Configuring Backup from Storage Snapshots

You can configure backup and replication jobs to perform Backup from Storage Snapshots. Backup from Storage Snapshots leverages storage snapshots for backup and replication. Instead of reading data from VMware VM snapshots, Veeam Backup & Replication reads data from storage snapshots, which speeds up backup and replication operations and improves RPOs.

Before you perform Backup from Storage Snapshots, check the following prerequisites:

• A license for Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Plus edition must be installed on the backup server.
• The backup infrastructure must be configured in a proper way:

• You must properly configure a backup proxy that you plan to use for backup and replication jobs. The backup proxy must have access to the backup server, vCenter Server or ESX(i) hosts on which VMs are deployed, and the storage system. For more information, see Step 1. Configure Backup Proxy.
• You must add to the backup infrastructure vCenter Server or ESX(i) hosts with VMs whose disks are located on the storage system .
• You must add the storage system to the backup infrastructure.

• [For NetApp and EMC VNX(e) storage systems working over NFS] VMs that you plan to back up or replicate must not have VMware snapshots. VMs with VMware snapshots will be skipped from Backup from Storage Snapshots.

• [For NetApp and EMC VNX(e) storage systems working over NFS] If you enable the Enable VMware tools quiescence option in the job settings, Veeam Backup & Replication will not use Backup from Storage Snapshots to process running Microsoft Windows VMs that have VMware Tools installed.
• You must check limitations for Backup from Storage Snapshots. For more information, see Backup from Storage Snapshots.

To back up from storage snapshots:

1. In the backup or replication job settings, select a backup proxy that will be used for data transport. You can assign the backup proxy explicitly or choose the automatic mode of backup proxy selection.

2. In advanced settings of the job, make sure that the Enable backup from storage snapshots check box is selected. By default, this option is enabled for all newly created jobs.
3. If you add to the job many VMs whose disks are located on the same volume or LUN, select the Limit processed VM count per storage snapshot to <N> check box and specify the number of VMs for which one storage snapshot must be created. Veeam Backup & Replication will divide VMs into several groups and trigger a separate storage snapshot for every VM group. As a result, the job performance will increase.

For more information, see Limitation on Number of VMs per Snapshot.

4. If Veeam Backup & Replication fails to create a storage snapshot, VMs whose disks are located to the storage system will not be processed by the job. To fail over to the regular VM processing mode and back up or replicate such VMs in the regular processing mode, select the Failover to standard backup check box.

Related Topics

Backup from Storage Snapshots