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Veeam Community Edition waketimers going nuts with Backup for Microsoft Office 365

W
Userlevel 3

I’ve had a problem with a Windows 10 workstation waking up from S3 sleep every few minutes all night long.

I tracked the problem to Veeam-created waketimers, created repeatedly by the Veeam.Archiver.Service and the Veeam.Archiver.Proxy.Service.  Stopping those services stops the waketimers, and the system returns to normal sane behaviour.  

These services run under Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and Veeam Backup Proxy for Microsoft 365. Even when I have scheduled backups turned off at the server console, this keeps happening.  Note, I do WANT the system to wake for backups -- once a night, every night. But that's all.

So it appears those services are creating those timers, but I see no Veeam-supported way to stop it or make them behave sanely.  Stopping backups at the console does not seem to affect these timers.

Now, I did install Veeam Agent for Windows 6.0.2.1090 -- Workstation Edition as well as backup for Microsoft 365 on that workstation, using a local swapped hard drive, before installing the central management on the BDR server, and that server did take over the administration of that backup.

So now I’m wondering, is Veeam Community Edition centrally administered backup supposed to be compatible with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365?  If so, how is it supposed to be installed and administered? 

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Best answer by kwallewek 13 February 2024, 16:53

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13 comments

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

VBR does not manage VB365 - it has its own console for administration.  VB365 tends to be installed on its own server to manage O365 backups separate from VBR/Agents.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
W
Userlevel 3

Thanks for that helpful clarification!  I only installed Backup for Microsoft Office 365 on a single system. and when I installed the B&R console it appeared to take over managing backup on the workstation.

I uninstalled VB365 and the crazy waketimer behaviour disappeared.  I’m going to wait a bit before I put it back on again.  And do some reading. The documentation is nearly 500 pages!

regnor
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Veeam Backup & Replication can manage the Veeam agents, so maybe you have taken over the standalone agent of your server? But you won’t need the full VBR installation, if you only have a single server to manage. VB365 is independent of VBR as Chris mentioned.

Regarding your issue. I think I’ve seen your post on Reddit but I didn’t have a clue on how to solve that. VB365 is a server application and meant to run 24/7, so there might be services in the background which wake up your server. I know that customers in the cloud power off their instance and start it at the beginning of the backup job; but that’s different from standby. Let’s see what Mike from Product Management will reply to your post in the R&D forums.

Max M. | Systems Engineer @Veeam | VMCE/VMCA | former Legend & Vanguard
W
Userlevel 3

Thanks very much for that response, regnor.  Interesting, maybe I should clarify.

I have a separate, dedicated BDR server that does nothing but perform and manage backups, host the backup storage RAID array and hard drive swap caddy bay.  There’s no reason I’d want to use Microsoft 365 on it.

I have a pair of separate servers that provide network file services and domain control.  The BDR backs those up as well, and manages that backup.  The BDR also manages backups on personal desktops and tablets.

When I first started switching over my backup infrastructure, getting to know Veeam, I started by just installing the Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows (workstation edition) on my primary workstation, backing up to a USB-attached external hard drive.  That would be about when I also installed Veeam for Microsoft 365 on that system: it has a large partition dedicated to OneDrive local replication and should, in theory, have all of my OneDrive and other Microsoft 365 data (Microsoft does not make that easy to confirm.)  I wanted  some way to make sure I have a local backup of all Microsoft 365-hosted data. “Probably” isn’t good enough.

So, so far, no BDR and no Community Edition.

After I got that working and became comfortable with Veeam, I switched the BDR from my previous backup software (StorageCraft ShadowProtect), installed Veeam Community Edition on it and set up backups for all other systems to the BDR.  That when apparently when the BDR took over backups of the workstation Agent.  It also appears to have created duplicate job definitions and such, which I am only now figuring out how to clean up.

It was around this time I started notice that the (newly-upgraded) workstation could not sleep to save its life.  I would be sitting nearby doing something else, and hear its storage devices going through wakeup cycles ever 5 or 10 minutes when it should still be sound asleep.

At first I thought the problem was due to workstation upgrade issues.  It took me some time to figure out that I had a bunch of maverick Veeam-related waketimers, and that stopping Veeam’s Microsoft 365-related services stopped them and the system could sleep properly.

I have now uninstalled the Veeam Microsoft 365 backup software complete and sleep is working properly.  But I do want to backup my Microsft 365 data, which resides primarily on the workstation.  

It seems like maybe I really stepped in it by installing Veeam Microsoft 365 backup on the workstation.  _Maybe_ it was because I installed it on the workstation before installing Community on the BDR.  I don’t know.  But it seems very odd that nobody else anywhere has run into this issue.

