How to Create a New Backup Job in Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam Backup & Replication is a powerful solution for protecting virtual, physical, and cloud-based workloads. Creating a backup job is a fundamental task to ensure your data is secure and recoverable. This guide walks you through the steps to set up a new backup job for VMware vSphere virtual machines using the Veeam Backup & Replication console.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following:

• Veeam Backup & Replication is installed and licensed.
• Backup infrastructure components (e.g., VMware vSphere hosts, backup repositories) are added to the Veeam console.
• You have administrative credentials for the vSphere environment and the Veeam console.
• Sufficient storage is available in the target backup repository.

Step 1: Launch the New Backup Job Wizard

1. Open the Veeam Backup & Replication Console.
2. In the Inventory pane, navigate to the Home view.
3. Right-click the Jobs node and select Backup > Virtual Machine > VMware vSphere. This opens the New Backup Job wizard.

Step 2: Specify Job Name and Description

1. In the Name step, enter a unique name for the backup job (e.g., “VMware_Production_Backup”).
2. Optionally, add a description to clarify the job’s purpose (e.g., “Daily backup of critical VMware VMs”).
3. Click Next.

Step 3: Select Virtual Machines to Back Up

1. At the Virtual Machines step, click Add.
2. Select the VMs or VM containers (e.g., folders, resource pools, clusters, or datastores) you want to back up. Adding a container ensures new VMs added to it are automatically included in the job.
3. To exclude specific VMs or disks, click Exclusions and configure as needed.
4. Click Next.

Step 4: Define Backup Storage Settings

1. At the Storage step, select a backup repository from the Backup repository dropdown. Ensure the repository has enough space for your backups.
2. In the Retention policy field, specify the number of restore points to keep (e.g., 7 for a week of daily backups). Veeam will automatically remove older restore points when this limit is exceeded.
3. Optionally, click Advanced to configure settings like backup mode (e.g., Incremental or Reverse Incremental), compression, and encryption.
4. Click Next.

Step 5: Configure Guest Processing (Optional)

1. At the Guest Processing step, enable Application-aware processing if backing up VMs running applications like Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange. This ensures transactionally consistent backups.
2. Provide guest OS credentials with administrative privileges for the VMs. Click Add to input credentials or select existing ones.
3. Optionally, enable Guest file system indexing for faster file-level restores.
4. Click Next.

Step 6: Define the Job Schedule

1. At the Schedule step, check Run the job automatically to set a schedule. If unchecked, the job must be started manually.
2. Choose a schedule type:
   • Daily: Run at a specific time each day (e.g., 10:00 PM).
   • Monthly: Run on specific days of the month.
   • Periodically: Run every few hours or minutes for frequent backups.
3. Enable Retry failed VM processing (default is 3 retries) to handle temporary issues.
4. Click Apply.

Step 7: Finalize the Job

1. At the Summary step, review the job settings.
2. Check Run the job when I click Finish to start the job immediately, or leave it unchecked to run per the schedule.
3. Click Finish to create the job.

Step 8: Monitor and Verify the Backup Job

1. In the Home view, expand the Last 24 Hours node to see the job’s status.
2. After the job runs, verify the backup by checking the backup repository for the created restore points.
3. Test a restore operation to ensure data integrity (e.g., use Instant VM Recovery or File-Level Restore).

Additional Tips

• Backup Copy Job: For added protection, configure a backup copy job to replicate backups to a secondary location, such as a cloud repository.
• GFS Retention: For long-term archiving, enable Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) retention in the Storage step to keep weekly, monthly, or yearly backups.
• Dynamic Inclusion: Use VM containers or VMware tags to automatically include new VMs in the job, reducing manual updates.
• Monitoring: Use Veeam ONE or email notifications (configured in the Summary step) to track job success or failures.

Conclusion

Creating a backup job in Veeam Backup & Replication is straightforward with the New Backup Job wizard. By carefully configuring VMs, storage, guest processing, and scheduling, you can ensure your data is protected and recoverable. For more advanced configurations, refer to the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide or explore features like backup copy jobs and application-aware processing.