Tag Archives: Cloud Connect

VeeamOn 2018: Recognizing Innovation and what it means to be Innovative

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True innovation is solving a real problem…and though for the most, it’s startups and tech giants that are seen to be the innovators, their customers and partners also have the ability to innovate. Innovation drives competitive advantages and allows companies to differentiate themselves compared to others. In my previous roles I was lucky to be involved with teams of talented people that did great things with great technologies. Like others around the world we where innovating with leading vendor technologies to create new service offerings that add value and compliment the underlying technology.

Innovation requires these teams of people to be experimental at heart and try to build or enhance upon already existing technologies. The Service Provider industry has always found a way to innovate ontop of vendor platforms and successful vendors are those that offer the right tools and guidance for providers to creative innovative solutions ontop of their platforms. The are problem solvers!

Orchestrations, automation, provisioning and billing are driving factors in how service providers can differentiate themselves and gain that competitive advantage in the marketplace. Without innovating ontop of these platforms, service offerings become generic, don’t stand out and are generally operationally expensive to manage and maintain.

Introducing the Veeam Innovation Awards for 2018:

When visiting and talking to different partners across the world it’s amazing to see some of the innovation that’s been built ontop of Veeam technologies and we at Veeam want to reward our customers and partners who have done great things with our technologies.

At VeeamON 2018, we’ll be celebrating some of these innovative solutions, so please let us know how you’ve built upon the Veeam Availability Platform. Nominations can be made from March 29 to April 30, with the winners being recognized during the VeeamON main stage keynote. Self nominations or those from partners, providers, or Veeam field-team members are encouraged — click here to nominate for a Veeam Innovation Award.

I can think of a number of VCSPs that have done great things with building upon Cloud Connect, Backup & Replication IaaS backups and working with Veeam’s API’s and PowerShell to solve customer problems and offer value added services. These guys have brought something new to the industry and we want to reward that.

Having previously come from a successfully innovate company within their own space, being innovative is now something I try to preach to all customers and partners I visit. It is an absolute requirement if you want to win business and stand out in the backup and availability industry…innovation is key and we want to hear about it from you!

References:

Nominations for the VeeamON 2018 Innovation Awards are now open

Veeam Availability Console now available from Azure Marketplace

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Last week the Veeam Availability Console Azure Marketplace appliance went live. This allows Veeam Cloud and Service Providers to easily deploy VAC into any Azure region. In it’s previous incarnation the Managed Backup Portal was only available as an Azure marketplace appliance and not available to install by a VCSP. Now that VAC 2.0 is out, VCSPs who don’t have the ability to host Cloud Connect or VAC on their infrastructure can deploy it in Azure and have the service up and running within fifteen minutes.

There are some limitations that come along with deploying VAC into Azure and it won’t be for everyone. The biggest caveat is that you can only have one Cloud Connect Server per VAC instance and as part of the deployment, Cloud Connect services is installed on the same Virtual Machine. You can’t offer Replication services from the Azure instance, and if offering Cloud Connect backup you need to understand it’s own scalability and performance bottlenecks. That said, as a remote management, monitoring, reporting, billing and self service platform there is a lot to like about having VAC in Azure.

Marketplace Deployment Steps:

You can start the deployment by searching for Veeam Availability Console in the Azure Marketplace or you can go direct to the product page here.

Click on Create to start the configuration steps.

The Basics includes VM name, hard disks type, username and password as well as selecting the subscription, the ability to use a new or existing resource group and finally the Azure location you want to deploy into.

In Step 2 you need to choose the Size of the Azure instance. The template provides the recommended configurations. The sizes are relative to the amount of agents and/or Backup & Replication instances you are going to be managing from this instance. You can find sizing guides here for larger environments.

I ended up going with an A2 standard for my instance which removes the load balancing functionality from the configuration and offers a little less IOPS.
Step 3 contains some optional extra’s to ensure a higher level of availability for the VM instance and lets you configure the networking.
Once that’s done you can review your configuration settings and start the deployment. It took just over 8 minutes for the deployment to succeed.

If you click on the Virtual Machine object in the Azure Portal you will see an overview of the VM and it’s configuration.

