Replication console and navigate to Tape Infrastructure. Then click on Add Tape Server.

StarWind VTL is connected to my Veeam server (VMBCK01) through iSCSI. So I choose the server VMBCK01.

Then you can specify some network traffic rules to control the encryption and throttling of the network traffic.

Next click on apply to install Veeam components for tape server.

To finish, leave checked the option Start tape libraries inventory when I click finish. This enable to run immediately the inventory and discover the tape libraries connected to the server. Otherwise you’ll not see any libraries until you run an inventory.

After the inventory, you should see the libraries. StarWind VTL is emulated by HP MSL G3 drivers. This is why you see this kind of libraries. You can see also all the media available in this libraries. Obviously, because StarWind VTL is based on hard drive, in production you must install enough storage to handle the archival you want.

Media Pool

In Veeam, a Media Pool is a set of media which shares the same retention. So, the second step in order to run archival job is to create a Media Pool. There is also the GFS Media Pool (Grand Father, Father, Son) which enables in a single Media Pool to manage weekly, monthly, quarter and yearly archival. It’s up to you. In this example I choose Media Pool.

I decide to call the Media Pool Yearly.

Then I choose some Media to add into this Media Pool. I suggest you to leave checked the option Add tapes from Free Media … In this way, if there is no enough media in this pool, automatically Veeam will takes a new media from the free media pool to move into your media pool.

Then specify a Media Set name. Each time Veeam will create a tape backup, a media set name will be associated with the format you choose.

Then choose a many time you want to protect data stored on the tape. I choose to protect yearly backup for 10 years.

Next you can choose if you want to encrypt data and if you want to enable parallel processing.

To create the Media Pool, click on finish.

For this exmaple, I have created three media pools (Weekly, Monthly and Yearly). Now my tape infrastructure is ready to use.

Now you can create a tape job. Navigate to Home and select Tape Job. You can choose between two kind of jobs:

• Files: you backup Veeam files by choosing a folders
• Backups: You backup a backup job without specifying folders. This is my preferred method because you can run the tape job after a backup job.

Conclusion

StarWind Virtual Tape Library and Veeam enables to archive backup from a full software stack. You don’t need to manage every day the physical media. StarWind Virtual Tape Library is cheaper than a hardware tape library. This product is valuable for companies which have no vault and no physical tape management.

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Requirements

To install StarWind VTL, you need a server with at least the following hardware:

• 2x (v)CPU
• 4GB of RAM
• 2x Network Adapters (one for management and the other for iSCSI)
  
• 1x hard drive for OS
  
• 1x hard drive for virtual tape
  

From my side, I have deployed a virtual machine to host StarWind VTL

StarWind Virtual Tape Library installation

To deploy StarWind VTL, firstly you need to download StarWind Virtual SAN from this link. Then run the installation and when you have to choose the components, specify settings as the following:

Once the product is installed, run the StarWind management console.

StarWind Virtual Tape Library configuration

Firstly, I change the management interface to bind only to the management IP address. In this way, we can’t manage the product from iSCSI network adapter. To change the management interface, navigate to Configuration | Management Interface.

Next in General pane, click on Add VTL Device.

Then, specify a name for your Virtual Tape Library ad a location.

Then leave the default option and click on Next.

On the next screen, you are asked to create the iSCSI target. Choose to Create new target. Then specify a target alias.

If the creation is successful, you should get the following information:

Now in StarWind Management Console, you have a VTL device.

If you wish, you can add another virtual tape library to your iSCSI target.

Connect Windows Server to StarWind VTL

On the Windows Server, open iSCSI initiator properties. You are asked to start the MS iSCSI service automatically. Choose yes. Then in target, enter the IP address of the StarWInd VTL iSCSI IP address. Then connect to the target.

Once connected, you can open the Device Manager. As you can see in the below screenshot, you

Conclusion

If you don’t want to invest in a Tape Library you can use StarWind Virtual Tape Library to archive your data. In a real world, usually you use a physical machine with a lot of SATA devices. Instead of using Tape, you use SATA devices. In addition to be a cheaper solution, you don’t need to implement a process for tape rotation. However, the StarWind VTL should be in another datacenter in case of datacenter disaster.

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Requirements

To follow this guide, you need an up and running Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 infrastructure. To write this guide, I updated from a Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 2 solution which consists of a single server. Another server hosts a Veeam console. To update Veeam to update 3, you need to download it from the Veeam portal:

Update Veeam Backup & Replication

Before updating Veeam Backup & Replication, you have to disable all backup jobs. Open the Veeam console and navigate to the backup jobs. Select them all and right click. Then select Disable.

