Over time the JET database that backs your repository in Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office365 can become fragmented and cause unnecessary performance impacts for you and your users such as searching via the Veeam Explorers for Exchange / OneDrive / Sharepoint (and soon Teams!). Here is a quick tip for running a defrag operation.
A few things before you begin:
With Tiger Bridge + Backblaze B2 Cloud, Veeam users can tier restore points to the cloud, cutting out the financial strain and logistics of sizing their on-prem storage. The service not only saves money, it allows users to pull down a subset of files from further back in. Right-click the Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows icon in the system tray and select Configure backup. At the Name step of the wizard, specify the job name and description. At the Backup Mode step of the wizard, select what data you want to back up: entire computer, specific computer volumes or individual folders with files. Learn how to assign a Veeam Cloud Connect repository in this short demo featuring Zach from our product management team.
- !!!! Don't just perform this unless you have are trying to resolve a potential performance issue and I strongly advise you do so at the advice of Veeam Support before ruling out anything else environmental.
- If you have the capability/capacity it would be recommended to back this data with Veeam Backup and Replication using a Guest Processing/Application Aware enabled backup job so that should this process corrupt the repository you can perform a restore operation
- You will need some temporary space as this operation basically makes a copy of the current adb file and then replaces it, for example if your repository.adb file is 200GB, ideally you will have at least 210gb free on the existing drive or on another drive.
- This operation can take time and you will need to shut down the Veeam.Archiver.Proxy services on the repository server to release the file locks on the repository.adb files before you begin. So pick a time when it is not going to impact your normal backup window.
Let's get started
Open up the proxy server where your repository is hosted.
1) Shut down the Veeam Backup Proxy for Microsoft Office 365 Service via services.msc
This will take a while, if you are interested open up performance manager and you will see the locks on all of the repository.adb files from this Veeam.Archiver.Proxy.exe service, these will start clearing out.
Now with the locks off the file you can begin to perform the defragmentation operations.
2) Open up a powershell window and run the following command
Note the path, in Backup for Office365 a repository.adb file is created one per year (and more than one per year if your repositories are massive) so your path will be more like E:YourRepository2020 (2019, 2018 etc, one per year) so you will want to jump through and run this on all of them
The /d flag is the target repository (that Veeam has been using already)
You will also see the /t flag, this is important, by default without this flag/switch it will use your C: to write the new defragmented file to before copying it back so ensure you redirect this to a drive with free space (unless you have heaps of free space on the C:).
Now let it do it's thing, you will see the file specified with the /t switch start to fill up and the console window does have a nifty little progress bar. Once complete you will see the following
The temp file will then be moved in place of your existing repository.adb and you are now free to start the Veeam Archiver Service again, then run a job to confirm that the database is still in tact, or you can open up the latest backup point via the Veeam Backup for Office 365 Console and browse the data via the Explorers.
As some of you know, Veeam the leader in virtualization backup released backup solutions for bare metal machines last year. The Veeam Agent for Windows or Linux is a simple stand alone program that runs on a physical server or workstation and can back up to external hard drive, Veeam Backup and Replication Repository, or a cloud connect repository. Of course because of all the options Veeam release multiple licensing options to go along with it. Here is the break down and licensed options.
Veeam Agent Editions
- Veeam Agent for Windows – Free
- Community/Email Support
- File and image level backups.
- Can backup to external hard drive or network location only (UNC Path)
- Veeam Agent for Windows – Workstation
- Business support tied to you’re Veeam support subscription
- File and image level backup
- Can be centrally managed from Veeam Backup and Replication
- can back up to external hard drive, Veeam Server, Network Location, or Veeam Cloud Connect Provider
- Veeam Agent for Windows – Server
- Business support tied to you’re Veeam support subscription
- File and image level backup along with Application processing (SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint etc)
- Can be centrally managed from Veeam Backup and Replicationn
- Can back up to external hard drive, Veeam Server, Network Location, or Veeam Cloud Connect Provider
In most home cases the Free version will work fine unless you are a SharePoint or SQL server developer.
Before I go any further i want to clarify one point. There is 4 versions of the Veeam Agent. Veeam Agent for Windows , Veeam Agent for IBM AIX, Veeam Agent for Solaris, and Veeam Agent for Linux. For this post I’ll be referring to the windows version. But the other options do exist and have are intended to be used on the server editions of those operating systems.
Process
Alright lets get this started.
- Go to Veeam Agent for Windows Free Download Site and down the software.
