Stratogent Confidential

VEEAM AWS VTL TAPE GATEWAY FOR BAKCKUP COPY JOB

BY USING ON-PREMISE TAPE GATEWAY

27-08-2020
Version 1.0

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Owner Reviewer Date Version

Ratnodeep Roy 8/26/2020 V1.0

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Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 4

Prerequisites............................................................................................................................................ 4

Performing pre-requisites........................................................................................................................ 4

Procedure................................................................................................................................................ 5

Validation............................................................................................................................................... 51

References............................................................................................................................................. 51

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Introduction
The purpose of AWS VTL TAPE GATEWAY WITH VEEAM configuration is for Veeam tape backup job which
leverage the AWS tape gateway and represent the S3 as a Virtual tape library which emulates as a
physical library.

Scope
The scope of this SOP: To configure AWS tape gateway appliance in VCenter, tapes and then representing
the VTL tape drives to the Veeam server using ISCI protocols, tape jobs, configuring tape library and
creating Veeam tape job by inventory the tapes created in AWS environment.

Infrastructure setup

Prerequisites
 From AWS Side
1. Sign up for an AWS console
2. Create a Site to Site VPN.
3. Configure VPC with at least one private or public subnet.
4. Configure the VPC endpoints for Storage gateway
5. Creating tapes.
 From On-premise side
1. Sign up to VCenter.
2. OVA file to configure tape gateway appliance (need to download from AWS
console).
3. Thick provisioning disk from synology to configure cache and upload buffer.
4. ISCSI application on a server to connect the VTL tape library medium changer and
then tape drives.
 From Veeam B&R side.
1. Sign up to Veaam console.
2. Configure VTL tape library.

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Performing pre-requisites

 If user is not local admin in the Veeam server add the user to local admin access.
 Access to AWS console with the admin privilege.

Procedure
Configure VM tape gateway appliance in ESXi host.
To download the gateway appliance OVA file, go to Storage gateway in AWS console, click create gateway
and then select tape gateway and then click type of host platform as “VMware ESXi host”. Download the
OVA file.

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Download the image and deploy the same ova file in Vcenter.

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We then need to configure separate disks for upload buffer and cache with thivck prvisioning lazy zeroed.

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Gateway appliance Login and network configuration.

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Then configure the network of Storage gateway appliance.

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Tape gateway configuration and activation:

Once Ova is deployed in VCenter, go back to AWS console., click Next under create gateway->Select host
platform->VMWare ESXi ,

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Select Service Endpoint, Select VPC and then VPC endpoint:

CONFIGURING VPC ENDPOINT:

Go to VPC tab in AWS console , select VPC endpoint and then select create endpoint, Select Service
category: AWS services and then search for storage gateway.

Select VPC, subnet, click enable DNS name and security group

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Once VPC endpoint is created and available, go back to Create Gateway -> select endpoint and then put
the VPC endpoint public DNS name, click next.

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In connect Gateway tab: provide the tape gateway appliance IP, then click “connect to gateway”

Once connection is established to gateway, we can see the already selected options: Gateway Type,
Endpoint, VPC Endpoint, AWS Region and tape drive type.

Select the Gateway time Zone, provide Gateway Name and Select Backup application

We can also tag the tape gateway (optional).

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Click Activate Gateway:

Then go to configure Local disks: 2 local disks already configured to AWS tape gateway appliance will be
displayed as local disks, edit those disks to designate as upload buffer and cache and then save the
configuration.

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We can configure logging, which is optional.

VTL tape creation:

Go to Storage Gateway tab is AWS and then select create tapes, Select Gateway, Number of tapes to be
created, Barcode prefix (only 4 characters from A-Z are allowed), select pool as Glacier or Deep archive.
Tag tapes and then click create tapes.

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Connecting the VTL tape drives and medium changer to Veeam server through
ISCSI protocol
Once the VTL is configured in AWS, we need to connect those VTL tapes drives and library medium
changer to Veeam Server. For that we must choose the VEEAM server as ISCSI initiator.

