NAS Backup

With Veeam Backup & Replication you can easily back up and restore content of various NAS file shares.

To protect your NAS file shares, you can use your existing Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. Just configure the following components:

File share
General-purpose backup proxy
Cache repository
Storage repositories

NAS Backup

For system requirements for NAS backup components, see System Requirements.

Note

NAS backup is not supported by Veeam Cloud Connect.

To learn how NAS backup components interact during file share backup, see How File Share Backup Works.

File Share

A file share is a storage device or data source available to multiple hosts through a computer network.

For supported file shares, see Platform Support.

File backup jobs in Veeam Backup & Replication can read data from the following sources:

SMB (CIFS) path
NFS path
Path to the storage snapshot folder
VSS snapshot

Note

Consider the following limitations:

Reading from VSS snapshots on SMB shares is available only under certain conditions, listed in this Veeam KB article.
Reading from VSS snapshots on DFS shares is not supported.
Names of NTFS Alternate Data Streams (ADS) may be unencrypted if both the file being backed up and its ADS are empty.

To learn how to add NAS file shares to the backup infrastructure, see Adding File Share.

General-Purpose Backup Proxy

A general-purpose backup proxy is an architecture component that sits between the file share and other components of the backup infrastructure. The backup proxy operates as a data mover that transfers data between the source file share and the backup repository. The backup proxy processes jobs and delivers backup and restore traffic.

For more information on general-purpose backup proxies, their requirements, limitations and deployment, see General-Purpose Backup Proxy.

After you configure the backup proxy, choose it to process the backup traffic from file shares, as described in sections Adding NFS File Share and Adding SMB File Share.

Cache Repository

A cache repository is a storage location where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps temporary metadata and uses it to reduce the load on the file share during the backup procedure. The cache repository keeps track of all objects that have changed between each backup session. This allows performing incremental backups from the file share super fast and very efficiently.

You can assign the role of a cache repository to a simple backup repository added to the Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. To assign this role, select the backup repository as a cache repository, as described in section Specify File Share Processing Settings.

To minimize the network load during backup, locate the cache repository closer to the backup proxy in the computer network: at the best, they should be located on one machine.

Storage Repositories

A backup repository is a main storage location where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps all versions of backed up files for the configured period and metadata files. Backups stored in the backup repository can be used to quickly restore the entire file share to the state as of a specific restore point.

[Optional] If you want to retain specific files for a longer period of time, you can use cheaper devices for archive purposes. To enable file archiving, configure Veeam Backup & Replication to move backup files and metadata files from the backup repository to an archive repository. By default, usage of the archive repository is disabled and, after the retention period for the backup repository is over, backup files are deleted.

[Optional] If you want to store a copy of the file share backup in a different repository, you can configure a secondary repository where Veeam Backup & Replication will copy all backups created in the backup repository. The secondary repository can have its own retention policy and encryption settings. By default, no secondary repository is configured.

The table below describes which roles can be assigned to different storage types.

Storage Type	Backup Repository	Archive Repository	Secondary Repository
Microsoft Windows server
Linux server
Hardened linux server
SMB (CIFS) share 1
NFS share
Dell Data Domain with Data Domain Boost (DDBoost) license
ExaGrid
HPE StoreOnce with Catalyst license 2
Quantum DXi
Fujitsu ETERNUS CS800
Infinidat InfiniGuard
Scale-out backup repository (SOBR) 3, 4
Object storage repository 5
Repository with rotated drives
Veeam Cloud Connect repository

1 If you use a Dell PowerScale (formerly Isilon) storage system in the CIFS Share Access mode, make sure that you have assigned your service account to the built-in BackupAdmin role within PowerScale. Otherwise, the access to the share will be denied.

2 If you plan to use HPE StoreOnce storage appliances, consider the following recommendations for optimal performance:

A StoreOnce system can have multiple Catalyst stores, and large backup loads (exceeding 1PB) should be spread across more than one Catalyst store on the same StoreOnce system.
Do not include Catalyst stores in a SOBR intended for NAS backups. This will reduce the global deduplication of the StoreOnce system.

