Fourth article is about VDrO 3.0 and the second use case.
How to use a Backup Job to implement a DR scenario with VDrO.
In this article, I don’t cover the mandatory step related to the VMs tag.
If you need a guide please refer to my previous writes:
Baseline-1
Baseline-2
The main steps are:
Creating a Failover location where the VMs can be restarted
Setting up scope
Creating the orchestration plan
Let’s start!
1 . Creating the Failover location
Pictures 1 to 3 show how easier it is to set Names, computers, and storage resources.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4 shows the maximum storage % that can be used by the Restore task and picture 5 shows if the Instant VM recovery has to be enabled.
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6 shows one of my favorites VDrO options.
Why? Because it allows VDrO to be implemented where the primary backup job has been copied to a second location.
To be clearer: the VBR backup copy job allows to copy backup data to the secondary site. If there are VMware hosts, it’s possible to create a DR site just restoring data from the backup copy job.
Picture 6
Picture 7 shows how to twin the production with DR networks (the previous step sets up the re-IP addressing just for windows VMs).
Picture 7
Picture 8 shows the GDPR option.
Picture 8
2. Setting up the scope
Pictures 9 to 12 show the main points:
To set up a scope, check up the VM Groups, select the Recovery Location, and which plan steps have to be added. (all details are available at Baseline articles).
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
3. Creating the Orchestration Plan
From Picture 13 to 16 the main points to set up the Restore Plan:
Picture 13
Picture 14
Picture 15
Picture 16
Please find here an example of Readiness check Reports:
The fifth article will show how to use VDrO to automatize the Disaster Recovery using the Netapp snap-mirror technologyas an engine.
Netapp – SnapMirror
The article (quite long) is composed of 6 parts:
Setting up Netapp Snap-mirror Protection
Setting up the Recovery Location
Setting up the Scope
Creation of Orchestration Plan
Starting the Plan
Checking the Orchestration Plan status
1 Setting up Netapp Snap-mirror Protection
In my personal lab, I added two NetApp simulators 9.6 setted-up in peer relationships.
Pictures 1 to 5, show how I set-up a protection rule for a single Volume (named Vol_iScsi_N01)
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6 shows the VMware console view of DR site; the replicated volume is presented as read-only volume.
Picture 6
Tips: My personal suggestion is asking your storage expert the right procedure to set-up a snap-mirror relation between two Netapp storages.
2. Setting up the Recovery Location
The recovery location wizard is shown in pictures 7, 8 and 9.
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
3. Setting up the Scope
The Scope wizard is shown in picture 10.
Picture 10
4. Creation of Orchestration Plan
Let’s go back to the main steps.
The wizard drives the users to select the right voices as shown in pictures 11, 12, 13 and 14.
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 13
Picture 14
The test scenarios are available in this configuration too
The Readiness Test is a low-impact and fast method one to confirm that configuration of an orchestration plan matches the DR environment.
The Data-lab test verifies the DR plan starting VM in a separate network.
As shown in pictures 15,16,17 and 18. the steps are:
– Assigning Datalab to VM Group (it is available from the admin menu)
– Setting up the Lab Group
Picture 15
Tips: for testing the Netapp integration select the option Restore.
It means the Replica option is just available for VBR Replica jobs.
Picture 16
Picture 17
Picture 18
5. Starting the Plan
Next pictures show how to run the just created Orchestration plan.
Picture 19
Picture 20
Picture 21
Picture 22 shows the restore points available.
Tips: the shown Restore points are the replicated snapshot (created by snap-mirror).
Picture 22
Picture 23 shows my favorite option available on VDrO in the Storage replica scenario.
Let’s imagine you run the orchestration plan.
While failover is running, the primary site is back normal operativity.
Your IT manager asks to revert the failover. Is it possible? Well, it can be. If you selected “reprotect storage volumes after failover” during the steps you can easily do it!
Picture 23
Picture 24
Picture 25
6. Checking the Orchestration Plan status
Time to run the orchestration plan and watch the steps performed.
