Issues when upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication v6

Let me start off by saying that Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) is one of the most awesome pieces of software I know of!  As with any piece of software there might be the occasional bug or issue that needs to be worked around.  I’ve upgraded a couple of clients to VBR already, and I’ve consistently run into two little niggles.  These are:

Backup of vCenter SQL DB fails when using VBR v6

This is actually detailed on the Veeam forums here.

What it boils down to is that when using VBR for an application aware backup of the VM which hosts the vCenter SQL DB, the backup will fail with a VSSControl: Failed to freeze guest, wait timeout error.  This occurs because VBR has to communicate with vCenter to create a snapshot, but at the same time the vCenter SQL DB is frozen because of the VSS snapshot

To solve this problem, add the IP-address of the ESX host which runs the vCenter Server SQL database to the Veeam console (the servers list in the left panel). Then adjust the job and select the virtual machine with the SQL database from the ESX host instead of via the vCenter Server. Veeam B&R will then use the host for communication with the VM to do the VSS snapshot.

This will, of course, cause your replication job to fail should the vCenter VM move to another host.  We can work around this by using DRS Host Affinity rules to tie your vCenter VM to a physical box.

Replication job fails – cannot connect to port 2500

When VBR does a replication job, it might fail with “Creating snapshot Cannot connect to server [x.x.x.x:2500]”

In my case it was always happening when the destination server was running ESX (not ESXi) v4.x.  This is easily resolved by logging onto the target server via SSH and issuing the following commands:

1. esxcfg-firewall -openport 2500:2510,tcp,in,VeeamSCP
2. service mgmt-vmware restart

Easy enough!

Using Veeam backup to relocate VM's

Nope, I didn't fudge up the title.  Veeam Backup and Replication is a wonderful product, allowing you to replicate vSphere VMs to a offsite Disaster Recovery location.  When disaster strikes, it's a pretty straight-forward process to fail over to your DR site.  It's what I call a forehead procedure - you only have to hit the spacebar with your forehead.    Thanks - I'll be here all night!  

What's not so intuitive and well documented is using Veeam Backup to move VM's to a different location, for example a Server Room / Data Center relocation *and then commiting those changes*, i.e. not failing back to Production.  The below steps assume we've replicated and failed over our VM's to our DR location already.

Ruan's Step By Step Guide on using Veeam Backup to relocate VM's

1. Delete all Veeam VM snapshots using the vSphere Snapshot Manager
2. By default your DR replica will be named "VMname_replica", rename it back to its original name, i.e. VMname
3. Remove the VM replica from the list of replicas in the Veeam Backup and Replication Console
4. Delete the Production -> DR replication job responsible for replication the VM in question.  Recreate it to reflect the new Source and Target locations
5. Delete the .vrb file from the VM datastore, as we will no longer be using these restore points
6. Delete the replica.vrb and running.rbk files
7. Pat yourself on the back - you've just done the easiest VM move you'll ever do!