Veeam Backup and Replication v6 Pre-Install Checklist

1: Does Veeam Backup and Replication 6 (VBR6) Support your infrastructure?

VBR6 supports VMware ESX(i) 3.5, ESX(i) 4.x, ESXi 5.0 Hosts
VBR6 does not need to use a Virtual Center, but supports Virtual Center 2.5, vCenter Server 4.x, vCenter 5.0
VBR6 supports Windows Server Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hosts
VBR6 does not need to use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, but supports the 2008 R2 SP1 version

2: Physical or Virtual Veeam Backup Server?

Advantages of physical:

Veeam server's resources are separate from the Virtual Environment
Unconstrained by hypervisor limits for such things as Virtual SMP

Advantages of virtual:

Can backup/replicate the Veeam server with Veeam
Reduced hardware footprint in the datacenter

Comment:

Some of the advantages which existed in Veeam Backup and Replication 5 no longer apply in Veeam Backup and Replication 6 because of the Backup Proxy and Backup Repository functionality; these include but are not limited to:

Physical server able to backup using dedicated HBA (Host Bus Adapter) for say Fibre Channel (can now have a physical backup proxy with HBA)
Virtual server able to backup using virtual appliance mode (can now have a virtual backup proxy)


Really comes down to personal preference or available resources

3: Available Operating System for Veeam Backup & Replication Server Installation?

VBR6 installs on a wide variety of Microsoft Windows operating systems - XP SP3, Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Server 2008 R2 SP1, 7 SP1
VBR6 does not install on any version of Windows Storage Server
VBR6 will install on a member server or workgroup server (highly recommended to install with a local administrator account which rules out installing on a DC)

Comment:

Personal preference here is to use the latest Windows Server version (currently 2008 R2 SP1)

4: Available Hardware Resources for Veeam Backup & Replication Server?

CPU: Minimum 2 cores, mores cores will improve data processing performance, and allows for more concurrent jobs
Memory: Minimum 2GB RAM (with remote SQL server,) Minimum 4GB RAM (using local SQL server.) Using faster memory (DDR3) improves data processing performance.
Disk Space: 300MB product installation. Minimum 1 GB per 500 VM for guest file system catalog folder. Minimum 10GB for Instant VM Recovery cache.
Network: 1 Gbps LAN for on-site backup, 1 Mbps or faster WAN for off-site backup and replication
Note: high latency links are supported but TCP/IP connection must not drop

Comment:

i: If installing Veeam Backup onto a physical backup server; in order to use the recommended 'Direct SAN access' Processing Mode – and when not using a Backup Proxy with direct access to the SAN – then the physical server will need a FibreChannel HBA to connect to a FibreChannel SAN or spare ethernet ports to connect to an iSCSI SAN.
ii: A suggestion to partition the VBR6 server is for: system disk partition, application disk partition, vPower NFS disk partition (could put on SSD for faster write cache performance of Instant Recovery VMs,) and backup data partition.

5: Available Software?

The binaries for Veeam Backup 6 need to be available (the download of Veeam Backup & Replication v6 includes Setup, Search_Setup, Enterprise_Manager_Setup)
Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 (SQL 2005 SP4 Express is included in the setup)
(Optional) SearchServerExpress (if intend to install Backup Search)
(Optional) Microsoft PowerShell 2.0 or later
(Optional) System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Admin UI (to be able to register SCVMM servers)

Comment:

Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express as opposed to the bundled SQL 2005 SP4 Express, allows for greater database size and enhanced database functionality.

6: Backup Target?

There needs to be enough available free disk space to hold the required number of roll-backs before optional archival to other media is performed. Backups targets can be:
- Direct Attached Storage (DAS) connected to the backup repository server (includes USB drives)
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) able to present itself as CIFS (SMB) share (direct operation), or NFS share (must be mounted on Linux backup repository server)
- Storage Area Network (SAN) – the backup repository server must be connected directly into SAN fabric via hardware HBA or software iSCSI initiator, and the corresponding volumes must be seen in the Microsoft Windows Disk Management snap in.

Comment:

Backup storage should typically be on Tier-2 or Tier-3 deduplicated storage, separate from Tier-1 storage used by critical production servers. Depending on compliance requirements, this backup storage will either need to be replicated to another site or archived off to removeable media. In the absense of a hot-DR solution, it is essential the backup is off the main production SAN so that in the event of a SAN failure the latest backups are still safe.

The following components are all optional, and add performance, useability, and management benefits:

7: (Optional) Additional Backup Proxy Server(s)
Note: The Veeam Backup and Replication Server is itself a Backup Proxy


OS: Windows – XP SP3, Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Server 2008 R2 SP1, 7 SP1
Note: for Hyper-V Proxy, only Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V role enabled is supported
CPU: Minimum 2 cores, mores cores will improve data processing performance, and allows for more concurrent jobs
Memory: 2 GB RAM. Using faster memory (DDR3) improves data processing performance.
Disk Space: 300MB
Network: 1 Gbps LAN for on-site backup, 1 Mbps or faster WAN for off-site backup and replication
Note: high latency links are supported but TCP/IP connection must not drop

8: (Optional) Additional Backup Respository Server(s)
Note: The Veeam Backup and Replication Server is in itself a Backup Repository


OS: Linux (with SSH and Perl) / Windows – XP SP3, Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Server 2008 R2 SP1, 7 SP1
CPU: x86/x64 processor
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Network: 1 Gbps LAN for on-site backup, 1 Mbps or faster WAN for off-site backup and replication
Note: high latency links are supported but TCP/IP connection must not drop

9: (Optional) Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Manager

OS: Windows – XP SP3, Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2, Server 2008 R2 SP1, 7 SP1
CPU: x86/x64 processor
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Disk Space: 100MB for product installation and sufficient disk space to store guest file system catalog from connected backup servers (according to data retention policy)
Network: 1 Mbps or faster connection to Veeam Backup & Replication servers

Server Software:
- IIS 5.1 or later ("IIS6.0 Metabase Compatibility", and "Windows Authentication" components are required for IIS 7.0)
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 (SQL 2005 SP4 Express included in the setup)
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 (included in the setup)

Client Software:
- Internet Explorer 7 or later, and Mozilla Firefox 3 or later
- (to view Excel reports) Microsoft Excel 2003 or later

10: (Optional) Veeam Backup Search Server

Software: Microsoft Search Server 2008/2010 (including Express Edition)

Requirement for Microsoft Search Server 2010:
- OS: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
- CPU: 64-bit, four core
- Memory: 4 GB for development, 8 GB for evaluation or single-server production use, 16GB for multiple-server production use
- Disk Space: 80 GB for system drive and the computer should have twice as much free disk space as it has RAM

Comment:

It is recommended to install Microsoft Search Server on a separate computer

Credit: Much of this information comes from Veeam's Veeam Backup & Replication 6.0 Release Notes

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