Go to ISCSI application inside server and then from ISCSI initiator properties, go to “target” tab and in the
target box, put the AWS VTL gateway appliance IP, click quick connect. , once it get connected , we can
able to see the library medium changer and 10 VTL tape drives , select them one by one and click
connect.

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Configuring Tape server in Veeam.

Go to tape infrastructure tab in Veeam console, and then select ADD TAPE SERVER:

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Choose the name of tape server, it is Veeam server only. Click Next.

Select the traffic settings as default and then click next to go to review page.

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On review page , click apply.

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Wait for the tape sever configuration to get completed.

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Once configured, go to summary page to perform the inventory of tape library.

Once tape server is added, then we can see the VTL tape drives and VTL tape library as well as tape
details inside the tape library.

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Importing tapes to the VTL tape library.

Go to VTL library under Libraries in Tape infrastructure and then right click to import the tapes.

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Creating Tape media Pool.

Once tape import is done, we must create a New media pool.

Select tape/tapes to include tapes.

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Click Next and on Media set page, provide media select name format, choose Do not create, always use
current media set under Automatically create new media set.

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Click Next and on retention page, choose Never overwrite data and for vaulting (moving offline tapes to
vault), select already created media vault – Veeam Media Vault 1 , can be created a new one if not
already created.

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Click next, and on options page we can enable parallel processing and encryption which is optional.

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Click next to see the summary page and then click finish

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Create a new backup to tape job

To run the New Backup to Tape Job wizard, do either of the following:
 On the Home tab, click Tape Job and select Backups.
 Open the Home view, right-click the Jobs node and select Tape Job > Backups to
Tape.

Click add and chose the corresponding backup job and click next.

Click add and chose the corresponding backup job and click next.

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On Media pool page, Choose the media pool or create new media pool for full backup or virtual full
backup, click schedule to select the month or day for the virtual full backup.

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On Incremental Backup option page, select Archive incremental backups to tape and select the
media pool for incremental backup. We can also create media pool if there doesn’t exist any.

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On Options page, select Eject media upon job completion and we can also to the tape off siting by
selecting the Export current media set upon job completion and choosing the days for the same.

Click Advanced to set the following settings for backup to tape job.

Notifications Settings

Advanced Settings

Notification settings

At the Notifications tab, you can specify notification settings for the backup to tape job.

At the Options step of the wizard, click Advanced. Then select the Notifications tab.

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Select the Send email notifications to the following recipients check box if you want to receive
notifications about tape job status. In the field below, specify a recipient’s email address. You can
enter several addresses separated by a semicolon.

we can choose between the following options:

Use global notification settings: Veeam Backup & Replication will notify you according to global email
notification settings specified for the Veeam backup server.

Use custom notification settings specified below: you can specify notification settings for tape jobs.

In the Subject field, specify a notification subject. You can use the following variables in the subject:

%Time%: the time when the tape job finished,

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%JobName%: the name of the tape job,

%TapeCount%: the number of tapes used for the tape job session,

%JobResult%: the job result,

%VmCount%: the number of machines in the job,

%Issues%: the number of machines in the job processed with Warning or Failed status.

Select the occasions on which you want to receive email notifications:

Notify on success: Veeam Backup & Replication will notify you if the tape job finishes successfully,

Notify on warning: Veeam Backup & Replication will notify you if the tape job finishes with a
warning,

Notify on error: Veeam Backup & Replication will notify you if the tape job fails,

Notify when waiting for tape: Veeam Backup & Replication will notify you if the tape job cannot
start because there are no available tapes.

Advanced settings

At the Advanced tab, you can select what backups from the backup chain to copy, enable hardware
compression or specify custom scripts that you want to run before and/or after the backup to tape
job.

The advanced options are different for regular backup to tape jobs and GFS tape jobs:

Advanced Settings for Tape Job

Advanced Settings for GFS Tape Job

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Advanced Settings for Tape Job

As per requirement, we can make the changes to the above options.

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Advanced Settings for GFS Tape Job

As per the requirement, we can make the changes to the requirement for the GFS copy jobs.

