What would you put into a Veeam training course?


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If you were creating your very own Veeam training course what would you include, what would you focus on? 

If you have sat the VMCE training already, what you add more of or remove?

What do you think are the essentials, that everyone should know about when working with Veeam?


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Userlevel 7
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If you were creating your very own Veeam training course what would you include, what would you focus on? 

If you have sat the VMCE training already, what you add more of or remove?

What do you think are the essentials, that everyone should know about when working with Veeam?

I would not get anything, In my opinion for the students and the Instructor the enhanced of the Labs was great, is more Agile …. and identify key veeam components is essential for everyone.

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I think I would focus on the tasks that would make the attendee and better Veeam admin. More details about troubleshooting within the logs is something I would add. Also a section about setting up Surebackup (one of the most under used features). 

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Indeed, more infos about SureBackup would be good as well as troubleshooting, maybe even licensing.

Another topic which wasnt deeply enough covered (afai remember) was Tape-Backup.

 

For the ADO course tape infrastructure sizing woud be nice, though I know there maybe less and less customers using tape.

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I think I would focus on the tasks that would make the attendee and better Veeam admin. More details about troubleshooting within the logs is something I would add. Also a section about setting up Surebackup (one of the most under used features). 

Good point @Cragdoo ! I think that in VMCA there is an in-depth module Logs and Troubleshooting, I think that is why in this course common problems are mentioned or how to obtain logs of the different components ... and as an instructor I was learning which modules to spend more time on, surebackup is one of them, the student should not finish the course with doubts in that module :muscle:

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Indeed, more infos about SureBackup would be good as well as troubleshooting, maybe even licensing.

Another topic which wasnt deeply enough covered (afai remember) was Tape-Backup.

 

For the ADO course tape infrastructure sizing woud be nice, though I know there maybe less and less customers using tape.

In my region, the customer are still considering Tape in their Infra, but yes, I think may be this module could be more depth...

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If you were creating your very own Veeam training course what would you include, what would you focus on? 

If you have sat the VMCE training already, what you add more of or remove?

What do you think are the essentials, that everyone should know about when working with Veeam?


I’m not afraid to admit that I am a Green Horn.  I was the last to join our SysAdmin Team and was Designated the “Backup Guy”.  My project was to migrate from Backup Exec to Veeam. 

If I were to create my own Veeam Training Course,  I would include migrating from Current State (Backup Exec) to Veeam.  I would also include expanding your infrastructure as requirements change.

For me and My team it is essential to stop thinking Veeam works like another an other Product (Backup Exec.

I think it is essential to be aware of the foundation of the infrastructure of Veeam. 

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Thank you for taking the time to write up your feedback @DerekA, really love it! Could you expand a bit further on the “I would include migrating from Current State (Backup Exec) to Veeam”, maybe provide an example or two to make sure we understood correctly?

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Indeed, more info about SureBackup would be good

I’m a big SureBackup fan :) Could you provide some scenario(s) or examples of info that you had in mind?

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Also a section about setting up Surebackup (one of the most underused features). 

I know you had a chance to sit the current v10 class, so wanted to try and check if you thought a future class should go more in-depth on SureBackup? What would you like to see more?

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I agree with SureBackup as it’s one of my most common training elements when I’m asked to Health Check an environment as I always ask where their SureBackup is (basically, why Mr Customer are you not using SureBackup).

 

Another delicate balance to find but could be useful is to focus on some backup vendor agnostic concepts, explaining the key importance of some decisions and explaining with examples the scenarios that each part of the 3-2-1-1-0 rule helps protect (though I understand this could age quicker than the rest of the course content).

 

For example I explain to customers that all backups, not just backups to Tape/USB/Cloud should be encrypted.

 

If a malicious person, insider threat or external, wanted to exfiltrate data undetected or practice compromising the network to avoid triggering alerts in production, you could spin up that backup data in an isolated environment and you’d never know they’ve done it!

 

I believe that providing best practice advice in-line with course content where applicable helps people apply context to the training.

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Thank you for taking the time to write up your feedback @DerekA, really love it! Could you expand a bit further on the “I would include migrating from Current State (Backup Exec) to Veeam”, maybe provide an example or two to make sure we understood correctly?