Ensure that all jobs are disabled before closing the Veeam console.

Next copy the update to your backup server and run it.

On the first screen, just click on Next.

Enable the checkbox Update remote components automatically to update all components during this wizard. Click on Install to deploy the Update 3.

During the update process, Veeam backup all previous installation files. When the progress bar is finished, Veeam is updated. The update process took me almost 25mn.

When the update process is finished, you should get this screen.

Open the Veeam console from the backup server, navigate to jobs, select them all and right click. Select Disable to enable all jobs.

In the below screenshot, you can see one of the new Veeam features: the central management of Veeam Agent for Windows / Linux instance. You can now centralize the backup of physical servers for example. I’ll do a topic about that later.

Update Veeam Backup & Replication console

If like in my environment you have a server dedicated to remote management, you have to update the Veeam console installed on it. The process is easy, open the Veeam console and connect to the Veeam Backup & Replication server.

The following message is raised: click on Yes to update the Veeam Console. After several minutes, you are connected to Veeam Backup & Replication Update 3.

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This backup and restore mechanism can also be used in case of migration. If you have an old Veeam server and you want to migrate to a newer without making again the entire configuration, you can backup and restore the configuration for migration.

Schedule the backup of Veeam Backup & Replication configuration

To manage the configuration backup, open a Veeam Backup & Replication console, click on “hamburger” menu (top left) and select Configuration Backup.

Then you can enable the configuration backup on a backup repository. Scale-Out Repository are not supported for configuration backup. You can choose the number of restore points to keep and you can schedule the backup. To keep credentials you use in Veeam, you have to enable Encrypt configuration backup option.

Specify a password that you’ll never lose, and click on OK.

Restore Veeam Backup and Replication configuration

To restore the Veeam Backup & Replication configuration, open a session on the Veeam server and open Configuration Restore as below:

The wizard asks you if you want to restore or if it is in case of Migration. For this exemple I choose Restore.

Open the backup repository and select the restore point you want.

In the next screen, you get a backup content summary. If you are agree, click on Next.

If you have encrypted your backup, specify the encryption password.

Then specify the target database. If the database already exists, it will be deleted and created again.

Choose what configuration data you want to restore.

If Veeam services are running, the wizard will stop them for you.

Once the restore is running, you should have something as below:

After the restore, the wizard asks you to verify credentials.

When the restore is finished, you get the following screen.

The last step regards the backup job: after a restore they are all disabled. You have to enable them and it is finished

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Design overview

The Veeam server is based on a physical server (Dell R630) and running on Windows Server 2016 (July cumulative updates). The Veeam version is 9.5 update 2. This server has two network adapters member of a teaming for production network and two network adapters for iSCSI. I’d like to collect VM data across the iSCSI network adapters. So Veeam collect VM information and process the VM snapshot from the production network and data are copied accross the backup network. In this topic, I’ll connect VMFS LUN (VMware) to Veeam Server. In this configuration, the Veeam proxy is deployed in the Veeam server.

N.B: If you plan to dedicate servers for Veeam proxies, you must connect each proxy to the production storage.

Configure MPIO

First of all, you need to install MPIO if you have several network links connected to a SAN. MPIO ensures that all paths to a LUN are managed to ensure high availability and bandwidth aggregation (if you have not set MPIO to failover). Install MPIO from Windows features and run mpiocpl (it’s work also in Core edition) to configure MPIO:

After you have added the iSCSI or/and SAS support, a reboot is required.

Disable automount

This option prevents Windows from automatically mounting any new basic and dynamic volumes that are added to the system. The volume must not be mounted in Veeam server. We just need access to the block storage. This is why this option is set.

iSCSI configuration

First, you need to start the iSCSI service. This service should also be automatically started:

Next open iSCSIcpl (it’s work on Server Core also) and add portal address. Once the targets are discovered, you can connect to them.

Once you are connected, open the disk management and check if LUNs are well mounted in the system:

Veeam configuration

Now that you have connected your Veeam proxies to the production storage, you can now change the transport mode. In Veeam Backup & Replication console, navigate to backup infrastructure and edit the proxies. Change the transport mode and choose Direct Storage Access.

