Failover Cluster Support

You can use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows operating in the managed mode (within the Veeam Agent management scenario) to protect data processed by a failover cluster. Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows supports Windows Server Failover Clusters running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and later.

Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows supports data backup and restore for clusters that run the following applications:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP4 or newer (AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances and AlwaysOn Availability Groups are supported.)
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or newer

To process a cluster with Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, you need to complete the following tasks:

1. Create a protection group that includes Active Directory objects and add to this protection group one of the following types of objects:

• Cluster account of the failover cluster whose data you want to back up
• Active Directory container that includes this cluster account

To learn more, see Creating Protection Groups.

2. Create a Veeam Agent backup job in Veeam Backup & Replication and add to this job the cluster account itself or a container or protection group that includes this account. To learn more, see Creating Agent Backup Job for Windows Computers.

Limitations for Failover Cluster Support

Failover cluster support in Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows has the following limitations:

• Backup of failover clusters is supported in Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows managed by Veeam Backup & Replication only. You cannot process a failover cluster by Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows operating in the standalone mode.
• Backup of CSV (Cluster Shared Volumes) is not supported. Cluster disks used as CSV are automatically excluded from backup.
• AlwaysOn Availability Groups based on multiple Failover Cluster Instances are not supported.
• AlwaysOn Clusterless Availability Groups are not supported.
• Backup of Storage Replica log volumes is not supported. Because of Microsoft VSS limitations, if you add a cluster node with such a volume to a Veeam Agent backup job, the cluster node will hang. To learn more, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-replica/storage-replica-known-issues#a-storage-replica-node-hangs-when-creating-snapshots.