Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs

You can use snapshot-only jobs to create a chain of storage snapshots on the primary storage array and, optionally, on the secondary storage array.

Requirements

The ability to create snapshot-only jobs depends on the Veeam Backup & Replication license edition. For snapshot-only jobs on the primary storage arrays, you can use any license edition. For snapshot-only jobs on the secondary storage arrays, the license edition depends on the used storage system and replication feature. For more information, see Storage Systems and Supported Features.

If you use the appropriate license edition and secondary storage arrays with synchronous replication (for example, IBM Spectrum Virtualize with Metro Mirror or other), Veeam Backup & Replication uses the synchronous replication feature by default. On such storage array systems, long-term snapshots are always created simultaneously on the primary and secondary storage arrays, that is, coordinated snapshots are created. Veeam Backup & Replication maintains the same number of long-term snapshots on the primary and secondary arrays. For snapshot-only jobs, this means that you do not need to add the synchronous replication feature to the job and configure it.

Key Job Settings

The key settings for the snapshot-only job are:

  • At the Storage step of the wizard, a primary storage system selected as a repository.
  • At the Storage step of the wizard, the Retention policy field.
  • [Optional] At the Storage step of the wizard, the Configure secondary destinations for this job.
  • [Optional] At the Secondary Target step of the wizard, the added feature of a storage array and the Number of snapshot copies to retain field.

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs

To configure a snapshot-only job:

  1. Open the Home view.
  2. Click Backup Job > VMware or vCloud on the ribbon. Veeam Backup & Replication will launch the New Backup Job wizard.
  3. At the Name step of the wizard, specify a name and description for the job.
  4. At the Virtual Machines step of the wizard, click Add and select VMs whose disks are hosted on the storage system.
  5. At the Storage step of the wizard, select a primary storage array and configure retention:
  1. From the Backup repository drop-down list, select a primary storage array where you want to create a chain of long-term storage snapshots.
  2. In the Retention policy field, specify the number of long-term storage snapshots that you want to maintain in the snapshot chain on the primary storage array. When this number is exceeded, Veeam Backup & Replication will trigger the storage system to remove the earliest snapshot from the chain (if it does not contain any restore points that fall under the retention period).

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs 

  1. To create application-consistent long-term storage snapshots for VMs for which application-aware processing is disabled, enable VMware Tools quiescence. Otherwise, Veeam Backup & Replication will produce crash-consistent long-term storage snapshots.
  1. At the Storage step of the wizard, click Advanced.
  2. In the Advanced Settings window, go to the vSphere tab and select Enable VMware Tools quiescence.

Veeam Backup & Replication will create VMware vSphere snapshots for VMs whose disks are hosted on the storage system. After VMware vSphere snapshots are created, Veeam Backup & Replication will trigger a storage snapshot.

For information on other advanced settings, see the Specify Advanced Backup Settings section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs 

  1. If you want to create long-term storage snapshots on a secondary storage array:
  1. At the Storage step of the wizard, select the Configure secondary destinations for this job check box.
  2. At the Secondary Target step of the wizard, configure a replication feature. The following types of replication features are available:

You cannot select the synchronous replication feature explicitly. Veeam Backup & Replication uses secondary storage arrays with synchronous replication by default if detects the configured ones. In this case, the snapshot retention for both primary and secondary storage arrays is configured at the step 5 of this procedure.

To add the snapshot transfer feature, click Add and select the required feature. In the Number of snapshot copies to retain field, specify the number of long-term storage snapshots that you want to maintain in the snapshot chain on the secondary storage array. When this number is exceeded, Veeam Backup & Replication will trigger the storage system to remove the earliest snapshot from the chain.

[For NetApp SnapMirror] The Number of snapshot copies to retain option is not applicable to NetApp SnapMirror. On this secondary storage system, Veeam Backup & Replication maintains the same number of storage snapshots as on primary storage systems. MirrorAndVault Relationships will be identified by Veeam Backup & Replication as SnapVault.

[For NetApp 7-mode] If you use SnapMirror relationships between QTrees, you can define different retention policy settings for the primary NetApp storage system and NetApp SnapMirror. For example, you can configure the backup job to maintain 14 snapshots on the primary NetApp storage system and 10 snapshots of QTree directories on NetApp SnapMirror.

For more information on the storage systems, supported features and required licenses, see Storage Systems and Supported Features.

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs 

  1. If you want to use snapshot archiving, that is, offload snapshots to a 3rd party storage solution supported by a storage vendor (for example, Amazon S3 storage or NFS target):
  1. Check that the Configure secondary destinations for this job check box is selected at the Storage step of the wizard.
  2. At the Secondary Target step of the wizard, select an archiving feature.
  3. In the Number of snapshot copies to retain field, specify the number of long-term storage snapshots that you want to maintain in the offload target.

For more information on the storage systems, supported features and required licenses, see Storage Systems and Supported Features.

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs 

  1. If you want to create transactionally consistent snapshots, enable application-aware processing:
  1. At the Guest Processing step of the wizard, select the Enable application-aware processing check box.
  2. Specify the necessary settings as described in the Specify Guest Processing Settings section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  3. Configure general application-awarere processing settings and settings for applications as described in the dedicated sections in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.

If you plan to back up logs, in addition to the options described in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, set a repository for storing logs. To do so, in the Processing Settings window, select a tab with the application for which you are configuring logs. In the Backup repository field, select a backup repository. Note that you specify the backup repository for the whole job, not just for a VM you have selected.

The process of application-aware processing is similar to the one described in the Application-Aware Processing section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide. The difference is that Veeam Backup & Replication does not create VMware snapshots for freeze-only VMs and triggers storage snapshots after the stage with VMware snapshots. A VM is freeze-only if it meets these conditions:

  • The disks of this VM can be located on one or more storage volumes.
  • These storage volumes only contain the disks of this VM. They do not contain the disks of any other VM that are included in the same job.

The freeze-only VMs (those VMs for which a VMware snapshot was not created) are processed in successive order after creating storage snapshots for the other VMs.

Configuring Snapshot-Only Jobs 

  1. At the Schedule step of the wizard, select the Run the job automatically check box and specify the schedule by which storage snapshots must be created. For more information, see the Define Job Schedule section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  2. At the Summary step of the wizard, review settings of the added storage system. Select the Run the job when I click Finish check box if you want to start the job right after you finish working with the wizard. Click Finish to save the backup job settings.

Tip

To learn which VMs were processed by a snapshot job (a snapshot-only job or a backup job with storage snapshot retention) open the Storage Infrastructure view and navigate to the necessary storage snapshot. If a VM was processed by a snapshot job, Veeam Backup & Replication displays the job name in the Protected by column.