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At the Schedule step of the wizard, you can define a schedule for the job to run on a regular basis.
The schedule settings are different for regular backup to tape jobs and GFS tape jobs:

Schedule for Backup to Tape Job

Schedule for GFS Tape Job

Schedule for Backup to Tape Job

This step of the wizard is available if you selected a regular media pool at the Full Backup step of the
wizard.

To specify the job schedule, select the Run the job automatically check box. If this check box is not
selected, the job is supposed to be started manually.

We can define the following scheduling settings for the job:

Daily at this time: the tape job will run at specific time on defined week days.

Monthly at this time: the tape job will run at specific time monthly.

After this job: the tape job will start when a corresponding backup job completes. Choose the
preceding backup job from the list.

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NOTE:

Mind the following:

This option will only start the tape or backup copy job if the source job is started automatically by
schedule. If the source job is started manually you will choose to start it chained or not.

This option is not available for agent backup jobs managed by agent or for standalone agent backup
jobs.

As new backup files appear: the tape job will monitor the source jobs. As soon as the source job
creates a new backup, the job will write this backup to tape.

If necessary, we can limit the time when the backup to tape job can start with a schedule. We can
restrict start of the backup to tape jobs when backup repositories are busy with other tasks (backup
jobs writing to repositories or backup copy jobs reading from repositories). Schedule is set for
backup to tape jobs start. Jobs that have started during the allowed time interval will continue
working on restricted hours. To define prohibited time for the backup to tape job start, click the
Schedule button and define the time when the job is allowed and prohibited to start.

If we have scheduled the job to run at the specific time daily or monthly, consider configuring wait
timeout value. Select the If some linked backup jobs are still running, wait for up to check box and
specify the new timeout. When a backup to tape job starts, Veeam Backup & Replication checks the
status of the source jobs. If a source job is still writing data to the source repository, the backup to
tape job will wait for the specified time interval.

If the timeout is disabled, the backup to tape job will terminate without waiting for the backup job
to complete.

The timeout option is unavailable if we schedule the backup to tape job to run after a backup job or
if we schedule the backup to tape job to start when new backups appear.

Sometimes, the source job may start when the tape job is still running. This may cause a conflict if
the source job needs to perform the following operations:

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Merge of backup files

Reverse incremental backup transformation

Compact of full backup file

Retention Policy maintenance.

By default, the source job has priority. In this case, the tape job terminates with error and no data is
written to tape. Select the Prevent this job from being interrupted by source backup jobs option if
we want to give the tape job a higher priority. If this option is selected, the tape job will not
terminate and will finish writing the data. If the source job needs to perform the listed above
operations, it will wait for the tape job to finish. Note that in this case the source job may finish with
a significant delay.

NOTE:

If the source job creates per-VM backups, the tape job gets priority for each per-VM restore point
separately. In this case, the source job will be able to lock other per-VM restore points and
perform the needed operations. Make sure that we set enough timeout in the If some linked
backup jobs are still running, wait for up to window to avoid the tape job failing.

Schedule for GFS Tape Job

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This step of the wizard is available if you selected a GFS media pool at the Full Backup step of the
wizard.

Click Schedule to select days for each media set.

In the Perform GFS scan daily at field, specify the time when the GFS job must start.

TIP:

After we specify necessary schedule settings, you can save them as default. To do this, click Save as
Default at the bottom left corner of the Archival Schedule window. When we create a new GFS job,
Veeam Backup & Replication will automatically apply default settings to the new job schedule.

Sometimes, the source job may start when the tape job is still running. By default, the source job
has priority. In this case, the tape job terminates with error and no data is written to tape. Select
the Prevent this job from being interrupted by source backup jobs option if you want to give the
tape job a higher priority. If this option is selected, the source job will wait until the tape job
finishes. Note that the source job may start with a significant delay.

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For tenant to tape jobs, this option is active by default and cannot be disabled.

At the summary page, check the Name, Media pool for full Backups, incremental backups and click
finish to close the wizard

Click Run the job when I click Finish (optional).

Validation

References
1. https://www.veeam.com/wp-using-aws-vtl-gateway-deployment-guide.html
2. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/latest/userguide/backup-Veeam.html
3.

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