I would like you to give your attention to the following three pre-plan steps:
Breaking the snapshot relationship
Putting the destination volumes on-line
Mounting the volumes
(Clicking on the picture you can enlarge the images)
Picture 26
From picture 27 you can see the main steps:
VM registration
Network founding and connection
Booting VM
Picture 27
Pictures 28 and 29 show the result of post plan steps:
Heart-beating test
Unmounting source Datastore
Picture 28
Picture 29
Tips: how to check in 5 points if everything is correctly working
1. VM in the DR site is running (from DR vCenter console connect remotely to VM as shown in picture 30 and 31).
Picture 30
Picture 31
2. Source VM has been deleted (from Production vCenter console check if VM is disappeared) (Picture 32).
Picture 32
3. The Orchestration plan launch button is grey and the plan has to be reset (picture 33).
Picture 33
4. Destination volumes on Netapp console have been set as read/write (Picture 34).
Picture 34
5. The Netapp relationship between source and destination volumes is broken (Picture 35).
Today I’m covering how to enable VBR to use VUL licensing to backup Physical Machines (they could be server or workstation both)
If you need more details to understand better the implementation scenarios please refer to the three articles I already wrote
Veeam Agent Part 1 Veeam Agent Part 2 Veeam Agent Part 3
As many of you already know it is possible to work with the free Veeam Agent version and a paid VBR version.
The only thing that this architecture allows is using the VBR repositories as a global backup container.
What customers forget is that you can’t have a mixed infrastructure composed of free and paid agents.
Let’s see an example:
An end-user with already 10 VBR sockets license has a new project to protect 30 workstations and he wants to use Veeam agent Free.
The end-user just has to install and set up on every single workstation the free agent to write backup data to VBR repository.
From VBR version 9.5.u4, Veeam is gifting 1 VUL license for every socket customer bought (up to 6 sockets). In our example it means the end-user can protect up to 6 Physical Server or 18 Workstation (1 Vul x 3 Workstation) for free or a mixed architecture.
What happens if you enable VBR to assign the gifted license from your VBR server?
First thing how to enable it? The next three pictures (Picture 1, 2 and 3) explain how to perform it
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
From now on VBR will use the agent license up to consuming them.
In our example, the end-user will protect 18 Workstations but the last 12 will be out from the backup procedure.
Which is the solution?
Easy one, just Buying a new license pack.
Why you should have to buy new licenses?
There are at least three good reasons:
a) It is possible to manage your workstation architecture directly from VBR console.
b) There are more restore options.
c) Veeam support.
Gems:
1) One of the good news about the licensing of VBR v.10 is that from now on the license bought will be added to the gifted one. It means that you buy just a VUL packet (10 Vul) and have a total of 16 licenses.
2) If you have two license files (the first for VBR, the second for Veeam Agent) you have to merge them in just one license file.
The License rule and the procedure are available reading the following links https://www.veeam.com/kb3085 (rule) https://www.veeam.com/kb3116 (procedure)
In these last days, I had enough time to analyze my personal lab performances.
For testing purposes, I launched the backup of the whole architecture at the same time; the VM that suffered more was the backup server (VBR) and in particular the SQL Service.
This article will explain the steps I followed to move the VBR Database SQL Express from Backup & Replication to a SQL Server standard using SQL-Management Studio as a migration tool.
Before continuing reading the article, please watch at the following Veeam KBs and contact the Veeam Support
To make the description easier I’ll use the following acronyms :
VBR = Backup Server
SQLServer = Target Server where SQL Standard is installed
SQLExpress = Source DB
DB = VeeamBackup
DBFile = VeeamBackup.mdf & VeeamBackup.ldf
The main steps to get the goal are:
Stopping the Veeam service on VBR server
Detaching DB from SQLExpress
Copying DBFile from VBR to SQLServer
Attaching DB to SQL Server
Using the Veeam Migration tool
Changing the service account name on VBR Service (optional)
Checking up the register key
Launching Backup and Restore tests
Let’s go!
The first step is quite easy. Just connect to VBR, click on service and stop the SQL instance (Picture 1).
Picture 1
2. The second step is detaching the DB from SQL Express using SQL Management Studio (Picture 2).
Picture 2
If you need a good and short video guide to install SQL Management Studio please refer to the following link:
Another interesting video guide to understand how to enable the remote connection with SQL server is available here
Remember: for enabling SQL Server to talk via Network (1433 is default port) you also have to set-up the firewall correctly.
3. Now it’s time to copy DBFiles from VBR to SQLServer
Pay attention to the default path where the files have to be copied and pasted.
Generally, it is in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQLServer\ MSSQL.xx.INSTANCENAME\MSSQL\DATA (Picture 3).
Picture 3
4. Next step is attaching the DB to the new SQL server following the easy SQL Management studio menu ((Picture 4).
Picture 4
5. Now from the programs menu of VBR server, just select the voice Veeam and then “Configuration DataBase Connection Settings“.