Addition Azure Configuration:

If you notice in the image above, a DNS name is listed in the overview. This was something that I had to set manually after the deployment. You set this by going into the Networking of the resource pool and click on IP Configuration. Here, you can enter in a DNS name relative to the Azure zone you are in. You can then use this to connect to the VAC Console, Cloud Connect Service and to RDP to the VM and helps in the event of having a dynamic, rather than a static Azure IP.

Speaking of networking and ports, below is a list of the default port rules created during the deployment. Note that WinRM is open as well.

Finalizing Deployment:

After deploying the Azure Marketplace appliance you can RDP into the VM and complete the setup that includes configuring Cloud Connect and VAC it’s self. A few things have been done for us as part of the deployment, however the first thing you need to do is get a license. This is a BYO license situation, so once you have deployed the Marketplace appliance you will need to source a VAC license from the Veeam Licensing Portal and apply.

Head to the VAC Web Portal and Install the License.

Once done the last step is to configure Cloud Connect from the Backup & Replication Console. Again, you will need a valid Cloud Connect license as you are greeted with the Free Edition when you connect to the console for the first time. As per normal with Cloud Connect, you need to configure the SSL Certificate first and then configure a new Cloud Gateway. Configure the Networking as shown below using the DNS name that was created in the steps above.

Once this is completed you can go into the VAC Console and work through the normal Configuration steps. The only thing you don’t need to do is add the Cloud Connect Server to the VAC instance as this has already been done during the initial deployment process.

It’s worth noting that the versions of Backup & Replication (9.5.0.1536) and Availability Console (2.0.1.1343) are up to date and include the latest Hot-Fixes for VAC. The intent is to have the templates as up to date as possible, however once deployed you can upgrade as per usual.

Conclusion:

So there you have it…within fifteen minutes you can have a fully working Veeam Availability Console instance running in Azure and ready to be used to offer all the goodness that VAC offers our Cloud and Service Provider partners. For an overview as to what VAC offers, click here and have a read of my GA post on What’s in It for Service Providers.

Links:

https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/veeam.veeam-availability-console?tab=Overview

 

Configuring Service Provider Self Service Recovery with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365

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For a while now I’ve talked about the increasing functionality of the the Cloud Connect Gateway and that it is central to a lot of features and services that exist within Veeam Backup & Replication. With the release of 9.5 Update 3 we added a feature that allows multi-tenant self service recoverability of a tenants Office365 mailbox backup hosted by Veeam Cloud and Service Providers utilising Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 1.5 that was released late last year.

Overview:

Tenant admins communicate with the Service Provider via the Cloud Gateway component which handles flow of data. The Service Provider grants the ability to their tenants so that each tenant can perform self restore operations using Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange. By default, tenants are not able to restore anything from the backup without a Service Provider assistance.

The steps above show the self restore scenarios performed by the Tenant:

  • Tenants use Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange to send restore requests via Veeam Cloud Gateway directly to the Service Provider.
  • On the Service Provider side, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 management server detects a proxy server responsible for processing tenant data.
  • Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 management server locates an associated repository that contains a backup file that belongs to the Tenant.
  • Corresponding backup data is then transferred back to the tenant via Veeam Cloud Gateway.

IMPORTANT!

When planning solution components deployment, remember that Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 v1.5 and Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3 must be installed on the same server.
Example:

These days I don’t have access to a local Exchange Server or to a corporate Exchange Online instance but I did migrate my personal domain over to Office365 just before Christmas. That account has only one mailbox, but that’s enough to demonstrate the Office365 Service Provider backup and tenant self service recovery use case.

Service Provider Side:

For Service Providers to backup tenants on-premises or Office 365 Exchange mailboxes they need to first configure a new organization in Veeam Backup for Office 365. I’m not going to go through the steps for that as it’s been covered in other posts and is very simple to configure, however to prepare for the self service capability the service provider needs to ensure that the Cloud Connect Gateways are setup and configured and accessible externally.

In Backup for Office 365 you have to enable and configure the RestAPI and Authentication Settings under their respective tabs in the Options menu. This includes selecting an SSL certificate for both services…I’m just using a self signed certificate but obviously service providers will want a correctly signed public certificate to productise this feature.

