Using the Veeam Agent

The Veeam Agent for Linux is supported on the Linux® operating systems. You can deploy the Veeam Agent on a virtual server instance for IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud, including CentOS, RHEL, Ubuntu, and Debian for instance backups and restoration. Similarly, the Veeam Agent for Windows is available for use on Windows instances for IBM Cloud VPC.

The Veeam Agent is not supported for LinuxONE (s390x processor architecture).

The following example provides information on installing, configuring, and using the Linux Agent on a virtual server instance that is provisioned with CentOS. Similar instructions apply to the other operating system types, although you need to replace any OS-specific commands. The example provides instructions on how to perform a volume backup and restore. If you prefer to do file and folder backup and restore operations, you use a similar procedure. The wanted restore point is mounted, and the wanted backup files are copied to the virtual server instance.

Full image-level (entire machine) backup and restore is not supported.

Before you begin

Make sure that you order a Veeam license.
Provision and set up a CentOS virtual server instance for VPC (CentOS is used for this example).
Make sure that your secondary volume is properly configured before you install the Veeam software on the instance. In the following example, it is expected that an ext3 file system exists on the secondary volume and mounted on /veeam_disk.

Installing and configuring

After you provisioned your instance and configured the secondary volume, download the Veeam Agent for Linux software installation package onto the instance.

Install the downloaded package:

yum install ./veeam-release-el7-1.0.7-1.x86_64.rpm

After the package is installed, install the Veeam Linux agent:
```
yum install veeam
```
Transfer the Veeam license ID file to the instance. The Veeam Linux agent is configured by the Veeam configuration tool. From the command line, enter the following command:
```
veeamconfig ui
```
Follow the menu prompts and use the license ID to activate the software.

Backing up

To perform a backup operation of a volume on the CentOS virtual server instance, complete the steps that are outlined in the Veeam Agent for Linux 4.0 guide.

To begin, select Configure from the initial menu. As you go through the Veeam Agent control windows, be sure to make the following selections:

Veeam Agent for Linux menu panes and values
Menu	Value
Name	Input a name for the backup job.
Back up	Select Volume Level Back up.
Volumes	Add either a Device, Mountpoint, LVM, or BTRFS. In this example, add a Mountpoint and select the "/" mount point.
Destination	Choose Local and input the location of the secondary volume to be used for the Veeam backup repository. For this example, the location input is `/veeam_disk`.
Advanced	Select any options that you want. This example uses the default options.
Schedule	Input the time schedule for the backup job to run.
Summary	Select start job now (if wanted) and then select Finish.

The backup runs at the scheduled time.

Restoring

Original CentOS instance for VPC refers to a virtual server instance for VPC that successfully completed a volume backup to the secondary volume.
New CentOS instance for VPC refers to a virtual server instance for VPC that was provisioned with CentOS with no secondary volume is activated the Veeam Linux Agent.

Restoring files to original CentOS virtual server instance

The following example shows how you can restore files from a volume backup to the original CentOS virtual service instance.

Log in to the CentOS virtual server instance. From the command line, start the Veeam configuration tool:
```
veeamconfig ui
```
Select Recover Files, and then select the Job Name of the backup you want to recover.
Select the Restore Point (creation timestamp of the backup). This selection mounts the backup into /mnt/backup. Each individual device and volume that is backed up is mounted inside of /mnt/backup.
When you recover your files, unmount the backup.

Restoring files to new CentOS virtual server instance

The following example shows how you can take a secondary volume that holds a Veeam backup repository and import the repository onto a new CentOS virtual server instance for IBM Cloud VPC.

Detaching secondary volume from original instance

The original CentOS instance for VPC needs to be shut down so that it doesn't have access to the secondary volume. The secondary volume can be detached through the IBM Cloud CLI:

ibmcloud is in-vold <Original VPC instance ID> <volume attachment ID>

Attaching secondary volume to new instance

The secondary volume is then attached to the new CentOS instance for VPC by running:

ibmcloud is in-vola <volume attachment name> <New VPC instance ID> <volume  ID>

Verifying secondary volume

After the secondary volume is attached to the new CentOS instance, you need to verify that the secondary volume is available.

Use the following example:

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
vda    253:0    0  100G  0 disk
├─vda1 253:1    0    1G  0 part /boot
└─vda2 253:2    0   99G  0 part /
vdb    253:16   0  368K  0 disk
vdc    253:32   0   44K  0 disk [SWAP]
vdd    253:48   0  300G  0 disk

In this example, the secondary volume is the vdd device.

Mounting the volume

Make a mount point directory and mount the volume.

mkdir /veeam_disk
mount /dev/vdd /veeam_disk

Importing the backup repository

The secondary volume is now ready for the Veeam Agent to import the backup repository. Use the following steps to import the backup repository.

Start the Veeam Agent:
```
veeamconfig ui
```
Select Recover Files, Import backup, then select the backup location. In this example, it is:
```
vdd	virtio /veeam_disk
```
In Browse for backup files, select the appropriate backup job file directory and then select the backup job file. In this example, this file is the backup job file:
```
BackupJob1.vdm
```
Select the backup creation timestamp. This selection mounts the backup into /mnt/backup. Each individual device and volume that is backed up is mounted inside of /mnt/backup.
When you recover your files, unmount the backup.