Insight into Veeam Backup & Replication Infrastructure

Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure comprises a set of components needed to perform data protection and disaster recovery tasks. The backup infrastructure that we will use for evaluation includes the following components:

• Veeam backup server: a physical or virtual machine running Veeam Backup & Replication. The Veeam backup server performs the role of the main management component: it is the configuration and control center of the backup infrastructure.
• Virtual infrastructure servers: Hyper-V hosts used as the source and the target for backup and replication.
• Backup proxy (onhost or offhost): a 'data mover' component that retrieves VM data from the source storage, processes it and transfers to the destination.
• Backup repository: a location used to store backup files and auxiliary replica files.

To perform evaluation exercises, you can use a simple deployment scenario or a distributed deployment scenario (recommended). The choice depends on your test lab environment. If you have a very small test lab and there is no possibility to allocate dedicated servers that will perform the roles of an offhost backup proxy and backup repository, you can use a simple deployment scenario to evaluate the product. However, whenever possible, it is recommended that you use a distributed deployment scenario. This will help you gain insight into the architecture of the backup infrastructure, evaluate its benefits and increase your experience in deploying backup infrastructure components.

Simple Deployment

In a simple deployment scenario, you will need three components:

• Veeam backup server
• Source Hyper-V host
• Target Hyper-V host (used for a replication scenario)

The Veeam backup server performs two roles:

• It is the 'control center' of the backup infrastructure, coordinating job performance and other administrative activities.
• It is the default backup repository: all backups and auxiliary replica files are stored on the Veeam backup server, in the Backup folder on the volume with the greatest amount of free disk space.

The source Hyper-V host also performs two roles:

• It is the host on which VMs you want to back up or replicate are located.
• It is the default backup proxy. When you perform backup or replication, VM data is processed directly on the source Hyper-V host and then moved to the target. All services necessary for backup proxy functioning are installed on the source Hyper-V host.

Distributed Deployment 

In the distributed deployment scenario, roles of backup infrastructure component are assigned to dedicated servers. The backup infrastructure includes the following components:

• Veeam backup server
• Offhost backup proxy
• Backup repository
• Source and target Hyper-V hosts

The distributed deployment scenario enables efficient data transfer and use of resources in the backup infrastructure. During backup and replication, VM data is retrieved from the source storage and processed on a dedicated server (offhost backup proxy). Processed VM data is then transferred to the dedicated backup repository in the backup scenario or to the target Hyper-V host in the replication scenario.

This type of backup, with VM processing offloaded to the offhost backup proxy, is known as offhost backup. Offhost backup does not impose any load on production Hyper-V hosts: all resource-intensive backup operations are performed on the offhost backup proxy and the source Hyper-V host remains unaffected.

Depending on your production environment and the backup and replication scenarios you plan to use, the distributed backup infrastructure may include multiple dedicated offhost backup proxies and backup repositories controlled by a single Veeam backup server.  However, to evaluate the product, it is sufficient to deploy one offhost backup proxy and one backup repository locally in your test lab.

Exercise List

To deploy Veeam backup infrastructure, perform the following exercises.