A part of the Veeam Backup & Replication 8 Update 2 Release is the ability to allow users to target repositories specified in your Backup Infrastructure as targets for Endpoint Backup. While this is just one of many, many fixes and upgrades (hello vSphere 6!) in Update 2 this one is important for those looking to use Endpoint Backup in the enterprise as it allows for centralized storage and management and equally important is you also get e-mail notifications on these jobs.

Once the update is installed you’ll have to decide what repository or repositories will be available to Endpoint Backup and provide permissions for users to access them. By default every Backup Repository Denies Endpoint Backup access to everyone. To change this for one or more repositories you’ll need to:

1. Access the Backup Repositories section under Backup Infrastructure, then right click a repository and choose “Permissions.”
2. Once there you have three options for each repository in regards to Endpoint permissions; Deny to everyone (default), Allow to everyone, and Allow to the following users or groups only. This last option is the most granular and what I use, even if just to select a large group. In the example shown I’ve provided access to the Domain Admins group.
3. You will also notice that I’ve chosen to encrypt any backups stored in the repository, a nice feature as well of Veeam Backup & Replication 8.

Also of note is that no user will be able to select a repository until they have access to it. In setting up the Endpoint Backup job when the Veeam server is specified you are given the option to supply credentials there so you may choose to use alternate credentials so that the end users themselves don’t actually have to have access to the destination.

This week Veeam Software officially released their new Endpoint Backup Free product introduced at VeeamON last October after a few months of beta testing. The target for this product is to allow image based backup of individual physical machines, namely workstations, allowing for Change Block Tracking much like users of their more mature Backup & Replication product have been used to in virtualized environments. Further Veeam has made a commitment that in the product is and should always be freely available making it possible for anybody to perform what is frankly enterprise level backup of their own computers with no cost other than possibly a external USB drive to store the backup data.  I’ve been using the product throughout the beta process and in this post I’ll outline some of the options and features and review how to get started with the product.

Also released this month by Veeam is the related Update 2 for Backup & Replication 8. This update in this case allows a Backup Repository to be selected as a target for your Endpoint Backup job after some configuration as shown here. Keep in mind if you are wanting to backup to local USB or a network share this isn’t necessary but if you are already a B&R user this will make managing these backups much better.

Getting Started with Installation

I have to say Veeam did very well keeping the complexity under the water in this one. Once downloaded and run the installation choices consist completely of one checkbox and one button. That’s it. Veeam Endpoint Backup seems to rely on a local SQL Server Express installation to provide backend services just like the bigger Backup & Replication install but it is installed on the fly. I have found that if there is pending Windows Updates to complete the installer will prompt you to restart prior to continuing to configuring your backup.

Configuring the Job

Once the installation is complete the installer will take you directly into configuring the backup as long as you are backing up to an external storage device. If you plan to use a network share or Veeam Backup Repository you will need to skip the step and configure the job once in the application. Essentially you have the following options:

• What you wantto backup
  • Entire computer; which is image based backup
  • Specific volumes
  • File level backup
• Where you want to back it up to (each will generate another step or two in the wizard)
  • Local storage
  • A shared folder
  • Veeam Backup & Replication repository
• Schedule or trigger for backups
  • Daily at a a specific time
  • Trigger a backup on a lock, log off or when the backup target is connected

Personally I use one of three setups depending on the scenario. For personal computers I use a external USB drive triggered on when the backup target is available but set so that it never backs up more than once every 24 hours. In the enterprise using Endpoint Backup to deal with those few remaining non-virtualized Windows servers these are configured to backup to a Veeam Backup Repository on a daily schedule. Finally I will soon begin rolling this out to key enterprise laptop users and there backup will be to a B&R Repository as well but triggered on the user locking the workstation with a 24 hour hold down. Keep in mind all of these options can be tweaked via the Configure backup button in the Veeam Endpoint Backup Control Panel.

Creating the Recovery Media

The last step of installing/configuring Endpoint Backup is to create the restore media. This creates a handy disk or ISO that you can boot off of to allow you to do a Bare Metal (or Bare VM :)) recovery of the machine. From an enterprise standpoint if you are rolling Endpoint Backup out to a fieldful of like machines I really can’t find a good reason to create more than one of these per model of device. Personally I’ve been creating the ISOs for each model and using it in conjunction with a Zalman VE-300 based external hard drive to keep from having lots of discs/pen drives around. If you are using this to backup physical servers it would also be a first step to being able to quickly restore to a VM if that is part of your disaster recovery plan.

As a trick what I’ve found is I have installed the product on a VM for no other reason but to create the recovery media. This way I know I’ll have the drivers to boot to it if need be. Further once you boot to the recovery media you’ll find all kinds of little goodies that make it a good ISO to have available in your bag.

Conclusion

I’ve played with lots of options, both paid and free, over the years for backing up a physical computer on a regular basis and even setting the general Veeam fanboy type stuff aside, this is the slickest solution for this problem I’ve ever seen. The fact that it is free and integrates into my existing Enterprise solution are definitely major added bonuses, but even in a standalone, “I need to make backups of Grandma’s computer” situation it is a great choice. If you find you need a little help with getting started the Veeam has created a whole Endpoint Backup forum just for this product. My experience both here and with other products is that there is generally very quick response from very knowledgeable Veeam engineers, developers and end users happy to lend a hand.