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Best practice for protecting VBR and separate DB VM via VMware snapshots?

  • April 28, 2026
  • 8 comments
  • 49 views
D

Hello Expert,

I am looking for advice on the best way to protect our Veeam VBR/DB. Our environment is currently set up as follows:

Veeam VBR Server: Running as a VM on VMware.
Database Server: Running as a separate, dedicated VM (MS SQL).
Current Backup: We are currently including both the VBR VM and the DB VM in a standard VMware snapshot-based backup job.
Is this considered a "good" or "supported" configuration? I am concerned about:


Stun/Freeze: Will the VMware snapshot "stun" cause the VBR server to lose its connection to the remote database during jobs?
Consistency: Does a standard VM backup ensure the VBR server and the separate DB VM stay in sync if a restore is needed?
Circular Dependency: If our VMware cluster goes down, we lose our backup server.
Should I exclude these VMs from our regular backup jobs and rely solely on the Configuration Backup tool, or is there a benefit to using Veeam Agent for these specific servers instead?

Best answer by ddomask

Hi, backing up the backup server (and backup infrastructure components like repositories and proxies) is not supported and may introduce issues into your backup & restore operations. Please see our KB here for full details: https://www.veeam.com/kb2645

In your case, I would stop backing up the Veeam server & components, and use the Configuration Backup exclusively.

I would advise maybe maintain a template that you can quickly deploy which has the current version of Veeam installed + OS & security updates, and then deploy fresh + perform a Configuration Restore in a disaster event

      8 comments

      CMF
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      • CMF
      • Veeam Legend
      • April 28, 2026

      Hi ​@dkumar ,

      From a Veeam standpoint, having the configuration backup of the VBR server is sufficient. With this backup, you can deploy a new virtual machine, perform a clean installation of Veeam Backup & Replication using the same version as the original server (including a local PostgreSQL database), and restore the configuration database to fully recover all settings and configurations on the new server.

      If you want to backup your Database Server it might be useful to use application aware backup for MS SQL to make sure that you are able to restore it. 

       

      Chalid Mohamed Fathallah | Veeam Legend | VMCE 2024 | VMCA 2025 | VCP-DCV | VCE-vSan
      Tommy O'Shea
      Forum|alt.badge.img+5
      • Tommy O'Shea
      • Veeam Legend
      • April 28, 2026

      Best practice is to only use the Veeam configuration backup.

      You technically can still back up a Veeam server VM with Veeam, and I haven't personally seen much negative effect. Regarding your question about things being in sync between the VBR server and SQL server, that is a non-issue, since all configuration is stored within the database server.

      You're right to be concerned about your Veeam server depending on your VMware cluster. You should at least ensure the backup storage is separate from the production storage, and that you have offsite/immutable backup copies.

      Tommy O’Shea, VMCE, VMCE-SP, VMCA
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        • dkumar
        • Author
        • April 28, 2026

        what do you expert suggest, shall i exclude VBR from regular VM snapshot backup ?

          CMF
          Forum|alt.badge.img+8
          • CMF
          • Veeam Legend
          • April 28, 2026

          I don´t think that there is a definite right or wrong on this issue. I see a lot of customers backing up their VBR Server but in fact you only need the configuration Backup to restore all your settings to a fresh installed server. If you don´t backup your VBR server it will save a VUL that can be used for other workloads. 

          For the SQL Server in your setup. Is that used for veeam exclusively or do you use it for other applications as well? 

          Chalid Mohamed Fathallah | Veeam Legend | VMCE 2024 | VMCA 2025 | VCP-DCV | VCE-vSan
          D
          Forum|alt.badge.img+3
          • ddomask
          • Experienced User
          • Answer
          • April 28, 2026

          Hi, backing up the backup server (and backup infrastructure components like repositories and proxies) is not supported and may introduce issues into your backup & restore operations. Please see our KB here for full details: https://www.veeam.com/kb2645

          In your case, I would stop backing up the Veeam server & components, and use the Configuration Backup exclusively.

          I would advise maybe maintain a template that you can quickly deploy which has the current version of Veeam installed + OS & security updates, and then deploy fresh + perform a Configuration Restore in a disaster event

          0x0D 0x0A
            D
            • dkumar
            • Author
            • April 28, 2026

             Veeam exclusively, you know I am looking here a best practice for VBR and DB server. A method that i could rely for quick recovery during any disaster.

            Chris.Childerhose
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             Veeam exclusively, you know I am looking here a best practice for VBR and DB server. A method that i could rely for quick recovery during any disaster.

            What David said above is what you need to follow as he works for Veeam.  The post right above this one you made.

            Chris Childerhose (Enterprise Architect) - VMCA | VMCE | VMCE-SP | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 7* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
            coolsport00
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            • coolsport00
            • Veeam Legend
            • April 28, 2026

             Veeam exclusively, you know I am looking here a best practice for VBR and DB server. A method that i could rely for quick recovery during any disaster.

            Hi ​@dkumar ...the best way is probably the Config DB recovery method as already suggested. What you should probably do there is make Config DB backups quite often (every 2-4hrs?) based off when your backup/copy/replic Jobs run to be able to restore your VBR to as current a state as possible. Assuming you have a Windows VBR server, use the User Guide to restore:

            https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/userguide/vbr_config_restore.html?ver=13

            It’s pretty seamless. The only other option you would have to “quickly” recover/restore your VBR is to do Replication to a cold DR site of your VBR & DB servers, but run the Replication job often. This may not be what you want though as snapshots are created. Veeam recommends doing Config DB restores.

            Best.

            Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
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