Tag Archives: Restore

SAP HANA Backup with Veeam

Hi,
my colleague and friend Tom Sightler created an toolset to backup SAP HANA with Veeam Backup & Replication. He documented everything in the Veeam Forum:
https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-replication-f2/sap-b1-hana-support-t32514.html

Basically it follows the same way that storage systems like NetApp use for Backup of HANA. You implement in Veeam Pre and Post Scripts that makes HANA aware of the Veeam Backups. As well Logfile Handling is included (how many backup data do you want to keep on HANA system itself?).

In case of a DB restore, you go to HANA Studio and can access the backup data on HANA system directly. If you need older versions you can restore them with Veeam File Level Recovery Wizard or more comfortable with the Veeam Enterprise Manager File Restore (Self Services) and hit the rescann button at HANA Studio restore wizard. They are detected and you can proceed with the restore.

 

CU andy

Active Directory and Veeam

Hi,

in this post you will find more and more information`s of how to protect Active Directory with Veeam.

For the start let me share the following 3 things with you:

Veeams Userguide for Veeam Explorer for ActiveDirectory:
https://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_9_0_explorers_user_guide_en_pg.pdf

To be able to restore a user account or machine account back to original place, you need a existing thumbstone in you AD for it.
A very good Thumbstone documentation including all kind of version/lifetime settings can be found in the following article.
Yes, it is in German, but you will get the point by just have a look at the lists and reg keys.
https://www.faq-o-matic.net/2006/07/28/das-geheimnis-der-tombstone-lifetime/ (German)
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=de&to=en&a=http://www.faq-o-matic.net/2006/07/28/das-geheimnis-der-tombstone-lifetime/ (Google Translation)

 

When you install your first Active Directory Server it will as well create the recovery certificate for Windows EFS encryption. It is used for all domain members. It will be automatically placed on the c: drive. In any way protect this certificate with multiple backups.  Without it you can not renew the certificate (default lifetime is 3 year) or restore EFS encrypted data.  You can configure the certificate renew process by RSOP.msc and browse to Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Public Key Policies\Encrypting File System

Lotus Domino Backup with Veeam Backup & Replication

Hi everybody,

on customer request I created a video that shows backup and single mail restore for lotus domino with Veeam Backup & Replication.

A Lotus Domino is non VSS aware (anyway this is the case under Linux).  So you have only 2 options for consistent backups as IBM do not support VSS Filesystem only backups:

  1.  Shutdown the VM => Service offline or at cluster do this only on one side.
  2. Close the connections and write the cache to disk

The question is why should I use a non Domino Backup API based backup?

For Veeam the answer is:

  • Ultra Fast Serivce Restore with Instant VM Recovery (2min + OS boot)
  •  Easy to use Single Mail/Document restore
  • Automated Restore Tests with SureBackup that test if a VM is Restoreable, OS boot, Network Connection is online and Domino Services are up and running on a daily base.
  • And finally a backup on Image Level with Change Block Tracking based Incremental Forever is very efficient even at a Domino Server with high change rate.

Enjoy the video

https://www.veeam.com/videos/backing-up-non-vss-aware-applications-ibm-lotus-domino-4867.html

Prioritisation of Veeam Backup & Replication Proxy Modes from my field experience.

Update 1: 23.05.2016 => Veeam Backup & Replication v9 + new best practices.
Hi everybody,
just want to share with you a short list of Veeam Backup & Replication Proxy modes, because I got so many questions about it in the past.
VMware Backup from FibreChannel Block Storage.:
Priority 1:
For most common VMs (90%) I would use Veeams Direct Storage (Direst SAN) backup mode at backup and HotAdd (implement virtual Proxies) at restore for best performance.
For the biggest VMs (10%) with high change rates use Veeam Storage Integration (Backup from Storage Snapshot) to optimize VMware SnapShot commit processes. This feature is available for HP 3PAR StoreServe / HP StoreVirtual incl. VSA / NetApp ONTAP systems and EMC VNX(e). Nimble will follow this year. If you do not have this feature, use standard processing from above.
As Direct SAN need FibreChannel Access and FC passthrough is not really supported, you need physical Veeam Proxy Server.
Priority 2:
If you want to use virtual only infrastructure, go with 10GbE Interfaces at VMkernel, 10GbE Veeam Proxy Servers and use the Veeam Network Mode (NBD) mode. This mode is limited for a maximum throughput of 40% of the VMKernel Interface (at multiple parallel streams). You can use HotAdd for faster restore.
Priority 3:
Use Hotadd if you want to go with virtual proxies and there is only a 1GbE network.
What you should not do:
Avoid HotAdd backup processing in big environments. By design of VMware it will bring extra load on vCenter and singnificantly increase the chance that VMware get lost on his own snapshots (orphaned snapshots). As well by design of VMware VM stuns can happen at snapshot commit. If you really want to go with it, consider  ESXi bound Veeam Proxies with special Veeam registry setting. Ask Veeam Support or a SE for design and Reg Key.
VMware Backup iSCSI Block Storage.:
The priority list is the same then FC Block Storage above.
As it is iSCSI you can use virtual Direct Storage (Direct SAN) servers which should be priority 1 if you want to go with virtual Veeam Proxies. However physical Server reduce the load on your VMware Servers significantly.

VMware Backup from NFS (File) Datastores:

Priority 1:
For most common VMs (90%) I would use Veeams Direct Storage (new Veeam Direct NFS) backup mode for backup and restore. Direct NFS is the fastest restore method within Veeam as it is written from scratch by Veeam and do not leverage the VMware VDDK kit.

For the biggest VMs with high change rates use Veeam Storage Integration (Backup from Storage Snapshot) to optimize VMware SnapShot commit processes. This feature is available for  NetApp ONTAP systems and EMC VNX(e) (HP 3PAR and StoreVirtual do not have a NFS options). Nimble will follow this year. If you do not have this feature, use standard processing from above.
You can use virtual or physical Servers for processing. However physical Server offload the backup load from your hosts.
Priority 2 (or better say “No priority”):
As there is no downside of using Direct NFS method I highly recommend to use it. However if you need another backup method, go with 10GbE Interfaces at VMkernel and Veeam Proxy Servers in Network Mode (NBD). This mode is limited for a maximum throughput of 40% of the VMKernel Interface. You can use Direct NFS or HotAdd for faster restore.
What you should not do (in no way!):
Avoid HotAdd backup processing in ANY NFS  environments. By design of VMware it will bring extra load on vCenter and singnificantly increase the chance that VMware get lost on his own snapshots (orphaned snapshots). As well by design of VMware VM stuns WILL happen at snapshot commit, specifically within Linux VMs. If you really want to go with it, consider  ESXi bound Veeam Proxies with special Veeam registry setting. Ask Veeam Support or a SE for design and Reg Key.
 

Veeam Backup & Replication Proxy Mode Autodetection process works like this:

It will check Direct Storage Mode (Direct NFS/Direct SAN) first, 
then it will try HotAdd (Virtual Appliance Mode) and the it will use
NBD (Network Mode).
 
So if you want to use 10GbE NBD Mode instead of HotAdd as default, you have to select it manually at the Veeam Backup & Replication – Backup Infrastructure – Proxy settings.