I have an odd backup setup that I am trying to navigate. We have a VM (VMware) that is being backed up that has a volume listed in the OS as G: drive. This is actually a USB drive attached to the host server and is being fed into VMware via the xHCI USB driver. Veeam is backing up this volume, but is not listing it in the list of backed up drives if I try and create an exclusion. Is there another area to look or another way to exclude just this G: drive from the backup?
Answer
Exclude USB attached drive from Veeam backup
+3Best answer by MicoolPaul
Hey! Without seeing the specifics of the deployment and whether or not it’s as simple as excluded the specific controller that has the disk etc, otherwise could you use Veeam Agent if it’s some sort of direct passthrough of the device? That way it can handle from within OS.
+11Hello
[Microsoft MVP 2x | Veeam Legend (2021 -2025) | VMware vExpert 5x | Cisco Champion 3x | Object First Ace 2x]
+3Hello
I have. In that exclusions list, I am able to see the 4 datastores we have created in vmware. It’s the USB drive that is not showing up. I can tell that it’s being backed up due to the size of the incrementals that are occurring, but therein lies the issue. We really need to be able to exclude this drive. The data on it is temporary and gets deleted regularly with the application it is assigned to, but consequently, we are losing all of our disk space due to that drive.
+11Hello
I have. In that exclusions list, I am able to see the 4 datastores we have created in vmware. It’s the USB drive that is not showing up. I can tell that it’s being backed up due to the size of the incrementals that are occurring, but therein lies the issue. We really need to be able to exclude this drive. The data on it is temporary and gets deleted regularly with the application it is assigned to, but consequently, we are losing all of our disk space due to that drive.
https://forums.veeam.com/nutanix-ahv-f51/is-it-possible-to-exclude-drives-from-backups-t67044.html
[Microsoft MVP 2x | Veeam Legend (2021 -2025) | VMware vExpert 5x | Cisco Champion 3x | Object First Ace 2x]
+23Hey! Without seeing the specifics of the deployment and whether or not it’s as simple as excluded the specific controller that has the disk etc, otherwise could you use Veeam Agent if it’s some sort of direct passthrough of the device? That way it can handle from within OS.
Michael Paul - Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Veeam | https://micoolpaul.com | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.com
+3Hey! Without seeing the specifics of the deployment and whether or not it’s as simple as excluded the specific controller that has the disk etc, otherwise could you use Veeam Agent if it’s some sort of direct passthrough of the device? That way it can handle from within OS.
Veeam agent is not a bad idea. Can you use that in conjunction with vcenter backups in the same VBR installation on a backup server? (I hope that makes sense...basically have an agent backup along with the other vcenter backups within VBR on the backup server).
+23Hey! Without seeing the specifics of the deployment and whether or not it’s as simple as excluded the specific controller that has the disk etc, otherwise could you use Veeam Agent if it’s some sort of direct passthrough of the device? That way it can handle from within OS.
Veeam agent is not a bad idea. Can you use that in conjunction with vcenter backups in the same VBR installation on a backup server? (I hope that makes sense...basically have an agent backup along with the other vcenter backups within VBR on the backup server).
Yep completely fine! Just avoid processing via both vSphere backup and agent backup jobs to prevent potential issues. That’s not a Veeam specific thing, just it’s never good with multiple tools backing up data as they can mess with each other.
It’ll be a separate Agent based backup job, centrally managed by Veeam B&R
Michael Paul - Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Veeam | https://micoolpaul.com | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.com
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.