Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 With Veeam Integration v1 Lab Guide

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Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 with Veeam Integration Lab v1

Last Updated: 17-NOVEMBER-2017
Created in Partnership with Cisco Global Alliances at Veeam
About This Lab

This lab guide walks through the entire Veeam experience with HyperFlex integration, from Veeam installation to setting up
replication from backups. The lab environment is comprised of the following infrastructure components:
• Veeam Backup Server – VB2
• HyperFlex Cluster – hx-storage-b as primary HX cluster (hx-cluster-a will be used for replication tasks as secondary HX
cluster)
• SQL Server – SQL1
• Active Directory – AD1
• vCenter Server – VC1
For parts of the lab, it is necessary to use RDP from the WKST1 desktop to log in to the VB2 and AD1 VMs.
This guide for the preconfigured lab includes:
• Requirements
• About This Solution
• Topology
• Session Users
• Get Started
• Scenario 1: Install Veeam Backup & Replication
• Scenario 2: Add Cisco HyperFlex Storage to Veeam
• Scenario 3: Perform a Backup
• Scenario 4: Perform a Restore
• Scenario 5: VM Replication
© 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 65
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Requirements
The table below outlines the requirements for this preconfigured demonstration.
Table 1. Requirements
Required Optional
● Laptop ● Cisco AnyConnect®
About This Solution

Cisco HyperFlex™ is part of a complete data center strategy that uses hyperconvergence architecture models to solve basic
business challenges of data optimization, operational efficiency, and adaptability. Because it is built on the Cisco UCS® platform,
it allows unified network management using skillsets that are already present in the organization. It is scalable, adaptable, and
completely hyperconverged – providing the three layers of Network, Compute & Storage intelligently integrated into a single
solution for faster application deployment.
In Cisco HyperFlex systems, the data platform spans three or more Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series nodes to create a highly available
cluster. Each node includes a Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform controller that implements the distributed file system using
internal flash-based SSD drives and high-capacity HDDs to store data. The controllers communicate with each other over 10
Gigabit Ethernet to present a single pool of storage that spans the nodes in the cluster. Nodes access data through a data layer
using file, block, object, and API plug-ins. As nodes are added, the cluster scales linearly to deliver computing, storage capacity,
and I/O performance.
Veeam Availability Suite provides full data protection for applications and data running on the Cisco HyperFlex cluster. With this
solution, users can not only perform backup/restore, replication, and archiving with Veeam, but also restore VMs, files, and
application items quickly and easily. Highlighting the native snapshot integration between Veeam and HyperFlex, users can
demonstrate data protection tasks often performed by storage administrators.
Topology
This content includes preconfigured users and components to illustrate the scripted scenarios and features of the solution. Most
components are fully configurable with predefined administrative user accounts. You can see the IP address and user account
credentials to use to access a component by clicking the component icon in the Topology menu of your active session and in the
scenario steps that require their use.
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Figure 1. dCloud Topology
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Get Started
BEFORE PRESENTING
Cisco dCloud strongly recommends that you perform the tasks in this document with an active session before presenting in front
of a live audience. This will allow you to become familiar with the structure of the document and content.
It may be necessary to schedule a new session after following this guide in order to reset the environment to its original
configuration.
PREPARATION IS KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION.
Follow the steps to schedule a session of the content and configure your presentation environment.
1. Initiate your dCloud session. [Show Me How]
NOTE: It may take up to 10 minutes for your session to become active.
2. Connect to the workstation with one of the following two methods:
• Cisco AnyConnect VPN [Show Me How] and the local RDP client on your laptop [Show Me How]
• Workstation 1: 198.18.133.36, (DCLOUD\demouser/C1sco12345
• Cisco dCloud Remote Desktop Client [Show Me How]
3. On the wkst1 remote desktop screen, click the Remote Desktop icon on the task bar.
a. Select vb2 from the drop-down and click Connect to open the VB2 remote desktop. No credentials are necessary to
log in to VB2.
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Scenario 1. Install Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam software can be downloaded for free from https://www.veeam.com/downloads.html. For this lab, Veeam Availability
Suite, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam ONE, has been downloaded to the Download subdirectory.
This subdirectory also includes a license key that can be used for the installation.
Steps
Install Veeam Backup & Replication
1. On the VB2 desktop, navigate to the Downloads subdirectory and double-click VeeamAvailabilitySuite_9.5.Update2.iso.
2. Double-click Setup.exe, then click Yes. Click the Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 2 install tile to start the
installation.
3. Carefully read the EULA statement and click I accept the terms in the license agreement. Click Next.
