Nutanix Veeam Backup Replication Best Practices

Veeam Backup &
Replication 9.5
Nutanix Best Practices
Version 1.2 • February 2018 • BP-2017

Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5
Copyright
Copyright 2018 Nutanix, Inc.
Nutanix, Inc.
1740 Technology Drive, Suite 150
San Jose, CA 95110
All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual
property laws.
Nutanix is a trademark of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other
marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Copyright | 2
Contents
1. Executive Summary................................................................................ 4
2. Introduction..............................................................................................5
2.1. Audience........................................................................................................................ 5
2.2. Purpose..........................................................................................................................5
2.3. Synergistic Technologies............................................................................................... 5
3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview.......................................7

3.1. Nutanix Acropolis Overview...........................................................................................7
3.2. Nutanix Acropolis Architecture...................................................................................... 8
4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture.........................................10

4.1. Component Overview.................................................................................................. 10
4.2. Veeam Component Sizing...........................................................................................12
4.3. Deployment Models..................................................................................................... 13
4.4. VMware vSphere Support........................................................................................... 15
4.5. Microsoft Hyper-V Support.......................................................................................... 20
4.6. Nutanix AHV Support.................................................................................................. 23
4.7. Veeam Backup Job Best Practices............................................................................. 23
4.8. Veeam Restore Options.............................................................................................. 23
4.9. Recommended Operating Systems.............................................................................24
5. Conclusion............................................................................................. 25
Appendix......................................................................................................................... 26
About the Authors............................................................................................................... 26
About Veeam...................................................................................................................... 26
About Nutanix......................................................................................................................27
List of Figures................................................................................................................28
List of Tables................................................................................................................. 29
3
1. Executive Summary
Veeam is the Premier Availability solution provider for Nutanix, which offers a highly scalable
virtualization platform for desktop, server, and big data deployments. This document makes
recommendations for the optimization and scaling of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5, part of
the Veeam Availability Suite, with Nutanix and VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. It shows
the scalability of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform and provides configuration information on
the scale-out capabilities of both Veeam Backup & Replication and Nutanix.
Veeam Backup & Replication 9.0 and later versions support a new backup method for vSphere,
called Direct NFS. Direct NFS enables faster backups and helps minimize network bandwidth
consumption. For Hyper-V 2016 environments, resilient change tracking (RCT) is available with
Nutanix storage, which can significantly shorten the backup window. Both of these new features
can increase backup performance and reduce backup windows.
1. Executive Summary | 4
2. Introduction
2.1. Audience
This best practice document is part of the Nutanix Solutions Library and is intended for
individuals responsible for the architecture, design, management, and support of Veeam Backup
& Replication on Nutanix systems. Consumers of this document should be familiar with VMware
vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Veeam Backup & Replication, and Nutanix.
2.2. Purpose
This document covers the high-level best practices for Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 with
Nutanix, using VMware vSphere 5.5 through 6.5 or Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2 and 2016. We
also take a high-level look at Veeam Backup & Replication’s planned support for the native
Nutanix hypervisor, AHV.
This best practice guide is focused on an optimized disk-to-disk backup architecture. Veeam
Backup & Replication has a number of architecture options, and this guide covers the jointly
developed best practices.
2.3. Synergistic Technologies

The distributed and scale-out architecture of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 strongly
complements the web-scale Nutanix platform and its data locality technology. The combined
solution takes advantage of the strengths of both products to provide crash, OS, or even
application-consistent, network-efficient, and totally agentless backups, helping organizations
achieve their recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs). The
architecture is flexible enough to support either 100 percent virtualized Veeam components or
a combination of virtual and physical components, depending on customer requirements and
available hardware.
Table 1: Document Version History
Version
Published Notes
Number
1.0 September 2017 Original publication.
2. Introduction | 5
Version
Published Notes
Number
Updated for AOS 5.5 and Veeam Backup & Recovery
1.1 January 2018
9.5 U3.
Updated recommendations regarding Enable Same
1.2 February 2018
Host Direct NFS mode.
2. Introduction | 6
3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview
3.1. Nutanix Acropolis Overview