With the organization configured I created a new job and backed up the Exchange Organization. Again, for this example I just have the one mailbox but the theory is the same weather it’s one, five, fifty or five thousand mailboxes.

From here, without any self service configured the Service Provider can access the mailboxe(s) to perform whole or granular item level recovery using the Veeam Explorer for Exchange. As shown below I can access any mailbox from the service provider’s end and perform recovery to a number of different locations. 

For each tenant (not per Exchange User) there needs to be a Cloud Connect tenant account created on the Backup & Replication server. This will be used at the tenant end by the admin to configure a Service Provider in the Backup & Replication console which will then be detected and used by the Veeam Explorer for Exchange to use to connect into the service provider and authenticate with an applicable Exchange account.

Tenant End:

For the tenant admin to use Veeam Explorer for Exchange to perform mailbox recovery you first have to configure a Service Provider using Cloud Connect tenant credentials as provided by the Service Provider. It’s worth mentioning here that you can have no license installed in Backup & Replication and are still able to add a Service Provider to the Backup Infrastructure menu. Once connected, firing up the Explorer for Exchange you will use the Service Provider option in the Add Store dropdown.

In the drop down list, select the Service Provider account configured in the Backup Infrastructure menu. If multiple exist you will see each one in the drop down. You also configure the username and password that connects to the Exchange Organization. This can be an admin account that is allowed impersonation, or you can enter in an individual account.

Once connected (which can take some time with the GUI of the Explorer for Exchange) any mailbox that the account has authorization over will be seen and mailbox recovery can begin.

An interesting thing to do is to check what is happening from a network connectivity point of view during this process. While performing a restore you can see open connections from the tenant side to Cloud Connect gateway on port 6180 and also you can see a connection to Office365 on port 443 completing the loop.

Back at the Service Provider end in the Backup for Office365 console you can see active Explorer for Exchange sessions as running jobs. Below you can see the local one, plus a remote session.

Automation:

For Service Providers with the capability to automate the setup and provisioning of these services through PowerShell or the RestAPIs here is a great example of what can be achieved with Backup for Office365 and the creation of a self service portal web interface. You can use the built in Swagger UI to evaluate the capabilities of RestAPIs.

The Swagger UI can be accessed via the following URL:

https://<Backup-Office365>:<Port>/swagger/ui/index

From there you can authenticate and work through the live examples.

Conclusion:

The market for Office365 backups is significant and we have built in some pretty cool technology into Backup & Replication that works with Backup for Office365 that allows easy, self service capabilities that can be productized by Service Providers out of the box. Not only can Service Providers offer services to backup client Exchange Organisations but they can also extend that to offer self service which increases overall operational efficiencies at the provider end while also offering enhanced services to clients.

References:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo365/guide/vbo_mail_baas.html?ver=15

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo365/rest/swaggerui.html?ver=15

Creating a Custom Cloud Connect Maintenance Mode Message

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Last week I wrote an article on Maintenance Modes in Cloud Connect and also Veeam Availability Console. For Cloud Connect there is a default error message that get’s shown in the Job Status if any jobs are started if the Cloud Connect Maintenance Mode is turned on.

We have the ability to customize that message via a registry key addition as documented in the online Veeam Help Centre.

To create a custom Maintenance mode notification, on the SP Veeam backup server, create the new registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication\CloudMaintenanceModeMessage = <message> (String), where <message> is a Maintenance mode notification that you want to display on the tenant side.

Adding the key via Registry Editor is simple enough and this is what you are left with from within the Registry Editor.

And the error message at the tenant end now reflects the custom message.

To make this easier for Service Providers, i’ve written a quick PowerShell script that does a couple of things. The first thing is report on the current registry value for the Maintenance Mode and then give you the option to delete the key and return the message to it’s default state. The second thing it does is prompt you enter in the desired custom message and set that in the registry.

References:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/cloud/cc_maintenance_message.html?ver=95

Cloud Connect and VAC Portal Maintenance Modes

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Lately i’ve been digging deeper into the Veeam Availability Console and have been wrapping my head around it’s extended feature set. With that I thought it would be good to start a series of short blog posts pointing out examples of how certain parts are configured and what is happening under the covers. To kick things off I am going to talk about Maintenance Modes in VAC and also how it translates back to Cloud Connect Maintenance mode and also start off by covering that new Update 3 feature.

Maintenance Mode for Cloud Connect in Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3

In Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3 we introduced a Maintenance Mode feature for Cloud Connect. In a nutshell this makes the Service Provider cloud resources unavailable for tenants to perform backup or backup copy job operations. This is true for jobs running on Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3, Agent for Windows 2.1 and Agent for Linux 2.0.

To enable Maintenance Mode from the VBR console Right Click on the Cloud Connect top level tree item and click on Maintenance Mode

Read the message and click Yes

Once completed you should see the following status in the Cloud Connect menu tree

You can also set and check this state in PowerShell

Once triggered, any running jobs are gracefully stopped. Within that the current task is allowed to complete but all subsequent jobs will fail. In the case of an agent the whole job is allowed to complete. Any new backup or backup copy job that tries to start after Maintenance Mode has been initialed will fail with an error which is shown below.

Tying this into the Veeam Availability Console you can also trigger Maintenance Mode from the VAC UI. To enable maintenance mode for Veeam Cloud Connect, log in to Veeam Availability Console as a Portal Administrator and at the top right corner click Configuration and under Portal Configuration click Cloud Connect Server and click Enable Maintenance Mode.

Click Yes to confirm the operation.

The message isn’t 100% correct based on what I talked about earlier. The current job task will be completed and not dropped as suggested here.

You can disable Maintenance Mode by clicking on the menu option if it’s enabled.

Maintenance Mode for Veeam Availability Portal UI

For those times when you may need to perform configuration changes or OS updates to the system hosting the VAC Portal you have the ability to put the portal its self into maintenance mode. When enabled, all users will not be able to login to the portal remotely and you will see a message on the welcome page as shown below.

To toggle this setting go to the top right of the VAC console and click Configuration and then under Server Settings click on Settings and go to the Maintenance Mode Tab. Set the toggle to on or off to enable or disable and click save.

Once in Maintenance Mode you can only log back into the portal from the local console of the server hosting the VAC UI role. Note that while under Maintenance Mode you can only modify the SQL Server Configuration or toggle Maintenance Mode off.

Conclusion:

I’ve gone through the Maintenance Mode options for both Veeam Availability Console and Cloud Connect and how each one is enabled and what their purpose is. For the moment, in Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3 the Maintenance Mode is limited to Backup and Backup copy job operations. There are a other operations that are not currently impacted by this mode such as vCloud Director backups or Cloud Connect Replication operations however this will be looked at in upcoming releases.

To read more about Maintenance Mode head to the Veeam Help Documentation page here.

References:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/cloud/cc_maintenance_mode.html?ver=95

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vac/enterprise_admin/enable_disable_vac_maintenance_mode.html?ver=20

A Deeper Look at Insider Protection in 9.5 Update 3

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With the release of Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3 we introduced the concept of a Recycle Bin for customers sending offsite cloud backups to VCSPs using Veeam Cloud Connect. This deleted backup protection…or Insider Protection allows the VCSP to enable the deleted backups protection option for specific tenants and looks to add another level of data security for cloud based backups in the case of a malicious user gaining access to the Backup & Replication Console or in the case of accidental deletion by an administrator.

As shown above, this is set by checking a box (Also via PowerShell) in the properties of the tenant account. Once checked the SP will choose the retention period by setting the Keep deleted Backup files for <N> days option. With this option enabled, when a backup or a specific restore point in the backup chain is deleted or aged out from the cloud repository. The actual backup files are not deleted immediately, instead, they are moved to a _RecycleBin folder on the repositories.

Once moved, backup files in the recycle bin do not consume tenant quota however they obviously consume general storage. With that in mind it should be considered by the SP to charge for that used storage. I will release a post shortly detailing some tips on how best to size and charge for the recycle bin storage per client.