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4. The license file has been downloaded to the Downloads directory on VB2. Click Browse and navigate to Downloads.
5. Select veeam_availability_suite_nfr_12_0.lic and click Open. Click Next.
6. This screen shows the program components that will be installed. Click Next.
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7. Veeam Backup & Replication Setup will run a system configuration check to determine whether any required software is
missing. If any requirements return Failed, click Install to enable the missing features. Once the pre-requisite components are
installed, click Next.
8. Review the installation settings. Click Let me specify different settings to make additional changes. Click Next.
9. Keep the default Local System account, and click Next.
10. Click Use existing instance of SQL Server, and leave Windows authentication credentials of service account selected.
Click Next.
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NOTE: SQL Server 2016 is pre-installed on VB2. In environments where no previously installed SQL instance is available, Veeam
Backup & Replication Setup can automatically install an SQL Server Express edition for the VeeamBackup database.
11. Leave the Port Configuration settings as is, and click Next to continue.
12. Keep Data Locations as is, and click Next to continue.
13. Review the installation information and click Install.
14. Installation of Veeam on this platform will take about 10 minutes. Once it is complete, the screen below will appear. Click
Finish, then click Yes to reboot after installation.
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15. Wait a few minutes and log back into VB2 via Remote Desktop.
Add Managed Servers
With the installation complete, the next step is to add the managed servers to Veeam Backup & Replication — those virtualized
servers that will require data protection. Adding managed servers includes identifying the virtual hosts and providing administrative
credentials for them. This can be done by either adding a management server, like VMware vCenter, or by adding individual hosts
like VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V servers. In this lab, VMware vCenter will be added as a managed server.
1. Double-click the Veeam icon on the VB2 desktop to launch the Veeam Backup & Replication Console. If a first-time pop-
up is generated requesting to allow Veeam.Backup.Shell to make changes to the system, click Yes.
2. Leave Use Windows session authentication checked and click Connect. Fail to connect messages may appear as the
console comes up. These can be ignored. They are an indication that the backup services have not finished their startup
processes.
3. There may be some components that need to be updated for Update 2. Allow those updates to occur.
4. Click Apply on the Components Update window.
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5. Wait for the product updates to complete and click Finish.
The navigation pane, located on the left side of the window, provides centralized navigation and enables easy access to Veeam
Backup & Replication items organized in views. Until managed servers are added to the environment, only two views are available
in the lower navigation pane aka the view pane.
• The Backup Infrastructure view defines the backup components and adds managed virtualized infrastructure.
• The History View provides an audit trail of all activities performed through Backup & Replication.
6. Click Managed Servers in the left upper navigation pane aka the inventory pane. In the center pane known as the working
area, click VMware vSphere.
7. In the resulting wizard, enter the VMware vCenter server name vc1.dcloud.cisco.com in the DNS name or IP address field.
Click Next.
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8. In the Credentials screen, click Add to create an account.
9. Enter the username and password for the administrative access (dcloud\demouser / C1sco12345). Click OK to add the
account. Click Next.
10. Click Next.
11. Veeam Backup & Replication will attempt to connect to the server using the credentials. Click Connect if a security warning is
generated. As Veeam Backup & Replication discovers the virtual infrastructure through the vCenter server, additional panes
are created in the Veeam Backup & Replication Console. When complete, a summary screen will appear confirming that
vc1.dcloud.cisco.com was successfully created and added within Veeam Backup & Replication. Click Finish.
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12. Notice that the vCenter server is now added to the Backup Infrastructure view in the lower navigation pane. Additional views
are now available:
• The Backup & Replication view allows users to schedule, monitor, and manage backup and replication jobs.
• The Virtual Machines view shows the virtual machines that are managed within the environment.
• The Storage Infrastructure view defines the enterprise storage environment, like HyperFlex, and allows taking storage
snapshots directly.
• The Tape Infrastructure view allows the addition of tape devices to the backup infrastructure for backup and archive to
tape.
• The Files view allows users to perform file management tasks and to create File Copy jobs.
13. Click the Virtual Machines view. In the left inventory pane, under VMware vSphere, expand vc1.dcloud.cisco.com and all
sub trees underneath. Select hx-cluster-b to see the virtual machines discovered on that cluster in the working area. The
working area also displays the amount of used and provisioned storage for each VM, and guest operating systems installed.
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Scenario 2. Add Cisco HyperFlex Storage to Veeam Backup & Replication

