Using virtual machines (VMs) in your infrastructure makes sense from a cost perspective, because physical server costs are lower and resources are used to their capacity. If additional resources are needed, a new server is simply spun up. The ease of maintenance also makes virtual servers attractive to most IT departments. If a VM should fail, you simply spin up a new one. However, in order for true continuity, you will need to ensure that the new server is restored from the one it replaced exactly. That is where cloud backup services like Veeam come into play. Veeam is a backup, restoration, and replication solution that helps you achieve an “always on” approach when it comes to your virtual infrastructure.

Understanding the backup and replication components

Using Veeam to handle backups of your virtual environment will require certain mandatory components: a Veeam backup server, a backup proxy, a backup repository, and a stand-alone repository. You can add a scale-out repository as well. The Veeam backup server is what runs the solution and is responsible for:

• Managing backup jobs
• Scheduling backups
• Indexing tasks
• Defining backup jobs
• Monitoring backups

This solution can run on either a 64-bit physical server running Microsoft Windows or a virtual server.

The proxy server is used to route backup traffic and take the workloads off the actual Veeam backup server, while repositories store the actual backup images that would be used in the event that you need to perform a restore. The repositories also store metadata used during backup and replication of your VMs. Repositories can run either Microsoft Windows with local or attached storage, or Linux with local attached storage or a mounted NFS. Scale-out backup repository components, available in version 9, can group several stand-alone repositories and direct backup jobs to the best target storage. These components do allow for mixed storage resources so that you can have direct-attached storage, network-attached storage, and deduplicated storage all in the same repository.

There are also optional components that you can add at the time of initial deployment or even later on in the solution’s lifecycle in order to provide additional functionality such as a WAN accelerator, a mount server, a tape server, or even a stand-alone console for management of your backup solution.

Deploying Veeam

Veeam offers two types of deployment options. The simple deployment is for evaluating the solution and requires only one instance of the Veeam backup and replication solution to be installed on a 64-bit Windows server, either physical or virtual. This will allow you to back up and restore a small number of VMs. In the simple deployment, the backup server will also take on the role of managing backups, acting as the proxy and serving as the default backup repository so that you can see how the entire suite of mandatory components works. This will also serve small environments as a complete backup solution.

The advanced deployment option is for medium-sized to large environments and moves the workload of the backup jobs from the backup server itself to the proxies and repositories. The server itself maintains the role of manager for the proxies and repositories.

Managing the solution is done by installing the backup and replication console on a dedicated machine. You can install this on multiple machines, as there is no limit to the number of remote connections to the backup server. You can also access multiple backup servers from a single console in your environment. The backup server itself has the console installed on it should you choose to manage it directly.

While Veeam can help you achieve your business continuity goals, it does take the right team to implement, configure, and manage this solution. If your team lacks the experience working with cloud backup services or just doesn’t have the bandwidth to manage this type of project, then you may want to consider bringing in an experienced solutions provider to help drive this initiative for you.