At the tenant end those backup files that are moved into the recycle bin are not registered and will not show up in the job information window. They can’t access or do anything with the files in the recycle bin. For the moment if a tenant wants to restore data they must contact the SP to obtain the necessary backup files. Once the retention period has expired all files that fall out of that period are deleted.

Basic Mechanics:

When the option is checked for a tenant a new folder is created under the _RecycleBin\<tenant> folder of the repository. In the case of a Scale Out Backup Repository there is a recycle bin folder created per extent which ensured that any split tenant VM files are processed locally and not between extents.

Once files in the repository start to age out the tenant folder will start to populate with backup files. If there is an event that triggers a change of retention or a VM removed from a job or the deletion of a whole job, any remaining VBK or VIB files in the tenant repository are moved into the recycle bin.

The files remain in the _RecycleBin folder until the retention period has passed or if the service provider moves them out of the folder for recovery purposes.

Working Example:

I have a Cloud Connect Backup account that I am using to back up five VMs that reside on premises, using a standard Backup Job with Forward Incrementals and a Synthetic Full done once a week. I have configured this job to keep two restore points.

I then have configured a secondary destination for the job via a Backup Copy Job to the Cloud Repository and I have set a GFS to happen weekly so I have a full archive offsite. If I hadn’t enabled GFS retention (for those running Update 3) a warning would appear as shown below.

Tip: If the tenant plans to create off-site copies of backed-up data with a backup copy job, it should enable GFS retention settings in the job properties. This way, Veeam Backup & Replication will be able to protect backups created by the job against an attack when a hacker reduces the job’s retention policy and creates a few incremental backups to remove backed-up data from the backup chain.

The Cloud Connect Tenant account has a deleted backup protection setting of 2 days configured as shown in the first image of this post.

Below is the local jobs folder structure:

Looking at the Cloud Connect repository (split over two SOBR extents) you can see that the main repository holds the VM backup files as per the job configuration. Notice the GFS _W files there as well.

Taking a look at the _RecycleBin folder for the tenant after a few days the aged out incremental will start to appear in the folder. Notice that there are no full backup files in the recycle bin at this stage.

Tip: The retention period will look at all backup jobs completed in a 24 hours period and have any expiring or deleted backup files moved into the recycle bin directory. This means that if you are copying up VMs that have a local backup interval of every 4 hours you will have six lots of backup files ageing out daily.

In this example I’m simulating an malicious attack or accidental deletion the VM (TPM03-RMQ-01/VM-120) from the backup. For the sake of this example we are deleting the VM from the Backup & Replication Console under Backups and Cloud. If the Included Archived copies option was chosen then the GFS weekly full backup file is also moved into the recycle bin.

Once the deletion process has been completed the _RecycleBin folder for the tenant will now be populated with the deleted full, plus three incremental files. If the Included Archived copies option was chosen then the GFS weekly full backup file is also moved into the recycle bin.

These will stay in the recycle bin until the retention period is met. From here these files can be transported back to the tenant to be recovered (see here for full process) from within the on-premises Backup & Replication console.

Conclusion:

As shown above, deleted backup protection or Insider Protection is an excellent enhancement to Cloud Connect Backup. It goes some way to having an air gapped backup in the cloud and protects against malicious attacks and rogue or clumsy administrators. There is a lot happening behind the scenes to make it work, however the concept is simple and this features extends the 3-2-1 rule by protecting that offsite copy as part of the Cloud Connect solution. VCSP’s should be looking to offer this as a value add to their clients and Veeam customers should be looking to take advantage of Cloud Connect Backup and Replication for their offsite backup and replication needs.

References:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/cloud/cloud_connect_bin.html?ver=95

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/cloud/cloud_connect_bin_restore.html?ver=95

Quick Look: Veeam Agent for Linux 2.0 – Now With Cloud Connect

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Just over a year ago Veeam Agent for Linux version 1.0 was released and for me still represents an important milestone for Veeam. During various presentations over the last twelve months I have talked about the fact that Linux backups haven’t really changed for twenty or so years and that the tried and trusted method for backing up Linux systems was solid…yet antiquated. For me, the GitLab backup disaster in Feburary highlighted this fact and the Veeam Agent for Linux takes Linux backups out of the legacy and into the now.