In Scenario 1, Veeam Backup & Replication gained visibility into the virtual infrastructure. The purpose of this scenario is to add
the HyperFlex storage platform to Veeam Backup & Replication, which will allow the HyperFlex native snapshot integration for
faster backups.
Steps
Edit Backup Proxy
The Edit Backup Proxy screen allows users to define the server that the proxy will run on, its transport mode (how it connects and
transfers data from production storage), the repository that it will service, and the number of concurrent tasks (how many VMDKs
can be processed concurrently).
1. Click the Backup Infrastructure view then Backup Proxies in the inventory pane to display the default proxy server currently
defined. Additional proxies can be added here to the backup infrastructure.
2. Right-click VMware Backup Proxy in the working area, and click Properties to edit the properties of the VMware Backup
Proxy.
The recommended number of concurrent tasks is calculated automatically based on available resources. Backup proxies with
multi-core CPUs can handle more concurrent tasks. For example, for a 4-core CPU, it is recommended to specify a maximum of 4
concurrent tasks minus two (for operating systems functions), for an 8-core CPU — 8 concurrent tasks minus two. When defining
the number of concurrent tasks, keep in mind network traffic throughput in your virtual infrastructure.
3. Click Choose next to Transport mode. Transport modes define how the proxy server accesses data from the production
data sources.
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4. Click Direct storage access, which enables the use of SAN or NFS access directly from the production environment and
allows faster data access.
5. Uncheck Failover to network mode if primary mode fails, or is unavailable. Click OK.
6. Click Choose next to Connected Datastores. This option allows users to specify the datastore that the proxy server will
access.
7. Click Manual selection, then the Add button to add connected datastores. Expand vc1.dcloud.cisco.com to show the
datastores available within vCenter and select myDS-B. Click OK, then click OK again to close the Datastores window.
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8. Click Next to proceed to Traffic Rules, which are used when implementing in-flight encryption or throttling traffic between two
components.
9. Click Apply, then Finish to complete the Proxy editing session.
10. Click Backup Repositories in the inventory pane.
11. In the working area, either right mouse click Default Backup Repository and select Properties, or click Default Backup
Repository and then click Edit Repository in the Backup Repository tab at the top of the screen to bring up the Edit Backup
Repository wizard.
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A Veeam Repository is a location where the backup files will be stored. It can be on a Windows server (with attached storage), a
Linux server running NFS, a CIFS/SMB share, or an integrated deduplication appliance.
12. On the left panel, click Repository to view the Repository screen.
13. Review the Location field, which points to a visible location on an attached drive.
Veeam only requires a visible location on an attached drive, whether that drive is housed on internal disks or a SAN that is ISCSI
or FC attached. Veeam also provides load controls to limit the number of concurrent tasks and data ingestion rate for the backup
repository. These options help to control the load on the backup repository and prevent possible timeout of storage I/O operations,
especially when contending with production storage.
14. Click Advanced.
15. Select Use per-VM backup files, to allow the repository to create separate backup files for each VM processed. This allows
users to take advantage of the multiple cores by creating multiple backup files for each backup job, and will also improve the
restore performance for individual VMs. Click OK.
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16. Click Finish, then click Yes in the Apply Changes dialogue to apply the configuration.
HyperFlex Snapshot Integration
HyperFlex snapshot integration – unique to Veeam Backup & Replication – allows backup jobs to take advantage of native HX
snapshots, providing faster backups with almost no impact on the production environment. This allows you to take backups much
more frequently than conventional storage systems and dramatically improve the RPO (Recovery Point Objectives) of the
application.
There are two components of the integration:
• The ability to leverage the native snapshot as opposed to the VM redo snapshot provided by the hypervisor.
• The ability to use NFS to provide for faster transport of data from HyperFlex to the backup server, which involves
providing the Veeam Proxy Server with NFS access to the HyperFlex data layer. The proxy server used for HyperFlex
backups should be able to access the VLAN (hx-storage-data) that the HyperFlex cluster uses. The proxy server and the
backup server are on the same server in this lab environment.
Examine Backup Server’s Network Configuration
1. Left-click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the VB2 desktop taskbar and select Control Panel.
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2. Click Network and Sharing Center.
3. Show the two NICs configured for this server: Ethernet0, which is connected to the standard VM Network, and Ethernet1
which is connected to the hx-storage-data VLAN network. To simplify the lab environment, these NICs were pre-configured.
4. Close the window.
Installing Firewall Rules via VIB file.
The IO Visor is a Cisco HyperFlex software module that runs on every ESXi host that is part of the Cisco HyperFlex cluster. It
presents HyperFlex NFS datastores to the ESXi hosts and optimizes the data paths in the HyperFlex cluster. Backup over IO Visor
is the preferred method as it provides the high speed of VM data reading and balances the load across the HyperFlex cluster.
Access to the IO Visor from Veeam Backup & Replication requires a change in the firewall rules on each ESXi host or node on the
HyperFlex cluster. This is accomplished by editing the service.xml file on each node, or by installing a VIB that will perform the
same functions. The advantages of using a VIB on the ESXi host is that the new settings are persistent after reboot.
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There are four HX nodes on hx-cluster-B:
• 198.18.135.201
• 198.18.135.202
• 198.18.135.203
• 198.18.135.204
The purpose of this section is to configure all four nodes with these firewall changes, by copying the pre-downloaded VIB from the
WKST1 Download directory to each of the HX nodes via WinSCP.
1. Return to the WKST1 desktop.
2. Click the Search icon on the task bar and enter WinSCP in the Search field.
3. Click WinSCP in the search results to open a WinSCP session.
4. Enter the following Hostname, User Name, and Password:
Hostname 198.18.135.201
User name root
Password Cisco123
5. Click Login, then click Yes to proceed.
6. On the local machine (left window), double-click C:\Users\demouser\Documents.
7. Click Browse in the Open Directory window.
8. Expand This PC and select Downloads and click OK in both windows.
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9. In the right pane, double-click the /tmp directory.
10. Drag and drop the VeeamCiscoHXFirewall.vib file from the left side to the right to copy the file from the Downloads directory
to the /tmp directory.
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11. Click the New Session button to establish a new session, and repeat Steps 4-10 for all four nodes in the hx-cluster-b
HyperFlex cluster, establishing a new session for each. The IP addresses of the other nodes are 198.18.135.202,
198.18.135.203, and 198.18.135.204.
12. Close the WinSCP window (Click Yes for any prompts while closing).
13. Still on the WKST1 desktop, click the PuTTY icon on the task bar.
14. In Host Name (or IP address) field, enter 198.18.135.201. Click Open.
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15. Log into the SSH session (root/Cisco123).
16. Enter the following commands to install the VIB and list out the installed VIBs to verify that it was installed.
esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/VeeamCiscoHXFirewall.vib -f
esxcli software vib list
esxcli network firewall ruleset list
17. Verify that the output is as expected.

