Backup Azure VM to Azure File Storage

In this post, we are looking into using Veeam Agent for Windows/Linux to backup application data and store into Azure Files Storage. Application on Windows Virtual Machine or Linux Virtual machine can be protected using standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

Data store in File Storage is just cost $0.08 per GB/month (LRS) for Southeast Asia pricing.
Note:- Price is different depend on region.

Each File share can store data up to 5TB.

Scenario:-

• Azure Windows VM - Windows Server 2012
• Azure Linux VM - Centos 7 
• Veeam Agent for Windows [Server Edition] - https://www.veeam.com/blog/veeam-agent-windows-public-beta-available.html
• Veeam Agent for Linux [Server Edition] - https://www.veeam.com/blog/veeam-agent-linux-is-available.html 
• Azure Files
• file share - ms4ustorage01

[ Backup ]

Once Veeam Agent for Windows has installed on Windows VM, customer can configure target to shared folder.

Enter shared folder path & authentication

• \\ms4ustorage01.file.core.windows.net\ms4u-azurerepo01
• Username - storage name
• Password - Azure Storage Primary Key

On Linux VM, before you configure backup job, customer need to configure mounting point.

Command:-
sudo mount -t cifs //ms4ustorage01.file.core.windows.net/ms4u-azurerepo01 [mount point] -o vers=3.0,username=ms4ustorage01,password=[storage account access key],dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777

Configuration on Veeam Agent for Linux target, set to Local instead of shared folder.

Backup completed without any issue.

[Restore ]

In case of any disaster, customer can easily retrieve backup data from Azure File Storage

Backup Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor

If you are running free vmware vsphere hypervisor, you may wonder how to do backup. Starting from ESX/ESXi 4.0, Vmware has disable the API which prevent free ESXi to perform snapshot. You will get this error message when try to backup Free Vmware ESXi.

Error:- "Current vSphere license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation"

So we cannot perform image level backup from the hypervisor level. For workaround, we use

• Veeam Agent for Windows - for Windows workload. 
• Veeam Agent for Linux - for Linux workload. Click here to know more.

In this post, we are going to use Veeam Agent for Windows -Server Edition (currently in beta version.) to protect virtual machine running on free vmware esxi.

Our scenario:-

• Free Vmware ESXi 6.5
• Virtual Machine running Windows Server 2016
• Veeam Agent for Windows- Server Edition
• Veeam Backup Server (with Repository)
• optional : Free version or paid version :- Hyper-V 2016
• optional : Microsoft Azure

You need to install Veeam Agent for Windows - Server Edition in windows virtual machine, perform full backup and point backup data to Veeam repository.

When disaster, you can use Veeam to restore

• granular item using Veeam Explorer. Without restore entire virtual machine, you can recover an item (SQL, Exchange, Active Directory, Sharepoint, Oracle, File/Folder).

• export virtual disk to Hyper-V or Vmware disk format. It will perform conversion and convert to Hyper-V or Vmware virtual disk.

• Instant Recovery to Hyper-V Host. Refer to here. This feature allow user to bring up virtual machine (without restore entire virtual machine). It will mount the backup data to Hyper-V Host, to bring up the virtual machine within 2-3 minutes.

• Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure. Refer to here.

Hope this alternative work for you.

Enjoy!


Note:- To download Veeam Agent for Windows, click here.

Free Online Drawing Software - Draw.io

We used to use visio as diagram software to do solution architecture diagram but there are certain devices such my Surface RT, android tablet, or other tablet cannot install the software. The only resort is use online diagram software and the best is free.

During our exploration, we found draw.io. draw.io is free online diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams.

You can save the drawing into multiple location such as

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Device
• Browser

We found Veeam & Azure stencil are available which make it even more perfect tool to use. Below is a sample drawing that we drew when playing around with it.

If you're interested to give it a try, please go to https://www.draw.io/

Enjoy!

Error : Windows Cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms

Encountered an error message " Windows Cannot Find the Microsoft Software License Terms" when install operating system Windows Server 2016 in a virtual machine running on Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V.

I was unable to proceed further and restart installation does not fix the problem. Initial thought,was iso media issue. But that is not the case.

[Resolution]
1. Change the VM memory setting to minimum 800 MB

Note:- Initial setting is 512MB.

Able to get the operating system installation run without any issue.

Get your passport to SCOM 2016

If you are wondering what is new with SCOM 2016, you are not the only one. There is a lot of uncertainty around what’s lies ahead down the road for SCOM. Join tons of IT pros who are asking the same questions and register for Savision’s upcoming session: 'Passport to SCOM 2016'.

Hosted by Savision's Support Manager, Chris Malay, this session will feature a great group of stars that will guide you through everything you need to know when traveling into the vast universe of SCOM 2016:

Microsoft Product Manager - Mahesh Narayanan
Senior Consultant at Didacticum and Microsoft MVP - Marnix Wolf
Principal Consultant at Lumagate and Microsoft MVP - Damian Flynn

The session will focus on the core of SCOM 2016, highlighting:
- The differences between SCOM 2012 R2 vs SCOM 2016
- Management Packs
- Demos
- Customer feedback
- The roadmap of SCOM 2016, and much more, including a Q&A session, where the experts will answer all your questions.

