Creating VeeamZIP Files

You can quickly back up running and powered off VMs with VeeamZIP. Creating a VeeamZIP file can be helpful if you want create an ad-hoc backup for VMs, archive VMs before decommissioning and so on. You can create a VeeamZIP file for one or more VMs.

To create a VeeamZIP file:

1. Open the Virtual Machines view.
2. In the infrastructure tree, select a host or VM container in which the VM(s) that you want to back up reside.
3. In the working area, select the VM(s) and click VeeamZIP > VeeamZIP on the ribbon or right-click the VM(s) and select VeeamZIP.

To quickly find the necessary VM(s), type the VM name or a part of it in the search field at the top of the working area and click the Start search button on the right or press [ENTER].

4. In the Destination section of the VeeamZIP <N> VM window, specify a location in which you want to store the VeeamZIP file.

• To store the VeeamZIP file in a backup repository, select Backup repository and choose the necessary backup repository from the list.
• To store the VeeamZIP file in a local folder on the backup server, select Local or shared folder, click Browse on the right and select a folder in which the VeeamZIP file must be stored.
• To store a VeeamZIP file in a shared folder, select Local or shared folder and type in the UNC name of the shared folder in the field below. Keep in mind that the UNC name always starts with two back slashes (\\).

If the shared folder requires authentication, select the necessary credentials from the Credentials list. If you have not set up credentials beforehand, click the Manage accounts link or click Add on the right to add necessary credentials. For more information, see Managing Credentials.

5. Use the Delete this backup automatically list to specify retention settings for the created VeeamZIP file. By default, VeeamZIP files are not removed and kept in the specified location for an indefinite period of time.
6. To encrypt the VeeamZIP file, select the Enable backup file encryption check box. From the Password list, select a password that you want to use to encrypt the VeeamZIP file. If you have not created a password beforehand, click Add or use the Manage passwords link to specify a new password. For more information, see Managing Passwords for Data Encryption.
7. From the Compression level list, select a compression level for the created backup: None, Dedupe-friendly, Optimal, High or Extreme.
8. By default, Veeam Backup & Replication uses VMware Tools quiescence to create a transactionally consistent image of VMs. You can disable VM quiescence. To do this, select the Disable guest quiescence check box. In this case, Veeam Backup & Replication will create a crash-consistent VM backup.
9. Click OK. The VeeamZIP task will start immediately. Veeam Backup & Replication will create a full backup file (VBK) and store it in the specified location. The VM name, date and time of the file creation are appended to the file name so you can easily find the necessary VeeamZIP file afterwards.
10. As the job runs, you can track the job performance in the real-time mode. To see the job results once it completes, open the History view, expand the Jobs node and click Backup. Then double-click the job session in the list.