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Seeking expert advise: about Veeam

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  • valt
  • Not a newbie anymore
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Greetings everyone!

I am very new to Veeam, did a few installs & backup/restore already with the software but still I’m way too far from understanding the full structure of the tool.

Is Veeam a viable solution to backup vCenter Server Appliance? Currently the organization I joined recently has a nightly backup of the appliance. (doing a research about how Veeam can be a viable solution in long term, so I would greatly appreciate if someone can share their expertise on the matter, thank you!)

Best answer by MicoolPaul

VMware don’t want anyone backing up vCenter, they only want to backup the vCenter configuration themselves.

It is still supported but deprecated in vCenter 8.x currently:

Image-Based Backup and Restore of a vCenter Server Environment (vmware.com)

To answer your specific question, yes Veeam is a viable option to protect your vCenter Server Appliance, until VMware no longer support anyone backing it up at an image-level.

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8 comments

Moustafa_Hindawi
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Hello @valt 

Please check the below Veeam KB to backup and restore vCenter:

vCenter Server Appliance - Backup/Restore Recommendations

Moustafa Hindawi | Blogger | Nutanix Technology Champion | NCSE | NCM-MCI | VMCE | 2xVCAP-DTM & DCV | 2xVCP-NV & CMA | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moustafaadelmoustafa/ | My Blog: https://cloudwhales.co.uk/author/mhindawi/
Nico Losschaert
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MicoolPaul
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  • MicoolPaul
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  • May 25, 2023

VMware don’t want anyone backing up vCenter, they only want to backup the vCenter configuration themselves.

It is still supported but deprecated in vCenter 8.x currently:

Image-Based Backup and Restore of a vCenter Server Environment (vmware.com)

To answer your specific question, yes Veeam is a viable option to protect your vCenter Server Appliance, until VMware no longer support anyone backing it up at an image-level.

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
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ger.itpro
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  • ger.itpro
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  • May 25, 2023

@valt I also can not recommend to backing up vcenter; in my experience backup is not a problem but you will not get an functional restore so it is not useful to do it. as mentioned use the internal function from vcenter.

What I can kind of recommend is a replica from host to host; here you can be lucky and the replica will work but the same problem with not “application aware” will apply here also.

HangTen416
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Iams3le
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  • Iams3le
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  • May 25, 2023

Hi @valt ,

Please read this guide: https://core.vmware.com/resource/vcenter-server-backup-and-restore#section4

> Is Veeam a viable solution to backup vCenter Server Appliance? Currently the organization I joined recently has a nightly backup of the appliance.

To answer your question more specifically. If you must use a third party software to protect your vCenter Server, Veeam is the best solution out there for you…

[Microsoft MVP | Veeam Legend 6* | VMware vExpert 5* | Cisco Champion 3* | Object First Ace]
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Nico Losschaert
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  • May 28, 2023

@valt : My recommendation : implement the vmware built-in solution as recommended by VMWare and next to that take a not-application-awareness backup using Veeam as described in the KB and mentioned by @Moustafa_Hindawi. You have then 2 backups : a file level configuration backup and image level backup with Veeam.

So far the easiest way to do a restore is restoring the vCenter appliance using Veeam, but when it doesn’t work for some reason or not good enought you have still your vSphere configuration backup next to that.

#Veeam Legend 5* | VMCA 3* | VMCE 4* | VMTSP+ 2* | VMSP 2* | DCIE 2* | Loves Best Practices | Twitter : @NLosschaert
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  • valt
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  • May 28, 2023

Thank you everyone for all your inputs, I am in the best place to ask this topic, been to other forum/social media group but didn't get any response let alone informative & concise reply. Thank you all! 

MicoolPaul
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Iams3le
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MicoolPaul
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valt wrote:

Thank you everyone for all your inputs, I am in the best place to ask this topic, been to other forum/social media group but didn't get any response let alone informative & concise reply. Thank you all! 

Glad to hear you got what you were after 🙂

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
Iams3le
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  • Iams3le
  • Veeam Legend
  • 1374 comments
  • May 29, 2023
valt wrote:

Thank you everyone for all your inputs, I am in the best place to ask this topic, been to other forum/social media group but didn't get any response let alone informative & concise reply. Thank you all! 

This sounds good! Thank you for your feedback…

[Microsoft MVP | Veeam Legend 6* | VMware vExpert 5* | Cisco Champion 3* | Object First Ace]

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