Don’t miss your flight to SCOM2016. Mark your calendar for:
 
Tuesday, February 21st at 10 AM (EST) | 4 PM CET (EU)

Recover Older Microsoft Application Using Veeam U-AIR

This post is written to address concern on recover an application items especially Microsoft application which has end support (example SQL 2000, 2005, Exchange 2007, etc). Some organization still has an older application running due to incompatibility issue or not yet migrate to new version.

Note:- Microsoft Lifecycle Policy is still apply for above product. Please refer to here:- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle . 

Our objective is to provide an option to recover your application when disaster happen. 

Veeam Universal Application Item-level Recovery (or U-AIR) addresses one of the most common IT problem — it lets you restore individual application items that were accidentally deleted or corrupted, directly from VM backups. You can use Veeam’s U-AIR functionality to recover items from any application running inside any VM. U-AIR does not require any special backups or additional tools. To enable recovery of application items, U-AIR uses the vPower technology for applications virtualized on VMware vSphere platform, and Instant VM Recovery technology for applications virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V platform. VMs are started directly from compressed and deduplicated image-level backups. 

Let assume you are

• running older application on Vmware/Hyper Platform. In our lab, we are using Windows Server 2003 with SP2 & SQL 2000.
• use Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 to backup virtual machine
• use Veeam Enterprise Manager 
• Install Veeam U-AIR (Veeam Universal Application Item Recovery) FREE!
• SureBackup Job, Application Group & Virtual Lab has configured. Keep the application group running once the job completes option in the properties of the SureBackup job.

U-AIR will utilize Surebackup,Virtual Lab and Application group. Once Virtual machine has boot up from backup in an isolated environment, user can connect to that application with the native management tools they use for work with the application, and restore items they need.

Let have a look on how we use Veeam U-AIR:-

a) Request Virtual Lab. Use Veeam Administrator Console. On Home | click Restore | Vmware | Application Items | Other Application

b) Enter Virtual Lab description and duration require.

 c) Enter IP or name of the production virtual machine that runs the application from which you want to restore items

 d) Select restore point

 Click Finish. You just send a Virtual Lab Request. Next step is approve from Veeam Enterprise Manager.

a) Use Veeam Enterprise Manager. Click Request | Select the request & click Approve

b) Modify the lab date/time when virtual lab is going to run. Enter VM name. Veeam will search from Veeam backup server and display the restore point.

 c) Select SureBackup Job to associate with this virtual lab request. Click Finish when done.

 You will receive notification on the taskbar when virtual lab request was approved.

 When open virtual lab manager, it will display state as "Preparing". Wait for Surebackup Job to kick in. User will notify when it is ready.

State:- "Preparing"

 State:- "Ready". Click Open

Universal Recovery wizard provides a masquerade IP address for the VM in the isolated environment and automatically updates routing on the user’s machine. You can use the specified IP address to connect to the VM remotely and extract required items from the application with the native management tools. As an alternative, you can log on to the VM console using vSphere Client or HyperV Manager.

That's all. Hope you able to test it on your environment and recover your older application.

Enjoy!

Migrate VM from Vmware ESXi 6 to ESXi 6.5

In this post, we are going to migrate virtual machines reside on standalone Vmware ESXi 6 host to standalone Vmware ESXi 6.5 host using Veeam Quick Migration. You can perform hot migration (while VM is running) or Cold Migration (while VM is offline). During our lab testing, we realize that VM migrate faster when VM is offline. No interruption to VM when perform hot migration.

To do so, you need to have

• Vmware ESXi 6.0 Host
• Vmware ESXi 6.5 Host
• Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 with Update 1. Update 1 is require to backup Vmware ESX 6.5. To download, click here.

Here is our infrastructure:

ESX 6.0 with few running virtual machines:

ESX 6.5 without any VM. (new setup). Starting from 6.5, Vsphere client is no longer available. to manage ESX host, you will use Vsphere Web Client (HTML 5) and access using latest web browser.

To console access a virtual machine, you can download VMRC (Vmware Remote Console)

from http://www.vmware.com/go/download-vmrc

To be safe, we recommend that you perform full backup of existing virtual machine before perform any migration.

Once done, you can start to migrate VM by using Veeam Administrator Console. Go to Virtual Machine workspace | Go to ESX Host | Right click VM | Select Quick Migration.

Note:- Make sure you've added ESXi 6.5 host into managed host.

 

 Select Target Host (ESXi 6.5) and target datastore where you would like to put them.

End result:-

Online Migration (while VM is running)

Offline Migration (while VM is offline)

Once migrated, you need to 

• Upgrade VM Compatibility to ESXi 6.5 virtual machine. This process is irreversible operation & incompatible to prior version of ESXi Host. Do this when VM is offline.
• Upgrade VM Tool

Now you've successful migrate virtual machine from ESXi 6.0 Host to ESXi 6.5 Host. Final step, is modify the backup policy & perform backup to protect the virtual machine using Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5.

Hope this help....