Step 7. Specify Settings for Connected Volumes

After you have added a Microsoft Hyper-V host to Veeam Backup Free Edition, you can configure the following settings for this host:

• Enable or disable changed block tracking
• Specify volume-specific settings: choose a VSS provider and specify the number of concurrent Hyper-V snapshots
• Enable or disable failover to a software VSS provider

Before you specify settings for a Hyper-V host, you must perform a volume rescan operation for the added Hyper-V host. During the rescan operation, Veeam Backup Free Edition retrieves information about disks and volumes that are currently connected to the Hyper-V host and writes this information to the Veeam Backup Free Edition database.

Veeam Backup Free Edition automatically performs the rescan operation once a day. You can also start the rescan operation manually:

1. Open the Files view.
2. In the inventory pane, click Microsoft Hyper-V.
3. In the working area, select the Microsoft Hyper-V host and click Rescan on the ribbon. Alternatively, you can right-click the host in the working area and select Rescan.

Changed Block Tracking Settings

By default, Veeam Backup Free Edition enables changed block tracking for processing all VMs that reside on a connected Microsoft Hyper-V host. You may disable changed block tracking, for example, for testing purposes.

Changed block tracking is enabled and disabled at the level of a Hyper-V host. To disable changed block tracking:

1. Open the Files view.
2. In the inventory pane, click Microsoft Hyper-V.
3. In the working area, select the Microsoft Hyper-V host and click Manage Volumes on the ribbon. Alternatively, you can right-click the host in the working area and select Manage Volumes.
4. In the Manage Volumes window, select the Disable changed block tracking for this host check box.

Volume-Specific Settings

You can define volume-specific settings for a Hyper-V host: select what VSS provider must be used for Hyper-V snapshot creation and specify the maximum number of concurrent Hyper-V snapshots that must exist for a volume.

To specify volume-specific settings:

1. Open the Files view.
2. In the inventory pane, click Microsoft Hyper-V.
3. In the working area, select the Microsoft Hyper-V host and click Manage Volumes on the ribbon. Alternatively, you can right-click the host in the working area and select Manage Volumes.
4. In the Connected Volumes list, select the necessary volume and click Edit.

5. To take a VSS snapshot of a specific volume, Veeam Backup Free Edition uses one of VSS providers available for this volume. To explicitly define what VSS provider should be used on a particular volume, in the VSS provider list select the necessary VSS provider. If a VSS provider is not selected, Veeam Backup Free Edition will scan the list of available VSS providers and select the most appropriate one automatically.
6. By default, tasks working with the same volume can take up to 4 snapshots of a volume simultaneously. If necessary, you can increase or decrease the number of snapshots that can exist at the same time. It is not recommended to increase the number of snapshots for slow storage: a great number of snapshots existing at the same time may cause VM processing failures.

VSS Provider Failover Settings

By default, Veeam Backup Free Edition automatically fails over from a hardware VSS provider to a software VSS provider if a problem occurs. If you have selected to use a hardware VSS provider, Veeam Backup Free Edition engages the specified hardware VSS provider for volume snapshot creation. If the hardware VSS provider fails for some reason, Veeam Backup Free Edition engages a software VSS provider to create a volume snapshot.

By default, the failover option is enabled. To disable failover to a software VSS provider:

1. Open the Files view.
2. In the inventory pane, click the Microsoft Hyper-V node.
3. In the working area, select the Microsoft Hyper-V host and click Manage Volumes on the ribbon. Alternatively, you can right-click the necessary Hyper-V host in the working area and select Manage Volumes.
4. In the Manage Volumes window, clear the Failover to Software VSS Provider if Hardware VSS Provider fails to create a snapshot check box.