Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam Backup & Replication
Developer(s)	Veeam Software
Initial release	February 26, 2008
Stable release	v9 / January 12, 2016
Development status	Active
Written in	C#
Operating system	Windows Server 2008 R2 or later Windows 7 or later[1]
Platform	VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V
Available in	English
Type	Backup software
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	www.veeam.com/vm-backup-recovery-replication-software.html

Recovering VMware ESXi VM using Veeam

Recovering Oracle database using Veeam Explorer

Veeam Backup & Replication is a proprietary backup and disaster recovery software developed by Veeam for virtual environments built on VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors.^[2] The software provides backup, restore and replication functionality for virtual machines.^[3]

Operation

Veeam Backup & Replication operates at the virtualization layer. It backs up VMs at the image-level using a hypervisor’s snapshots to retrieve VM data.^[4] Backups can be full (a full copy of VM image) or incremental (saving only the changed blocks of data since the last backup job run).^[5] Backup increments are created using the built-in changed block tracking (CBT) mechanism. The available backup methods include forward incremental-forever backup, forward incremental backup, and reverse incremental backup. Additionally, there’s an option to perform active full and synthetic full backups.^[6]
Veeam Backup & Replication provides automated recovery verification for both backups and replicas. The program starts a VM directly from a backup or replica in the isolated test environment and runs tests against it. During the verification, the VM image remains in a read-only state. This mechanism can also be used for troubleshooting or testing patches and upgrades.^[7][8]

Backup storage

Veeam Backup & Replication supports software-defined storage technology. It allows organizing a scalable backup repository from a collection of heterogeneous storage devices. Backups can be stored on-premises, transferred to off-site repositories via the WAN,^[9] saved to tape media for long-term retention, or sent to cloud storage. Cloud storage support is available on an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model. Veeam's technology, Cloud Connect, provides integrated and secured backup to the cloud through Veeam-powered service providers.^[10][11]
Veeam Backup & Replication is storage-agnostic, yet has specialized storage integrations with some storage systems such as EMC VNX, EMC VNXe,^[12] HP 3PAR, HP StoreVirtual^[13] and NetApp.^[14] It uses storage system snapshots as a source for backups and recovery of VMware VMs with disks residing on storage volumes.^[15][16]

Replication

Along with backup, Veeam Backup & Replication can perform image-based VM replication. It creates a “clone” of a production VM onsite or offsite and keeps it in a ready-to-use state. Each VM replica has a configurable number of failover points.^[17] Image-based VM replication is also available via Veeam Cloud Connect for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS).^[18]

Recovery

The software provides a number of data recovery options,^[19] including:
Entire VM recovery:

• An immediate restore of a VM via mounting a VM image to a host directly from a backup file (Instant VM Recovery)
• Full extraction of a VM image from a backup

File-level recovery:

• Restore specific VM files such as virtual disks, configuration files, etc.
• VM guest OS files restore from a number of different file systems including Linux, BSD macOS, Novell NetWare and Solaris

Virtual drive restore:

• A specific VM hard drive recovery

Application-item recovery:

• Granular recovery from Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle Databases

Optimization

Veeam Backup & Replication decreases backup files size and data traffic with built-in data deduplication and compression. There is support for deduplicating storage systems such as EMC Data Domain,^[20] ExaGrid^[21] and HP StoreOnce Catalyst.^[22] Using deduplicating storage appliances as backup repositories allows achieving greater levels of deduplication ratios. Veeam Backup & Replication also provides built-in WAN acceleration to reduce the bandwidth required for transferring backups and replicas over the WAN.

Architecture

Built on a modular scheme, Veeam Backup & Replication allows for setting scalable backup infrastructures. The software architecture supports onsite and offsite data protection, operations across remote sites and geographically dispersed locations.^[23] The installation package of Veeam Backup & Replication includes a set of mandatory and optional components that can be installed on physical or virtual machines.^[24]

Mandatory components

• Veeam backup server – a Windows-based physical or virtual machine where Veeam Backup & Replication is installed. It’s the core component responsible for all types of administrative activities in a backup infrastructure, including general orchestration of backup, restore and replication tasks, job scheduling and resource allocation.
• Backup proxy – an appliance that retrieves backup data from the source host and transfers it to the backup repository offloading the Veeam backup server.
• Backup repository – a primary storage for backup files, VM copies, and meta-data.

Optional components

• Backup Enterprise Manager – a centralized management web browser interface intended for distributed enterprise environments with multiple backup servers.
• Veeam Backup Search – an add-on to Microsoft Search Server for search performance optimization.
• Standalone Console — a lightweight console for installation on laptops and desktops to enable the management of the backup server remotely over the network and eliminate RDP sessions to a backup server.^[25]
• Scale-Out Backup Repository — Since Veeam V9 it's possible to build a flat backup repository space out from many independent and non-clustered sources. This feature eliminates any need in a clustered backup namespace, now Veeam can deal with cheap "storage blocks".^[26]

Editions

Veeam Backup & Replication is positioned as a part of the Veeam Availability Suite bundle (which includes Veeam ONE for monitoring, reporting, and capacity planning), but can also be installed as a standalone product. It is available in three editions based on the level of provided functionality. The product is licensed by the number of CPU sockets purchased.

