Veeam

[k1pp3r]

That isn't how veeam works.

You install veeam on a dedicated backup server. You then connect it to your vCenter server or directly to the ESXi host.

You setup all backup jobs on that one backup server, and target the VM through the vcenter connection.

If you install veeam on each server you want to back up you are going to run into major issues when veeam takes the snapshot due to the brief IO pause of the snapshot process.

 

[Sturm]

That isn't how veeam works.

You install veeam on a dedicated backup server. You then connect it to your vCenter server or directly to the ESXi host.

You setup all backup jobs on that one backup server, and target the VM through the vcenter connection.

If you install veeam on each server you want to back up you are going to run into major issues when veeam takes the snapshot due to the brief IO pause of the snapshot process.

But I've installed Veeam on a server (which I don't want to backup) and then initiate a backup job to backup another server (this server finds itself on the same ESXi server). Because my server setup is just a test-environment, they are both on the same ESXi server. I also don't use Vcenter server . Is it really that bad to do it my way ?

 

[k1pp3r]

For your setup you need one veeam backup server, Server OS with veeam 7 r2 on it.

Under the backup infrastructure tab add your repositories, then add your vmware esxi hosts under the vmware section, connect directly to the esx host if you don't have vcenter.

Then create all your backup jobs from that one veeam backup server. When you create the backup jobs it will give you the option for the two esx machines, expand them and choose your VM's.

Set all other settings to what you desire and run the job.

 

[RESTfulADI]

Veeam has 3 data transfer types:

direct SAN connection (expose luns to physical backup server, only available with block storage obviously)
virtual applicance (hot add of virtual disks, most efficient, but jobs limited by cores on VM, probably need to scale out)
network (not bad at all on 10Gb if you have a dedicated physical server with many cores, probably the best method if your VMs are stored on NFS share)

Which one you use depends on the environment.