Veeam Plug-in Management Infrastructure
The Veeam Plug-in management infrastructure comprises the following components:
The Veeam backup server is the core component in the backup infrastructure that fills the role of the “configuration and control center”. To use the Veeam Plug-in management functionality offered by Veeam Backup & Replication, you can use the backup server that is already running in your backup infrastructure or deploy a separate backup server.
To learn more, see the Deployment section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
To manage Veeam Plug-ins on computers in your infrastructure, you must add computers that you want to protect to the inventory in the Veeam Backup & Replication console and deploy Veeam Plug-ins. In Veeam Backup & Replication, protected computers are organized into protection groups. To learn more, see Protection Groups.
Veeam Backup & Replication lets you manage Veeam Plug-in on computers of the following types:
- Workstations, servers, and failover clusters running a Microsoft Windows OS
- Workstations and servers running a Linux OS
To learn more, see System Requirements.
If you want to manage Veeam Plug-ins installed on protected computers in Veeam Backup & Replication, you must set Veeam Plug-ins in the managed mode. In this mode, all data protection and administration tasks are performed by a backup administrator in Veeam Backup & Replication. In some scenarios, a user can also perform a limited set of backup and disaster recovery tasks directly on a protected computer.
Veeam Backup & Replication is set up to automatically discover computers added to the inventory and deploy Veeam Plug-in and Veeam Plug-in on these computers. To learn more, see Computer Discovery and Veeam Plug-in Deployment.
On every computer added to the inventory, Veeam Backup & Replication installs the Veeam Installer Service. The service performs the following tasks:
- Collects information about the computer and sends it to Veeam Backup & Replication. The collected data includes details on the computer (platform, host name, guest OS, IP address, BIOS UUID), databases (database system name, database hierarchy, names of databases) and Veeam Plug-in (product presence on the computer and version).
- Downloads Veeam Plug-in setup files from the distribution server and installs Veeam Plug-in on the protected computer.
On Microsoft Windows computers, Veeam Backup & Replication connects to a computer using the administrative share (admin$) of the target computer. An account that you plan to use to connect to a computer included in the protection group must have access to the administrative share.
On Linux computers, Veeam Backup & Replication also installs Veeam Deployer Service. For the first time, Veeam Backup & Replication connects to a computer using SSH. After the first connection, Veeam Backup & Replication can continue using SSH or start using Veeam Installer Service and Veeam Deployer Service.
Keep in mind that to connect to a Linux computer using SSH, this Linux computer must be added to the list of trusted hosts. To learn more, see Configuring Security Settings.
The distribution server is an architecture component in the Veeam Plug-in management infrastructure used for automated deployment of Veeam Plug-in setup files to protected computers. When you instruct Veeam Backup & Replication to install Veeam Plug-in on a protected computer, the Veeam backup server communicates to the distribution server, and Veeam Backup & Replication uploads Veeam Plug-in setup files from the distribution server to the target computer.
By default, the role of the distribution server is assigned to the backup server. However, you can deploy a dedicated distribution server to reduce workload on the backup server. To deploy a distribution server, you need to add a Windows-based server to Veeam Backup & Replication. To learn more, see the Adding Microsoft Windows Servers section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide. After you assigned the role of distribution server, you need to select this server in the properties of a protection group. To learn more, see Specify Discovery and Deployment Options.
A machine performing the role of the distribution server must meet the following requirements:
- The role of the distribution server can be assigned to a physical or virtual machine.
- The machine must run a 64-bit Microsoft Windows OS.
- You must add the machine to the Veeam Backup & Replication console as a managed server.
The distribution server comprises the following services and components:
- Veeam Distribution Service
- Veeam Plug-in for SAP HANA Redistributable
- Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN Redistributable
- Veeam Plug-in for SAP on Oracle Redistributable
The backup storage is an architecture component in the Veeam Plug-in management infrastructure used to store database backups. Veeam Plug-ins can store backup files in supported repositories added to the Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. The list of supported repositories and limitations differs depending on the Veeam Plug-in you work with. To learn more, see the following sections: