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Hi, can someone send step by step instructions for using Veeam B&R or AGENT to backup a regular Windows physical Server 2012R2 box. Then restoring it as a virtual machine on Hyper-V?

I am simulating a DR plan for my customers and I am trying to recreate the scenario to document it and replicate it. Just don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks In Advance!

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This exact procedure has been discussed here on SW in detail. You might find a step-by-step if you search here.

The underlying points are that you

  1. Do a complete system backup of the physical server - all disks/partitions. Put the backup files where the VM host can get to them.

  2. Create the system restore ISO. Put it where the VM can get to them.

  3. On the VM host, create an “empty” VM. Create a dynamic VHD that’s the same size or bigger than your physical system has.

  4. In the hypervisor point the VM’s DVD drive to the recovery ISO.

  5. Boot the machine and follow the prompts.

We do this quite often. Veeam makes most of the adjustments and shouldn’t have any driver issues restoring to a hyper-v VM because it’s so generic.

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Thanks for your reply!

…within that procedure does the data get transferred from the backup file back into the newly created vm dynamic hard drive? that would take a while if you have a 4TB data disk. if not, then i assume veeam backup creates a virtual disk during its backup that it uses and can just attach to and boot up? thats where im a bit fuzzy…

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IT is so easy.

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Veeam Endpoint creates a proprietary file chain and metadata used to the restore. You’d need to store the data somewhere first, then restore from there to the VM. It’s not a direct “clone” to the second machine. The restore into the VM works just as if you were restoring to another physical machine. Veeam doesn’t know it’s working with a VHD. You’re right that it will take a while to move 4TB and then move it again.

There are some techniques that convert a physical machine to a VHD. I’ve used an older version of Microsoft’s utility for a 2003 server. And a lot of people (not me) have had luck with P2V programs.

But Veeam Endpoint doesn’t use VHDs or create them. I’ve used it in preference to other tools because it gives me a backup (always good to have in case something goes wrong) and it’s always handled the “restore to different hardware” flawlessly.

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I really dun wanna sound rude…but I would highly recommend that you do a POC before suggesting it to your customer. There are always exceptional cases and thats where you would probably need some Veeam vendors to step in.

Then you will also need to know what is running on the Server 2012R2 box as well…the last things you want is MS Exchange, MS SQL, Domain Controller, ERP solution (that have a DB like SQL or Oracle) or even Hyper-V.

Then you will also have to prepare your customer that is a one-way process if DR does really happen. It is easy to P2V but many many issues if going back from V2P. So might as well start planning of virtualizing the servers now.

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I see, so here is my issue. I need a product or a DR plan which will spin up a customer’s backup (from physical server) very quickly; in an hour or less. I cannot spend hours or days waiting for a 4TB backup job file to be “converted” to a 4TB VHD in order for the backup to spin up. What do you suggest in this scenario? It was my understanding that Veeam did this with physical boxes.

We backup physical servers and virtual servers. Spinning up a VM backup in another hypervisor is easy and fairly quick, but what about physical machines? With Cloudberry, I was able to take a backup of a physical machine, then create a vm in hyper-v and simply add the cloudberry-created VHD disk and spin it up quickly. Can I not do this with Veeam?

Thanks again!

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If you are backing up a physical server with Veeam B&R you should be able to do an instance restore of the backup into a VM.

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In a physical to virtual DR scenario the hardest part and the one prone to most variables is spinning up the original operating system inside the VM environment. Bulk data, files and databases aren’t the issue.Data could give a damn if it’s executed inside a VM or physical host and doesn’t need to be converted - just moved. So, a DR recovery in this scenarios is, for all intents and purposes a P2V conversion…just done with a gun to your head and people screaming “the server is down!” :slight_smile:

While I’ve had good results with hundreds of P2V’s on all platforms rarely is it is a simple turn key process. There’s always some screwing around with the migrated or restored operating systems; loading virtual NIC drivers and integration tools, setting proper IPs, removing hardware based drivers and software like RAID tools etc. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but the fact Veeam is involved doesn’t help this part much.

So, a tip here is if you are dealing with a small number of physical machines is prep the virtual environment ahead of time. Clone the OS to a VM now, get it all tweaked out and ready to fire up if need be, and focus your efforts with a process to move the 4TB which is almost certainly bulk data ahead of time. Theres’ a zillion ways to get creative with this part, but there’s no reason you have to sit and wait to bootstrap 4TB worth of VHD when the bulk of that data can usually be finagled ahead of time.