Nutanix delivers a web-scale, hyperconverged infrastructure solution purpose-built for
virtualization and cloud environments. This solution brings the performance and economic
benefits of web-scale architecture to the enterprise through the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud
Platform, which combines two product families—Nutanix Acropolis and Nutanix Prism.
Attributes of this solution include:
• Storage and compute resources hyperconverged on x86 or Power Architecture servers.
• System intelligence located in software.
• Data, metadata, and operations fully distributed across entire cluster of x86 or Power
Architecture servers.
• Self-healing to tolerate and adjust to component failures.
• API-based automation and rich analytics.
• Simplified one-click upgrade.
• Native file services for hosting user profiles.
• Native backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Nutanix Acropolis provides data services and can be broken down into three foundational
components: the Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF), the App Mobility Fabric (AMF), and AHV.
Prism furnishes one-click infrastructure management for virtual environments running on
Acropolis. Acropolis is hypervisor agnostic, supporting three third-party hypervisors—ESXi,
Hyper-V, and XenServer—in addition to the native Nutanix hypervisor, AHV.
3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview | 7

Figure 1: Enterprise Cloud Platform
3.2. Nutanix Acropolis Architecture

Acropolis does not rely on traditional SAN or NAS storage or expensive storage network
interconnects. It combines highly dense storage and server compute (CPU and RAM) into
a single platform building block. Each building block is based on industry-standard Power
Architecture or Intel processor technology and delivers a unified, scale-out, shared-nothing
architecture with no single points of failure.
The Nutanix solution has no LUNs to manage, no RAID groups to configure, and no complicated
storage multipathing to set up. All storage management is VM-centric, and the DSF optimizes
I/O at the VM virtual disk level. There is one shared pool of storage that includes flash-based
SSDs for high performance and HDDs for affordable capacity. The file system automatically tiers
data across different types of storage devices using intelligent data placement algorithms. These
algorithms make sure the most frequently used data is available in memory or in flash for optimal
performance. Organizations can also choose flash-only storage for the fastest possible storage
performance. The following figure illustrates the data I/O path for a write in a hybrid model (mix of
SSD and HDD disks).

Figure 2: Information Life Cycle Management
For more detailed information on the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform, please visit
Nutanix.com.

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture
4.1. Component Overview

Veeam Backup & Replication has a scale-out architecture, in which multiple components
(both for control and data processing) work together in a coordinated fashion. We provide a
brief overview of these components below; please visit veeam.com for a deep dive on Veeam
technologies.
The next two tables highlight the different components and technologies related to virtualization
and guest OS for the joint solution.
Table 2: Backup Components
Component Description
The Nutanix Controller VM (CVM) runs the Acropolis
Distributed Storage Fabric and serves all the I/O operations for
Nutanix Controller VM the hypervisor and VMs running on that host. The CVM pools
and exports storage to the hypervisor using the appropriate
protocol.
As the “brain” of the solution, Veeam Backup Server is
responsible for job management and scheduling, indexing
Veeam Backup Server
tasks, and general orchestration of the backup and replication
environment. The Backup Server can be virtualized.
A backup proxy is a lightweight Veeam architecture component
that sits between the data source and the backup target,
processing jobs and delivering backup traffic. Backup proxy
tasks include retrieving VM data from production storage,
Veeam Backup Proxy
then compressing, deduplicating, and sending that data to the
backup repository. Using more than one virtualized (or physical)
backup proxy lets you easily scale your backup infrastructure
based on the size of your Nutanix system.
4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 10

Component Description
These systems provide the memory, storing backup archives
and their related metadata for future restores. A repository may
be a Windows or Linux server, a third-party NAS device, or a
Veeam Repository deduplication appliance. Repositories can be virtual or physical,
depending on requirements and available hardware. If the
repository is virtual, create fault domain isolation by storing it
separately from the Nutanix cluster that holds production data.
Table 3: Backup Technologies
Technology Description
VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) was
introduced with vSphere 4.0, and is available in all licensed
editions. It is the next-generation backup framework that
VMware VADP
enables efficient agent-free backups. Veeam Backup &
Replication 9.5 uses the VADP framework for high-performance
backups.
Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a component of VADP that
enables efficient incremental VM backups. It enables Veeam
Backup & Replication to back up only changed data blocks,
vSphere CBT
thus greatly increasing backup performance and reducing
network bandwidth. Read operations occur locally, eliminating
the load on the network and on other Nutanix nodes.
New to Hyper-V 2016 is native Resilient Change Tracking
(RCT) for VHDX virtual disks. RCT enables Veeam Backup &
Replication 9.5 to efficiently back up VMs and minimize backup
Hyper-V 2016 RCT windows. RCT offers a major improvement over Hyper-V 2012
R2, where incremental backups on Nutanix needed a full disk
scan to identify changed blocks, thus requiring additional I/O
and much more time.

