Blogs and Podcasts

Veeam released Version 5 of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 today!https://www.veeam.com/backup-microsoft-office-365-download.html Release notes see here:https://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_microsoft_office_365_5_0_release_notes_en_rn.pdf

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Do you use the on-demand sandbox? How do you keep it running without being interrupted by source jobs starting?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. What do you do when your application tests fail in a SureBackup job? Did you look into the sequencing? What is a stabilization point?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Veeam.Backup.DBConfig.exe Utility We continue to discover Veeam utilities that we may not know were there and are very useful ...Veeam Backup & Replication comes with the Veeam.Backup.DBConfig.exe utility that allows you to manage connection settings for Veeam Backup & Replication and/or Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager configuration database. Using this utility, you can:Connect to a different database on the same or another Microsoft SQL Server instance. If you specify a database that does not exist yet, it will be created on the selected server. Change authentication method for database connection. Possible methods are Microsoft Windows authentication and Microsoft SQL server authentication.  NOTE:  The Veeam.Backup.DBConfig.exe utility supports only connection to configuration databases of the current version.   Using Veeam.Backup.DBConfig.exe Utility You can launch the Veeam.Backup.DBConfig.exe utility from the Start menu by clicking Configuration Database Con

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Are you running SureBackup tests on your production hosts? or did you decide to repurpose older hosts for this? If yes, what happens if there is insufficient CPU or memory on those hosts? What about custom roles? Did you create any? If yes, for which applications?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Block Sizes As can be seen from the field, optimal value for the stripe size is often between 128 KB and 256 KB. However, it is highly recommended to test this prior to deployment whenever possible.During the backup process data blocks are processed in chunks and stored inside backup files in the backup repository. You can customize the block size during the Job Configuration using the Storage Optimization setting of the backup job.By default Veeam’s block size is set to Local Target, which is 1 MB before compression. Since compression ratio is very often around 2x, with this block size Veeam will write around 512 KB or less to the repository per Veeam block.This value can be used to better configure storage arrays; especially low-end storage systems can greatly benefit from an optimized stripe size.There are three layers where the block size can be configured: Veeam block size for the backup files, the filesystem, and the storage volumes.Let’s use a quick example: The Veeam block size

If you are using Veeam ONE with MS SQL Express you probably either have a small environment or you just didn’t hit the 10 GB database limitation yet  But, how much space will the database then consume?The good news is Veeam offers a Veeam ONE database calculator tool right here: https://www.veeam.com/kb2246It is actually a Excel spreadsheet, but is very easy to use: But wait! Don’t forget to select the correct data collection mode you plan to use at the bottom:In case you are wondering what this is, check out the user guide: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/one/deployment/typical_choose_collection_mode.html?ver=100 and the table from https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/one/deployment/data_collection_modes.html?ver=100 (partial screenshot): 

I like to show all the utilities that Veeam offers us ... to perform administration tasks in the backup infrastructures Did you ever use??Extract Utility Veeam Backup & Replication comes with an extract utility that can be used to recover machines from backup files. The extract utility does not require any interaction with Veeam Backup & Replication and can be used as an independent tool on Linux and Microsoft Windows machines.The extract utility can be helpful, for example, if it is written to the tape next to machine backup files. In this case, you get a possibility to recover machines from backups at any moment of time even if backups are removed from Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam Backup & Replication is uninstalled at all. IMPORTANT! The extract utility does not work with backups that are stored in scale-out backup repositories.  The extract utility can be used in two interfaces:Graphic user interface (GUI) Command-line interface working in the in

In this week's episode of #HomelabWednesdays, I show you how to migrate your domain controller and VMware vCenter Server to a new network without issues.Don’t forget to subscribe to get automatic notifications whenever a new video is released. 

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. How are you testing your applications during SureBackup jobs? Are you familiar with the expected return code from your script?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Do you utilize the on-demand sandbox feature? If yes, how do you offer access into the isolated lab?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

When a backup policy is configured in Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, the job doesn't start automatically on a backup schedule.This is a known bug of the software and the fix requires a patch installation directly in the system. Install the fixAfter copying the patch provided by the support (patch Fix_263734_34880afcb0.zip) to the appliance (you can use WinSCP), stop the service with the following comand:# sudo systemctl stop veeamazurebackupInstall the package using the command:# sudo apt-get install /tmp/veeamazurebackup_1.0.0.261_amd64.debAfter few seconds the patch installation is completed successfully.Start the service veeamazurebackup with the command:# sudo systemctl start veeamazurebackupNow login to Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure and schedule the job. After applying the patch, the job now runs on a backup schedule.The fix for this issue is quite simple to apply and takes only few minutes.  