3 An object storage repository added as a capacity tier in a scale-out backup repository cannot be used for storing NAS backups. To archive NAS backup files to an object storage repository, assign the object storage repository as an archive repository when you create a file backup job.

4 SOBR consisting of object storage repositories cannot be used as a target backup repository for file backup jobs.

5 Consider the following limitations:

Amazon S3 Glacier and Azure Blob Storage Archive Tier are not supported for NAS backup.
Amazon S3 Snowball Edge and Azure Databox are not supported as archive repositories for NAS backup, but you can use them as backup repositories, secondary repositories, or targets for copying file share backups.

You can create two object storage repositories pointing to the same cloud folder/bucket and use these repositories for storing both NAS backups and Capacity Tier backups at the same time: one object storage repository will be used to store NAS backups, the other one – to store virtual and physical machine backups as a capacity tier in a single SOBR. However, these object storage repositories (mapped to the same cloud folder) must not be used across multiple Veeam Backup & Replication servers for the same purposes as it leads to unpredictable system behavior and inevitable data loss.

Deployment of Backup, Archive and Secondary Repositories

To use a storage, which is already added to the Veeam Backup & Replication Backup Infrastructure, to store file share backups, define it as a target storage when creating a file backup job:

Configure the backup repository and the archive repository as described in section Define Target Backup Storage Settings.
Configure the secondary repository as described in section Specify Secondary Repository.

If the required storage is not added as a backup repository in your Veeam Backup & Replication Backup Infrastructure, add it as described in section Adding Backup Repositories.

Data Structure in Backup, Archive and Secondary Repositories

Backup, archive and secondary repositories store file share backups as objects in VBLOB files (up to 64 MB each) of unstructured data. They also store metadata about the original files and folders on the file share and their structure.

When you run the file backup job for the first time, Veeam Backup & Replication creates a full backup for all files and folders of the file share. During subsequent backup job sessions, Veeam Backup & Replication copies only files and folders that have changed since the last backup job session.

Although the file backup job first creates a full backup and afterwards incremental backups, Veeam Backup & Replication does not create a separate file for each backup job run as it does during VM backup. Instead of this, it consistently creates multiple VBLOB files accompanied by metadata files that track all the changes on the file share.

Veeam Backup & Replication uses the following structure for storing the file share backup data in the backup repository:

Folder/File						Description
Backup						Folder in the repository that is dedicated to store backups.
	<file_backup_job>					Folder that contains all data backed up by a specific file backup job. Data for each job will be placed to its own directory.
		<file_backup_job>.vstore				XML metadata file that describes the entire backup file for a specific file backup job.
		<guid_x>				Folder that contains all data for a single source. Data for each source will be placed to its own directory.
			<guid_x>.vsource			XML metadata file that describes the single source object.
			meta			Folder with binary metadata files that describe the content of the backup. If backup files are stored on a scale-out backup repository, this folder on each performance extent contains metadata for data stored on the same extent of the scale-out backup repository. For more information, see Scale-Out Repository as NAS Backup Repository.
				.vindex		Binary metadata that describes backup files (names and versions).
				.vslice		Binary metadata that describes allocation of data in VBLOB backup files.
			metabackup			If backup files are stored on a scale-out backup repository, this folder on each performance extent contains replica of metadata stored on other extents of the scale-out backup repository. For more information, see Scale-Out Repository as NAS Backup Repository.
			data			Folder with binary data.
				<guid_y>		1 GB basket that stores VBLOB backup files.
					.vblob	By default, a classic 64 MB file that stores data from the file share backup. If necessary, you can convert NAS backup data files into the single file basket format recommended for storing data on HPE StoreOnce storage appliances. For more information, see description of the Convert-VBRNASBackupStorageFormat cmdlet in the Veeam PowerShell Reference.

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