Mount Servers

The mount server is a server required for restores that work with guest OS files and application items. To access files or items stored in a backup file, Veeam Backup & Replication mounts the content of the backup to the mount server. Only after the content is mounted, Veeam Backup & Replication can get files and copy them to the restore destination.

The mount server is required if you perform the following operations:

Guest OS file restore
Application items restore
Secure restore
Instant file share recovery
Restore of specific objects from file backup and object storage backup

To reduce the load on the network and speed up the restore process, the mount server must be located in the same site as the backup repository where backup files are stored. In this case, you will be able to keep the traffic in one site. If the mount server is located in some other site, the data will travel across the network between the sites.

Mount Servers

Note

In some scenarios, Veeam Backup & Replication can mount content of backups to machines other than mount servers. For more information, see Mount Points and Restore Scenarios.

Mount Server Deployment

The mount server is created for every backup repository and is associated with it. When you configure a backup repository, you specify to which server you want to assign the role of the mount server.

You can assign the mount server role to any 64-bit Microsoft Windows machine added to the backup infrastructure. This machine and the backup repository must be located as close to each other as possible. If you have several sites, we recommend you configure at least one mount server in each site.

It is recommended to enable the vPower NFS Service on the mount server. In this case, the mount server acts as the vPower NFS server. For more information, see the Veeam vPower NFS Service section in the User Guide for VMware vSphere.

By default, Veeam Backup & Replication suggests assigning the mount server role to the following infrastructure components depending on the OS of the backup repository:

For Microsoft Windows backup repositories, Veeam Backup & Replication suggests the backup repository itself.
For Linux, shared folder backup repositories and deduplicating storage appliances, Veeam Backup & Replication suggests the backup server.

Note

Consider the following:

For scale-out backup repositories, you must specify the mount server for every extent.
For cloud repositories and hosts that store replicas or backups from storage snapshots, the mount server role is assigned to the backup server. For such repositories, you cannot assign the mount server role to a different machine.

Mount Server Services and Components

Mount servers run light-weight services that take a few seconds to deploy. Deployment is fully automated. Veeam Backup & Replication installs the following services:

Veeam Mount Service mounts backups and replicas for file-level access, browsing the guest file system and restoring guest OS files and application items.
Veeam Data Mover handles traffic.
Veeam vPower NFS Service (if you enable it when configuring the mount server).

Requirements for Mount Servers

A machine that performs the role of a mount server must meet the following requirements:

The machine must meet the system requirements. For more information, see System Requirements.

The mount server must have access to the backup repository with which it is associated and to the original VM (the VM to which you restore files or application items).