As mentioned my post yesterday, Veeam Backup & replication v10a has been released. One of the more significant new features of the release was the new AWS Plug-in for Veeam Backup & Replication. This works in conjunction with deployed instances of Veeam Backup for AWS and allows remote management of that solution right from the Veeam Backup & Replication console. This is a significant move as we look to offer our customers more streamlined management options for our suite of products that make up the Cloud Management Platform. The plug-in offers the ability to manage an existing appliance, or deploy a new one from the console.
Customers might be ok with managing AWS based backup and recovery through the Marketplace deployed appliance web interface, but there are others that want to manage and have visibility of all their backups from the Backup & Replication Console.
From a Managed or IaaS Service Provider perspective, this has the potential to open the door up to some form of managed service around Veeam Backup for AWS. This will be carried into future versions of the Veeam Availability Console as well which will take that to the next level in terms of total managed approach to AWS backup services revenue.
Installation:
The Plug-in is installed via a seperate installer which can be downloaded here. It is a small download, less than 40MB. Once extracted and run you may get a message about additional Microsoft components being required on the server. These will be installed automatically. After a couple of seconds, the plugin is installed and ready for use.
Setup and Configuration:
Once installed and back in the Backup & Replication console, under Backup Infrastructure and Managed Servers. We now have the ability to add type Veeam Backup for AWS.
Once clicked, we have the ability to Connect to an existing appliance or Deploy a new appliance.
The procedure to install to deploy a new appliance is straight forward and will create all the required AWS resources if required.
If connecting to an existing appliance, you need to ensure that port 443 is open and accessible to the AWS appliance from the Veeam Backup & Replication Server network. You can do this by modding the Security Group Inbound rules tied to your EC2 Instance. If not, you will get the following connection error.
Once connected we need to setup the remote repositories with the access required for the local Backup & Replication server to access them. This configures the repository as an External Repository in Backup & Replication and allows the points to be used for restore mobility.
Management and Monitoring:
Once installation and configuration is completed, you will see the AWS Backup Appliance listed in the console with actionable items.
We also now have the ability to trigger an external call to configure Amazon EC2 Backup jobs from the Appliance Web UI. This will use a once time authorization code to login.
From here any Policy can be tracked and monitored from the Backup & Replication console, and we get a full look of the Policy history and well as the backup and snapshot points as well as have the ability to restore EC2 instances.
References:
AWS Plug-in for Veeam Backup & Replication (separate download). For more information, please refer to KB3239
