Veeam Availability Suite contains a backup & replication solution (Veeam Backup & Replication) and a monitoring & reporting tool (Veeam ONE). I wanted to try out a few backup solutions in my lab environment and decided to start with Veeam due to the popularity and ease of use. In this post I will be deploying Backup & Replication and configuring a backup job.
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Requirements:
For a full list of Veeam Requirements read the latest release notes
- Hardware: 2 vCPU, 4 GB Memory +500 MB for each concurrent backup job
- Disk Space: 2 GB for product installation. 10 GB per 100 VM for guest file system catalog folder (persistent data). Additional free disk space for Instant VM Recovery cache folder (non-persistent data, at least 10 GB recommended).
- Permissions: If you have Active Directory i’d advise creating a service account with administrative privileges that Veeam will use to index virtual machines. Also add this account into the Administrator group in vCenter.
- Download the Veeam Availability Suite ISO from here: https://www.veeam.com/data-center-availability-suite.html
Install Veeam Backup & Replication:
Mount the ISO and run Setup.exe
Click Backup & Replication Install
It will perform a resource check and request at least 2 processors.
Click Next:
To proceed the EULA needs to be accepted. Click Next:
If you have a license file you can browse for it now. If you proceed without a license file Veeam will be in Free Edition. The difference between the versions can be found here: https://www.veeam.com/backup-version-standard-enterprise-editions-comparison.html
Click Next:
Click Next:
If your system is missing components they can be installed by clicking Install:
This is what the Install window will look like:
You should now show Passed down the list, click Next:
Check the box to Let me specify different settings:
Use the Administrative Account you setup for Veeam. Click Next:
Here you have the option to use SQL Express or point towards a existing SQL server. If you are pointing to a external SQL server ensure the user account has permissions to login and create a database (for instance elevate to sysadmin for the install). For my setup I am going to use SQL Express since my environment is really small:
I advise leaving the ports defaulted. Click Next:
vPowerNFS: Pick a location to store the instant VM recovery write cache. There needs to be at least 10 GB of free space. The default location is: C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup\NfsDatastore
Guest File System Catalog: Pick a location to store the catalog folder where index files will be stored. The VBRCatalog can grow large in size so ensure there is plenty of space. The default location is: C:\VBRCatalog
Click Next:
Click Install:
Once the installation completes click Finish:
Connect to VMware vCenter:
On Backup Infrastructure click VMware vSphere:
Enter the FQDN or IP address of your vCenter server. Click Next:
Add a vCenter user account that has permissions to take snapshots and inventory. I added my user to the vCenter Administrators group. Click Next:
If the Summary looks correct click Finish:
You can now browse your vCenter inventory!
Create a Backup Job:
On Virtual Machine click Backup Job:
Type a name for the backup job. Click Next:
Click Add and select virtual machines to be backed up by this job.
You can select at the Cluster level, Host level, or specific virtual machines:
Once added click Next:
Select how many restore points you want to keep on disk. I lowered mine to 5 to save hard disk space. Click on Advanced:
There are multiple tabs to browse through to configure for you environment. On the Notifications tab you can configure to send emails with job notifications. Once finished click OK and Next:
Now configure how often you want the backup job to run. I want it to run every night at 3 AM only on weekdays. Click Create:
If the Summary is correct click Finish. You have the option to run the job after you click Finish:
You now have a backup job! It is very easy and straight forward to get Veeam setup and backing up your virtual machines! This is Veeam Backup & Replication in its simplest form as it can also be configured for replication. To read about replication check out the Evaluator’s Guide links below:
Additional Resources:
- Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0 for VMware Evaluator’s Guide
- Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0 for Hyper-V Evaluator’s Guide
- Veeam has announced Availability Suite v9 which has multiple new features. To read more about v9 click here.