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Top troubleshooting tips for Veeam backup failure
Backup admins who use Veeam can make their lives easier with not only the tools built into the platform but by checking out vendor and user suggestions and guidance.
Veeam Backup & Replication is a popular backup platform with built-in troubleshooting tools and support features. The recent acquisition of Kubernetes data protection provider Kasten has only expanded the product's backup capabilities. However, it is far from foolproof.
Veeam Backup & Replication v11 uses replication, snapshots and continuous data protection to provide data backup, as well as ransomware protection. The platform has monitoring and analytics tools to keep an eye on potential and existing problems users might face. Along with these resources, active community discussion is another troubleshooting method.
Below are some common tips for organizations faced with Veeam backup failure. These techniques and tools can help detect and correct failures, as well as provide methods to prevent these issues in the first place.
Troubleshoot issues with diagnostic tools
One of the strongest resources available on the platform is Veeam intelligent diagnostics. Rather than getting bogged down in trying to troubleshoot potentially complex issues from scratch, intelligent diagnostics expediates the Veeam One troubleshooting experience. Veeam One is the monitoring and analytics tool available from the vendor. This tool and the Backup & Replication platform make up the Veeam Availability Suite.
Veeam intelligent diagnostics uses AI to generate a customized guide to remediate existing issues. Don't mistake this for the troubleshooting tools of old; this is a whole new service designed to provide predictive as well as proactive troubleshooting.
The Veeam backup failure diagnostics suite doesn't upload any logs to Veeam, but it does generate a unique ID that will essentially provide troubleshooting identification and remediation steps. No logs or other data upload to Veeam. This functionality comes as an integral part of Veeam Backup & Replication and an enterprise-level license.
Disaster recovery resources
One of the most common issues at an environment level is that the volume of resources an organization requires to provide instant disaster recovery is not available. Many companies are reluctant to spend on DR, and occasionally don't put enough resources into the infrastructure. These issues tend to appear at the worst possible times, particularly when a disaster takes place and requires a rapid recovery. As organizations grow and expand facilities, they may also neglect updates to their disaster recovery plan. Therefore, it is important to ensure that there are enough resources available at the DR site and that they are performant as well.
While it may sound obvious, it is a major issue. There are many companies that have used a consumer or prosumer grade of NAS storage that may be able to keep up with I/O in the normal business day. Organizations that try to use instant restore to bring up those VMs and run them on the storage array will not only have poor performance from the VM, but it will further affect the storage array because of increase in I/O. Veeam Instant Recovery is a powerful resource on the platform to prevent DR crises.
Don't forget alternative support
Aside from built-in tools, community and vendor advice is a useful resource for Veeam backup failure issues. Veeam forums offer a "Top 10 issues" post every month, where users and Veeam pros offer tips and advice for other users. It can be useful, especially at service pack release time. This is a top resource for Veeam backup failure resolutions.
Unsupported configuration is one of the most common problems. This is not just a Veeam issue but a larger issue in general. Users should upgrade to the latest hardware or software version, but it is critical that they check the support matrix ahead of time to ensure that all the different criteria and versions are valid within the support matrix.
An invalid component means that support may well revert to best effort because the configuration isn't a known good. In short, cheap components results in unsatisfactory outcomes at the most critical points in time.
Backup admins who want to be more proactive in their Veeam use may look into Veeam University, a free online learning website to help administrators hone their skills with the Veeam One product. For those who require a more in-depth training, there is the Veeam Certified Engineer education path.
