VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 1

In the last weeks, I’ve been requested to understand how to set up a strategy of remoting Backup Data when the source is a Veeam Agent.

The answer is not just the “Use the backup copy job” option because it can be used in one of three scenarios I’m going to cover in the next three articles.

So, let’s move fast forward

My Lab Environment is composed of VBR + 2 Windows 10 Physical Laptops

I do not cover the first part regarding how to create a protection group. There is more than one online guide that explains how to add a protection group to VBR.

My two suggestions are:

  1. Check if the Firewall ports are correctly open (click here)
  2. Check on Laptop if Admin share (c$) is available.

If the second point failed just follow this simple procedure. Launch a cmd as administrator and write the following command:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system /v LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Scenario 1: VBR as central Manager – VAW configurated as Server

Let’s see how to configure a primary VAW  backup Job

From the wizard select Windows Computer as shown in picture 1

Picture 1

from the Job Mode Select Server (Picture 2)

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Now add the Backup Job name and follow the simple wizard (Pictures 3 to 9)

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Now you can check if the backup up has been completed correctly (Picture 10)

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Now it’s time to configure a Backup Copy job and run it (Pictures 11 to 16)

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Now you can see different restore points on disks (Pictures 17 to 19)

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The last step is watching how many licenses have been used

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In the next article, we are going to see what will change if we work on the “select mode” option.

VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 2

In this second article, we are going to cover what happens if we set up a VAW backup job working “managed by agent”.

Let’s see the main differences from the wizard (to know all the procedure please refer to the official guide or to my previous article)

Picture 1

Before going on, have a look at the manual to understand what happens in this scenario:

helpcenter.veeam.com (click here)

“Veeam Backup & Replication uses the backup policy as a saved template and applies settings from the backup policy to Veeam Agents that run on computers specified in the backup policy”.

In other words,  the policies are pushed to the VAW; So the laptop is able to protect its data even without a VBR start command.

Ok, following the wizard, input a backup name and select the Laptop to protect (Pictures 2 and 3)

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After selecting Target and Repository it’s possible to complete the job creation (Pictures 4,5 and 6).

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Now check if the backup policies are correctly applied and then launch the backup job (Pictures 7,8,9,10)

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Checkpoint:

If you now try to create a backup copy job from the VBR console, you will find a problem because it is not available if you are going to select Periodic Copy (Immediate copy is available from version 11 of VBR)

Why?

Because in this scenario the policy commands the backup process. It’s like saying the Agent is the master of the backup.

How to go over?

  • Just select Immediate copy or
  • Add a new backup policy !” (Pictures 11 to 14)

Picture 11

To know: if you use a remote desktop and connect to your saved laptop, you can find the Veeam icons. When you click on them you get the classic interface (as standalone installation)

Picture 12

To Remember: from here you can not add a new job. You always have to set it up from the VBR console:

Picture 13

And the last thing? What about licensing? It consumes a single VUL

Picture 14

Wrap-up:

  1. If you need to have more than a copy, just create a new policy backup. My two cents are:
    a) Use a forever forward incremental chain.
    b) The repository should have a block cloning technology as ReFS/ XFS.
  2. If you plan to use a Backup copy job you have to configure the Agent as managed by the backup server or on the backup copy job select the immediate copy job.
  3. Licensing does not have any impact, it always uses a VUL license.

The next and last article will cover the workstation backup approach. See you soon

VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS/LINUX – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 3

Today I’m going to cover what’s happening if you set the protection policy up as a workstation.

In this article, I’m covering the Veeam Agent for Linux (VAL) also,  to widen the range of my site and answer friends asking me to talk about their workstation based on Ubuntu.

After creating the protection group  (please refer to the previous articles), let’s create a new job and set it up as a workstation job (image 1)

Image 1

Now add the laptop (ubuntu2 in my case) and follow the wizard pointing as repository the VBR server (image 2-5).

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After completing the task, check that the configuration has been rightly applied to the laptop and then launch the first backup (image 6).

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Now it’s time to connect via SSH to the Linux laptop and lunch  the command Veeam as root (image 7)

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it shows your backup status (image 8)

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and from here you can lunch the same job another time (image 9)

Image 9

But what happens if you try to add a new backup from this interface? As previously in Windows case, it is not allowed, because it is managed by VBR.

A good step is to check that the license work in workstation-mode (image 10)

Image 10

But if you remember well, my first goal was having a backup outside the primary site.

I already wrote in my last article (VEEAM AGENT FOR WINDOWS/LINUX – REMOTE COPYING DATA – 2 ) how to set up a new backup job from the VBR console (I’m pretty sure you are now ready to do it without any help) (image 11 – 15)

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After applying the configuration let’s start the Backup job

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This is what happens, It FAILED !!! (image 16)

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Why?

The answer is inside the workstation limitation that you can find on the following Veeam web page (Veeam Edition comparison).

https://lnx.gable.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1-art3.jpg

It is clearly written that if you use the agent as a workstation, you can perform the second/third backup job just writing backup data to a Cloud repository?

Veeam Agent uses case summary:

Backup Type Managed by BCJ + Backup Job to + destinations 1+Backup CC VUL
Server VBR Y Y Y 1
Server Agent N Y Y 1
Workstation Agent              Y                (immediate copy) N Y 1/3

 

1+ Backup 1+Backup CC VUL
Server Y Y 1
Workstation N Y 1/3

I hope the article series will help to set up correctly your environment.

Take care