. . .
VeeamCiscoHXFirewall true
18. Close the PuTTy window.
19. Repeat step 13-18 for the other three nodes in the HX cluster (198.18.135.202, 198.18.135.203, 198.18.135.204).
20. Ensure that the proxy server can access the HX IOvisor, by verifying open firewall ports on the ESXi host on which the IO
Visor is running.
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a. On the WKST1 desktop, open the vSphere Web Client .
b. Check the Use Windows session authentication and click Login.
c. Select Hosts and Clusters in the left navigation pane and expand dCloud-HX-DC-B, then hx-cluster-b. Select one of
the nodes within the hx-cluster-b HyperFlex cluster.
d. In the center window, select the Manage tab, and the Settings sub-menu.
e. Scroll down the Settings column and click Security Profile. This will list all of the firewall rules in place.
f. Verify that the VeeamCiscoHXFirewall rule is available in the Incoming Connections section.
21. Close the vSphere Web Client.
22. The Veeam backup server will scan periodically for these vCenter changes. Instead of waiting for the next scan, reboot VB2
as follows, which will force a rescan to occur:
a. Return to the VB2 remote desktop.
b. Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the VB2 desktop taskbar to open the Windows menu.
c. Click the Power icon then click Restart.
d. Select a reason for the restart and click Continue to confirm.
e. Wait approximately five minutes for VB2 to be available again.
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Add HX Data Platform Storage Infrastructure to Veeam Backup & Replication.
The purpose of this section is to integrate the Cisco HyperFlex HX data storage platform with Veeam Backup & Replication.
The HX storage integration process requires the cluster management IP address and credentials for the HX Cluster. For this
demonstration, the information needed is listed below.
Information Value
Cluster Management IP Address 198.18.135.200
Login User Name Root
Login Password C1sco12345
NOTE: To find this information in vCenter, within the vSphere Web Client, click the home button and select vCenter Inventory
Lists, then select the Cisco HX Data Platform plugin at the bottom. Select Cisco HX Data Platform in the resulting screen, right-
click hx-cluster-B, and select Summary. This summary page shows the cluster management IP address, along with other
important information about the HyperFlex cluster.
1. On WKST1, open Remote Desktop on the taskbar and log back into VB2.
2. On the VB2 remote desktop, open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console. Log in with Windows session
authentication.
3. Click the Storage Infrastructure view in the lower navigation pane. This view allows users to add storage for snapshot
integration, take snapshots and recover from snapshots, and configure backups from snapshots.
4. Click Add Storage in the working area to add the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform.
5. Veeam provides integration with several storage partners. Click Cisco HyperFlex from the available partners to add the
storage.
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6. In the resulting wizard, enter the cluster management IP address (198.18.135.200). This will automatically populate the URL
with the :8080 port number appended. Click Next.
7. In the Credentials screen, click Add.
8. Enter the credentials of the Storage Controller (root/C1sco12345) click OK, then click Next.
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9. In the Access Options screen, click Choose to select the proxy server that will be accessing the HyperFlex Data Platform.
10. In the resulting window, choose Use the selected backup proxy servers only and check VMware Backup Proxy, the proxy
server that has been configured for access. Click OK.
11. Click Next to see the summary page, then click Finish.
12. A storage discovery process starts which will scan the storage and validate NFS connectivity to the storage for Veeam. When
the process completes and the success message appears, the storage has been successfully added. Click Close.
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13. In the Veeam Backup & Replication Console window, Cisco HyperFlex will now be listed under Storage Infrastructure in
the inventory pane and the HyperFlex cluster management IP address of 198.18.135.200 will be present in the working area.
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Scenario 3. Perform a Backup

