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Bill Kachersky edited this page Oct 4, 2021 · 1 revision

How to: Get started with Veeam Backup Free Edition

This article is actually about an older version of Veeam, so I'm not sure how relevant it is to the version we've downloaded. However, I'll still create notes around this article for the sake of fulfilling my assignment.

Veeam is a powerful backup tool that is designed with the process of backing up Virtual Machines (VMs hereafter) in mind. At the time of this article (2013) Veeam had recently released v7 of their software. The article outlines twelve key features of the Veeam v7 software, they are as follows;

  • VeeamZIP Backup
  • Veeam Explorer for Exchange
  • Veeam Explorer for Storage Snapshots
  • Veeam Explorer for SharePoint
  • Quick Migration for VMware
  • File Copy Job
  • VM Copy Job
  • FastSCP Editor
  • Native tape support
  • File level recovery from backup
  • Whole VM recovery from backup
  • VM file recovery from backup (VMX, VHD, VMDK, etc.)

These twelve key features can be further condensed into three categories;

VeeamZIP – Creates an ad-hoc backup of a running VM, which gives you many benefits such as being able to easily copy a backup to another host without having to power off the original VM

Powerful and flexible restores – Supports a number of recovery scenarios, including recovery of an entire VM, guest OS files and individual application items

Quick Migration (VMware) – Migrates a live VM between hosts or datastores with minimal downtime and without requiring clusters, shared storage, or even VMware vMotion or Storage vMotion

(above cited from the article.)

VeeamZIP enables you to make backups of VMs, even if they are still running. The process is streamlined down to choosing which VM to backup, and where the user would like to save the backup. The file is then compressed, which helps to save space in whatever storage solution the user is employing. OP reports that the disk space utilized is about half that of what the original VM file would take up. The article shares that there are three key scenarios where you'd want to leverage this utility.

  1. You need to update a VM
  2. You need to archive a VM
  3. You need to copy a VM to a remote host or test lab

OP cites Veeam as being a very efficient solution as well, processing engine is fast, and that optimization includes parallel processing of virtual disks, filtering out empty blocks, and more.

Restores with flexibility and control

The restores happen directly from the compressed file, without having to extract the file first. You can restore the entire VM to the same location or a completely new location. In VMWare, you can simply restore the stored disk in the event that a disk becomes corrupted and connect that stored disk to the original or recovered VM. Veeam also has the ability to restore guest OS files without having to extract the entire virtual disk image from the backup. Pretty sweet, huh?

Additional features

Native Tape Support

Tapes deteriorate over time, right? Why would you want Native Tape Support? I'll tell you why. Tapes are portable and long term storage is cheap, so many data centers continue to use tape for backup purposes. Veeam Native Tape Support enables users to not only store individual files and VM backups on standalone tape drives as well as physical and virtual tape libraries; it also offers support for the format of tapes written by NTbackup, which was discontinued with Windows Server 2003. This cross compatability with NTBackup and it's file formats makes for enhanced accessiblity and archive restoration of old files created with NTBackup.

Advanced Support for VMware vCloud Director

Veeam supports backup of the metadata and attributes specific to vCD VMs, and enables users to restore VMs and vApps directly back to their original vCD location or to a completely new one. vCD infrastructure also gets high visibility in the Veeam console for convenience and accessibility.

VeeamExplorer for Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange

For both of these utilities, Veeam provides quick and easy restore of items from backups, as well as the ability to restore items and files from a virtual disk image without having to load or mount the whole disk image, saving time, space, and money. You can even send recovered items as attachments via e-mail, super convenient!

This information is useful as we become familiar with Veeam and will support our ability to recognize the value of this software in the workplace, and it's capabilities, so that it can serve as another tool to leverage as we develop a working understanding of the world of professional IT services/solutions, which will enable us to more effectively and efficiently add value to an organization.

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