VMCE v9 Study Guide – Module 4 – Adding Backup Repositories

If you can recall in Module 3 we discussed the three types of backup repositories in VBR; Simple, Scale-Out and those backed by rotated drives.  Now let’s go over how to add and configure each type as we continue on with Module 4 of the VMCE v9 Study Guide!

Adding Simple Backup Repositories

If we can remember back to Module 3 we actually have 4 sub types of simple backup repositories; Microsoft Windows, Linux, Shared CIFS, or Deduplicated Storage Appliances.

There are a number of prerequisites we must meet depending on the type of repository we are adding, listed below

• Linux repositories
  • Requires SSH daemon installed and configured as well as SCP utility available on the Linux server hosting the repository
• EMC Data Domain – note without meeting these requirements you can still add DD as a CIFS share, however you will not be able to leverage any DD Boost technology.
  • Must be running DD OS 5.4 or later
  • DD Boost license must be installed and DD Boost enabled and configured
  • Must have a gateway server added to the VBR environment
• ExaGrid
  • Must be firmware 4.7 or later
  • Must follow ExaGrid best practices to set up
• HPE StoreOnce – without meeting these requirements you can still add HPE StoreOnce as a shared folder, however in this case VBR will perform the deduplication.
  • Must be running firmware 3.13.1 or later
  • Must have StoreOnce Catalyst license
  • Must use Catalyst as a backup target  and configured to work with Low Bandwidth mode (primary and secondary transfer policy)
  • Must have a gateway server added to the VBR Environment
  • Client account used to connect must have access permission on the Catalyst store where backup data resides

Different options will appear in the wizard depending on the type of repository we are adding, however the process of adding it is somewhat the same.

• From the Backup Infrastructure View right-click the Backup Repositories node and select Add Backup Repository
• Name – specify the FQDN or IP address, as well as a description for the backup repository.
• Type – select the type of repository you want to add.
  • Microsoft Windows server
    • Server – Select the Windows server you would like to use from the drop down.  If the server hasn’t already been added you can do so by clicking Add New.  Clicking Populate will populate a list of disk storage connected to the server.
  • Linux Server
    • Server – Select the Linux server you would like to use from the drop down.  If the server hasn’t already been added you can do so by clicking Add New.  Clicking Populate will populate a list of disk storage connected to the server.
  • Shared Folder
    • In the shared folder field, specify the UNC path to the folder you want to use.
    • If the share requires credentials, select the ‘This share requires access credentials’ and provide credentials.
    • If you have a fast connection between the source and backup repository we can leave the gateway server at automatic selection.  This will automatically chose a gateway server randomly per job session.  If the connection is slower or over a WAN we can explicitly specify which gateway server to use.
  • Deduplicated Storage Appliance
    • Deduplicated Storage – Select either EMC, ExaGrid, or HP StoreOnce
      • Data Domain
        • Specify the connection settings to the data domain.  If connecting over FC select ‘User Fibre Channel’ and enter a Data Domain Fibre Channel server in the domain server name field.
        • Specify credentials supporting DD Boost
        • Select whether to use in flight encryption.
        • Specify a Gateway server or leave set to automatic if connection is fast.  If the DataDomain is connected over FC you must explicitly define gateway server and said server must have access to the Data Domain appliance over FC.
      • ExaGrid
        • From the Repository server drop down select the ExaGrid appliance you wish to use.  If it isn’t added you must add it with the ‘Add New’ button.
      • StoreOnce
        • Specify your connection settings to the StoreOnce appliance, and selecting ‘Use FC’ if connecting over Fibre Channel.
        • Specify credentials having access to the Catalyst store where you wish to store the backups
        • Select whether to automatically chose a gateway server or explicitly define one.  Again, if using FC you must explicitly define a GW server and it must have access to the FC StoreOnce appliance.
• Repository – this is where we specify where on the selected repository we wish to store our backups, as well as load control settings.  Again this may be different depending on what type of repository we are adding
  • Location – specify a path to the folder to store backups in.  For DataDomain click Browse and select a location – for StoreOnce, select a Catalyst store from the list.  For Windows/Linux, specify a path.
  • Load Control – limits the number of concurrent tasks and data ingestion rate.  The limiting of read and write data rates applies to the combined rate of both.
    • Advanced presents a number of additional settings to place on the repository.
      • Align backup file data blocks – Veeam will align VM data saved to a backup file at a 4kb block boundary.  Provides better dedup but can result in wasted space depending on storage level of fragmentation.
      • Decompress backup data blocks before storing – This will decompress data before storing it, even if compression is enabled.  A setting that is useful for utilizing compression on a job with deduplication appliances as a target
      • This Repository is Backed by rotated hard drives. – if you plan on using rotated drives.
      • User per-VM backup files – recommended if you use a dedup storage appliance or a repository supporting multiple streams.  Will write data with several streams, one VM per backup file per stream.
      • Deduplicating storage appliances supported by Veeam have the following recommendations
        • Data Domain
          • Align backup file blocks – disabled
          • Decompress Backup data blocks – enabled
          • backed by rotated drives – disabled
          • User Per-VM Backup Files – enabled
        • ExaGrid
          • Align backup file blocks – disabled
          • Decompress Backup data blocks – disabled
          • Backed by Rotated Drives – Disabled
          • Use Per-VM Backup Files – Enabled
          • Limit max concurrent tasks – 1
        • StoreOnce
          • Align backup file blocks – disabled
          • Decompress Backup data blocks – enabled
          • backed by rotated drives – disabled
          • User Per-VM Backup Files – enabled
• Specify Mount Server settings.
  • From the server list select a mount server to use with the backup repository.  If the desired one is not there we can add it at this point by selecting ‘Add New’
  • Enable vPower NFS server – enforces repository accessible by Veeam vPower NFS, for SureBackup Jobs, virtual labs etc.
    • Folder – specify a folder to be used as the vPower NFS root folder
  • Mount server will not be deployed until after the repository has been fully configured.
  • Ports – allows us to customize the network ports used by the vPower NFS service.  By default these are…
    • RPC port: 6161
    • Mount Port: 1058
    • vPower NFS port: 2049
• Review settings
  • Here you can review your settings and complete.  There is a couple other options.  If the repository already contains backup files we can select to Import these automatically.  If so, they will display under our Imported Backups.  If there is also guest index files located on the repository we can chose to import these indexes as well.
• Apply settings and watch as VBR updates the status on all the subtasks it performs

