Creating Restore Points with VeeamZIP and Quick Backup

vSphere administrators can quickly create a VM restore point using VeeamZIP (full backup) or Quick Backup (incremental backup) right from VMware vSphere web client, with no need to use the Veeam Backup & Replication console. To utilize these capabilities, a user account should be able to go through authentication process, so it must meet the requirements specified in Configuring Plug-in Settings.

Configuring VeeamZIP Settings

To configure the settings for VeeamZIP (VBK file creation), do the following:

1. In vSphere Web Client, open vCenter Inventory.
2. In the inventory tree, select a VM.
3. Click the Configure tab and select VeeamZIP.
4. In the Destination section, select the Veeam backup server to process the VM and the repository where to store the VeeamZIP file.

5. In the Key section, specify the encryption key, if necessary.
6. In the Delete this backup automatically section, specify whether the resulting backup file should be automatically deleted after a certain time interval.
7. In the Compression level section, select the necessary compression level for the backup.
8. By default, the Disable guest quiescence option is selected, meaning that guest OS quiescence is deactivated. So, if you want a crash-consistent backup, leave it that way.

If you want, however, an application-consistent backup, then clear the Disable guest quiescence check box, and Veeam will create a transactionally consistent image of VMs using VMware Tools quiescence for guest OS.

9. Click Save. The specified settings will be stored as default settings for the currently logged on user account and will be used for VeeamZIP backup.

Creating Full VM Backup with VeeamZIP

You can use Veeam plug-in for vSphere Web Client to create an ad-hoc VeeamZIP backup of a VM. To create a full VM backup with VeeamZIP:

1. In vSphere Web Client, open vCenter Inventory.
2. In the inventory tree, right-click the VM that you want to back up and select one of the following options:

• Select Backup > VeeamZIP if you want to create a backup using the default VeeamZIP settings specified earlier. Alternatively, use the Actions > Backup > VeeamZIP option.

Veeam will start the VeeamZIP backup process using the default VeeamZIP settings.

• Select Backup > VeeamZIP to if you want to create a backup with new VeeamZIP settings. Alternatively, use the Actions > Backup > VeeamZIP to option.

If you select this option, Veeam plug-in will display the VeeamZIP to window offering to specify VeeamZIP settings. Specify settings in the same way as described in the Configuring VeeamZIP Settings section and click VeeamZIP. Veeam will save the specified settings as default settings for VeeamZIP backup and start the VeeamZIP backup process.

You can view the backup creation progress in the Recent Tasks pane of vSphere Web Client.

Creating Incremental VM Backup with Quick Backup

You can also create an incremental backup for selected VM with a single click, using Quick Backup capability. Quick Backup can be run for any VM that meets the following requirements:

1. A backup job processing the VM exists on the Veeam backup server which is added to Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager.
2. There is a full backup file for this VM in the backup repository.

To perform quick backup:

1. In the vCenter Inventory, select the necessary VM.
2. Right-click the VM and select Quick Backup. Alternatively, you can use the Actions menu command.

This will trigger a backup job processing the selected VM to create a new incremental restore point (VIB file) for the latest full backup found in the repository for this VM. Details of a running quick backup task can be seen in the Recent Tasks pane on the right.

To learn more about VeeamZIP and Quick Backup, refer to the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.