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Question

Immutable backup (LHR) and VMs

T

Hello,

I have a question about backuping VMs on LHR.

Is it ok to backup VMs with snapshots on LHR (retention is set 20day)?? I'm asking because i heard that it is danger - but no details why….

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

10 comments

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

VMware recommends not having snapshots on VMs for more than a few days. Veeam doesn’t really have a requirement per se’. It’s just general best practice not to keep snapshots on VMs long as there is a potential for VM disk corruption and eating up datastore space, leading to VMs being inaccessible.

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Here is VMware’s KB on Snap Best Practices stating not to use snaps for > 72hrs (i.e. 3 days).

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

Hello

Thanks for replay:)

From Vmware perspective is clear. 
Maybe i will explain on example:

i take a snapshot of VM , then at night there is a INC backup job (Veeam  with LHR etc ) next day i will remove snapshot from VM , but my backup from night still contains snapshot. And this backup will exists 20 days , 

Will it have some impact for other incrementals or syntetic full Jobs ( with fast clone feature) during next 20 days ? 
 

Thanks 


 

JMeixner
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Your backup will not contain the snapshot. Veeam just saves the state of your VM files and the VM configuration files.

Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2023 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) 2022 | Twitter: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @tedew - sorry for the late response after you further clarified. As Joe states, your backup doesn’t contain the snapshot. But, Veeam does backup the changed data within the snapshot so you don’t lose any data. We had a great discussion thread on this earlier in the year...or maybe end of last yr. Let me see if I can find it.

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
vmJoe
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

When Veeam performs a back it performs a VM snapshot as a way to “lock” the files that are on disk at the time of the backup.  Veeam then copies all of the appropriate backup blocks from the VM disk and send it to a LHR.  When the backup is complete, Veeam deletes the VM snapshot it created and moves on. 

Joe Gremillion, VMCA, TOGAF, VeeaMVP
coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

@tedew - I found the thread on snapshot we were discussing last yr. The user was wondering if Veeam could take a backup of VMware snapshots instead of production data. Not sure why exactly, or what his reasoning was...but we had a great discussion here. I didn’t know Veeam actually backed up snapshot data already on VMs. Was a bit confusing between what is in the User Guide versus what is actually done behind the scenes.
 

 

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
vmJoe
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

If there is data on other VM snapshots that is needed then that data will be pulled and added to the backup restore point.

Joe Gremillion, VMCA, TOGAF, VeeaMVP
coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @tedew -

Was wondering if you had any further questions?

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @tedew -

Just wanted to follow up with you again and see if any of the comments/suggestions above helped your VM snapshot question? If so, to benefit others who find your post, we ask you mark one of the comments as ‘Best Answer’.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

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

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