So, now what do I do?

-- Ken

dloseke
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

I can’t imagine that you’re alone in this issue, but I’d guess a minority in that you don’t have the system running fulltime.  Most people running VB365 will likely have a server running 24/7 and haven’t encountered the issue because of this.  Might be worth trying to open a ticket with Veeam support, but Community Edition is best effort when they have time.

Derek M. Loseke, Senior Systems Engineer | Veeam Legend 2022-2023 | VMSP/VMTSP | VCP6-DCV | VSP/VTSP | CCNA | https://technotesanddadjokes.com | @dloseke
W
Userlevel 3

I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at.  I DO have a server running 24/7.  Multiple, in fact.  I have a virtualization host cluster, a file server, and DC, and a BDR server.  But it makes zero sense to me to have OneDrive and Microsoft 365 on a server.  Is that what you are talking about?  

I didn’t install the VB365 backup on the BDR server because I didn’t install Microsoft 365 on it.  I installed VB365 backup on the system where I use Microsoft 365.  

My purpose was to have a local, complete backup of all of the data in OneDrive.  Maybe nobody else does?

I guess I’m just confused.

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at.  I DO have a server running 24/7.  Multiple, in fact.  I have a virtualization host cluster, a file server, and DC, and a BDR server.  But it makes zero sense to me to have OneDrive and Microsoft 365 on a server.  Is that what you are talking about?  

I didn’t install the VB365 backup on the BDR server because I didn’t install Microsoft 365 on it.  I installed VB365 backup on the system where I use Microsoft 365.  

My purpose was to have a local, complete backup of all of the data in OneDrive.  Maybe nobody else does?

I guess I’m just confused.

You are slightly confused. The vb365 solution is not required on the machine you use O365 on as it just requires a connection to that for doing backups and why you install it on a server.

So connection to the organization in O365 not the applications.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
W
Userlevel 3

Huh.  Thanks!  OK, I’ll try that soon.

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @Wallewek -

I’m just following up on your M365 backup question. Did any of the provided comments help you out? If so, we ask you mark one as ‘Best Answer’ so those with a similar question who come across your post may benefit. If not, can you share what you did? 

Also, if you have further questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thank you.

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
K
Userlevel 2

All of the answers provided helpful clues, which I appreciate, but none told the whole story.  There is no option for “best answer” that I can see in this web interface, so I “liked” one of the later ones by Chris.

As soon as I uninstalled VB365 from the workstation, the waking-every-5-minutes behaviour disappeared.

Veeam documentation and UI testing (or lack thereof) strikes again.  I tried to install vb365 on my BDR server and, partway through that process, discovered that I simply cannot.  It required an enterprise/corporate Microsoft 365 account, which I do not have because the Family account does not provide one, nor provide any AD services.  Would have been nice to have known that requirement sooner, and avoided wasting all that time.

So the whole thing turned out to be a waste of time, and I still have no way to obtain a direct complete backup of my OneDrive data -- which it is still unclear to me VB365 would be capable of doing anyway, as it appears to have no specific option for OneDrive data backup.

Case closed.  Better an answer you don’t like than none at all, I guess.

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @kwallewek -

Thanks for the update. That’s really what we want...what you did (or couldn’t) do to resolve the ‘wake’ issue...not necessarily to select a ‘Best Answer’ if none fit. It appears what you did on your own in 1 of the comments → uninstall VB365 ...resolved your wake issue; although, your whole issue aside from that was you still wanted to backup your OD, but are unable to due to lack of support (licensing, it appears).

It looks like you may have created another account? This is the reason you’re not able to see and select a Best Answer (it’s an option to the left of the ‘like’ option), because you’re not the original poster account. “Wallewek” is 😊

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
K
Userlevel 2

Hi @kwallewek -

Thanks for the update. That’s really what we want...what you did (or couldn’t) do to resolve the ‘wake’ issue...not necessarily to select a ‘Best Answer’ if none fit. It appears what you did on your own in 1 of the comments → uninstall VB365 ...resolved your wake issue; although, your whole issue aside from that was you still wanted to backup your OD, but are unable to due to lack of support (licensing, it appears).

It looks like you may have created another account? This is the reason you’re not able to see and select a Best Answer (it’s an option to the left of the ‘like’ option), because you’re not the original poster account. “Wallewek” is 😊

Yeah.. I know about the multiple logins thing.  It’s related to other Veeam account hoop-jumping.  It’s a PITA but not quick and simple to clean up, so...  Maybe another time.  

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

All good. Thanks 😊

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

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