Home Lab Backup Strategy

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
300
68
28
42
First, a little background. I have a three-server ESXi cluster with a fourth dedicated FreeNAS server. Here are the specs:
The Lab - Hyperion EPM

My current backup is all contained inside of Hyperion ESXi1. This box has a VM with Veeam Backup and Recovery installed and backs up to a mapped raw LUN that is my RAID 6 array of 2TB drives. This has worked for a while, but I've never felt really great about it. What is HyperionESXi1 fails? I can't recover...

Now that I have my FreeNAS box up and running I'm trying to decide how to adjust my backup strategy. The way I see it, I have two options:

Option 1:
Build a standalone server to run Windows Server 2012 R2 and Veeam Availability 9.5 (I have an NFR 6 socket license for this).
Backup directly to my CIFS share on my FreeNAS box where I would like to keep all of my backups.
The downside here is that I would need to purchase a new 10GBe switch as my X1052 is at capacity.

Option 2:
Build a new VM on one of my VMware servers running the same software and backing up to the same location.

The benefits to option 1 are of course that if any one of my servers were to crash, no problem, just restore it to another server or back to the original server once the problem has been resolved. Option 2 would require a new step of building a new Veeam server to restore if the server that Veeam were on happens to be the failed server.

I originally had planned on running Windows Server 2012 R2 in a VM on my FreeNAS box, however 9.10 no longer supports VirtualBox jails (they broke after a recent update). I guess the other option is to figure out how to run VirtualBox on my FreeNAS box in a jail on my own outside of the formerly available template that I had working.

This brings me to my next portion of my backup strategy...FreeNAS. My current configuration will have a few volumes with roughly 50TB of storage. Now...not all of that information needs an additional backup. I will likely only have 20TB or less of items I really want to back up on a regular basis. Here's one option I'm considering:

Swap out my Areca controller with a Supermicro AOC-2308-l8e that I have laying around. Swap out my HP SAS expander for an Intel SAS expander that I have laying around. Pass both of those PCIe devices through to a new FreeNAS VM and use that as a way to back up my larger physical FreeNAS box.

The final option I've thought of is putting together one more smaller server that would run a virtual Veeam box and Virtual FreeNAS backup box. This is kind of a combination of the above, but has additional cost in hardware and a new switch just like Option 1 from above. So many options...

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and how they are currently set up. If you've read this far on my way-to-long post, I appreciate your time and feedback! If you only read part of it...I'll still take what I can get! ;)
 

Tom5051

Active Member
Jan 18, 2017
359
79
28
46
I use Veeam 9.5 installed on a VM which is used to backup my guest VM's. I use Shadow Protect to backup my Veeam VM so that I can restore it quickly in the event of all VM's lost.
I don't think they have fixed the problems associated with Veeam on a VM backing itself up due to the need for a snapshot. when the guest freezes the backup will fail.
 

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
300
68
28
42
I think my solution was just released. I think I'll give FreeNAS Corral a shot. It should allow me to have my place to replicate my other FreeNAS box and virtualize my Windows-based Veeam solution for my VM's. Exciting...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Patrick

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
I think my solution was just released. I think I'll give FreeNAS Corral a shot. It should allow me to have my place to replicate my other FreeNAS box and virtualize my Windows-based Veeam solution for my VM's. Exciting...
Did you happen to see Kevin's guide on how to do replication today on the STH main site?
 

briandm81

Active Member
Aug 31, 2014
300
68
28
42
So I guess I need to upgrade my main box so I can really make it easy. Exciting...