Yesterday, Veeam Agent for Linux 2.0 (Build 2.0.0.400) was released and with it came a number of new features and enhancements improving on the v1.1 build released in May. Most important for me is the ability to now backup straight to a Cloud Connect Repository.

Integration with Veeam Cloud Connect provides the following options:

  • Back up directly to a cloud repository: Veeam Agent for Linux provides a fully integrated, fast and secure way to ship backup files directly to a Cloud Connect repository hosted by one of the many Veeam-powered service providers.
  • Granular recovery from a cloud repository: Volume and file-level recovery can be performed directly from a backup stored within the cloud repository, without having to pull the entire backup on-premises first.
  • Bare-metal recovery from a cloud repository: The updated Veeam Recovery Media allows you to connect to your service provider, select the required restore point from the cloud repository and restore your entire computer to the same or different hardware.
Configuration Overview:

To install, you need to download the relevant Linux Packages from here. For my example below, I’m installing on an Ubuntu machine but we do support a number of popular Linux Distros as explained here.

Once installed you want to apply a Server License to allow backing up to Cloud Connect Repositories.

Before configuring a new job through the Agent for Linux Menu you can add Cloud Providers via the agent CLI. There are a number of cli menu options as shown below.

From here, you can use the cli to configure a new Backup Job but i’ve shown the process though the Agent UI. If you preconfigure the Service Provider with the cli once you select Veeam Cloud Connect Repository you don’t need to enter in the details again.

Once done and the job has run you will see that we have the backup going direct to the Cloud Connect Repository!

From the cli you can also get a quick overview of the job status.

Wrap Up:

I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time and with the amount of Linux server instances (both physical and virtual) that exist today across on-premises, partner hosts IaaS platforms, or hyper-scale clouds, I hope that Veeam Cloud & Service Providers really hone in on the opportunity that exists with this new feature.

For more on What’s New in 2.0 of Veeam Agent for Linux you click here.

References:

https://www.veeam.com/veeam_agent_linux_2_0_whats_new_wn.pdf

VCSP Important Notice: 9.5 Update 3 RTM Is Out…With Insider Protection and more!

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Earlier this week, Veeam made available to our VCSP partners the RTM of Update 3 for Backup & Replication 9.5 (Build 9.5.0.1335). Update 3 is what we term a breaking update, meaning that if a Cloud Connect tenant upgrades from any previous 9.5 version before VCSPs this will break backup or replication functionality. With that in mind the RTM has been made available for our VCSP partners to ensure it is installed and tested before being pushed out to production before the GA release. Veeam Backup & Replication releases from 8.0 (build 8.0.0.2084) can write backups to a cloud repository on 9.5 Update 3, and any release from 9.0 (build 9.0.0.902) can write replicas to a cloud host on 9.5 Update 3.

Update 3 is a very significant update and contains a number of enhancements and known issue fixes with a lot of those enhancements aimed at improving the scalability of the Backup & Replication platform that VCSPs can take advantage of. One important note is around new licensing for Cloud Connect Backup that all VCSPs should be aware of. There is a detailed post in the VCSP Forums and there will be emails sent to explains the changes.

We have also pushed out a number new features for our VCSPs with two of them highlighted below. One of which is the new Insider Protection feature or Recycle Bin for Cloud Connect Backups and the other is the a long awaited ask from our providers in the Maintenance Mode for Cloud Connect.

  • Insider protection: Option to hold backups deleted from a tenant’s cloud repository in a “recycle bin” folder for a designated period of time. For more information, see this post in the VCSP forum.

    • Maintenance Mode: Allows you to temporarily stop tenant backup and backup copy tasks from writing to cloud repositories. Already running tenant tasks are allowed to finish, but new tenant tasks fail with an error message indicating that the service provider infrastructure is undergoing maintenance. This is supported at the tenant end in 9.5 Update 3 GA, Agent for Windows 2.1 and Agent for Linux 2.0.