Technology Description
Microsoft VSS is the framework for application-consistent
backups for Windows OS. Built into the operating system, VSS
enables the creation of a consistent snapshot of application
data, such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL, Active Directory,
Microsoft VSS or the NTFS file system. Veeam can use VSS to ensure
application-consistent backups for VSS-aware applications. All
hypervisors support enabling VSS in backup jobs. Veeam uses
VSS in a completely agentless fashion, using the hypervisor
communication stack to the benefit of the guest OS.
4.2. Veeam Component Sizing

Sizing Veeam Backup & Replication servers depends on the number of concurrent jobs, the total
number of VMs, and the estimated repository size. The sizing guidelines in the table below are
the minimum that Veeam recommends. The Veeam proxy VMs, used only with vSphere, should
not need additional resources. We recommend the scale-out virtual proxy model based on the
total number of Nutanix nodes.
Note: For additional and more detailed sizing considerations, please refer to the
official Veeam best practices, available at https://bp.veeam.expert/.
Physical backup proxies are supported, but not ideal. A general rule for a physical proxy is one
core per 50 VMs, but this number greatly depends on VM size and the number of concurrent
backups. Proper testing for your environment is critical to ensure that you can meet backup
windows and RPOs. You may need to upsize the Veeam Backup & Repository server for your
environment.

Table 4: Veeam Sizing Recommendations
Test sizing in the customer environment to verify that you can

meet the backup window and RPOs.
—Virtual: One vCPU for every 50 VMs (recommended
minimum: two vCPUs), 4 GB RAM, 300 MB disk space for
Veeam Backup Proxy VM installed components, and VMXNET3 NIC for vSphere. No
(vSphere only) CPU or memory reservations are required.
—Physical: One CPU core for every 50 VMs, 2 GB RAM for
each concurrent disk backup. As the environment grows,
ensure that you have one (v)CPU and 2 GB of RAM for each
concurrent task.
4 GB RAM plus 500 MB RAM for each concurrent job. Disk

space: 2 GB for product, plus 10 GB per 100 VMs for guest
file system catalog, and at least 10 GB for the VM recovery
Veeam Backup Server cache folder. No CPU or memory reservations required. Apply
additional sizing considerations if the backend SQL server
is deployed on this server. See Veeam documentation for
additional guidance.
The Veeam Repository can be colocated with the backup
server role for small deployments, or placed on a dedicated
server (physical or virtual Windows or Linux server, NAS
device, or backup appliance), and requires sufficient free
Veeam Repository space to store all backup job data. If a vSphere VM is used, we
recommend using the VMware PVSCSI controller for the disks
that store backup data. If virtualized on Nutanix, the repository
should reside in a secondary Nutanix cluster for fault domain
isolation.
4.3. Deployment Models

Veeam Backup & Replication supports a repository server using a variety of targets, including
VMs running on a secondary Nutanix cluster, existing physical servers, NAS appliance, or
dedicated backup appliances. The following two sections provide guidance for two of these
scenarios:
• Fully virtualized solution on Nutanix.
• Hybrid model that uses virtual proxies but has a physical repository configured for tape role
support.

Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture

The figure below shows a production Nutanix vSphere cluster, with each node hosting a Veeam
proxy VM. A secondary Nutanix cluster hosts the Veeam Repository. Such a configuration
ensures that even if the entire primary cluster fails, the Veeam repository is not within that failure
domain and can thus be used to restore the production environment. A Nutanix Hyper-V cluster
would look similar, replacing the proxy VM with a lightweight component installed in each Hyper-
V parent partition. If tape support is not a requirement, we recommend using a 100 percent
virtual architecture.
Figure 3: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on vSphere
Hybrid Virtual and Physical Architecture

As an alternative to deploying a virtualized Veeam repository, the figure below shows a notional
topology for a physical Veeam repository and tape role configuration. You can use this topology
when you need tape backup, because tape backup requires a physical server to hold the tape
server role. For this architecture, we recommend using a hybrid approach. For vSphere, place a
backup proxy VM on each Nutanix node. For Hyper-V, use the parent partition Veeam Backup &
Replication agent. The Veeam Backup & Replication server and repository can be either VMs or
physical servers, but the tape role must be physical.
The physical Veeam server should have dual 10 GbE NICs connected to the same layer-2
network that the hypervisor management and CVMs use. The physical server should meet the
minimum Veeam sizing requirements, based on the number of VMs you are backing up and
concurrent jobs. Larger environments may require multiple Veeam servers to meet backup
window or storage capacity requirements. Refer to Veeam documentation for further sizing
guidance.

