Recap : Surebackup - what, why and how

Hi all

During the last physical event of Veeam VUG BeLux at the end of 2023 I gave a session about Veeam Surebackup.

What it is, why it is needed and how it should be implemented and being used.

In this post I will give a summary about the content of that session so everyone can enjoy the content 😁

What is surebackup ?

• For VMs on a Vmware or Hyper-V environment
• Since V12 : also possible for agent backups (physical devices or cloud devices)

Possible for :

• Regular backups
• Backups from storage snapshots
• Regular replica’s (only VMware)

Why do we need surebackup ?

To be sure of the recoverability of our backups

To apply to the 3-2-1-1-0 rule - to apply the 0 of the golden backup rule

Requirements : 

• Perpetual socket-based license : at least an Enterprise license
• Veeam Universal License (VUL)
• SAN licenses in case of storage snapshots (Vmware only)

• The necessary memory
• The necessary compute
• Spare storage capacity
• vPower NFS Service (only for Vmware)

How surebackup works : 

• Boots the machine in an isolated environment
  • From backup-files on the repository
  • It uses vPower NFS (Vmware)
  • It uses instant recovery (Hyper-V)
• Run tests for the machine
• Powers the machine off
• Create a report and send by email

Creates a report on recovery verification results

• Scans for malware
• Performs integrity check (validate backup files)

During verification :

• Read-only, changes written to redo log files

Recovery Verification Tests : 

• Heartbeat test (Vmware Tools – Hyper-V Integration Services are required)
• Ping test (Vmware Tools – Hyper-V Integration Services are required)
• Application test
  • DNS servers, Domain Controllers, Global Catalog servers, mail servers and web servers -  it uses an application-specific port
  • Microsoft SQL Server - it uses a script to attempt to connect to instances and databases on the SQL server

Custom Verification Tests

Components : 

Surebackup Job (required)

• Required component
• A task for perform recovery verification
• Manually or automatically by schedule
• Steps :
  • VBR starts the virtual lab
  • VMs of the application group will be started, tested and keeps running
  • VMs of the linked jobs will be started and tested
• By default per 3 VMs concurrently – recommended to keep this value as default
• Possible to lower the RAM allocation (vCPU automatically)
• Be aware of the scheduling of scheduled backup-jobs (locked)
• Optionally : check backup file integrity and malware scan

Extra features to understand :

Proxy Appliance

• Component needed to enable communication between production and virtual lab
• It’s a lightweight Linux-based VM deployed on the host where the virtual lab is created
• Assigned a IP-address in the production network
• In a dedicated virtual lab folder and resource pool on the host and dedicated virtual switch
• Acts as a gateway between production and virtual lab
• Uses network adapters : one per every isolated network
• Important : those adapters needs the IP-address of the real production default gateway
• Optional : without no automatic tests are possible – only health-test and manual tests

IP Masquerading

• VBR uses masquerade IP addressing to let traffic into the virtual lab
• Every VM in the virtual lab has a masquerade IP address
• Entry point to the VM in the virtual lab from the production environment
• Rules that route requests to VMs in the virtual lab are specified in the routing table
  • VBR : by default - automatically
  • Client machine – see further
• The proxy appliance acts as a NAT device

Static IP Mapping 

• Needed when you want to provide many clients with access to a restored VM
• Use-cases : user-directed application item-level testing (exchange owa, ...)
• To access a VM in the virtual lab, you must reserve a static IP address in the pool of production IP addresses and map this IP address of a VM in the virtual lab
• Alternatively DNS alias records can be used

Recommendations - troubleshooting : 

• Windows Firewall – enable the option to automatically turn off
• Windows Updates – can violate the maximum boot time
• Install vmware tools or hyper-v integration services on servers with Veeam agent to recover
• When using VBR and Virtual Lab on different subnets – extra manual configuration of routing between networks is required

Extra possibilities : 

• SureReplica (only Vmware)
• On-Demand Sandbox to perform tests for production VMs
• Used scenario’s :
  • Troubleshoot problems with VMs
  • Test software patches and upgrades
  • Install new software...
• Application group is required to store all the VM

regards

Nico