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. How well do you know your virtual labs and routing between the proxy appliance and your backup server?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

How do I skill up fast on Veeam Availability Suite?Maybe you are completely new to the product, or maybe you are trying to figure out what you don’t know? Regardless, you can find an easy path to get started on this topic.Step 1First of all, Veeam offers great free bite-size training at Veeam University. These videos will cover you from how to install, an overview of the console, creating your first backup jobs, and much more. My favorite part is that you get asked simple quiz style questions along the way to help you focus and validate you are learning.Step 2At this point, you might want to learn more about specific features such as restores and there is a large collection of how-to videos already provided right here.Step 3Now that you have seen a number of how-to videos and recordings, it is a great time to try out the product for yourself. Perhaps you still have concerns and want to ask questions live? Veeam has regular live product demos on the website and you can find the schedule

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Do you have experience deploying the advanced multi-host virtual lab? How do you handle VLANs for the port grops?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Are you sending transaction log backups to an off-site location? How do you do it? What do you store them on? Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

In the following link you can read improvements in vSphere 7.0 U1 for data protection. Areas of improvements are: Network QoS for Backup Traffic Improved backup job resilience Improvements in scalability for concurrent backup jobs vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO) improvementshttps://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2020/11/18/whats-new-in-vsphere-7-u1-for-data-protection

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Is your company 3-2-1 compliant? What do you consider as two different media types? One could argue at lot of options is “disk” in the end, but is HDD one media type and SSD a different media type? What if it is two different physical servers running Windows, is that two different media types?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

In this week's episode of #HomelabWednesdays, I show you how to migrate your domain controller and VMware vCenter Server to a new network without issues.Don’t forget to subscribe to get automatic notifications whenever a new video is released. 

I wrote already a post about checking Microsoft ReFS space savings. Now I want to show some basics to check XFS savings too.To check space savings on repository layer go to the repository directory and run: ls -lhsYou can see the size of each file and the total size of all files. If there a way to much files, run ls -lhs | grep total Compare this to the size allocated on the volume. To show this, run df -h In this example you see space savings of: (86 - 35) = 51G Another way is the use the command xfs_bmap. It works on file-level and is very technical. I am still not sure to interpret all output correctly. At least it can show, reflink works!To show all extents of a file, this command can be used:  xfs_bmap -e -l -p -v -v -v filename. Here also additional information like a legend is displayed.I made a small script to show the size of all shared extents of all *.vbk-files. But do not overstrain it, its experimental.#!/bin/bashfor f in *.vbkdo echo "File $f size of shared extends:" xf

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. How do you handle consistency during backups? Do you enable application-aware processing for all VMs? What about pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts? Do you have VMs where crash-consistent backups are sufficient?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Hello Community,Pretty much every week I have the same question, or comment, regarding how to create a Data Protection system that scales, it is flexible in terms of adding workloads, and dynamic so every business owner can add workloads without any difficulty.If we look at the diagram of what I just described, it could look like this, where a few Proxies are protecting an specific SLA, another three are protecting another a bit more aggressive SLA, and finally a physical Proxy is protecting the tier1 workloads using storage snapshots and SAN Backup Mode.We will make use of the flexibility and integration with VMware vSphere Tags, so we will need to create all of them under VMware, under one, or more categories, like this:On Veeam Backup & Replication they will look like this, so create a job with a name, then we add the desired tag:Selecting the Proxies we want, with the retention we want as well:And the schedule of course:Until you have something similar to this:Now, back to VMwa

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Do you have different subnets/networks on your disaster recovery site(s) than your production site(s)? How do you handle re-ip for restores from backups or replicas today? What about non-Windows?Try this question and more at https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/

Recently I had problems by upgrading Veeam from 9.5U4 to v10. Upgrade process failed after a while. We found out, directory C:\Program Files\Veeam\Backup and Replication\Backup lost its permissions. We had no change any more to enter this directory. Short answer: Antivirus software causes the problem. After disabling real-time scan, upgrade run without further issues. Antivirus software was configured according Veeam best practices.