Figure 4: Physical Veeam Server Topology
4.4. VMware vSphere Support

VMware vSphere Backup Architecture
Veeam Backup & Recovery 9.0 added Direct NFS as a new transport method for vSphere
environments that use NFS datastores; Direct NFS supports both NFS 3.0 and 4.1. Nutanix and
Veeam recommend that vSphere customers configure Veeam Backup & Replication to use the
Direct NFS method, as it provides the highest possible performance and minimizes the physical
network load.
When using VMware vSphere, deploy a Veeam proxy VM on each Nutanix node. Create DRS
“should” rules to pin each Veeam proxy VM to the proper node. This ensures that the backup
proxy accesses the CVM IP locally, rather than across the network. Deploying one proxy VM per
node is the only way to enable Veeam Backup & Replication Direct NFS technology with Nutanix.
If you cannot use Direct NFS for some reason (such as the presence of an existing VM
snapshot), Veeam Backup & Replication seamlessly falls back to network transport mode.
However, network transport mode does not perform as well as Direct NFS, so backup windows
may take longer.
The figure below shows the recommended configuration for each VMware ESXi host in the
environment that you want to back up with Veeam Backup & Replication. It’s critically important
to place the ESXi VMkernel port, public CVM interface, public Veeam backup proxy interface,
and Veeam repository (VM or physical) on the same VLAN using 10 GbE. In this example, the
10.10.10.x network is the production management network.

Figure 5: Recommended Configuration for VMware ESXi Hosts
Direct NFS
Direct NFS has several advantages over other transport modes and offers the best performance
and shortest possible backup windows. Each Nutanix node needs a local Veeam backup
proxy VM, as shown in the diagram above. The backup proxy is dual homed, with one NIC on
the internal Nutanix vSwitch, and the other NIC on the same network or VLAN that the ESXi
management network uses. The Nutanix whitelist then allows the backup proxy to access the
NFS datastores via the 192.168.5.0 network. Finally, within Veeam Backup & Replication, you
can configure the “preferred networks” rule to use the Nutanix 192.168.5.0 network for backups.
See Veeam’s Specifying Preferred Networks for Data Transfer article for more details.
We recommend using DRS “should” rules to pin each backup proxy VM to its respective host. In
addition, each backup proxy VM should have a unique 192.168.5.x address. This unique address
ensures that there is no IP conflict on the internal network during maintenance operations where
two proxy VMs may be on the same host.
During backup jobs, the Veeam Backup & Replication status screen displays a message similar
to “Using backup proxy VMware Backup Proxy for disk hard disk 1 [nfs].” If you look at the more
verbose backup log file, you should see “Connected to NFS server: 192.168.5.2, port 2049” and
some additional NFS information.

To optimize backup traffic within the NFS backend of Nutanix, we recommend implementing a
Veeam proxy for each ESXi host and enabling Veeam’s Same Host Direct NFS mode (value =
2, as described below) in the registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication
Key: EnableSameHostDirectNFSMode
Type: REG_DWORD
Value = 2
Value options:
• 0 (default): Disabled.
• 1: Preferred Same Host. If a Direct NFS proxy exists on same host, Veeam waits for a free
task slot there. If a proxy on same host does not exist, Veeam uses another Direct NFS proxy
(on another host or physical server) or falls back to virtual appliance (hot-add) and finally to
network (NBD) mode. This mode is not recommended with Nutanix.
• 2: Same Host Direct NFS mode. Recommended for Nutanix. If there is no Direct NFS proxy
on the same host as the VM, it falls back to network mode (NBD).
Limitations for Direct NFS Access Mode

