VEAAM Powershell Commands

[petben]

Hello, I am going to try the free VEAAM agent to backup C:\FolderName on 30 x Win7 workstations, can anyone advise on the Powershell commands I can use to:

 

1. Create the back jobs (this can run at startup)
   
2. Run the backup jobs (this can run as a scheduled task)
   
3. Send a report of status of backup jobs
   

 

 

I know there is load of VEAAM help and there seems to be a bejillion commands available..but if someone can point me in the direction of the right ones that would be great.

 

 

Thanks

[petben]

actually I think the powershell command are only available if the Backup and Replication software is installed...

 

so I am guessing I need to configure a workstation with the free agent and export the config somehow, then import to other machines with the agent installed?

 

any help with ideas\commands would be great.

 

thanks

[Steve21]

Do you have real veeam? (paid for wise) if so 9.5 included options to manage the agents from the console too, so should be able to push jobs still

 

Or is this entirely a freebie scenario?

 

Steve

[petben]

I tested the paid for and got disillusioned with its limitations, as it was £30\year each (need 50 licenses) I thought I would give the free one a go. I am creating a separate backup repository for the free agents to backup to.

[Steve21]

Do you have Veeam for your VMs I mean though? Not the paid for one for physical.

 

If it's the entirely free one I'm not sure these will all work, but if it's the same it used to be like:

 

Veeam.Agent.Configurator.exe -Export /f:"pathToExport"\Config.xml

 

and then can script the same on the import just with -Import etc (Credentials couldn't be used on the storage with this though as it won't export passwords)

 

Steve

[petben]

Thanks Steve, I was going to use free yes for the workstations. Paid for VMs if all goes well.

 

Export config is ok but import fails, it is only supported in the paid version I think, getting frustrated with Veaam really.

 

Any other ideas for local storage to server backup with some retention? Robocopy is fine but will only single copy backup, then overwrite, a bit dodgy.....

[Steve21]

If you're happy with robocopy might want to have a flick through this:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/coding/103278-robocopy-help.html#post886873

 

My old setup from home pc that backs up to NAS in same kind of setup.

 

Works by using a date variable so the changes per day etc are sync'd up in incremental and creates a new folder per day etc. (Could always add in a %hostname% variable too so if you're using multiple pcs they each get their own folder)

 

Free and pikey but works well (If you want something a bit more full on wise could always just do a full backup per day with different folder names still, rather than incremental, depends how important these machines are I guess)

 

Steve

[kidpressingbuttons]

Use endpoint. I believe you can specify from within that.

[petben]

Thanks, Veaam endpoint has been rebranded as Veaam Agent I think. A few forum replies from Veaam support mention how the export/import isn’t supported in the free version but things could have changed I guess.

 

Robocopy is a bit old school I agree...mmmmm what to do?

[Steve21]

What is it you're actually trying to backup? Shouldn't really be much of useful stuff locally on a domain computer nowdays.

 

Or is it more like laptops that you aren't using offline files on etc?

 

You can still do things like setup windows backups locally to write to network drives etc

 

Steve

[petben]

We will be backing up Lightroom libraries on one set of PCs and some video editing projects on others, neither of which works over network storage.

 

I wonder if I could configure windows backup via GPO...I really had hopes for Veaam but it’s not what we hoped.

[Steve21]

You could use proper Veeam (if you're getting it for VMs etc) and do filecopys via UNC paths too. Guessing most of your current backup software probably can too, if you think of it from server side not client side to run the backups.

 

Windows BackUp wise you can roll out task schedules via GPO to run them yep. If you want them fired off that way. Or just deploy it via SCCM/GPO as a wbadmin command to setup the original schedules as per "normal" windows backups schedules.

 

In your situation you could get nifty with it and just make a virtual disk on the computers that host the files and backup the entire disk too, depends how complex you want it really

 

Steve

[petben]

Veeam paid is £30 each machine and we need 50...quite a bit annually.

 

Final thought, simple simple.

On each client running 3 robocopy mirror commands running daily, weekly and monthly to completely different folders, but then enable data dedeuplication on the destination volume to save all that space from errr... duplicated data..

[Steve21]

Veeam paid is £30 each machine and we need 50...quite a bit annually.

 

Final thought, simple simple.

On each client running 3 robocopy mirror commands running daily, weekly and monthly to completely different folders, but then enable data dedeuplication on the destination volume to save all that space from errr... duplicated data..

 

You're still referring to the windows agent, I'm talking about the server program You can use file copy jobs and just add a UNC path into it. Never use it that way as think robocopy is just as easy but no reason it shouldn't work.

 

Only thing you got to remember if any of these direct copies (without VSS etc) won't work with open files etc, still think the automated windows backup would be the better route overall and just limit it to that folder.

 

Steve

[petben]

Thanks, the Veeam file copy job looked good, could centrally manage all the jobs, but unfortunately it doesn't delete files in the destination that don't exist in the source, so the backup folder would grow endlessly.