Now, if that customer has worst case scenario, like massive databases all sitting on the C: partition that aren’t being backed up via log incrementals then your options are limited.

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So then the bottom line is that THERE IS NO EASY WAY to backup a physical computer with Veeam and grab the backup file and “Spin it up” in Hyper-V, like others have said. I have at least three customers with a few servers that have about 4TB of data on one drive. It is not bulk data. It is database data. When Veeam backs it up it does not create a vhd or vhdx, it creates a proprietary file. When you want to restore it, your options are either to convert it to vhd, which is another process, or restore it. Both of these take a considerable amount of time if you are talking about a 4TB disk. At least that’s what i have found with my testing.

I have been tasked with creating a disaster recovery solution. We chose Veeam because everyone raves about how great it is, but if i need to restore these servers using Veeam, I will be waiting almost two days to convert my 4TB backed up data disk into a VHD that i can spin up. There MUST be a better way!

Can ANYONE please shed some light on this?
For clarification, I am referring to physical servers here.

Thanks!

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The Veeam Agents are not a P2V tool and to be fair they are not marketed this way either. You can use the technology to do a P2V but that’s not the main function behind the Veeam Agents.

Some options you have:

  • You can restore the Veeam Agent Backup to a Hyper-V VM with the instant VM recovery feature. For instant recovery to a Hyper-V VM, you can use Veeam Agent backups created on the Veeam backup repository. Restoring Veeam Agent Backup to Hyper-V VM - Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Guide

  • You can restore the backup as disks (VMDK’s) and then create a new VM and attach the disks

  • You can use the recovery media that you have built (as an ISO), create a new VM in ESXi, boot from that recovery media and do the restore. After the restore, you will have a running VM. You might need to clean-up some driver software after that, but it will work and lots of our customers are doing it this way, both for DR as for testing whether their application can actually run virtual ( P2V physical windows server to VM - R&D Forums )

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I think you have your answer already but just in case - you are correct in that you can’t just mount a veeam backup to a VM and boot it up. That’s not what the software is made to do.

Could there be another program out there similar to Veeam that does file chain backups to a VHD that can be mounted in an emergency? Probably. But I am not sure what it is.

I assume you’ve already considered this but I would go ahead and virtualize those physical servers that way you can rely on replication with periodic snapshots for DR. Or just flat out exporting those VMs every night if replication isn’t an option (or enough).

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There are a few issues especially in what you have heard…

  1. What version and Edition of Veeam have you purchased ?

  2. What version and Edition of Veeam are you using ?

  3. What are the servers running, especially on the DB type, version & edition ?

  4. Who are the others that you mention can spin up VHDs ? I would also think those people are very “mis-understooded”.

  • There are ways to convert physical servers to VMs (not vHDD or VHDs), some of these methods use backup data sets but is not recommended for some servers especially running DB or DCs.

  • It is never a good practice to perform restoration from physical to VMs (P2V) as this process is not easily reversible (P2V easy, V2P not easy).

  1. Always come from recovery point of view than the backup solution point of view…what or how to recover ?

  • recovery of physical servers can be via BMR or reinstall of OS and application then restore data.

  • recovery of VMs or data from VMs are a different subject matter.

  1. If you not want to wait days for P2V, your best alternative is to look at Windows Clustering AND DB clustering. Depending on how you look at it, 4TB Database is rather large, even copying from storage (backup repository) to server or decompress from backup will take hours. Then you will need to consider additional overheads such as network (1Gbps or 10Gbps networks) and server hardware (type of servers, type of storage etc).
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BTW, I just did a recovery of a 8TB file server running server 2016, the original machine was a Dell R640 server that died (Engineer performed a firmware update after replacing faulty RAID controller, found out the delivered part is also DOA).

I recovered the 8TB to a VMware ESXi hosts as a VM and it only took like 28 minutes. But note that the backup data sets was already in the VMware ESXi data store (backup 2 days ago when physical server had error).

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A colleague of mine uses Shadowprotect BDR. It backs up to a virtual box VM.

https://support.efolder.net/hc/en-us/articles/115012948387-ShadowProtect-BDR-for-ShadowProtect-User-Guide-

Maybe that would be useful for you?

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