Optimizing Veeam Backup & Replication Configuration for VMware VSAN
Purpose
This article provides general advice for optimizing Veeam Backup & Replication configuration for environments using VMware VSAN.
Solution
- Use Virtual Machine-based VMware Backup Proxies.
VMware Backup Proxy System Requirements - Create one VMware Backup Proxy for each ESXi host in the VSAN cluster to reduce the workload on the ESXi I/O stack during backup.
- Consider creating a VM-Host Affinity Rule to prevent the VMware Backup Proxy from being moved off its assigned ESXi host.
- Consider increasing the Veeam Backup & Replication snapshots per datastore limit. By default, Veeam Backup & Replication will not create more than 4 snapshots at once, meaning that only 4 VMs can be processed at most.
To change the snapshot limit, create the following value on the Veeam Backup Server.
Key Location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication
Value Name: MaxSnapshotsPerDatastore
Value Type: DWORD (32-Bit) Value
Default Value Data: 4
The standard advice is to increase the snapshot limit by four (e.g., 8, 12,16) until all jobs are completed within an acceptable time frame, but not so high as to cause environmental performance impact. Every environment will react differently to an increasing number of active snapshots being present at one time, and it is critical that you monitor the environment closely.
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