I have a 5 TB file share on Windows. Should I back this up using agent backup or File Share backup? I have a backup copy job to send backups offsite. Currently doing file share backup with retention time set to 4 years. I think the agent based backup would take up more repo disk space (multiple vbk files)?
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NAS File Share backup VS Windows Agent backup
Best answer by MicoolPaul
NAS Backup can go to object storage to btw
In summary though NAS backup jobs are great for file versioning, and necessary for huge (64TB+) volumes unless you’ve got SAN Storage Snapshot integration.
NAS backup consumes more VUL instances than an agent (first 500GB is free per share but one VUL instance per 500GB above) so I’d look into the features of NAS and if you don’t need anything specific I’d stick to agent, the topology is simpler for starters, aka just an agent, no cache repo and proxy!
+21The answer to that question is - it depends. Both options work. VBR can manage the backup and use a repository server to send the backups to and then you can add it to your BCJ.
The Agent can send directly to a Veeam Repository, Veeam Cloud Connect or Object Storage directly if you wanted to. It may tend to be slower if the machine is being used while backups are running.
If it was me, I would opt to have VBR do the backups for you using File Share Backup.
Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | vExpert 6* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
+23NAS Backup can go to object storage to btw
In summary though NAS backup jobs are great for file versioning, and necessary for huge (64TB+) volumes unless you’ve got SAN Storage Snapshot integration.
NAS backup consumes more VUL instances than an agent (first 500GB is free per share but one VUL instance per 500GB above) so I’d look into the features of NAS and if you don’t need anything specific I’d stick to agent, the topology is simpler for starters, aka just an agent, no cache repo and proxy!
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
+21MicoolPaul wrote:
NAS Backup can go to object storage to btw
In summary though NAS backup jobs are great for file versioning, and necessary for huge (64TB+) volumes unless you’ve got SAN Storage Snapshot integration.
NAS backup consumes more VUL instances than an agent (first 500GB is free per share but one VUL instance per 500GB above) so I’d look into the features of NAS and if you don’t need anything specific I’d stick to agent, the topology is simpler for starters, aka just an agent, no cache repo and proxy!
Thanks, I missed adding that to my post. 😋
Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | vExpert 6* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
I found that file share backups takes less time to copy to offsite since its just incrementals. Agent based backups would create periodic vbk files that would be too large to send across to the off site.
+21Arin wrote:
I found that file share backups takes less time to copy to offsite since its just incrementals. Agent based backups would create periodic vbk files that would be too large to send across to the off site.
Glad you were able to sort out what was best, and I figured this would be the way to go. 😉
Be sure to select an answer to your question that best suits your topic.
Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | vExpert 6* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
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