There has also been a lot of work to improve and enhance scalability in the Backup & Replication Cloud Connect functionality to accomodate the increasing usage of Veeam Agent for Windows of which there is a new version (2.1) coming in early December and prepare for the release of Veeam Agent for Linux (2.0) that will include support for backups to be sent to Cloud Connect repositories. For the recently released Veeam Availability Console, Update 3 is 100% compatible with the 2.0 GA (Build 2.0.1.1319) released last week and is good from Update 2 or later.

Conclusion:

Once again, Update 3 for Veeam Backup & Replication is an important update to apply for VCSPs running Cloud Connect services in preparation for the GA release which will happen in about two weeks. Once released I’ll link to the VeeamKB for a detailed look at the fixes but for the moment, if you have the ability to download the update do so and have it applied to your instances. For more info in the RTM, head to the VCSP Forum post here.

Veeam Availability Console – What’s in it for Service Providers

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Today, the Veeam Availability Console was made GA meaning that after a long wait our new multi-tenant service provider management and reporting platform is available for download. VAC is an significant evolution of the Managed Backup Portal that was released in 2016 and acts as a central portal for Veeam Cloud and Service Providers to remotely manage and monitor customer instances of Backup & Replication including the ability to monitor Cloud Connect Backup and Replication jobs and failover plans. It also is the central mechanism to deploy and manage (Windows) agents which includes the ability to install agents onto on-premises machines and apply policies to those agents once deployed.

Veeam® Availability Console is a cloud-enabled platform built specifically for Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) partners and resellers looking to launch a managed services business. Through its ability to remotely provision, manage and monitor virtual, physical and cloud-based Veeam environments without any special connectivity requirements, Veeam Availability Console enables you to increase revenue and add value to all your customers.

  • Simplified Setup – now allowing on-premises installs
  • Remote backup agent management and monitoring
  • Remote discovery and deployment with enhanced support for Veeam Cloud Connect
  • Web-based multi-tenant portal
  • Native billing and RESTful APIs
Cloud Connect Requirement:

The Cloud Connect Gateway is central to how the Veeam Availability Console operates and all management traffic is tunneled through the Cloud Connect Gateways. If you are a current VCSP offering Cloud Connect services then you already have the infrastructure in place to facilitate VAC, however if you are not a Cloud Connect partner you can apply for a special key that will enable you to deploy a Gateway without the need for specific Cloud Connect backup or Replication licenses.

For a deeper look at VAC architecture for Service Providers, head to Luca Dell’Oca’s VAC series here.

Designed for Service Providers First:

The Veeam Availability Console was designed from the ground up for Service Providers (there is an Enterprise version available) and contains a rich set of APIs that can be consumed for automation and provisioning purposes. There is also a three tier multi-tenancy design allowing VCSPs the ability to create restricted accounts for their partners or resellers from which in turn, another level of accounts can be created for their customers or tenants.

The multi-tenancy aspect means that partners/resellers and customers can control their own backups centrally from the console. Reporting on backup jobs can be viewed and a mechanism to control those jobs is available allowing retry/stop/start tasks against those jobs. If that’s not enough control or more troubleshooting on failed jobs needs to be done the Remote Console feature introduced in Veeam Backup & Replication Update 2 has been integrated into the console.

VAC also includes built in reporting and billing functionality which enables VCSPs who don’t have the capability for automated reporting and billing to offer that to their customers. The reporting can be accessed via the API meaning that if an existing billing engine is being used there is the possibility to have that interface with VAC to pull out key data points.

The Service Provider Opportunity:

Over the past year I’ve talked a lot about the opportunity that exists for Veeam’s Cloud and Service Providers to take advantage of the opportunity that exists with Veeam’s Agents to capture backups for workloads that previously were out of reach. VAC is central to this and opens up the ability to backup instances that live on-premises (physical or virtual) or in any public cloud hyper-scaler or otherwise.

If you are a reseller looking to cash in on the growing data availability market then you should be looking at how VAC can help you get started by leveraging the features mentioned above . Secondly, if you a reseller and not running Cloud Connect Backup or Replication then the time is right to start looking at getting Cloud Connect deployed and start generating revenue around backup and replication services.

For those existing VCSPs that are offering Cloud Connect services, adding VAC into the mix will allow you to take advantage of the agent opportunity that exists as shown above while also adding value to your existing Managed Backup and Cloud Connect services.