Direct NFS access mode has the following limitations:
• Direct NFS access mode cannot be used for VMs that have one or more snapshots (delta
disks).
• Veeam Backup & Replication uses Direct NFS transport mode to read and write VM data only
during the first session of the replication job. During subsequent sessions, the VM replica
already has one or more snapshots. Therefore, Veeam Backup & Replication uses another
transport mode to write VM data to the datastore on the target side. The source side proxy
keeps reading VM data from the source datastore in Direct NFS transport mode.
• If you select the Enable VMware Tools quiescence option in the job settings, Veeam Backup
& Replication does not use Direct NFS transport mode to process running Microsoft Windows
VMs that have VMware Tools installed.
• If a VM has disks that cannot be processed in the Direct NFS access mode, Veeam Backup &
Replication processes these VM disks in network transport mode.
• The proxy VM’s data path to the CVM (via the private Nutanix vSwitch) does not fail over to
another CVM. If a CVM becomes unavailable (for example, during an AOS upgrade) while
an active backup job is running, the backup job for that node may fail. For this reason, do not
perform CVM maintenance operations while there are active jobs.

Network Transport Mode

When you can’t use Direct NFS, Veeam Backup & Replication fails back to network transport
mode. Network transport mode connects to the ESXi management VMkernel port and transfers
backup data to the proxy. It uses the VMware Network File Copy (NFC) protocol, which has a
maximum throughput limit of around 40–50 percent of the VMkernel interface.
In addition, with vSphere 6.5 and some versions of the VMware VDDK, encryption of VMkernel
traffic (NBD) may be required, though enabling NBD encryption can have up to a 30 percent
negative performance impact. VDDK 6.5.0b removed the SSL requirement for NBD, making
SSL optional. Beginning with version 9.5 update 3, Veeam Backup & Replication installs VDDK
6.5.0b—thus, by default, NBD traffic is not encrypted. For previous Veeam versions with vSphere
6.5, use Direct NFS as much as possible. Customers can force NBD over SSL (NBDSSL) if
they need to (for example, when backing up encrypted VMs), but be aware of the potential
performance impact.
If you configure the Veeam proxy as described in the Direct NFS section above, you don’t need
to make any changes to use network transport mode. If, however, you only want to use network
transport mode (and never use Direct NFS), the Veeam backup proxy can use a single NIC
that is on the same production management network that the ESXi hosts and CVMs share (for
example, 10.10.10.x).
Note: For performance reasons, we strongly discourage the exclusive use of

network transport mode except in very small environments with small VM change
rates.
For the best performance of network transport mode, the ESXi management VMkernel port
must use the dual 10 GbE NIC interfaces. Managing the ESXi host through the 1 GbE NICs
severely degrades backup performance. Rather than using the 1 GbE NICs, consider creating
an additional VMkernel port over an available 10 GbE NIC interface, then configuring the Veeam
preferred backup network to use this network.
Virtual Appliance Backup Mode (Hot-Add)

For NFS environments such as Nutanix, we strongly discourage the use of virtual appliance
backup mode (hot-add). This mode increases the load on vCenter and may lead to orphaned
snapshots; also, snapshot commits may stun VMs. Only configure the Veeam VMware proxy to
use direct storage access (Direct NFS) or network transport mode.
VMware vSphere Best Practices

• Use Veeam Backup & Replication version 9.5 update 3 or later for all environments (required
for EnableSameHostDirectNFSMode operation).

• If using vSphere 6.0, use at least ESXi 6.0 Build 5572656 (6.0 patch 5) to avoid serious CBT
bugs. We recommend using the latest patch wherever possible. See VMware KB 2143832 for
ESXi build numbers.
• Use AOS 5.0.x or later for all vSphere environments. For vSphere 6.5, use AOS 5.1 or later.
• Deploy one Veeam proxy VM per ESXi host, each with a unique IP on the 192.168.5.x
network.
• Set EnableSameHostDirectNFSMode to 1 (Veeam Backup & Recovery 9.5 U3 and later).
• Create DRS “should” rules to pin each Veeam proxy VM to the appropriate node.
• If you are using a virtualized repository server, configure a second SCSI controller to use with
the VMware PVSCSI controller. Add the repository disks to this second controller.
Figure 6: Second SCSI Controller
• Always use the VMXNET3 NIC for Veeam Backup & Replication VMs.
• Use the latest VM hardware version for Veeam Backup & Replication VMs.
• If you are using the VMware Distributed Switch (recommended), use LBT load balancing.
• Right-size the proxy VM according to Veeam best practices for your environment.
• Connect the ESXi VMkernel, CVM, backup proxy, and repository via 10 GbE on the same
layer-2 network.
• Use Direct NFS. Do not use network transport mode unless the environment is very small with
small VM change rates.
• Do not use virtual appliance backup mode.
• Do not enable NBDSSL unless required. If NBDSSL is required, be prepared for the
performance impact. See the screenshot below.