Now choose which DBs you want to move to the new architecture. It can be Backup & Replication or the Enterprise Manager or both (Picture 5)
(Picture 5)
Now fill in the Database Name and Server/Instance and proceeding with the final step migration (Picture 6).
Picture 6
If everything is correctly configurated you have finally migrated your DBs.
Troubleshooting:
TS-1
If you see that the process runs out of time (600 seconds), it means that the VBR service account can’t access the database
How to solve it?
Please contact your DB experts before doing any tasks!!!
6. The first thing is creating a user able to manage the SQL services.
The procedure is quite easy using a Domain Controller (Picture 7-9)
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Now you have to add the new user to Domain Users and Domain Admin groups (Picture 10-12).
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
From the Veeam Services window, select the Logon Service tab and set up the right user (and for all services that need it) (Picture 13 & 14)
Picture 13
Picture 14
Re-apply the procedure shown at point 5.
In my case, I’ve had another issue.
TS-2
The issue I unlucky met during my setup was the following:
When I tried to connect to remote DB with the “Configuration DataBase Connection Settings” command appeared the following error (Picture 15).
Picture 15
This issue happens when the SQL Server driver on a client computer that uses integrated security and the Windows security token, can’t connect to the SQL Server
If you want to have all details please refer to the following Microsoft article:
Please contact your DB experts before doing any tasks!!!
After some google research and test, I found a solution that addressed my issue always working with Domain Controller.
The AD console needs to be switched to advanced (Picture 16).
Picture 16
Now left-click on the SQL server and select “attribute editor”
From this menu, you have to delete all the entries with the writing MSSQL.svc (Picture 17)
It also needs a server reboot.
Please contact your DB experts before doing any tasks!!!
Picture 17
For the last two points (7 and 8), check-up, if the procedure followed, has solved the request.
TS-3
If you are not able to discover the SQL server, please check on the target Server if the SQL Server browser is up and running
Picture 18
From VBR Server open the register key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication) and check up if the items SqlDatabaseName, SQLinstanceName e SqlServerName are correctly filled in (Picture 19).
Do the same check-up for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog) (Picture 20).
Picture 19
Picture 20
Now start backup Jobs and do some restore tasks to be sure that your Backup architecture is up and running.
In my case, the Backup Server can manage more tasks without any issue.
One more recommendation before ending the article:
Before doing any activities please read the official documentation and ask Veeam support
One of the lesser-known VBR features is replication.
In this article, I’ll cover a special use case: how to throttle the network use.
There are several examples where this option is required.
Probably the most common is when you need to create a DR strategy to an external site and it is not possible to use all the band to transfer the source Data.
From the VBR console just select the “Network traffic rules” as shown in picture 1:
Picture 1
Now it’s possible to add a rule just selecting add Button (Picture 2)
Picture 2
In this example, I just input a network rule between the source proxy (192.168.16.72) and the target proxy (192.168.16.73) and set the amount of data (1 Mbps) that can pass through (Picture 3)
Picture 3
Picture 4 shows how to set up the throttling rule during any hour of the week
Picture 4
It is also possible to set up a number of streams. It helps to configure a multi-thread strategy to accelerate the data transfer (it specifies the number of ports that will be opened on the target device) (Picture 5)
Picture 5
The next two pictures show how the Hot-Add protocol works. It mounts the disks that have to be copied from the source (Ubuntu-02) to target (Ubuntu-Proxy). It is faster than using a Network protocol.
Picture 6
Picture 7
Now you can configure a Replica Job and check if the network throttling works as expected (Picture 8)
Picture 8
and yes it just works!
One more tip: if you have more than 1 Network adapter on your proxy or Repository VBR architecture, you can select which network has to be used by clicking on the Networks Button (Picture 9)
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 13
Picture 14
Picture 15
Picture 16
Netapp – SnapMirror
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 13
Picture 14
Picture 15
Picture 16
Picture 17
Picture 18
Picture 19
Picture 20
Picture 21
Picture 22
Picture 23
Picture 24
Picture 25
Picture 26
Picture 27
Picture 28
Picture 29
Picture 31
Picture 32
Picture 33
Picture 34
Picture 35
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 12
Picture 13
Picture 14
Picture 15
Picture 16
Picture 17
Picture 18
Picture 19
Picture 20
Picture 2
Picture3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 9
Picture 10
Picture 11
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9