References and Product Guides:

https://www.veeam.com/vac_2_0_release_notes_rn.pdf

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vac/deployment/about.html?ver=20

https://www.veeam.com/availability-console-service-providers-faq.html

https://www.veeam.com/vac_2_0_whats_new_wn.pdf

VeeamON 2017 Wrap

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VeeamON 2017 has come and gone and even though I left New Orleans on Friday afternoon, I just arrived back home…54 hours of travel, transit and delays has meant that my VeeamOFF continued longer than most! What an amazing week it was though for Veeam, our partners and our customers…The announcements that we made over the course of the event have been extremely well received and it’s clear to me that the Availability Platform vision that we first talked about last year is in full execution mode.

The TPM team executed brilliantly and along with the core team and the other 300 Veeam employee’s that where in New Orleans it was great to see all the hard work pay off. The Technical Evangelist’s main stage live demo’s all went off (if not for some dodgy HDMI) without a hitch and we all felt privileged to be able to demo some of the key announcements. On a personal note, It was a career highlight to be able to present to approximately 2000 people and be part of a brand new product launch for Veeam with Veeam PN.

From a networking point of view it was great to meet so many new people and put faces to Twitter handles. It was also great to see the strong Veeam Vanguard representation at the event and even though I couldn’t party with the group like previous years, it looked like they got a lot out of week, both from a Veeam technical point of view and without doubt on the social front…I was living vicariously through them as they where partying hard in New Orleans.

VeeamON Key Announcements:

Availability Suit 10

  • Built-in Management for Veeam Agent for Linux and Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows
  • Scale-Out Backup Repository — Archive Tier
  • NAS Backup Support for SMB and NFS Shares
  • Veeam CDP (Continuous Data Protection)
  • Primary Storage Integrations — Universal Storage Integration API
  • DRaaS Enhancements (for service providers)
  • Additional enterprise scalability enhancements

For me, the above list shows our ongoing commitment to the Enterprise but more importantly for me working on enhancing our platform so that our Veeam Cloud and Service Providers can continue to leverage our technology to create and offer cloud based Disaster Recovery and Backup services.

Product Announcements and Releases:

I have been lucky enough to work as the TPM lead on Veeam PN and I was extremely excited to be able to demo it for the first time to the world. I’ve written a blog post here that goes into some more detail around Veeam PN and if you want to view the main stage demo I’ve linked to the video in the last section…I start the demo at the 29th minute mark if you want to skip through.

vCloud Director Cloud Connect Enhancements:

As mentioned above we have enhanced core capabilities in v10 when it comes to Cloud Connect Replication and Cloud Connect Backup. Obviously, the announcement that we will be supporting vCloud Director is significant and one that a lot of our Cloud and Service Providers are extremely happy with. It just makes the DRaaS experience that much more complete and when you add that to the CDP features in the core platform which will allow for sub minute RPO’s for replica’s it firmly places Cloud Connect as the market leader in Replication as a Service technologies.

We also announced backup to tape features for Cloud Connect Backup which will allow Cloud and Service Providers to offload long term backup files to cheaper storage. Note that this isn’t limited to tape if used in conjunction with a Virtual Tape Library. Hopefully our VCSP’s can create revenue generating service offerings around this feature as well.

VCSP Council Meeting:

On Thursday, our R&D leads met with a select group of our top Cloud and Service Provider partners over a three hour lunch meeting which could have gone all day if time permitted. It was great to be on the other side of the fence for the first time and hear all the great feedback, advice and suggestions from the group. It’s encouraging to hear about how Veeam Backup & Replication had become the central platform for IaaS, Cloud Replication an Backup offerings and with the v10 enhancements I expect that to be even more the case moving forward.

Main Stage Recordings:

Wednesday and Thursday morning both saw main stage general sessions where we announced our new products and features along with keynotes from Sanjay Poonen and Mark Russinovich as well as co-CEO Peter McKay and co-founder Ratmir Timashev. They are worth a look and I’ve posted links to the video recordings below. Note that they are unedited and contain all change overs and wait times.

https://www.veeam.com/veeamon/live

Press Releases:

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