Architecture Overview

The Mine with Veeam architecture comprises the following set of components:

• Mine cluster
• Foundation for Mine with Veeam server
• Backup server
• Backup repositories
• Gateways servers

Mine Cluster

The Mine cluster is a Nutanix cluster where Mine with Veeam is deployed. Mine with Veeam can be deployed in a cluster if it meets the minimum system requirements and hosts a Nutanix Object Store with 4 workers and 3 load balancers. For more information on Nutanix Object Stores, see Nutanix documentation.

Mine with Veeam must have access to the following consoles:

• Prism Element — is used to manage cluster resources such as VMs, volume groups, storage containers and networks. Prism Element is deployed in the Mine cluster.
• Prism Central — is used to manage the Nutanix Object Store in the Mine cluster. Prism Central is deployed either in the Mine cluster or in another Nutanix cluster.

Foundation for Mine with Veeam Server

The Foundation for Mine with Veeam server (foundation server) is the core solution component that sets up the backup server, establishes connections to backup repositories and deploys gateway servers. The foundation server resides in the Mine cluster and uses the following components:

• Mine Console — is an interface that allows you to configure Mine with Veeam settings and troubleshoot cluster issues.
• Veeam Updater — is a service that is responsible for installing and scheduling updates for the foundation server.

Backup Server

The backup server is a Windows-based machine on which Veeam Backup & Replication is installed. The backup server is the configuration, administration and management component of the backup infrastructure. It coordinates backup, replication, recovery verification and restore tasks, controls job scheduling and manages resource allocation. For more information on the backup server, its services and components, see the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Backup Server.

Mine with Veeam supports 2 deployment scenarios:

• A new backup server is deployed as a part of the Mine cluster.
• An existing backup server is connected to the Mine cluster — in this case, the backup server is not included in the cluster.

This scenario is recommended, for example, if you want to deploy Mine with Veeam as a secondary storage solution and to manage all backup jobs from a single Veeam Backup & Replication console.

If the backup server is deployed as a part of the Mine cluster, it is automatically assigned the role of a backup proxy. If an existing server is connected to the Mine cluster, the foundation server deploys an additional standalone proxy because the connected backup server cannot function as a proxy due to technical limitations.

Backup Repositories

A backup repository is an architecture component where Mine with Veeam stores backups of protected workloads. The foundation server creates 6 S3 buckets in the Nutanix Object Store and adds them as object storage repositories to 2 scale-out backup repositories (SOBRs) configured on the backup server:

• 3 buckets are added to the immutable SOBR used for storing immutable backups (that is, backups that require protection from modification and deletion during a specific period of time).
• 3 buckets are added to the regular SOBR used for storing mutable backups.

Gateway Servers

A gateway server is an architecture component that “bridges” the backup server and backup repositories. Gateway servers run the Veeam Data Mover service that performs data processing tasks (such as retrieving source machine data, performing data deduplication and compression, and storing backed-up data in backup repositories) on behalf of Veeam Backup & Replication.

The foundation server deploys 3 Linux-based gateway servers in the Mine cluster and instructs Veeam Backup & Replication to use those servers when accessing object storage repositories. For more information on gateway servers, see the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Gateway Servers.