The purpose of this scenario is to import backups, and then walk through the Veeam backup wizard to take a comprehensive look
at the capabilities available for backups.
Steps
Import Backup Jobs
1. Open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console on the VB2 remote desktop if it is not already open, and Use Windows
session authentication to log in.
2. In the left lower navigation pane, click the Backup & Replication view. On the action bar at the top of the screen, click
Import Backup in the Home tab.
3. Click Browse to open Windows File Explorer. In the left pane under This PC, click Downloads to open the main Downloads
directory and find folders containing backup files for AD1 and SQL1.
4. Select Backup_Job_AD1 > Backup Job AD1.vbm and click Open.
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5. Click OK to import the backup job for AD1. An Importing backup window will appear showing the status of the import and will
automatically disappear once the import is complete.
6. Repeat steps 1-4 for This PC > Downloads > Backup_Job_SQL1 > Backup Job SQL1.vbm.
7. When both backup jobs are imported, click Backups > Disk (imported) in the inventory pane, and expand Agents in the
working area to see the imported backup jobs.
AD1 and SQL1 are deployed outside of the VMware virtual infrastructure within this demo environment. Since there is no access to
the hypervisors for these VMs, they can be treated as physical servers and have installed agents on them for backup and
replication. Similar to cloud based VMs in which there is no access to the underlying infrastructure, Veeam Agents are an effective
way of providing data protection for such servers.
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8. In the inventory pane, right-click Jobs to view the types of jobs that can be scheduled and launched from this screen. These
are also listed in the action bar section at the top of the screen in the Home tab.
Create a Backup Job
1. While still in the Backup & Replication view screen, click Backup Job in the Home tab of the action bar at the top of the
screen. This will launch a wizard to create a new backup job.
2. Enter a name for the backup job or use the default name supplied, and add a description. Click Next to advance to the Virtual
Machines screen and define what is being backed up.
3. Click Add, then expand vc1.dcloud.cisco.com > dCloud-HX-DC-B > hx-cluster-b.
4. Click myVM-B1 then shift-click on myVM-B2 to select them both. Click Add to add the VM’s to the job. (These are VMs in the
hx-cluster-b HyperFlex cluster.) Click Next.
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The icons at the top of the Add Objects screen provide views of the VMs by host or cluster, by VM or template, by datastore, and
by VM tags. VMs can be added to the job by container, like all VMs in a cluster or within a resource pool, by datastore, and by VM
Tag. The VM Tag capability can be useful for customers leveraging VM tagging, as they can group their backups by Mission
Critical tags or Internal vs Production tags.
Veeam Backup & Replication provides the ability to add all VM’s on an ESXi host or within a specific resource pool, folder, cluster,
or data center, and change the order of backup with the up/down arrows. Notice the Total Size at the bottom of the window. The
Total Size will affect the size of the backup file and how long it takes to backup the job.
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The Virtual Machines screen also allows the exclusion of certain VMs. For example, a customer could add all the VMs from a
resource pool, and exclude a couple of VMs that are used for a specific project or department which is providing different data
protection. It is also possible to change the order of the VMs backed up using the Up and Down arrows.
5. The Storage screen provides the ability to choose which Backup Proxy and Backup Repository will be used for the backup
job. For a scheduled job, the number of backups to keep (restore points) is configurable, as well as whether a remote copy is
created, and where. Click Advanced to see more backup options.
6. Page through the tabs in the Advanced section, explaining each one.
a. The Backup tab allows users to define several different backup types, including active full backup, incremental backups,
or synthetic full backups. The default settings are for forever forward incremental backups.
NOTE: For more information on the different incremental backups, see Backup Methods in the Veeam Backup & Replication V9
Users Guide for VMware.
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b. The Maintenance tab is new to v9 and allows users to run regular health checks on the backup storage and fix corrupted
data on disk drives. The Compact feature provides the ability to clean up and defragment full backups to improve
storage utilization.
c. The Storage tab allows user to turn on/off deduplication and compression and define the desired level of deduplication or
compression. It may be necessary to change these settings, depending on the network speeds/bandwidth or the type of
data (i.e., compressed file types like video and images, compute/memory resources can be conserved by turning this
feature off). This section also controls encryption for the backup file. Users can also exclude certain components like
swap files and deleted blocks from the backup. This reduces the backup file size and shortens the time for the backup job.
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d. The Integration tab lets users define whether to use storage snapshots for backup. This feature is enabled by default.
Check Enable backup from storage snapshots to take advantage of the HyperFlex integration.
7. Browse other Advanced Settings as time and customer interest permit. Click Cancel to exit.
8. Click Next to move to Guest Processing, where users can choose to enable application aware processing for this backup.
This will enable Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to quiesce the guest OS environment and provide an
application consistent backup. For those applications that do not support Microsoft VSS, VMware Tools can be used to
quiesce the file system (i.e., for Linux environments). Leave the default settings.
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Veeam Backup & Replication also provides the ability to enable guest file system indexing. This is important for use cases with file
level restores that require the fast search capability.
Additionally, on this tab users can select the location of the Guest Interaction Proxy. This is a new component in v9 which allows
for interaction with the virtual infrastructure for the features on this page. It’s important, from a performance perspective, that the
Guest Interaction Proxy be as close to the virtual infrastructure as possible. Generally, it will run on the Backup Server, but for
remote backups it may make sense to put the Guest Interaction Proxy at the remote site.
9. Click Next to advance to Schedule. To schedule the job to run automatically, check Run the Job Automatically and select
the preferred scheduling. For manual backups, more parameters are available to control the job, including limiting the job to a
specific backup window of operation.
Veeam provides many different ways of scheduling a backup job, including scheduling a job to run after another job has
completed. If the job fails, due to a temporary network outage or for some other reason, Veeam can retry the job several times to
ensure that the VMs are protected.
If there are issues with the performance of a backup impacting the production environment, there is an option to create a backup
window, and terminate the job if it runs outside of the defined backup window.
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10. Click Apply to save changes.
11. On the resulting Summary page, review the settings. Check the Run the Job when I click Finish to run the backup job
immediately after completing the wizard. This backup job should take 3-4 minutes to complete. Click Finish.
12. To watch the status of the newly created backup job, go to the inventory pane and select Jobs. The newly created backup job
will be present in the working area.
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13. The working area displays a list of all backup jobs. Click Backup Job 1 to see more information. This screen shows an overall
visual of the backup transaction, including the duration, throughput, data transfer/data reduction, status for the job, and the
bottleneck of the backup job (so that potential optimizations can be made).
14. Click the Statistics action button in the Job tab of the top action bar to launch a window that provides the statistics from the
last job run. Close the window.
15. There are two areas in the job window that will verify that Veeam is using HyperFlex snapshots and transporting using NFS.
a. Click one of the VMs in the Name column. This will change the steps listed in the Action column to show only the
information for the selected VM.
b. First, in the Action column, locate the line that indicates whether VM snapshots or HyperFlex snapshots are being used
for the backup. Ensure that for this environment, HyperFlex snapshots were used.
c. Second, a line in the log identifies the backup proxy being used and the transport mode. Ensure that the transport mode
listed at the end of that line is nfs.
Using backup proxy VMware Backup Proxy for disk Hard disk 1 [nfs]
16. Click OK when both backups complete.
17. In the action bar at the top of the screen, click the Report button in the Job tab to view reporting information about the backup
job, including the start/end times, duration, and the amount of data reduction through deduplication and compression. Close
the browser window when complete.
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18. In the inventory pane, click Backups > Disk. Expand Backup Job 1 (or the job created earlier if named differently) to view
backups that exist in the Backup Repository and how many restore points are available.
19. Right-click any VM to view the restore options available from those restore points.
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Scenario 4. Perform a Restore