• When configuring the Veeam VMware proxy, select Direct storage access and enable
Failover to network mode, as shown in the screenshot below.
Figure 7: Transport Mode Options
• Configure a Veeam Backup & Replication global traffic rule to use the 192.168.5.0 network for
backups.
• Review Veeam logs to confirm that backup jobs really are using Direct NFS.
4.5. Microsoft Hyper-V Support

Microsoft Hyper-V Backup Architecture
In contrast to the vSphere deployment model, using Veeam Backup & Replication with Hyper-
V does not require per-node proxy VMs. Instead, Veeam installs a lightweight proxy component
into each Hyper-V parent partition as it is added to the Veeam Backup Server. The figure below
depicts this architecture.

Figure 8: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on Hyper-V
As with VMware environments, it’s critical for performance that the Hyper-V management
interface use the dual 10 GbE NICs. Nutanix requires that the Hyper-V management interface
and CVMs use the same layer-2 network. In addition, the Veeam Repository (VM or physical)
should also use the same layer-2 network for best performance. Introducing routing or other
network devices, such as a firewall, between the proxy agents and the repository can negatively
impact performance. The figure below shows the orange management network (10.10.10.x) on
which the Hyper-V management, CVM, and Veeam Repository reside.
Figure 9: Recommended Configuration for Microsoft Hyper-V Hosts
Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 has built-in resilient change tracking (RCT). Using this feature, Veeam
Backup & Replication 9.5 can greatly reduce backup windows after completing the first full
backup job.

Note: Because Hyper-V 2012 R2 does not have a native RCT mechanism, every
backup job on Hyper-V 2012 R2 performs a full disk scan, no matter how small the
deltas from the last backup.
As the cluster uses more storage, more data moves to the cold tier in hybrid Nutanix clusters. In
Hyper-V 2012 R2 environments, this cold tier utilization can lead to reduced backup performance
over time.
Veeam Backup & Replication has its own CBT mechanism for Hyper-V 2012 R2, but this
mechanism is not available with Nutanix storage. We encourage customers to use Hyper-V 2016,
which is fully supported by Nutanix as of AOS 5.5. Check the Nutanix Support Portal for the latest
supported hypervisors and AOS versions. Refer to the Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Hyper-V
documentation for the requirements to enable RCT.
When backup products such as Veeam Backup & Replication start a backup, the process
engages VSS at the file share (container) level. To ensure reliable VSS performance at the
share level, Nutanix supports 50 or fewer VMs per container during backup operations. If you are
backing up more than 50 VMs, create additional containers as needed with fewer than 50 VMs
each. If a container does not have VMs to back up (as in a VDI environment), the 50 VM limit
does not apply, as such a backup does not invoke VSS on the container.
Note: This VSS support policy does not apply to in-guest VSS usage, which is
transparent to Nutanix. You can configure backup jobs for in-guest application
consistency as needed without restriction.
Microsoft Hyper-V Best Practices

• By default, the Hyper-V parent partition is not included in backup jobs. Do not manually add
the parent partition to any backup job. Backup jobs must also exclude all CVMs. Only back up
user-created VMs.
• Configure backup jobs to use on-host backup as the proxy.
• Limit containers with VMs that you need to back up to 50 VMs. Create an additional container
as needed for each group of 50 VMs that is subject to a backup policy.
• A container that has no VMs to back up can support more than 50 VMs.
• For Hyper-V 2012 R2, deselect the CBT option for all jobs.
• For Hyper-V 2016, use RCT on all jobs.
• Connect the Hyper-V management interface, CVM, and Veeam Repository on the same
layer-2 network via 10 GbE.
• For optimal backup performance (namely, RCT), migrate to Hyper-V 2016.

