Veeam Backup & Replication 12
User Guide for VMware vSphere
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Limitations for Scale-Out Backup Repositories

Limitations for Jobs

You cannot use a scale-out backup repository as a target for the following types of jobs:

General Limitations

Scale-out backup repositories have the following limitations:

  • You cannot add a backup repository as an extent to the scale-out backup repository if any job of an unsupported type is targeted at this backup repository or if the backup repository contains data produced by jobs of unsupported types (for example, replica metadata). To add such backup repository as an extent, you must first target unsupported jobs to another backup repository and remove the job data from the backup repository in question.
  • Scale-out backup repositories do not support rotated drives. If you enable the This repository is backed by rotated hard drives setting on an extent, Veeam Backup & Replication will ignore this setting and will work with such repository as with a standard extent.
  • Backup repositories that you plan to add as extents to the scale-out backup repository must be added to the backup infrastructure. For more information, see Backup Repositories.
  • If a backup repository is added as an extent to the scale-out backup repository, you cannot use it as a regular backup repository. You cannot target jobs to this backup repository. Instead, you have to target jobs to the configured scale-out backup repository.
  • You cannot add a scale-out backup repository as an extent to another scale-out backup repository.
  • You cannot add a backup repository as an extent if this backup repository is already added as an extent to another scale-out backup repository.
  • You cannot use the same object storage repository as an extent of two or more different scale-out backup repositories at the same time.
  • You cannot add a backup repository as an extent if this backup repository is already used as a backup destination by VMware Cloud Director organizations.
  • You cannot add a backup repository in which some activity is being performed (for example, a backup job or restore task) as an extent to the scale-out backup repository.
  • You can add only one AWS Snowball Edge storage and Azure Data Box device to a scale-out backup repository.
  • Data located in object storage repositories is organized into a separate backup chain for every machine in a job.
  • We do not recommend adding more than 16 active extents to one tier within one scale-out backup repository, otherwise you may have performance issues.
  • For some S3 compatible object storage repositories, we do not recommend that you use more than one bucket for each scale-out backup repository. If you use multiple folders within one bucket for several scale-out backup repositories, it will slow down data processing since the metadata generated by S3 compatible is handled for each bucket. To check requirements for your object storage, contact your S3 compatible vendor.
  • If you want to use S3-compatible repositories by different providers in the same tier, one of this repository must be in the sealed mode. For example, if you want to use both Wasabi Cloud object storage and IBM Cloud object storage within the same tier, Wasabi Cloud object storage must be in sealed mode.
  • If you use immutability and have several extents in your performance tier, you must enable it for all active extents within this tier. If you want to use a mixed immutability configuration (with some extents immutable and some mutable), you must switch either all mutable or all immutable extents to the sealed mode.
  • If you apply the Forget or Remove from disk options to a missing restore point in a scale-out backup repository, the backup file associated with the missing restore point will be deleted from capacity tier and archive tier on the next offload and archiving job run.
  • If you want to use the Extract utility to work with backup files located on any of the extents of your scale-out backup repository, make sure that incremental and full backup files are located on the same extent.
  • You can use the Veeam Backup Validator utility only for backups stored in the performance tier which consists of backup repositories (except object storage repositories). Make sure that incremental and full backup files are located on the same extent.
  • If you want to add an object storage repository added as a capacity or performance extent to another backup server, you must switch this object storage repository to the Maintenance mode on the initial server. Note that the secondary server will request the ownership over the object storage repository. After you change the ownership, the backup jobs (except for the offload job to capacity tier) will fail on the primary backup server.
  • To let Veeam Backup & Replication automatically import backups during rescan of a scale-out backup repository, names of VBM files and paths to VBM files (starting from the backup repository root to VBM files, not including the root itself) must contain only allowed characters:
    • Alphanumeric characters: a-zA-Z0-9
    • Special characters: _-.+=@^

Names of VBM file and paths to VBM files must not contain spaces.

If a name of a VBM file or a path to a VBM file contains prohibited characters, Veeam Backup & Replication will fail to import such backup during rescan of the scale-out backup repository. To import such backup, you can replace prohibited characters with the underscore character, for example: C:\My Repository\Backup_Job\Backup_Job.vbm. You do not need to rename the actual backup files.

  • Veeam Backup & Replication does not split one backup file across multiple extents.
  • If a repository is used as a cloud repository, you cannot add it as an extent of a scale-out backup repository. For more information, see Veeam Cloud Connect.
  • [For Nutanix AHV VM backups] Due to specifics of backup jobs for AHV VMs, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV always creates a separate backup chain for each VM added to a backup job. Thus, even if you clear the Use per-machine backup files check box in the advanced settings of a scale-out backup repository, backups of multiple AHV VMs are not stored in a single backup file.

Limitations for Specific Tier

Keep in mind that every tier of a scale-out backup repository has its own limitations. For more information on the limitations for every type of tier, check the following sections:

License-Based Limitations

Enterprise edition of Veeam Backup & Replication has the following limitations for scale-out backup repositories:

  • You can create 2 scale-out backup repositories.
  • For each scale-out backup repository, you can have either backup repositories or object storage repositories added as a performance extent or a capacity extent. You can have 3 active, and 1 inactive (that is, put to the Maintenance mode) performance or capacity extents. You can put an active extent to the Maintenance mode if it has no free space, and you want to evacuate backup data from it.
  • If you add 4 performance extents and do not put any of them to the Maintenance mode, the jobs targeted at the scale-out backup repository will fail.

Note

Veeam Universal License and Enterprise Plus of Veeam Backup & Replication editions have no limitations on the number of scale-out backup repositories or performance extents and capacity extents.

Limitations for Veeam Solutions

For more information on limitations for a specific Veeam solution that utilizes scale-out backup repositories functionality, see the following sections of the necessary guide:

  • Veeam Plug-in for SAP HANA — to check limitations for an SAP-certified backup and recovery solution that allows you to back up and restore SAP HANA databases.
  • Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN — to check limitations for an Oracle-certified backup and recovery solution that allows you to back up and restore Oracle databases.
  • Veeam Plug-in for SAP on Oracle — to check limitations for an SAP-certified backup and recovery solution that allows you to back up and restore Oracle databases to which an SAP application is connected.
  • Veeam Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server — to check limitations for a backup and recovery solution that allows you to back up and restore Microsoft SQL Server databases.
  • Veeam Plug-in for IBM Db2 — to check limitations for a backup and recovery solution that allows you to back up and restore IBM Db2 databases.
  • Veeam Cloud Connect Guide — to check limitations for service providers and tenants.
  • Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows — to check limitations for data protection and disaster recovery solution for physical and virtual machines running Windows-based operating systems.

Page updated 4/4/2025

Page content applies to build 12.3.1.1139

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