There are many ways of restoring data from Veeam backups. The purpose of this scenario is to explore the three most popular
recovery scenarios:
• Instant VM Recovery
• File level Recovery
• Application Item Recovery (using SQL Server and Active Directory)
Time may not permit doing all of the recovery scenarios – they are added as optional demonstration capabilities.
Steps
Instant VM Recovery
Instant VM Recovery allows users to spin up a VM directly from a backup file, and provides the fastest RTO (Recovery Time
Objective), usually within a few minutes.
1. On the VB2 remote desktop, open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console if it is not already open. Click Backup &
Replication view in the lower navigation pane.
2. Click Backups in the inventory pane and expand Backup Job 1 in the working area to see the VMs and the number of restore
points for each.
3. In the working area, right-click myVM-B1 and choose Instant VM Recovery, or select the Instant VM Recovery action from
the Backup tab in the top action bar.
4. In the resulting Instant Recovery wizard, select a restore point and click Next.
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5. The purpose of the Recovery Mode screen is to choose whether to keep the default of restoring to the original location, or
restore to a different location. To restore to a different location, the name of the newly restored VM will be required. Click the
Restore to a new location, or with different settings option and click Next.
6. The Destination screen configures the destination for this newly restored VM – whether it will be restored to a specific ESXi
host, a folder on that host or in an existing resource pool. It is important to change the name of the new VM to differentiate it
from the original production VM. In the Restored VM name field, enter myVM-B1_restored and click Next.
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7. The Datastore screen allows users to choose a location for the Instant VM Recovery job. Leave the Redirect virtual disk
updates box unchecked to accept the default, and click Next.
When a VM is in Instant VM Recovery mode, all writes to the VM will be written to a cache for later ingestion back into the VM. A
default NFS write cache is defined when the Backup Repository is created.
8. In the resulting Restore Reason screen, enter a reason for the restore and click Next.
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9. Review the settings on the Ready to Apply page. To make changes, click Previous to go back to previous screens. There
are two check boxes on the summary screen – Connect VM to network and Power on the VM automatically. Leave the
boxes unchecked and click Restore to start the instant recovery job.
NOTE: These two boxes would be checked during a production environment outage, where the original VM is down, to perform an
instant VM recovery in about two minutes.
10. A window will appear that will show the progress of the Instant VM Recovery. Note that the inventory pane of the Backup &
Replication Console shows that there is one Instant Recovery job running. When the Waiting for user to start migration
message is generated, the VM has been recovered and available for use. Later, the migration can be started which will
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migrate that backup file into production and ingest in all writes that have been cached – this migration is outside of the scope
of this demonstration.
11. Click Finish to close the status window.
12. Return to the vSphere Web Client on WKST1. If necessary, log in again (dcloud\demouser / C1sco12345).
13. Navigate to Hosts and Clusters and expand hx-cluster-b to view the guest VMs. The new myVM-B1_restored VM will be
present and available to be powered on and connected.
After the VM is recovered there may be a warning message relating to a MAC conflict. This is due to the fact that the VM which is
still running in the VC has been recovered, Veeam Backup & Replication also recovers a 1:1 copy of it.
14. Return to the Backup & Replication Console window on VB2 and click Instant Recovery (1) in the inventory pane to display
all open Instant Recovery tasks.
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15. In the working area, right-click the VM to show the available options – migrate the VM to production or stop publishing it.
Migration is outside the scope of this demonstration.
16. Click Stop Publishing to begin to dismount and remove the newly recovered VM, clean up the Instant VM Recovery job, and
put the environment back to its previous state.
17. Click OK when the dismount is finished. If you return to the vSphere Web client on WKST1, the VM myVM-B1_restored will
now be removed.
File Level Recovery
Veeam Backup & Replication also provides granular recovery of a file or group of files from a backed up VM. The purpose of this
section is to use the Backup Browser to find files and quickly restore them to their original location or an alternate location.
1. Open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console on the VB2 remote desktop if it is not already open, and click the Backup
& Replication view in the lower navigation pane.
2. Expand Backups and click Disk (imported) in the inventory pane to see all the available backups.
3. In the working area, expand Agents to see the various backup targets.
4. Under Agents, right-click SQL1 to see all of the restore scenarios available. For file level restore, click Restore guest files
and select Microsoft Windows.
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5. In the resulting File Level Restore wizard, select the first restore point and click Next.
6. On the Reason screen, enter a reason for the restoration. Click Next.
7. Review the Summary screen and click Finish. A restore point will be created, disk information from the backup file extracted
and then mounted to the backup server. The Backup Browser window will now be launched, which can be used to find the
desired file for restoration. The Backup Browser shows the entire file structure within the disk, which is browsable – similar to a
Windows explorer window.
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8. Return to WKST1 and click the search icon on the taskbar. Type Remote Desktop then Enter to open RDP (Remote Desktop
Protocol).
9. Enter SQL1, then click Connect to log into SQL1.
10. On SQL1, open File Explorer in the taskbar and select Local Disk (C:) in the navigation pane. Delete the Software folder.
11. Return to the RDP window for VB2. In the Backup Browser, right-click the Software folder, select Restore, then select
Overwrite to restore the folder to its original location.
12. Since this is an agent backup, credentials will be required to access the server. Click the down arrow and select the
dcloud\demouser credentials.
13. Click OK.
14. When the files have been restored, a window will pop up with the restore status. Click Close to complete the restore process.
