The goal of this step is to give you a high-level understanding of the core fundamental components of Veeam Backup & Replication. We will also guide you through some general backup strategy considerations and infrastructure deployment requirements.
Veeam Backup and Replication is a comprehensive solution that allows you to back up and restore your data residing in hybrid and multi-cloud environments:
- Cloud: AWS | Azure | Google | IBM
- Virtual: VMware | Hyper-V | Nutanix AHV | RHV
- Physical: Windows | Linux | MacOS | Unix | NAS
- Applications: Microsoft | Oracle | SAP Hana | PostgreSQL
Backup Job
Veeam Backup & Replication does not install agent software inside the VM guest OS to retrieve VM data. To back up VMs, it leverages VMware vSphere snapshot capabilities. When you back up a VM, Veeam Backup & Replication requests VMware vSphere to create a VM snapshot. The VM snapshot can be thought of as a point-in-time copy of a VM that includes virtual disks, system state, configuration and so on. Veeam Backup & Replication uses this point-in-time copy as a source of data for the backup.
Backup File Names
- .VBM - Veeam Backup Metadata
- .VBK - Veeam Full backup (Active or Synthetic)
- .VIB - Veeam Incremental Backup
Important Veeam components
There are three core components in Veeam Backup & Replication: backup server, backup proxy and backup repository. This solution also has components such as RESTful API plug-in and PowerShell.
Backup Server
The backup server is the Windows-based physical machine or VM on which Veeam Backup & Replication is installed.
Backup & Replication Console
The Veeam Backup & Replication console is a client-side component that provides access to the backup server.
Veeam Data Movers
Veeam Data Mover performs data processing tasks on behalf of Veeam Backup & Replication. These tasks include retrieving source machine data, performing data deduplication and compression and storing backed-up data on target storage. This component is installed on the proxy and gateway server.
Backup Proxies
- VMware proxy: This role is on the Veeam Backup & Replication server by default. It’s important to note that you can also install this role on another Windows or Linux server to scale out your deployment. The Veeam proxy service utilizes Veeam Data Movers to source production data. During a backup job, after a VM snapshot has been created, Veeam will copy VM data from the source’s datastore at the block level. Then, it’ll retrieve VM data, compress and deduplicate it, and store it in backup files on the backup repository in Veeam’s proprietary format.
- General purpose backup proxy: This backup proxy is used for agent-based backups of NAS, filers, file shares and off-host backups of physical servers.
- Hyper-V Off Host Proxy: An off-host backup proxy is a component required for off-host backup mode. You can deploy an off-host backup proxy to remove unwanted overhead on the production Hyper-V host. In this case, the off-host backup proxy will retrieve VM data from the source datastore, process it and transfer it to the destination.
Gateway Server
A gateway server is an auxiliary backup infrastructure component that bridges the backup server and backup repository. It can also bridge a source backup repository and a target backup repository for backup copy jobs. This kind of server is required if you’re deploying the following types of backup repositories in your backup infrastructure:
- Shared folder backup repositories (SMB/NFS)
- Dell Data Domain deduplicating storage appliances
- HPE StoreOnce deduplicating storage appliances
- Object storage repositories
These kinds of backup repositories cannot host Veeam Data Movers, which are Veeam components that establish a connection between a backup proxy and backup repository (for backup jobs) or between backup repositories (for backup copy jobs).
To reduce network load and speed up the restore process, your gateway server must be at the same site as the backup repository where your backup files are stored.
Mount Server
The mount server is required for restores that work with guest OS files and application items. To access files or items stored in backup files, Veeam Backup & Replication will mount the backup content to the mount server. Only after the content is mounted, Veeam Backup & Replication can get files and copy them to the restore destination.
The mount server is required for the following operations:
- Guest OS file restores
- Application item restores
- Secure restores
- Instant file share recoveries
- Restores of specific files and folders from NAS backup
To reduce the network load and speed up the restore process, the mount server must be in the same location as the backup repository where your backup files are stored.
If you need more help getting started, you can post your question in the comments section below or contact us at any time and someone from the Customer Success team will be there to assist you.
Continue to Step 2.2 Backup repositories and transport modes