You can use HPE StoreOnce storage appliances as backup repositories.

To work with HPE StoreOnce, Veeam Backup & Replication leverages the HPE StoreOnce Catalyst technology and two HPE StoreOnce components:

• HPE StoreOnce Catalyst agent. The HPE StoreOnce Catalyst agent is a component of the HPE StoreOnce Catalyst software. The HPE StoreOnce Catalyst agent is embedded into the Veeam Data Mover Service setup. When you add a Microsoft Windows server to the backup infrastructure, the HPE StoreOnce Catalyst agent is automatically installed on the added server together with the Data Mover Service.
• HPE StoreOnce appliance. The HPE StoreOnce appliance is an HPE StoreOnce storage system on which Catalyst stores are created.

HPE StoreOnce Deployment

To communicate with HPE StoreOnce, Veeam Backup & Replication uses two Data Mover Services that are responsible for data processing and transfer:

• Veeam Data Mover on the backup proxy
• Veeam Data Mover on the gateway server

The HPE StoreOnce storage cannot host Veeam Data Mover Service. For this reason, to communicate with the HPE StoreOnce storage, you need to deploy a gateway server. Veeam Backup & Replication will automatically deploy a Veeam Data Mover on this gateway server. For more information, see Gateway Server. For communicating with the HPE StoreOnce storage appliances, the gateway server must run a 64-bit Microsoft Windows version.

When any job addresses the backup repository, the Data Mover Service on the gateway server establishes a connection with the Data Mover Service on the backup proxy, enabling efficient data transfer over LAN or WAN.

 

The gateway server is selected when you assign a backup repository role to the HPE StoreOnce appliance. You can define the gateway server explicitly or instruct Veeam Backup & Replication to select it automatically.

 

Limitations for HPE StoreOnce

If you plan to use HPE StoreOnce as a backup repository, mind the following limitations. Limitations apply only if you use HPE StoreOnce in the integration mode, not the shared folder mode.

• When you create a backup job targeted at HPE StoreOnce, Veeam Backup & Replication will offer you to switch to optimized job settings and use the 4 MB size of data block for VM data processing. It is recommended that you use optimized job settings. Large data blocks produce a smaller metadata table that requires less memory and CPU resources to process.
• The HPE StoreOnce backup repository always works in the Use per-VM backup files mode. For more information, see Per-VM Backup Files.
• HPE StoreOnce does not support the reverse incremental backup method.
• HPE StoreOnce does not support the forever forward incremental backup method. When creating a backup job, you must enable synthetic and/or active full backups. Otherwise, you will not be able to create a backup job.

• The HPE StoreOnce backup repository does not support the Defragment and compact full backup file option (for backup and backup copy jobs).
• You cannot use HPE StoreOnce backup repositories as sources or targets for file copy jobs.
• You cannot copy backup files (VBK, VIB and VRB) manually to the HPE StoreOnce backup repository. To copy such files, use backup copy jobs.
• You cannot use the HPE StoreOnce backup repository as a cloud repository.

• You cannot target Veeam Agent backup jobs at the HPE StoreOnce backup repository in the integration mode. However, you can target such jobs at the HPE StoreOnce repository added to the backup infrastructure as a CIFS share.
• HPE StoreOnce has a limit on the number of concurrently opened files. Due to this limit, the maximum length of backup chains (chains that contain one full backup and a set of subsequent incremental backups) on HPE StoreOnce is also limited and depends on the particular storage model:

Several Backup Repositories on HPE StoreOnce

You can configure several backup repositories on one HPE StoreOnce appliance and associate them with different gateway servers.

Mind the following:

• If you configure several backup repositories on HPE StoreOnce and add them as extents to a scale-out backup repository, make sure that all backup files from one backup chain are stored on one extent. If backup files from one backup chain are stored to different extents, the transform operations performance will be lower. For more information about transform operations performance, see this Veeam blog post.
• HPE StoreOnce has a limit on the number of opened files that applies to the whole appliance. Tasks targeted at different backup repositories on HPE StoreOnce and run in parallel will equally share this limit.
• For HPE StoreOnce working over Fibre Channel, there is a limitation on the number of connections from one host. If you connect several backup repositories to one gateway, backup repositories will compete for connections.

• Deduplication on HPE StoreOnce works within the limits of one object store.

• If your VMs contain similar data, it is recommended to create backup repositories on a single HPE StoreOnce Catalyst Store. This minimizes backup job duration and reduces disk space used for backups. For details, see this Veeam KB article.

For more information and recommendations on working with HPE StoreOnce, see this Veeam KB article.

Related Topics

• Operational Modes
• HPE StoreOnce Supported Features
• Adding Backup Repositories