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Posts Tagged ‘veeam backup’

This post explains functionality of Veeam Backup and Replication (BaR) that you are not going to see in the User Guide. I was browsing the Veeam Forums and came across this thread – Backing up Veeam / vCentre Physical Machine which inspired me to write this post. The thread is actually about having an with an issue using with the scheduled backup of a physical vCenter server, which also happens to be running Veeam Backup and Replication, using another product.

I’ll get right to it. You can make a backup copy of physical SQL databases with Veeam BaR. Both vCenter and Veeam BaR have a SQL backend. You can’t schedule this as a job, but there are several scenarios where you could take advantage of a quick and easy, one time, manual backup  – before an upgrade or patch, for example.

Although I work for Veeam, this is not necessarily an intended or fully supported usage of the product. This is an easy alternative for the VMware admin to CYA , however.

I’ll start with a brief introduction on how the SQL U-AIR wizard is supposed to work, and then I will explain how you can use an admin switch to make a backup copy of SQL database whether on a VM or a physical server. VMware vCenter and Veeam BaR/Monitor/Reporter all have SQL back ends. 

The U-AIR Up There

To do this you can use the SQL U-AIR wizard. U-AIR stands for Universal Application Item Recovery, and there are 4 stand alone .exes for the various U-AIR wizards of Veeam BaR – AD, Exchange, SQL, and Universal. All of these wizards can be installed on the Veeam BaR server or on any Windows system that can communicate with Veeam. They could be installed on an admins desktop or the SQL, Exchange, or Domain Controller servers too.

Normally, the purpose of the U-AIR wizard is to request and kick off a workflow for a Veeam vPower Virtual Lab. Once the request is approved and managed by the VMware/Veeam administrator and the “Lab Manager–like” virtual lab is ready with the fenced off, running backup copy of the VM(s), the U-AIR wizards allow for the restore from the backup copy VM to the original production VM. For SQL VMs in particular, the restore options are shown in the following screen shot:

Watch this 4 minute video to see the normal SQL restore functionality of the wizard. This video skips the workflow request, skips the wait for approval and virtual lab start up, and just shows what is possible from a backup copy of a SQL VM. I also want to mention that this is an agentless solution. You do not need to install and manage agents anywhere with Veeam BaR.

Trick The System for Physical SQL backups

You can skip the workflow process of starting and using the vPower Virtual Lab if you use an undocumented (as far as I know) Admin Switch for the U-AIR wizards. I’ll focus on the SQL U-AIR wizard for the rest of this post, but it is the same for the Exchange and AD wizards as well.

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Most backup and VMware  admins already know that Veeam Backup and Replication  (VBR) can do File Level Restores (FLR) for any Virtual Machine running any Guest OS and File System that VMware supports. The default process to restore the files involves using the VBR GUI for auto assembling the VM’s .vmdk from the Veeam Backup Files (without moving data to any additional storage location or starting up the restored VM), and then using the pop-up file browser to “copy to” any location. But, did you know you could allow users to browse the restored VM file system and do their own file restores? From their own desktop or the desktop of the destination system? You won’t find this information in the VBR User Guide today, but it is very easily done.

disclaimer: I am a Systems Engineer for Veeam Software

Now, with VBR version 5 a FLR Appliance can be activated, auto registered, and configured for file level restores. Although the FLR appliance is only used when you select “Guest Files (other OS)” from the Restore options, the Linux based appliance VM can mount NTFS and most other non Windows file systems. By choosing to use this appliance you have the option to enable FTP access to the restored .vmdk thus making the recovered file system(s) easily available from any desktop. Therefore, end users or application owners can just open Windows Explorer, their favorite web browser, or a FTP client to browse, find, and download their recovered files themselves. No additional software needs to be purchased, and if you use the native OS web and file browsers nothing else even needs to be installed.

This means that the only time required by the VMware / Backup admin is the few minutes it takes to click through the Veeam restore wizard and verify the FLR appliance VM is running. Of course, a few extra seconds is required to click to close the FLR GUI when the user is done.

The rest of the post shows the many screen shots of using and configuring the Veeam FLR Appliance Restore option and a few simple, end user alternatives for accessing the restored files from the remote system. 

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Alex Barrett’s SearchServerVirtualization.com VMware clampdown on free ESXi may prompt defection to Hyper-V article presents VMware’s reasons for making a request to Veeam to stop supporting Veeam Backup with the free ESXi versions. Quoting the interview from Barrett’s story:

“We provide certain APIs [application programming interfaces] and methods particular to the virtualization environment,” said Patrick Lin, the vice president of product management for VMware’s server business unit. By offering access to the hypervisor via a preferred set of APIs, “our intent is to provide a level playing field in the basis of backup,” he said.

But Veeam did not use VMware-approved methods to develop its product, said Parag Patel, VMware’s vice president of alliances. “We’re not exactly sure what they did, but it didn’t seem sound,” Patel said. “For us it’s a question of what’s built and how it’s built. … To be perfectly honest, we didn’t want to be associated with it because it wasn’t satisfactory.”

Perhaps more to the point, Veeam Backup is inconsistent with VMware’s vision of free ESXi deployments. “It’s meant to be a starter … walk before you run,” Patel said. “It’s not supposed to be for complex software environments.” With free ESXi, “you shouldn’t need a whole lot of other tools to make it work.” If you do, you are free to upgrade.

On the other hand, Barrett’s interview also helps confirm the idea that VMware does not wish
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In the official press release today Veeam Software Offers New Essentials Bundle, Acceleration Kits for VMware vSphere 4 Veeam mentions a new policy removing support for the use of Veeam Backup with the free version of ESXi.

“At the same time, Veeam introduced a new policy with respect to support for the free edition of VMware ESXi. “As a longtime Premier Technology Alliance Partner and supporter of VMware’s product strategy, Veeam Software takes great pride in creating innovative software products that enhance the customer value of VMware ESX, ESXi, and ESXi Free,” said Ratmir Timashev, Veeam president and CEO. “One such example is support for the free edition of VMware ESXi in Veeam Backup and Replication.

“Recently, VMware requested that Veeam discontinue support for ESXi Free in Veeam Backup and Replication in order to comply with VMware’s updated licensing policy,” Timashev continued. “In light of VMware’s request, and our close technical partnership, Veeam Backup and Replication will no longer support ESXi Free. We will still continue to offer support for ESXi Free to existing Veeam customers who purchased Backup & Replication prior to version 3.1.””

Be sure to read those two paragraphs again.

Veeam, a company that seems to have found a successful niche marketing to SMBs and remote branch office VMware deployments, has been asked to remove support of the use of one it’s popular products with free ESXi. Possibly shedding some additional light on this mystery, the press announcement mentions respect for VMware’s product strategy and Veeam’s long time status as a technology partner. There is no mention of Veeam pulling free ESXi support of the popular FastSCP file management tool.

Without any inside information about the VMware ESXi roadmap and strategy, here is a quick review of ESXi’s public timeline: Read the rest of this entry »