History

Version	Year	Major changes and improvements
1.0	2008	The first version released under the name of Veeam Backup provided backup, replication, file copying, file-level recovery and deduplication for VMware ESX Server environments.[27]
2.0	2008	Added VSS support, VMware ESXi support, and enhanced VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) performance.[28]
3.0	2009	Added the support for ESXi free edition, Linux file-level recovery, VSS support for Windows 2008 guests and VM templates backup.[29]
4.0	2009	The product was renamed to Veeam Backup & Replication. Added support for vStorage APIs, Changed Block Tracking (CBT), thin-provisioned disks and enhanced replication functionality.[30]
5.0	2010	Introduced a patented vPower technology enabling an automated recovery verification for backups and sandbox VMs for testing purposes. Added a number of recovery features, including an ability to restore a VM directly from a backup file (Instant VM Recovery), application-item and file-level restore options.[31]
6.0	2011	Added the support for Microsoft Hyper-V and a number of replication and recovery enhancements.[32]
6.5	2012	Added Veeam Explorer tools for a granular recovery from Microsoft Exchange VM backups and storage snapshots.[33]
7.0	2013	Added WAN-acceleration, tape support, integration with HP storage systems, virtual lab technology for Hyper-V and replicas, and Veeam Explorer tool for Microsoft SharePoint granular recovery.[34]
8.0	2014	Added Veeam Explorer tools for a granular recovery from Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft SQL Server, integration with NetApp storage systems and EMC Data Domain Boost, cloud storages support, and AES 256-bit data encryption.[35]
9.0	2016	Added support for EMC VNX and VNXe hybrid storage arrays, Veeam Explorer tool for Oracle recovery and the support for software-defined storage. Introduced VM replication to the cloud.[36][37]

References

1. "System Requirements - Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide". Veeam Software. January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
2. Adam Armstrong (July 30, 2015). "Veeam Backup And Replication v8 Review". StorageReview. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
3. "NetApp Alliance Solution Connection: Veeam Backup & Replication". NetApp. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
4. Brandon Butler (December 6, 2013). "Veeam: Backup, but for virtual machines". Network World. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
5. Antony Adshead (October 20, 2015). "Veeam to add virtualised storage as backup target". ComputerWeekly. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
6. Jason Buffington; Vinny Choinski; Kerry Dolan (March 13, 2013). "Lab Review: Veeam Backup & Replication – Built for Virtualization". Enterprise Strategy Group. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
7. Deni Connor (March 24, 2010). "Veeam verifies virtual machine recovery". Network World. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
8. Vladan Seget (May 8, 2013). "Veeam Backup and Replication v7 – Virtual Labs for Replicas". ESX Virtualization. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
9. "Veeam Cloud Connect Capabilities | Backup & replication review". 2016-08-24. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
10. Lyle Smith (October 6, 2014). "Veeam Announces VCP Launch Partners for Veeam Availability Suite v8". StorageReview. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
11. Nurdianah Md Nu (January 14, 2016). "Veeam Availability Suite v9 to meet the needs of the Always-On enterprise". CIO-Asia. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
12. Stephanie Simone (June 4, 2015). "Veeam to Integrate Availability Suite v9 with EMC". Database Trends and Applications. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
13. Paul Rubens (August 24, 2012). "Joint HP and Veeam Virtualization Initiative Starting to Take Real Form". ServerWatch. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
14. Chris Mellor (April 8, 2014). "Snappy snaps: Veeam cuddles up to NetApp for storage selfie". The Register. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
15. Joseph F. Kovar (May 20, 2014). "New Veeam Availability Suite Combines Backup, Monitoring". CRN. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
16. Michael Otey (May 28, 2014). "Industry Bytes: Veeam Software's new Availability Suite v8 Improves Virtualization Uptime". Windows IT Pro. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
17. Christopher Glemot (November 6, 2014). "Guide to setting up a Failover Plan in Veeam B&R 8 (replication)". Original Network. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
18. "Disaster Recovery as a Service". Veeam Software. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
19. "Data Recovery - Veeam Backup User Guide". Veeam Software. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
20. Tim Smith (February 11, 2015). "Veeam and DataDomain using DD Boost". Tim's IT Blog. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
21. Vinny Choinski; Kerry Dolan (July 1, 2014). "ExaGrid with Veeam: Virtual Machine Backup without Compromise". Enterprise Strategy Group. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
22. Adam Armstrong (September 10, 2015). "Veeam & HP StoreOnce Catalyst Integrate To Enhance Data Protection". StorageReview. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
23. "Veeam Cloud Connect Capabilities | Backup & replication review". 2016-08-24. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
24. "Introduction to Veeam Backup & Replication for VMware". PACKT Books. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
25. "Solution Architecture - Veeam Backup & Replication". Veeam Software. December 24, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
26. "Veeam to add virtualised storage as backup target". Computer Weekly. October 20, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
27. "Release: Veeam Backup 1.0". Virtualization.info. March 3, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
28. David Marshall (July 30, 2008). "Veeam releases its new VMware backup software". InfoWorld. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
29. Gabrie van Zanten (October 21, 2009). "Veeam Backup and Replication: An evaluation". TechTarget. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
30. Simon Seagrave (October 29, 2009). "Veeam release a new version of Backup & Replication Software (v4) with some nice new features". TechHead. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
31. Maxwell Cooter (August 31, 2010). "Veeam to introduce new version of virtualisation backup". Network World. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
32. Sander Martijn (December 1, 2011). "Veeam Backup & Replication v6 released". VMGuru. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
33. Sander Martijn (October 31, 2012). "New: Veeam Backup & Replication v6.5". VMGuru. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
34. Andrew Burton (February 1, 2014). "Veeam Backup & Replication v7". TechTarget. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
35. Dan Kusnetzky (October 10, 2014). "Veeam Unveils Availability Suite v8". Virtualization Review. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
36. Justin Warren (January 12, 2016). "Veeam Hunts Enterprise Customers With Availability Suite v9". Forbes. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
37. Chris Mellor (January 13, 2016). "Veeam pops out new product with usual level of superlatives". The Register. Retrieved January 16, 2016.