Veeam Backup & Replication has the following limitations for cloud repository usage:
Backup, Backup Сopy and Restore
- Veeam Backup & Replication does not support backup copy jobs if the cloud repository is used as a source backup repository. The backup copy job must use a backup repository configured locally on tenant's side as a source one.
- Veeam Cloud Connect does not support transaction log backup. You cannot enable transaction log backup options in the properties of a backup job targeted at the cloud repository.
- Instant VM Recovery, multi-OS file-level restore and restore to Microsoft Azure from backups in the cloud repository are not supported.
File Operations
Tenants can manually copy backup files to and from the cloud repository using the Files view in the Veeam Backup & Replication console. Scheduled file copy jobs are not supported.
Scale-Out Backup Repositories Used as Cloud Repositories
- The SP cannot expose a scale-out backup repository as a cloud repository if unlimited number of concurrent tasks is specified for at least one extent added to this scale-out backup repository.
- Tenants who run earlier versions of Veeam Backup & Replication cannot create backup files on a scale-out backup repository exposed as a cloud repository. The tenant must run Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 or higher to be able to target backup jobs at the cloud repository that has a scale-out backup repository as a back end.
- Tenants cannot use the Files view in the Veeam Backup & Replication console to copy backup files to and from a scale-out backup repository exposed as a cloud repository. Such cloud repositories are displayed in the tenant Veeam Backup & Replication console in the read-only mode.
Deduplicating Storage Appliances Used as Cloud Repositories
It is not recommended to use deduplicating storage appliances as cloud repositories. To protect VM data that is backed up to the cloud repository, tenants are likely to use data encryption. For deduplicating storage appliances, encrypted data blocks appear as different though they may contain duplicate data. Thus, deduplicating storage appliances will not provide the expected deduplication ratio. To learn more, see the Data Encryption section in Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide at: https://www.veeam.com/documentation-guides-datasheets.html.
If the SP uses a deduplicating storage appliance as a cloud repository, the SP must consider the following limitations:
Dell EMC Data Domain
The length of forward incremental and forever forward incremental backup chains that contain one full backup and a set of subsequent incremental backups cannot be greater than 60 restore points. To overcome this limitation, the tenant can schedule full backups (active or synthetic) to split the backup chain into shorter series. For example, to perform backups at 30-minute intervals, 24 hours a day, the tenant must schedule synthetic fulls every day. In this scenario, intervals immediately after midnight may be skipped due to duration of synthetic processing.
If the SP plans to use Dell EMC Data Domain as a cloud repository, it is strongly recommended that the SP informs tenants about limitations for the backup chain length.
ExaGrid
- ExaGrid deduplicating appliances achieve less deduplication when multi-task processing takes place within a backup job: processing only a single task at a time within each backup job produces the best deduplication. If the SP decides to use ExaGrid as a cloud repository, all tasks executed within a backup job should be processed sequentially, one by one. To achieve this, the SP can do the following:
- Limit the number of tenants who can access the cloud repository that uses an ExaGrid appliance as a back end (the recommended configuration is one tenant per one cloud repository).
- Set the maximum number of concurrent tasks to 1 in the properties of each tenant account that can access this cloud repository.
- The ExaGrid appliance can receive many concurrent backup jobs, with one of the highest ingest rates in the market. To accomplish maximum ingest (hence shortest backup times), the tenant can configure multiple backup jobs, each with its own cloud repository; these jobs can then be scheduled to run concurrently.
In this scenario, the SP will have to configure multiple (N) cloud repositories for one tenant and multiple (N) credentials for this tenant. The tenant, on his/her side, will have to add the SP multiple (N) times under different credentials created by the SP. The tenant will also have to configure multiple (N) jobs, each targeted at a separate cloud repository.
HPE StoreOnce
Veeam Backup & Replication does not support usage of HPE StoreOnce deduplicating storage appliances as cloud repositories.
If the SP plans to use a scale-out backup repository as a cloud repository, he or she should consider the following limitations:
- The SP cannot add an HPE StoreOnce appliance as an extent to a scale-out repository that is used as a cloud repository.
- The SP cannot use a scale-out backup repository as a cloud repository if an HPE StoreOnce appliance is added as an extent to this scale-out backup repository.