4.6. Nutanix AHV Support

On June 29th, 2017, at the Nutanix .Next conference, we announced that Veeam is now the
Premier Availability solution provider for Nutanix virtualized environments. In addition, Veeam is
adding support of Nutanix AHV to its flagship Veeam Availability Suite, allowing joint Nutanix and
Veeam customers to benefit from an enterprise-class availability solution that can dramatically
accelerate their digital transformation strategies and ensure that they can deliver on user
expectations for a seamless digital experience. When AHV support is generally available, we
plan to update this guide to cover the AHV backup architecture and best practices.
4.7. Veeam Backup Job Best Practices

Nutanix and Veeam recommend using the forward incremental method with synthetic full
backups. This method is the default setting for jobs newly created in Veeam Backup &
Replication 9.5; you can also select it for existing jobs if you are upgrading from previous
versions. When using this method, Veeam performs a full backup on day one, then creates
incremental backups for all subsequent days. On a weekly basis, the solution synthetically
combines the available daily incremental backups with the original full backup to create a new full
backup, without the need to retrieve all the data from production storage.
The day-one backup may have lower throughput, because it reads all VM data, which may be in
the capacity tier as well as in the performance SSD tier. However, for hypervisors supporting a
CBT mechanism, all subsequent backups only read changed blocks, which are likely to be only
on the Nutanix performance tier.
This backup method offers the ability to execute forever-incremental backups on production
storage, thus reducing the load on the Nutanix cluster, among other benefits. To enable parallel
processing and increase backup performance, configure your jobs to back up multiple VMs. Also,
when you increase the number of VMs inside the same job, Veeam-native deduplication can be
more efficient. There is no need to manually configure which proxy VM the backup operations
use; Veeam Backup Server automatically distributes the VMs scheduled for processing to all
available proxies.
4.8. Veeam Restore Options

The joint Nutanix and Veeam Backup & Replication solution offers a variety of options to easily
recover and verify your backups and replicas. These features are implemented using Veeam
vPower technology.
Veeam vPower enables instant recovery of a VM in VMware and Hyper-V environments. Instead
of waiting for the VM to restore from backups, instant VM recovery allows you to run the VM
directly from the backup. vPower technology performs the following tasks:

• Recovery verification (SureBackup, SureReplica).

• Instant VM recovery.
• Multiple-OS file-level recovery.
• Universal Application-Item Recovery (U-AIR).
Nutanix with Veeam Backup & Replication allows you to perform both image-level and file-level
restores of backups and replicas. You can restore an entire VM and start it on the target Nutanix
node, or recover only VM hard disks, VM files (.vmdk, .vmx, .vhdx, and so on), or VM guest
OS files and folders and save them on your local machine. You can restore VMs or files at any
of the available restore points. All restores occur via the network, and you don’t need special
procedures to restore your data on the Nutanix platform.
4.9. Recommended Operating Systems

When deploying Veeam servers, use the latest approved 64-bit Windows operating system
for your environment. Nutanix and Veeam recommend using Windows Server 2016. Windows
Server 2016 is fully supported for all Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 operations. See Veeam
Backup & Replication 9.5 documentation for more details. If you deploy Windows Server 2016
VMs, make sure your version of the hypervisor fully supports them.

5. Conclusion
The Nutanix and Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 solution provides the best of multiple worlds:
industry-leading performance with the ability to scale out your backup solution as you grow
your Nutanix clusters. Nutanix offers robust support of both VMware vSphere and Hyper-V
environments, allowing the customer to choose which hypervisor best meets their requirements.
Nutanix simplicity is a natural fit with the rapid deployment and architecture flexibility of Veeam
Backup & Recovery 9.5.
5. Conclusion | 25
Appendix
About the Authors

