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Question

Does Veeam feature Imaging or Cloning of drives / partitions, or is it just backup?

  • 4 January 2024
  • 6 comments
  • 141 views
B
Userlevel 2

When researching backup strategies, I think I understand that Veeam creates “snapshots” which are backups, which need to be restored, which can take time…

 

I.e. if my OS drive fails, I need to boot into a Preboot Environment (PE) or Recovery Environment (RE), then start the restore process, which might take hours. But in theory, with a separate hard drive with a cloned version of the OS, I could swap the drive, and boot up into a working OS installation in approximately 5 minutes.

 

But I can’t find any explanation if Veeam offers the ability to create an image or clone of a full drive and or partition, and I am asking if there is a reason for this omission?

I have read on other websites that the built-in Windows 7 create system image “feature” is not to be trusted, it is old and no longer supported.

Therefore it seems like an Imaging / Cloning feature would be important to make Veeam a complete protection solution.

Otherwise I need to buy some other software to get an automated imaging / cloning feature procedure.

Thanks for your input / discussion.

 

6 comments

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi,

 

Is this for a physical endpoint or for a virtual server?

Veeam can replicate virtual machines to provide near-instant recovery, but no it’s not a cloning tool for endpoints. Backups are designed for longer-term retention of multiple points in a space-efficient manner, which is what Veeam does, as it writes to backup repositories instead of a 1:1 mapping of data between disks.

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

To add to Michael’s comments - the Agent backup does allow bare metal recovery and the VM backups allow restoring of your virtual machine so “technically” they do clone (backup of server), but it is not like actual cloning software.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
B
Userlevel 2

this is a for a desktop computer, so I guess a “physical endpoint”?

After writing the original question, I had a thought that maybe it would be best practice to use Raid Level 1 (mirroring) of the OS drive / physical disk, to achieve near instant recovery of a working computer?

And of course, the irony that if the end user is so critically important, a second instance of a physical computer setup and ready to swap drives into would be required to achieve a near instant recovery environment, in the event that a disaster of other hardware components failed…

 

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Yep RAID1 is designed to protect against a single drive’s loss so that would be useful (also useful is monitoring the drive health to know when a disk is failing or failed so that you replace it before the other one fails! A common tripping hazard for people that implement RAID for endpoints).

 

You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding how far you go, but yeah it’s easy enough and cheap enough to get a low-end RAID setup for a computer, which isn’t actually a ‘backup’ because if you got hit with ransomware for example then both drives would be encrypted, and then for your separate copy of data, use the Veeam Agent to make a backup somewhere else. 😊

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
B
Userlevel 2

Yes, thank you. We are always on the high wire act of balancing “perfect” vs “good enough for the real world”

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @ball Backup -

I am just following up on your post/question here. Were any of the comments provided beneficial in answering your question? If so, could you mark the one which best helped you as ‘Best Answer’ to benefit others who may have a similar question? Or, if you still have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you.

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

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