Veeam 10 Sneak Peek: setup an NFS repository

The upcoming release of the new Veeam Backup & Replication 10 introduces the NFS repository support extending the storage capabilities for NAS devices.

The configuration is pretty straightforward and follows similar steps required to configure a CIFS repository.

Direct NFS Access mode

Currently Veeam Backup & Replication optimizes performance when configured to backup VMs located on NFS datastores through the use of the Direct NFS Access, the recommended transport mode to use. Veeam reads/writes data directly from/to NFS datastores bypassing the ESXi host and VMs data flow through the LAN without loading the ESXi host.

To leverage Direct NFS Access mode, Veeam deploys a native NFS client to the Veeam Proxy component used for VM data transport.

Anyway, Direct NFS Access mode presents some limitation:

• If the VM has at least one snapshot Direct NFS Access cannot be used.
• For a replication job the Direct NFS Access can be used only for the first session since replicated VMs will have a snapshot already for next replication jobs. Read operations still use Direct NFS Access Mode while write sessions will use alternate transport modes.
• If Enable VMware tools quiescence option is enabled for Microsoft Windows VMs with VMware Tools installed, Direct NFS Access will not be used.
• Network transport mode will be used if VM disks cannot be processed in the Direct NFS Access mode.

Although reading data from NFS datastores is optimized, NFS repositories to store backups are not directly supported and Veeam requires a tricky storage-side configuration to permit the installation of the Veeam transporter component.

Veeam NFS repository setup

With the upcoming Veeam Backup & Replication 10, NFS repositories are fully supported.

To setup a NFS repository in Veeam 10, from the console go to Backup Infrastructure area and access the Backup Repositories section. Click Add Repository from main menu.

Click on Network Attached Storage.

Select Nfs as repository type.

Enter the Name of the new repository and optionally a Description. Click Next.

Enter the Shared folder path of the storage to configure then click Next.

Capacity and Free space are populated. Click Advanced to access the advanced setup.

Optionally to improve performance, select Use per-VM backup files option (you need the Enterprise Plus license) to store a backup file for every backed up VM then click OK. Click Next to continue.

Specify the Mount server and the Instant recovery write cache folder then click Next.

Click Apply to install Veeam components in the used Proxy Server.

When the installation has completed successfully, click Next.

Click Finish to exit the wizard.

The new NFS repository has been created.

During the Backup Job configuration specify the new created NFS repository as Backup repository.

Right click the Backup Job and select Start to run the job immediately.

The Backup Job is processed and completed.

Checking the Backups area, the just performed Backup Job has been successfully stored in the configured NFS repository.

This new features finally allows the administrators to easily setup also an NFS repository taking benefit of existing NAS device capabilities with no need to setup tricky configurations.

The new Veeam Backup & Replication 10 is expected to be released within the end of this year.