Derek Seaman is a Staff Solutions Architect at Nutanix, Inc., VMware Certified Design Expert
(VCDX) #125, CISSP, and a multiyear VMware vExpert. He’s also a top 10 virtualization blogger
(www.derekseaman.com). In his role at Nutanix, Derek helps design architectures combining
applications with the Nutanix platform, creating solutions that solve critical business needs and
requirements while disrupting the infrastructure space.
Prior to joining Nutanix, Derek was an IT architect at the global leader in wireless chip
technology, where he focused on deploying secure infrastructure solutions to support the
development of solutions for the U.S. Government. In these spaces, he has developed
methodologies, reference architectures, and frameworks focusing on the design of and
transformation to agile, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructures that can be consumed in a
service-oriented or cloud-like manner.
Follow Derek on Twitter at @vDerekS.
Luca Dell’Oca is a Cloud Architect for Veeam Software. At Veeam, Luca works with the biggest
service providers and telecommunication companies to help them use the Veeam technologies
developed for Cloud and Service Providers at their full potential. Luca is the author of the Veeam
Cloud Connect book and a multitude of technical resources related to service providers and
cloud technologies. Luca’s career started in information security before focusing on virtualization.
Based in Italy, Luca is also a popular blogger and an active member of the virtualization
community. Luca holds VCAP5-DCD and CISSP certifications, and he has become the first
worldwide VMCE (Veeam Certified Engineer).
Follow Luca on Twitter at @dellock6.
About Veeam
Veeam recognizes the new challenges companies across the globe face in enabling the Always-
On Enterprise, a business that must operate 24.7.365. To address this, Veeam has pioneered a
new market of Availability for the Always-On Enterprise by helping organizations meet recovery
time and point objectives (RTPO) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data. Veeam
Availability Suite, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication, leverages virtualization, storage,
and cloud technologies that enable the modern data center to help organizations save time,
mitigate risks, and dramatically reduce capital and operational costs, while always supporting the
current and future business goals of Veeam customers.
Appendix | 26
About Nutanix
Nutanix makes infrastructure invisible, elevating IT to focus on the applications and services that
power their business. The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS leverages web-scale engineering and
consumer-grade design to natively converge compute, virtualization, and storage into a resilient,
software-defined solution with rich machine intelligence. The result is predictable performance,
cloud-like infrastructure consumption, robust security, and seamless application mobility for a
broad range of enterprise applications. Learn more at www.nutanix.com or follow us on Twitter
@nutanix.
Appendix | 27
List of Figures
Figure 1: Enterprise Cloud Platform.................................................................................. 8
Figure 2: Information Life Cycle Management.................................................................. 9
Figure 3: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on vSphere........................................... 14
Figure 4: Physical Veeam Server Topology....................................................................15
Figure 5: Recommended Configuration for VMware ESXi Hosts.................................... 16
Figure 6: Second SCSI Controller...................................................................................19
Figure 7: Transport Mode Options.................................................................................. 20
Figure 8: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on Hyper-V........................................... 21
Figure 9: Recommended Configuration for Microsoft Hyper-V Hosts..............................21
28
List of Tables
Table 1: Document Version History.................................................................................. 5
Table 2: Backup Components......................................................................................... 10
Table 3: Backup Technologies........................................................................................ 11
Table 4: Veeam Sizing Recommendations..................................................................... 13
29

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Veeam Backup &

Version 1.2 • February 2018 • BP-2017

3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview.......................................7

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture.........................................10

2.3. Synergistic Technologies

Table 1: Document Version History

3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview

3.1. Nutanix Acropolis Overview

3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview | 7

Figure 1: Enterprise Cloud Platform

3.2. Nutanix Acropolis Architecture

3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview | 8

Figure 2: Information Life Cycle Management

3. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform Overview | 9

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture

4.1. Component Overview

Table 2: Backup Components

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 10

Table 3: Backup Technologies

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 11

4.2. Veeam Component Sizing

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 12

Table 4: Veeam Sizing Recommendations

Test sizing in the customer environment to verify that you can

4 GB RAM plus 500 MB RAM for each concurrent job. Disk

4.3. Deployment Models

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 13

Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture

Figure 3: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on vSphere

Hybrid Virtual and Physical Architecture

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 14

Figure 4: Physical Veeam Server Topology

4.4. VMware vSphere Support

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 15

Figure 5: Recommended Configuration for VMware ESXi Hosts

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 16

Limitations for Direct NFS Access Mode

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 17

Network Transport Mode

Note: For performance reasons, we strongly discourage the exclusive use of

Virtual Appliance Backup Mode (Hot-Add)

VMware vSphere Best Practices

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 18

Figure 6: Second SCSI Controller

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 19

Figure 7: Transport Mode Options

4.5. Microsoft Hyper-V Support

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 20

Figure 8: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on Hyper-V

Figure 9: Recommended Configuration for Microsoft Hyper-V Hosts

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 21

Microsoft Hyper-V Best Practices

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 22

4.6. Nutanix AHV Support

4.7. Veeam Backup Job Best Practices

4.8. Veeam Restore Options

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 23

• Recovery verification (SureBackup, SureReplica).

4.9. Recommended Operating Systems

4. Veeam Backup & Replication Architecture | 24

About the Authors

Figure 2: Information Life Cycle Management.................................................................. 9

Figure 3: Fully Virtualized Backup Architecture on vSphere........................................... 14

Figure 4: Physical Veeam Server Topology....................................................................15