Veeam and Dell Storage Solution

I too am using PowerEdge as local servers.  As Joe mentioned above, I as well am using Windows and ReFS repositories for local storage.  That is starting to change though.  We’re beginning to deploy linux to the PowerEdge, I believe Ubuntu, using the XFS filesystem for the repository so that we can use native immutability.  In that case, the Veeam backup server is a virtual machines, preferably running at a recovery site to withstand a disaster at the primary site.  Then we just need a Proxy server, Windows or Linux is fine at the primary site to handle access to the VMDK’s on the virtual environment.  I think in the one scenario we have so far, we have the linux physical server at the recovery site as well and are using a QNAP NAS at the primary site for the initial repository, but if I could change things, I’d have two physical servers, both linux repo’s, but immutable at the recovery site and probably regular at the primary site.  

As for hardware, we tend to use PowerEdge R540’s, but if we need additional disks, R740xd’s work, but I usually move up to a T640 in a rack-mount configuration because I can get up to 18 3.5” disks.  If you’re needing more than that, I’d probably recommend something like a R440 with a SAS HBA connected to a MD-series (or maybe ME-Series) DAS array to hold the data.  On the smaller end of the spectrum, we use R440’s or even down to T340’s or thereabouts for repository servers.  I’ve begun to look into using precision rack workstations (this is what Datto uses on their middle-tier backup appliances and I think there’s something worth investigating here) or even Optiplex workstations for backups servers, but I’m not 100% sure about setting up disk redundancy here...guessing it’s a BIOS mirror or Windows OS / Software mirror, neither of which I love.  That may also be the case for the Precision rack units, but I do recall when I was looking that hardware mirroring may be a possibility - possibly even RAID 5 and the like.