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15. Close the Backup Browser window to exit the restore scenario.
16. Return to the RDP window for SQL1 to verify the Software folder is restored. When finished, exit the SQL1 RDP session and
return to WKST1.
Application Item Recovery for SQL Server
Another recovery option to demonstrate is using the Explorers to restore application items for Microsoft Active Directory like users
or groups, Microsoft Exchange items like full mailboxes or individual emails, Microsoft SharePoint objects and files, and Microsoft
SQL Server databases. The purpose of this section is to show both transaction level recovery for SQL Server and Active Directory
object recovery.
1. Examine the backup job runs for the SQL Server. Open the RDP window for VB2, and in the Backup & Replication
Console, click Backups > Disk (imported). Expand the Agents backups.
NOTE: The jobs listed for the SQL Server include image level backup and the transaction logs. Transaction logs are generally
backed up on a different schedule than the database image. This allows us to do transaction level recovery.
2. Right-click SQL1 to show the recovery options available, or view the action buttons in the Backup tab of the action bar. Click
Restore application items > Microsoft SQL Server databases.
3. In the resulting Microsoft SQL Server Database Restore wizard, select Restore from the latest available backup and click
Next.
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NOTE: Restoring from a different restore point is also supported from this screen.
4. In the Reason screen, enter a reason for the restore request and click Next.
5. On the Summary screen, click the Finish button.
The restore process will begin, in which a restore point will be created, and the disk information will be extracted from the backup
and mounted to the backup server. The Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server window will now automatically launch with all of
the databases available in the backup listed. The WideWorldImporters database is a sample transactional database for SQL
Server 2016.
6. Right-click WideWorldImporters to see all the recovery options for restoring or exporting the database, schema, or both. The
purpose of this section is to restore transactions, so select Restore point-in-time state to SQL1....
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7. In the resulting Restore wizard, select Restore to a specific point in time and use the time slider to find a specified time.
8. To do transaction level restore, check Perform restore to the specific transaction. Click Next to continue.
9. A Loading Data message will appear for about 1 minute, after which the transactions in the time frame specified earlier will be
listed. Select a transaction and click Restore.
NOTE: If a “Server name cannot be empty” error is displayed, click Back and adjust the time slider to a different time point and try
again.
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10. The restore process will then be calculated, after which a confirmation window will appear to perform the database restore. In
the interest of time, Cancel the restore and exit from the Veeam Explorer.
11. Close the Explorer for SQL Server to exit the restore scenario.
Application Item Restore for Active Directory
The purpose of this section is to delete a user from the running production Active Directory on the AD1 server, then use VM to
restore the database at a point before the user was deleted.
1. Return to WKST1 and click the search icon on the taskbar. Type Remote Desktop, then Enter to open Remote Desktop.
Select ad1, then click Connect to log into AD1.
2. On the AD1 taskbar, click the Active Directory Users and Computers icon.
3. Click the Management OU in the side panel, and right-click any user in the work pane. Select Delete from the resulting menu
to delete the user.
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4. Return to WKST1 and reopen the VB2 RDP window.
5. Open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console, if it is not already open, and click the Backup & Replication view in the
lower navigation pane.
6. Click Backups > Disk (imported) in the inventory pane.
7. Either right-click AD1 and choose Restore Application Items > Microsoft Active Directory Objects, or select the
Application Items action from the action bar, and then Microsoft Active Directory.
8. Click a restore point and click Next.
9. In the Reason screen, enter a reason for the restore and click Next.
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10. Click Finish. The Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory will automatically launch.
11. The Veeam Explorer displays the Active Directory information to the user in a format similar to the native Microsoft Active
Directory Users and Computers MMC. Expand dcloud.cisco.com > Users and Computers, then select Management in the
navigation pane.
12. Click the Home tab in the top action bar, and click Compare all Objects and Show Changed Objects Only buttons. This is
a very useful feature for AD administrators so that they can compare the backup to the actual running Active Directory and
show only changes between the two versions.
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13. In the working area, right click the user previously deleted in step 3 and click Restore to ad1.dcloud.cisco.com. A
confirmation window will appear confirming the restore succeeded. Click OK to close the confirmation window.
14. Return to WKST1 and open the RDP window for AD1. In the Active Directory Users and Computers window, right-click
Management and click Refresh. The previously deleted user will now appear, verifying the restore was successful.
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Scenario 5. VM Replication
The purpose of this scenario is to create a replication job, replicate important VMs to a recovery site, create a failover plan, and
test out the failover process.
Veeam Replication is a VM based replication that replicates VMs that require higher availability (low RTO/RPO criteria). Veeam
replication jobs have the ability to replicate one or more VMs from a source host to a destination host (either local or at a remote
location). These replicated VMs will be available in VM format at the replicated site for quick power up in the event of a primary
site failure. For remote replication, Veeam does use compression, and optional WAN accelerators, to minimize the traffic over long
distance, high latency connections.
This scenario replicates VMs from one HyperFlex cluster (hx-cluster-b) to the second HyperFlex cluster (hx-cluster-a), simulating
a local replication scenario. Both the source and target proxy server will be on the Veeam Backup Server.
Backup repository
(replica metadata)
Backup Server
Source Proxy
Target
Proxy
Source VMware Target VMware