I had the in house responsibility of upgrading our Backup Infrastructure and Application.  We used Veritas Backup Exec and a Silo infrastructure with 4 Backup Exec installations to their own tape libraries.  Veeam Availability Suite was procured to replace Backup Exec.  When I started this upgrade, it was my first introduction to Veeam.  My mindset how backups in general worked was how we used Backup Exec as a Blueprint.  With priorities and needs setting the expectations,  I needed to draft my own Blue Print of the new Veeam Backup infrastructure.  What would make things easier for me would be a chapter on configuring Veeam for Backup Exec users.  In Backup Exec,  you can schedule Tape Drive Cleaning with a tape.  In Veeam you can enable Veeam to automatically clean the drive when the Library asks for it.  In Backup Exec to complete a file level restore,  you need a file level backup.  In Veeam file level restore is possible from VM backup image.  A Virtual Server Backup and additional File level backup of the same server is not needed to be configured to achieve this need in Veeam.  In Backup Exec,  a backup installation for each tape library is needed and each installation had its unique set of backup Jobs to complete a backup cycle in a timely manner.  In Veeam, 1 Console manages it all concurrently.  Differences - Configuring a backup Job in Backup Exec vs Veeam,  Restoring Files in Backup Exec Vs Veeam,  Verifying Back Jobs in Backup Exec Vs Veeam.  Things in Veeam that make administration better that is not available in Backup Exec - Proxies, Backup directly from Host Drive,  SureBackup, Instant recovery,  Enterprise Manager,  Veeam One etc.   These are high level topics that would have been helpful if it was available.  Keep in mind I have yet to sit through the VMCE Training.  Thanks for the followup.

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Thank you for taking the time to write up your feedback @DerekA, really love it! Could you expand a bit further on the “I would include migrating from Current State (Backup Exec) to Veeam”, maybe provide an example or two to make sure we understood correctly?

I had the in house responsibility of upgrading our Backup Infrastructure and Application.  We used Veritas Backup Exec and a Silo infrastructure with 4 Backup Exec installations to their own tape libraries.  Veeam Availability Suite was procured to replace Backup Exec.  When I started this upgrade, it was my first introduction to Veeam.  My mindset how backups in general worked was how we used Backup Exec as a Blueprint.  With priorities and needs setting the expectations,  I needed to draft my own Blue Print of the new Veeam Backup infrastructure.  What would make things easier for me would be a chapter on configuring Veeam for Backup Exec users.  In Backup Exec,  you can schedule Tape Drive Cleaning with a tape.  In Veeam you can enable Veeam to automatically clean the drive when the Library asks for it.  In Backup Exec to complete a file level restore,  you need a file level backup.  In Veeam file level restore is possible from VM backup image.  A Virtual Server Backup and additional File level backup of the same server is not needed to be configured to achieve this need in Veeam.  In Backup Exec,  a backup installation for each tape library is needed and each installation had its unique set of backup Jobs to complete a backup cycle in a timely manner.  In Veeam, 1 Console manages it all concurrently.  Differences - Configuring a backup Job in Backup Exec vs Veeam,  Restoring Files in Backup Exec Vs Veeam,  Verifying Back Jobs in Backup Exec Vs Veeam.  Things in Veeam that make administration better that is not available in Backup Exec - Proxies, Backup directly from Host Drive,  SureBackup, Instant recovery,  Enterprise Manager,  Veeam One etc.   These are high level topics that would have been helpful if it was available.  Keep in mind I have yet to sit through the VMCE Training.  Thanks for the followup.

I wanna preface my response by saying this is just my opinion and there’s no right/wrong. I agree wholeheartedly that it’s a great idea to help customers transition from competing products, but I don’t believe it belongs in the VMCE content for the following reason:

 

A customer purchasing or trialing Veeam for the first time is unlikely to invest in training on a product they aren’t invested in financially yet. I believe Veeam would rather direct customers to their VASP network.

The VMCE course is also already quite packed and they’d need to focus on multiple backup products meaning Veeam would have to spend time licensing and upskilling their staff in competing products to keep the course content up to date.

 

That being said I think some videos on Veeam University or from the community could fill a lot of this gap, but I wouldn’t expect too much from the community as people get paid good money to scope and perform migrations...

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