- On the download page there is options to download the manual as well. Unlike some vendors, Veeam’s documentation is generally very good.
- Extract the Zip file and install the software
- The install process doesn’t have that much to look at. You accept the end user agreement and it starts installing.
- When it finishes installing it will prompt to configure a backup.
- Check the box to say skip for now and click Next. It will close the window.
- If it prompts you to configure recovery media, cancel it we’ll do it at the end after the backup is configured.
3. Go to the Start Menu > Veeam > Configure backup to start the wizard.
4. On the first page Veeam Agent gives you 3 options
The Entire computer options is selected by default because it allows you to do a bare metal recovery in the event your hard drive crashes. The other 2 options will reduce the size of your backup but there will be more involved to recover your system if something happens.
Click Next to continue.
5. On the Destination Page we choose where we want to store the backups.
Veeam Backup To B2
The options are pretty self explanatory. Just remember the Veeam Backup Repository requires a paid for licensing (and a Veeam Server). For this tutorial I’m selecting Shared folder and clicking Next to continue.
6. Now we get to configure access to the Shared Drive.
On this page you have 2 options. 1 you can type in the path and credentials manually or 2, you can click browse and walk through network explorer to find the shared folder. During this process if the share requires credentials, windows will prompt you for them. In the end your page should look similar to this.
If you want to keep more then 14 days of backups you can increase the number of backups on this page. Next lets click on the Advanced the options.
On the Backup Tab, you can set up weekly or Monthly full backups. More importantly click on the Storage Tab.
On the Storage Optimization drop down menu change the options from Local Target to LAN Target. Also if you want to encrypt your backups you can set the password here as well. FYI If you loose your password your backups will be unless.
Click OK to close the Advanced Options and then click Next to continue.
7. On the Schedule Page pick the options that will work for you.
The top half of the options is generally for a standard backup schedule like daily at X time. The bottom half is for event based backups. Select the options that make sense for your setup and click Apply to continue.
You may get a prompt for you power plan. This prompt is just asking for permission to change the power plan to wake the computer from sleep to run the backup. Select the answer that makes sense for you and continue.
8. The Summary Page
I would recommend that you check “Run the job when I click Finish” It’s basically saying do you want to run the job now? If you does this then you can verify that everything is set up correctly right away.
Click Finish to finish the set up.
9. If you checked the box to “Run the job when i click Finish” then you’ll first be prompted to install a license file. In our case we don’t need license file so you can click no. If you pointed the job to a Veeam Server you will need a license file to actually run the backup.
At this point lets notice 2 things 1. The running job on the bottom left side and 2. the notice about recovery media at the top.
If you click on Processing it will open a window showing you the details and status of the job running.
This is useful for troubleshooting. If the backup fails it will show you why in this screen.
Veeam B2 For Sale
Recovery Media Creation
Next lets create that recovery media.
10. Creating Recovery Media. From the Backup Console click on Recovery Media to get started.
The Recovery Media is used to do a baremetal recover of the system. If your hard drive dies and you replace your hard drive. You can boot off of the recovery media to restore the system.
11. Recovery Wizard Page 1.
Veeam Agent creates an ISO image for the recovery media. You can use this ISO Image to make a bootable CD Room or you can make a bootable flash drive with it too. If your recovery path relies on Mapped Network drives then you can added them in now.
Click Next to continue.
12. Destination
Veeam B2c
By default the Veeam Agent will select your Documents folder to save the iso image.
Since this media is (hopefully never) going to be used to recover the computer you are on from a failure. You can do one of 2 things at this point either don’t change the destination path and then when the wizard finishes manually move the file to the NAS. Or 2 change the path now and not worry about it.
Click Next to continue.
13. Review
Veeam B2b
Review your selections
Click Create to create the ISO Image File.
14. Process
While the process is going you can see which step it’s on.
As you can see the wizard adds all the required information into the ISO to be able to boot the system and connect to where you’re storing your backups. The ISO image itself is only 650 MBs, so it will fit on a CD-R or any USB drive you can buy these days.
Veeam B2 Form
When it’s all done click Finish and you’ll be done. (move the iso off the computer if you didn’t change the path)
And that is the Veeam Agent for Windows in a nutshell. Granted a lot of the same functionality could be done with Windows Backup, but I’m a big Veeam supporter and actually achieved the VMCE9.5 earlier this year so I like to use Veeam where ever I can. Since this product in this use case is free it’s a no brainer.
Let me know what you think in the Comment Section.
-Terry Sheridan