Before You Begin

Before you create a backup job, check the following prerequisites and limitations.

Prerequisites

• A backup repository where you want to store backup files must be added to the Veeam Backup & Replication backup infrastructure.
• A backup repository where you want to store backup files must have enough space to store created backup files.
• Veeam Backup for RHV must have access to the backup repository. If the repository is unavailable, check granted permissions. For more information, see Granting Access Permissions on Veeam Backup Repositories.
• The ovirt-engine and all RHEV hosts must be available to the RHV backup proxy via FQDN.

Backup Job Functionality Limitations

• You cannot back up a VM if the restore process is running for this VM. Wait for the restore process to finish, and then you can start the backup job.

• During the backup of a VM all power controls are blocked. You cannot power on, power off or reboot a VM. If this is still necessary, for more information, see Troubleshooting of Veeam Backup for Red Hat Virtualization Deployment.

• Veeam Backup for RHV supports VM backups with mixed virtual disks: RAW and QCOW2. You can create an incremental backup for virtual disks in the QCOW2 format only. Virtual disks in the RAW format support only full backup. However, if a VM is powered off all virtual disks will be backed up in a full mode. For more information, see Troubleshooting of Veeam Backup for Red Hat Virtualization Deployment.
• Backup job compression, deduplication and block size settings cannot be changed. Built-in settings:

• 1 MB block size
• LZ4 compression
• deduplication is enabled

• You can configure encryption settings in backup repository settings using the Veeam Backup & Replication console. For more information, see the Access Permissions section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
• You cannot back up a VM in a snapshot preview mode.
• A VM can have only one active backup job. Two backup jobs cannot backup one VM at the same time.

VMs backup creation by different vendors or different RHV backup proxies is not supported.

• You cannot create a new backup job if the previous VM backup was completed incorrectly or when a 3rd party software/another instance of Veeam Backup for RHV is trying to back up the current VM.

• If the backup is created by a 3rd party software or another instance of Veeam Backup for RHV, you can disable an old backup job by yourself via 3rd party software or REST API. Also you can contact Veeam Support Team to get the special key.
• If the backup is created by the current instance of the Veeam Backup for RHV proxy, a backup job automatically closes an old backup before starting a new one.

• You cannot backup hosted engine VMs. You can use an ovirt-engine-backup to create oVirt configuration backup.
• Replacing the Veeam Backup & Replication server with another instance will remove all old backups from the Veeam Backup for RHV configuration. Backups are not removed from Veeam Backup & Replication. If you want to use old backups, you can add and old Veeam Backup & Replication server and then import backups.
• GDPR locations cannot be set in Veeam Backup for RHV backup jobs.

Backup Chain Limitations

• Veeam Backup for RHV creates per-VM backup chains: one backup chain contains data for one VM only. Even if you add several VMs to a backup job, Veeam Backup for RHV creates several backup chains on the backup repository, one per each VM processed by the job.
• You cannot disable deduplication and compression of backups.
• If a VM has an active backup chain and at some point the UUID of the VM is changed (for example, due to migration to another cluster), Veeam Backup for RHV cannot continue the old backup chain for this VM. In this case, you can re-add this VM to the backup job and Veeam Backup for RHV will create a new backup chain for the VM with a new UUID.

Note that you can still use backups from the old backup chain for restore operations.

Backup Files and Jobs in Veeam Backup & Replication Console

You can view jobs and backups created by Veeam Backup for RHV in the Veeam Backup & Replication console. However, most of the Veeam Backup & Replication functionality is not available for these backups and jobs. Mind the following limitations:

• In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, you cannot create or edit jobs of Veeam Backup for RHV.
• In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, you can delete jobs created by Veeam Backup for RHV if you do not have access to Veeam Backup for RHV. Note that deleting a job from Veeam Backup & Replication does not mean deleting a job from Veeam Backup for RHV.