Now, when you backup a VM located in a SAN datastore, you should have something like this:

Conclusion

If you have a SAN iSCSI or FC and you want to dedicate these networks for backup, Direct Storage Access can be the way to go. The servers must be connected to the SAN and then Veeam is able to copy at block level from the mounted LUN. If your production network is 1GB/s and your storage network is 10GB/s, you can also save a lot of time and reduce the backup windows.

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Veeam works at the host level to backup VM. That means that an agent must be installed in each hypervisor but no agent is installed inside the VM. Even if there is no agent in the VM, Veeam is able to backup Active Directory or SQL Server workloads.

For this topic, I’ll backup the workloads on a Synology NAS (RS815). This backup will be in a share SMB3.

Backup infrastructure overview

To make this topic, I have deployed the following infrastructure:

• 2x Hyper-V hosts in hyperconverged cluster (Storage Spaces Direct)
• 1x VM called VMBCK01 which host Veeam
• 1x Synology NAS RS815 to store backups

My Hyper-V cluster hosts several VM such as Domain Controllers, SQL Servers (AlwaysOn Availability Group), System Center, PKI and so on. In this topic, I’ll will create a backup job for Domain Controllers.

Add Hyper-V hosts to Veeam

Install VMM agent

Because I will discover Hyper-V hosts across VMM, I have to install the VMM console on the Veeam server. So I run the VMM wizard to install the VMM console as below.

Discover Hyper-V hosts

Once the VMM console is installed, we can discover Hyper-V hosts across VMM. This configuration is not recommended in large environment. VMM can slow down the Veeam interface when they are hundred hosts and thousand VM. In large infrastructure, it is recommended to connect Veeam directly to the Hyper-V clusters. To add either standalone Hyper-V, cluster or VMM server, navigate to Virtual Machines and right click on Microsoft Hyper-V. Next select Add server.

In the next screen, specify the IP or the DNS of the VMM instance (or the standalone Hyper-V or the Hyper-V cluster).

Next choose the type of the server. Is this example, this is a Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Then specify a credential that has right in VMM.

In the next screen, you should have the Hyper-V host that you have added in VMM.

Once you have clicked on next, the agent is deployed on Hyper-V hosts.

Once the agents are installed and the refresh done, you can retrieve the same hierarchy than VMM and the hosted virtual machines.

To compare, you can see that the hierarchies are the same in VMM than in Veeam.

Add a backup repository

Create the share in the Synology NAS

Before adding the backup repository in Veeam, I create a share in the Synology NAS. I call it HomeCloud-Backup and I hide this share.

Then I have created a user called Veeam which has full permission on HomeCloud-Backup share.

Add backup repository in Veeam

Once the share is created, I add the backup repository in Veeam. Navigate to Backup Infrastructure and right click on Backup Repositories. Then select Add Backup Repository.

Give a name to your backup repository and click on next.

Then choose the type of the backup repository. In this example, choose Shared folder.

Next, specify the shared folder and the credentials that ave access in read/write in the share.

If the settings that you have specified previously are good, the wizard should show you the free space in the storage device. Then you can set the maximum concurrent tasks and limite the bandwidth. You can set advanced settings by clicking on Advanced.

Then you can enable or disable the vPower NFS. This feature is not useful in Hyper-V environment.

To finish, review the summary and click on next to create the repository.

Create the first backup job

To create a backup job, navigate to Backup & Replication and click on Backup Job.

In the first screen, give a name to your backup job. In this backup job, I’ll backup two domain controllers.

Then, choose the VM that will be in this backup job. To add VM, click on Add and select them.

Choose the backup repository where will be located the backup files. In this example, I choose the NAS.

I enable the application-aware processing because I backup an Active Directory. Choose this option also for SQL Server to truncate logs. I use also Guest OS credentials which have administrator right in the VM.

Then, set the schedule of the backup job and click on next.

To finish, review the backup job summary and if all settings are good, click on finish to create the job.

Below, you can find information of the first full backup of both virtual machines.

As you can see below, Veeam 9.5 leverages the new Hyper-V backup capability which use Resilient Change Tracking. This is why some mrt and rct file are created in the VM folder.

Conclusion

Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 is a great tool to backup your infrastructure. Veeam has a user-friendly interface and it is easy to understand how to add a backup repository or how to create a backup job. This quick start has shown you how to create a first backup job from scratch. There are three main steps to make your first backup: add the Hyper-V hosts to Veeam, add a backup repository and create the backup job. Veeam 9.5 leverages new Windows Server 2016 such as Hyper-V Resilient Change Tracking or PowerShell direct.

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