How do I use Veeam version 12 with Wasabi Ball?
Wasabi is a member of Veeam's cloud partner ecosystem. We have worked with Veeam closely to offer both a seamless implementation, and a smooth transition to cloud storage. Veeam with Wasabi Solution Overview provides more information on the Wasabi-Veeam partnership and solutions.
Customers with a large amount (generally 50 TB or more) of Veeam backup data that they want to transfer to Wasabi hot cloud storage have the option to use the Wasabi Ball transfer appliance. The Wasabi Ball is a data transfer appliance used for transferring large data sets. For more information on Wasabi Ball, refer to the Wasabi Ball Transfer appliance page. This article details the steps to write backups to Wasabi Ball and transfer existing Veeam backups to Wasabi Ball.
Wasabi Ball currently does not support Object Lock/Veeam Immutability feature. Veeam Immutability cannot be enabled after seeding with non-immutable Veeam data. The object lock chain must be started from scratch.
Note: The data restoration process is handled by your specific backup software application. As there are many potential variables that will affect your unique environment, it is strongly recommended that you seek the guidance of your backup software's technical support team in the event that you encounter difficulty, or have application-specific inquiries.
Table of Contents
- Prerequisites
- Modify the Hosts File
- Create an Object Repository for Wasabi Ball
- Create a Backup Job
- Moving Backups to Wasabi Ball
- Revert Back Temporary Changes
1. Prerequisites
- Active Wasabi Storage account.
- Wasabi Ball appliance is connected to the local network and accessible.
- Wasabi Ball appliance S3 listening port is changed to 443. Please review Enable https (443) on Wasabi Ball appliance.
- S3 credentials- Access and Secret Keys are available for Wasabi Ball.
- Veeam Backup and Replication version 12 software installed and licensed.
- A valid Veeam license that supports capabilities for object storage.
2. Modify the Hosts File
In order to use Veeam with Wasabi Ball we have to temporarily redirect Veeam to the Wasabi Ball IP address instead of the Wasabi service URL. We can accomplish this by editing the Windows hosts file.
1. Access the hosts file located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and modify it as Administrator. In the example below, let's say the Wasabi Ball IP address is 192.168.1.20 and the destination bucket is located in US-West-1 region.
Note - For more information on Wasabi service URLs click here.
192.168.1.20 s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com us-west-1
Note - By default, the Wasabi Ball S3 server listens to port 9000. Please contact support@wasabi.com to help change this default setting to port 443.
See screenshot below:-
3. Create an Object Repository for Wasabi Ball
3.1 Click on "Backup Infrastructure" tab and click on "Backup Repositories". Now click on "Add Repository" to add a new repository.
3.2 Select "Object Storage" as the repository type.
3.3 Select "Wasabi Cloud Storage" as the object storage.
3.4 Enter a name (for example 'Wasabi Ball storage') and an optional description. Click "Next".
3.5 Add the appropriate Wasabi region URL (this needs to match your bucket region and the hosts file entry from section 2). Click "Add" to enter your Wasabi credentials.
Note - The Wasabi Ball will authenticate using your Wasabi cloud storage credentials.
3.6 Enter Access key and Secret key for the Wasabi Ball. Click "OK" to continue and click "Next".
3.7 You will see the alert box below confirming a connection to the ball. Click "Continue".
3.8 Please make sure that the "Make recent backups immutable" is NOT checked for the Wasabi Ball. Click on "Browse" next to Bucket to select a bucket.
NOTE: The Wasabi Ball does not support Object Lock/Veeam Immutability feature.
3.9 Select the folder matching your Wasabi bucket name from the list of the different folders on the Wasabi Ball. Click "Ok" to return to the Bucket window.
3.10 Click on Browse next to the Folder to open the Select Folder window. Click on "New Folder" and enter a folder name (for example, Veeam-v12). Click "OK", and then click "Next" to move to the next step.
3.11 Keep the default settings and click "Next" to continue.
3.12 Click "Apply" on the Review window to continue.
3.13 Click "Next" in the Apply window.
3.14 Review the Summary and click Finish to complete creating the repository.
3.15 The newly created Wasabi Ball storage repository will now be listed in the Backup repositories.
4. Create a Backup Job
This section details the steps to configure a Backup Job to start writing backups to the Wasabi Ball.
4.1 Click on "Home", then "Jobs". Click "Backup Job" and then select "Virtual Machine" as shown below.
4.2 Enter a name for the Backup Job and a description (optional).
4.3 Choose the virtual machine by clicking on "Add" and then selecting the VM from the list. You can also search for a VM in the search box at the bottom. Once the VM is selected, click "Add".
4.4 Click "Next" to continue.
4.5 Select the backup repository that was created in section 3 above from the list. Click "Next" to continue.
4.6 Click "Next" to continue with default settings. Optionally configure Guest Processing Options.
Note: To read about the Veeam Specific Guest Procession Options please see the Veeam Guest Processing Docs.
4.7 You may use the auto scheduler by checking "Run the job automatically"or keep it unchecked and opt to run the job immediately in the next screen. Click "Apply" to continue.
Note: To read about the Veeam Specific Scheduling Options please see the Veeam Job Scheduling Docs.
4.8 On the "Summary" page, check "Run the job when I click Finish" to initiate the backup job, then click "Finish".
4.9 You can now see the backup job running by clicking on the "Home" tab and "Jobs". Click on the backup job to view details for that job.
At this point, the backup has been written to the Wasabi Ball. Wasabi engineers will ingest this data from the ball to your bucket once they receive the ball back.
5. Moving Backups to Wasabi Ball
In Veeam Backup & Replication version 12, customers can now move existing Veeam backups to Wasabi Ball using the "Move Backup" feature. This section details the steps to move existing local backups to Wasabi Ball.
Note: Synthetic Full backups cannot be moved to Object storage repositories.
5.1 On the "Home" tab of Veeam console, click on "Backups" and then select the backup to be migrated. Once the backup is selected, click on "Move Backup" on the top left.
5.2 In the Move Backup window, select the Wasabi Ball storage repository where the backup is to be migrated. Then click "OK".
5.4 The Move Backup window will show the progress of migration. Close the window when the migration is finished.
5.5 Verify that the backup is now migrated to Wasabi by click on Backups in the Home tab. The repository of the migrated backup now shows as the Wasabi repository.
6. Revert Back Temporary Changes
Follow the below steps to revert back to the original Veeam configuration.
5.1 Delete the hosts entry we made in Section 2, and save the file.
5.2 Edit the Wasabi Backup Repository to change the credentials created in Step 3.6 from the Wasabi Ball credentials to your Wasabi storage access and secret keys.
Please refer to this Veeam Knowledge Base article for importing backups to the new Wasabi bucket.