Linux:Veeam

The Veeam backup utility is used across KitsNet for backup of Windows and Linux systems. A free client for MacOS systems is available from the vendor, but has not yet been implemented for backups in KitsNet. All Veeam backups are written to the backup on the nas server which is accessible via SMB and NFS.

1 Linux Bare Metal Restore

Bare metal restore operations are supported by the Veeam Agent for Linux by booting the system to be recovered from Veeam Recovery Media. For KitsNet KVM Guests running Linux, the standard Veeam Recovery Media ISO is good enough and has already been downloaded from the Veeam software repository into the top of the KitsNet software repo.

1.1 Cold Snap Backup

Mount archival media if required and perform a cold snap backup of the system as a safety measure.

# ./vcmount_kitsnet /dev/sde
# backup_cold_snap /mnt/KitsNet-pbd1 hendrick

1.2 Boot Guest from Recovery Media

Edit the live guest definition to enable boot from from Veeam Recovery Media, shutdown the guest, prepare VNC connection and start the guest.

Use virsh edit guest to update the guest definition. These two XML blocks will need updating:

  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-rhel7.0.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  
  <devices>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <alias name='ide0-0-0'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
</devices>

At the end of the <os> block, add the line <boot dev='crdom'/> . In the <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> block, add the line <source file='/repo/veeam-recovery-amd64-5.0.0.iso'/>. With these changes in place, the guest should be shutdown to terminate the running instance and prepare for loading of the revise guest definition.

It will be necessary to control the guest from the graphics console, if for no other reason that an SSH login would require the randomized credentials shown on the console during boot. Since the logs are going to be written and saved to the mountpoint containing the backup savesets, using a PuTTY with a session log adds no real value. To enable the VNC connection to the guest console, change the settings of the PuTTY session running against the KVM host to enable the tunnel through localhost (e.g. 5930 localhost:5930).

With everything in place, start the guest and immediately connect to the console via VNC.

1.3 Select Restore Options and Execute

Accept the license terms and then choose the Restore Volumes operation, specifying the backup source from the NAS server NFS mountpoint. Make restore selections and initiate the operation

1.4 Revert Guest and Shutdown

Edit the live guest definition to revert to normal boot operations. Once the restore operation is completed, choose the Shutdown operation

1.5 Start Guest and Validate

Start the guest and verify that the recovery operation achieved the desired result. If needed, the logs of the restore operation are written to the NAS server directory containing the backup savesets.