Adding a Scale-Out Backup Repository

Before we get into the process of adding a Scale-Out Backup Repository it’s best to have a little review of some of the requirements and limitations associated with them.  We went over this in Module 3, but for memory purposes let’s list a few of them below…

• Only Available in Enterprise and Enterprise Plus – Enterprise is limited to 1 SOBR with 3 extents only.
• If license is downgraded to standard with a SOBR present you will not be able to back up to it, but will be able to perform restores.
• Cannot use SOBR as a target for Config Backups, Replication jobs, VM Copy Jobs or Endpoint jobs.  If repository contains data from any of these unsupported jobs you will need to retarget the jobs at another repository AND REMOVE DATA from the repository

To add a SOBR right-click on the ‘Scale-out Backup Repositories’ node on the Backup Infrastructure view and select ‘Add Scale-out Backup Repository’ and follow the following configuration steps.

• Name – Add a name and description for the SOBR
• Extents – Click ‘Add’ to select the backup repositories that you wish to add as an extent to this SOBR.
  • Advanced Options on this screen include whether to Use Per-VM backup files, and whether or not to perform a full backup when a required extent is offline.  This basically means that if an extent that contains previous files from a backup chain is offline, Veeam will create a full backup file instead of a scheduled incremental.
• Extents – If we have selected a repository that is already used by jobs of a supported type (backup jobs) or already has supported backup files on it such as VeeamZIP backups you will be prompted to update the jobs/backup to point to the new repository.  Need to click yes here to continue with the creation.
• Policy – this is where we specify our backup placement policy.  If you can remember back to Module 3 we have two
  • Data locality – stores backup files that belong to the same chain together – full/incremental on the same extent.  Any new backup chains associated, for example a new full and incremental chain could be on the same extent or another extent, so long as the individual full/incremental are together.
  • Performance – stores full and incremental on different extents allowing read/write streams to be optimized to different underlying disks.
    • Performance allows you to restrict which types of backups can be stored on a specific extent in the Advanced settings.  We could place full backups on extent1, and incremental on extent2.  By default, Veeam stores both on the same extents, so long as they are from different chains.
• Summary – review details and click finish

Extending a SOBR is just a matter of going back into the SOBR properties and adding more extents during the extents step.

Removing extents from a SOBR requires a bit more work as they may contain backup files already. To remove an extent we must follow the following steps

• Put extent in maintenance mode
  • Click on your SOBR name in the Backup Infrastructure view
  • From the extent list, right-click the desired extent and select ‘Maintenance Mode’
• evacuate backups from the extent
  • Click on your SOBR name in the Backup Infrastructure View
  • Right click the desired extent and select ‘Evacuate Backups’
• remove extent from SOBR
  • From within the properties screen of your SOBR select the desired extent and click ‘Remove’
    • Note, if you skipped the ‘Evacuate Backups’ step you will be prompted to do so here.  If you chose not to, you may end up breaking the chain of some restore points.

Adding Backup Repositories with Rotated Drives

Before adding a rotated drive backup repository first attach your external drive to the windows or Linux server you wish to add as a repository and launch the ‘Add New Backup Repository’ wizard, following the below configuration and instructions…

• Give the repository a name and description
• Select which server to use as the repository
• On the server section, click ‘Advanced’ and select ‘This Repository is backed up by rotated hard drives’ and select the volume of your external drive.
• Follow all other instructions to complete the Simple Backup Repository addition.