This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.

Veeam Data Integration API

Data integration API is a technology that allows you to get the backup content using the iSCSI or FUSE protocol. This technology helps if you want to analyze data of your backups: look for specific documents, usage patterns, and perform antivirus scan of backed-up data. It also allows you to specify the content that you want to mount more precisely: instead of mounting all backups, you can mount only the necessary disks or files.

Data integration API does not depend on the file system of the target machine and on the content of backed-up data. You can mount a disk from any type of the backup to both Windows-based and Unix-based OSes. To present backed-up disks as images, data integration API uses either the iSCSI protocol (for Windows-based OSes) or the FUSE protocol (for Unix-based OSes). After that, the target host can access the backup content using the ISCSI initiator and read the necessary data from disks. The backups that you mounted are available as long as the mount server is up and running. If you turn off the backup server, you still will be able to access the mounted backups.

With data integration API you can mount the following types of backed-up data:

  • VM backups
  • VM replicas
  • Computer backups

Supported Environments

With data integration API you can mount the following backups created with Veeam backup solutions:

  • Backups of VMware vSphere virtual machines created by Veeam Backup & Replication
  • Backups of Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines created by Veeam Backup & Replication
  • Backups of vCloud Director virtual machines created by Veeam Backup & Replication
  • Backups of RHV VMs created by Veeam Backup for RHV
  • Backups of machines running Microsoft Windows created with Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows
  • Backups of machines running Linux created with Veeam Agent for Linux
  • Backups of machines running Oracle Solaris created with Veeam Agent for Oracle Solaris
  • Backups of machines running IBM AIX created with Veeam Agent for IBM AIX
  • Backups of machines running macOS created with Veeam Agent for Mac
  • Backups of Nutanix AHV virtual machines created with Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV
  • Backups of Amazon EC2 instances created with Veeam Backup for AWS
  • Backups of Microsoft Azure virtual machines created with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure
  • Backups of Google instances created with Veeam Backup for Google Cloud

Requirements and Limitations

Before you start to mount data, make sure that all necessary ports are opened on the target hosts. For more information on Microsoft Windows machines, see Microsoft Windows Server Connections. For more information on Linux machines, see Linux Server Connections.

Important

You can not add the mount server to the backup infrastructure with the Veeam PowerShell cmdlets. To assign the mount server role to a host you must use the Veeam Backup & Replication UI. For more information, see the Specify Mount Server Settings section.

Mount Modes

Depending on the way the iSCSI session is configured, you can use one of the following mount modes:

  • Manual — use this mode if you want to manually start an iSCSI session from any host that has access to the iSCSI target. In this case you must specify an array of IP addresses for hosts that are allowed to access the iSCSI target server. For more information, see Example 1 of the Publish-VBRBackupContent cmdlet.
  • Automatic  — use this mode if you want Veeam Backup & Replication to automatically configure the iSCSI initiator and mount disks on the specific server. To use this option, you must specify a name and credentials of the target server. For more information, see Example 2 of the Publish-VBRBackupContent cmdlet.

Note

If you want to automatically mount data to Unix-based machines, you must use the FUSE protocol. For more details, see Example 3 of the Publish-VBRBackupContent cmdlet.

How It Works

Data Integration API technology is implemented with the Veeam PowerShell cmdlets. When you run the cmdlets, you can mount the backup content, scan through this content, get details on the mount session, and unmount data from the target host. For more information, see Veeam Data Integration API section of the Veeam PowerShell Reference.

To start the mount session you must provide the following details:

  1. Get the restore point that contain a backup of data you want to mount.
  2. [For the manual mount option] Provide a list of IP addresses that are allowed to access the iSCSI target server.
  3. [For the automatic mount option] Specify a name and credentials for the target server.
  4. [Optional] Specify an ID of a machine that has the mount host role. In this case Veeam Backup & Replication will set up the iSCSI target on this host. If you do not specify the ID of the mount server, Veeam Backup & Replication will set up the iSCSI target on the mount server associated with the backup repository.
  5. [Optional] A list of disks that you want to publish.

After you start the publish session, the following happens:

  1. Veeam Backup & Replication connects to a mount host and a backup repository.
  2. Veeam Backup & Replication starts the following agents on the mount host:
  • The repository agent — this agent runs on a backup repository or on a gateway server associated with this repository.
  • The mounting agent — this agent makes the iSCSI target available and triggers the repository agent to read the backup data. It also uses a range of allowed IP addresses to control the access to the iSCSI target.
  1. If the iSCSI session is set up automatically, Veeam Backup & Replication accesses the target mount server and configures the iSCSI initiator on this machine to mount the content of the backup automatically. For Linux Veeam Backup & Replication uses the FUSE protocol. If Veeam Backup & Replication does not configure the session automatically, you must configure it manually after the iSCSI target is set up on the mount host.
  2. After you specify the target server in the iSCSI target settings, the mounted disk will be available under the following locations:
  • [Windows-based file systems] Disks will show up under the C:\VeeamFLR\ folder.
  • [Unix-based file systems] Disks will show up under the /tmp/Veeam.Mount.Disks location. After you mount these disks to a loop device, they will display in the Veeam.Mount.FS location.

After that the mounted disks will show up in the file system of the target host. You can browse these disks and perform data analysis operations with them.

Managing Mount Session

After you started the mount session, you can check details on this session and stop it from the Veeam Backup & Replication UI.

Viewing Statistics on Mount Session

You can view statistics about running mount sessions from both the Veeam Backup & Replication UI and using the Get-VBRPublishedBackupContentSession cmdlet.

Note

Veeam PowerShell returns only active mount sessions. To view statistics on the completed sessions, check the Veeam Backup & Replication UI.

To view mount sessions statistics from the Veeam Backup & Replication UI, do one of the following:

  • Open the Home view, in the inventory pane select Instant Recovery. In the working area, select the necessary mount session and click Properties on the ribbon. Alternatively, right-click the session and Properties.
  • Open the Home view, in the inventory pane select Last 24 hours. In the working area, double-click the necessary mount session. Alternatively, you can select the session and click Statistics on the ribbon or right-click the session and select Statistics.
  • Open the History view, in the inventory pane select Restore. In the working area, double-click the necessary mount session. Alternatively, you can select the session and click Statistics on the ribbon or right-click the session and select Statistics.

The mount statistics provides detailed data on mount sessions:

  • At the top of the Restore Session window, Veeam Backup & Replication shows general session statistics: a name of the machine whose disks you want to mount, a name of the backup server which initiated the mount session, a user name of the account under which the session was started, session status, and duration details.
  • The Reason tab shows the reason for the mount session.
  • The Parameters tab shows information about the target mount server, the machine whose disks you want to mount, and a restore point selected for the mount session.
  • The Log tab shows a list of operations performed during the session.

Stopping Mount Session

You can stop the mount session from both the Veeam Backup & Replication UI and using the Unpublish-VBRBackupContent cmdlet.

To stop the mount session from the Veeam Backup & Replication UI, do one of the following:

  • Open the Home view, in the inventory pane select Instant Recovery. In the working area, select the necessary mount session and click Stop Publishing on the ribbon. Alternatively, right-click the session and Stop Publishing.
  • Open the Home view, in the inventory pane select Last 24 hours. In the working area, double-click the necessary mount session. Alternatively, you can select the session and click Statistics on the ribbon or right-click the session and select Statistics.
  • Open the History view, in the inventory pane select Restore. In the working area, double-click the necessary mount session. Alternatively, you can select the session and click Statistics on the ribbon or right-click the session and select Statistics.