Host Host
WAN
Source WAN Target WAN

Accelerator Accelerator
(optional) (optional)
Steps
Create a Replication Job
1. On the VB2 remote desktop, open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console if it is not already open. Click the Backup &
Replication view in the lower left navigation pane.
2. Click Jobs in the inventory pane then click Replication Job in the Home tab of the top action bar to bring up the replication
job wizard.
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3. Enter a name and description for the replication job (or leave the defaults), and click Next.
4. In the Virtual Machines screen, click Add to bring up a list of VMs available at the source HyperFlex.
5. Expand dcloud-HX-DC-B > hx-cluster-b and select either myVM-B1 or myVM-B2 from the list for replication and click Add.
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6. Click Next.
7. In the Destination screen, click Choose next to Host or cluster. Expand dCloud-HX-DC-A and select hx-cluster-a. Click OK
then click Next.
8.
9. In the Job Settings screen, the local Veeam repository will house the replica metadata, so it is not necessary to change the
Repository for replica metadata.
10. Leave the default of _replica in the Replica name suffix field.
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11. Leave the default number of Restore points to keep, to maintain multiple point in time copies of the replica in the event that
the last replica has been corrupted from the primary site.
12. Click Next.
13. The Data Transfer screen allows the selection of source and target proxy servers, as well as the option to use WAN
accelerators, if available. WAN accelerators are available with the Enterprise Plus edition of Veeam and should be configured
before creating the replication job. Click Choose next to Source proxy. Select Use the selected backup proxy servers
only and choose VMware Backup Proxy. Click OK.
14. Click Choose next to Target proxy. Select Use the selected backup proxy servers only and choose VMware Backup
Proxy. Click OK.
15. When VMware Backup Proxy is selected as both the source and target proxies, click Next.
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16. For application aware snapshots, the Guest Processing screen allows users in production environments to define application
aware processing settings. There are no installed applications in the VM in the lab environment, so no changes are
necessary. Click Next.
17. In the Schedule screen, click the Run the job automatically check box to provide several options for scheduling the
replication job. There is also an option to schedule this job right after another job has completed. A window can also be
defined which will allow the job to process only when within the backup window. When complete, click Apply.
18. The summary screen allows users to review all job settings and run the job immediately when finished. Check Run the job
when I click Finish, and click Finish.
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19. Click the replication job in the working area and select Statistics from the Job tab in the top action bar.
20. Monitor the status of the job in the Statistics window.
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21. When complete, the replicas available will be listed under Replicas in the inventory pane.
22. The replication job will take approximately ten minutes to complete. Wait until it has finished before proceeding.
Create a Failover Plan
The purpose of this section is to create a failover plan that defines what VMs will failover, which sequence to fail over and inject
delays into the failover process.
1. Select the Backup & Replication view in the lower navigation pane. In the inventory pane click Jobs, then click Failover
Plan in the Home tab of the action bar.
2. In the resulting wizard, enter the name of the failover plan and a description (or leave the defaults). If user-defined pre and
post failover scripts are part of the presentation, those can be added here. Click Next.
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3. On the Virtual Machines screen, click Add VM to add the VMs that will be part of the failover.
4. Click From replicas to add the VMs that are being replicated.
5. Expand the replication job and click Add to add the VM previously replicated.
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6. Click Apply to apply changes and click Finish.
7. To test out the failover, test this process outside of the Failover Plan. In the inventory pane under Replicas, click Ready to
see available ready replicas.
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8. In the working area, right-click the replica and click Failover Now.
9. In the resulting Failover Wizard, select the listed VM and click Next.
10. Provide a reason for the failover and click next.
11. Click Finish to perform the failover.
12. A restore session screen will pop up to track the progress of the failover. Click the Close button when the failover completes.
13. In the inventory pane the failover is now displayed as Active under Replicas.
14. In the inventory pane click Active (1) under Replicas. In the working area, right-click the replica to display three options:
Permanent Failover, Undo Failover, and Failback to production…. The appropriate option will depend on the needs of the
business.
15. Select Undo Failover to bring the system back to the pre-failover state.
16. Click Yes on the confirmation screen.
17. Follow the restore session screen that shows the progress, and click Close when the job is complete.
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Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 With Veeam Integration v1 Lab Guide

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Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 With Veeam Integration v1 Lab Guide

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Cisco dCloud

Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 with Veeam Integration Lab v1

Created in Partnership with Cisco Global Alliances at Veeam

About This Lab

• Veeam Backup Server – VB2

• SQL Server – SQL1

• Active Directory – AD1

• vCenter Server – VC1

This guide for the preconfigured lab includes:

• About This Solution

• Scenario 1: Install Veeam Backup & Replication

• Scenario 2: Add Cisco HyperFlex Storage to Veeam

• Scenario 3: Perform a Backup

• Scenario 4: Perform a Restore

About This Solution

Figure 1. dCloud Topology

PREPARATION IS KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION.

1. Initiate your dCloud session. [Show Me How]

NOTE: It may take up to 10 minutes for your session to become active.

2. Connect to the workstation with one of the following two methods:

• Workstation 1: 198.18.133.36, (DCLOUD\demouser/C1sco12345

• Cisco dCloud Remote Desktop Client [Show Me How]

Scenario 1. Install Veeam Backup & Replication

Install Veeam Backup & Replication

5. Select veeam_availability_suite_nfr_12_0.lic and click Open. Click Next.

9. Keep the default Local System account, and click Next.

12. Keep Data Locations as is, and click Next to continue.

13. Review the installation information and click Install.

Add Managed Servers

4. Click Apply on the Components Update window.

5. Wait for the product updates to complete and click Finish.

8. In the Credentials screen, click Add to create an account.

10. Click Next.

Scenario 2. Add Cisco HyperFlex Storage to Veeam Backup & Replication

Edit Backup Proxy

9. Click Apply, then Finish to complete the Proxy editing session.

10. Click Backup Repositories in the inventory pane.

14. Click Advanced.

HyperFlex Snapshot Integration

There are two components of the integration:

Examine Backup Server’s Network Configuration

2. Click Network and Sharing Center.

4. Close the window.

Installing Firewall Rules via VIB file.

There are four HX nodes on hx-cluster-B:

1. Return to the WKST1 desktop.

3. Click WinSCP in the search results to open a WinSCP session.

4. Enter the following Hostname, User Name, and Password:

5. Click Login, then click Yes to proceed.

6. On the local machine (left window), double-click C:\Users\demouser\Documents.

7. Click Browse in the Open Directory window.

8. Expand This PC and select Downloads and click OK in both windows.

9. In the right pane, double-click the /tmp directory.

15. Log into the SSH session (root/Cisco123).

17. Verify that the output is as expected.

18. Close the PuTTy window.

a. On the WKST1 desktop, open the vSphere Web Client .

b. Check the Use Windows session authentication and click Login.

21. Close the vSphere Web Client.

a. Return to the VB2 remote desktop.

c. Click the Power icon then click Restart.

d. Select a reason for the restart and click Continue to confirm.

e. Wait approximately five minutes for VB2 to be available again.

Add HX Data Platform Storage Infrastructure to Veeam Backup & Replication.