Create local Backup Repository and Add HyperV to VBR Inventory

To integrate Microsoft Hyper-V hosts as sources and targets for backup, replication, and other operations. It is essential to add them to the backup infrastructure. This includes connecting standalone Hyper-V hosts, Hyper-V clusters, or SCVMM servers. In this article, we shall discuss “Create local Backup Repository and Add HyperV to Veeam Backup and Replication (VBR) Inventory”. Please see how to Fix Error 1069: Windows could not start the Veeam backup service on local computer, and Fix VMware vCenter converter standalone started but not running.

Veeam recommends that if a HyperV host is part of a clusters or SCVMM. You should add it as cluster or SCVMM, and not a standalone Hyper-V host. By doing so, Veeam Backup & Replication seamlessly accommodates VM migrations within the cluster or SCVMM. Thereby eliminating the need for manual job reconfigurations.

However, if VMs are migrated between standalone hosts not registered in the same cluster or SCVMM in Veeam Backup & Replication. The job reconfigurations become necessary to ensure continued seamless processing. Failure to reconfigure jobs may result in job failures, as Veeam Backup & Replication will initiate full backups for migrated VMs without the necessary adjustments.

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Prerequisites for adding HyperV host as an Inventory

Kindly ensure that the following below are adhered to

• File and printer sharing must be enabled in network connection settings of the added Microsoft Hyper-V host. If file and printer sharing is not enabled on the host, Veeam Backup & Replication will fail to deploy these components.
• Make sure that the NETBIOS name of the Microsoft Hyper-V Server is successfully resolved.
• The account used for adding HyperV must have the local Administrator permissions on the target machine.
• Lastly, if you have created a new local administrator account. Please see If you are having “invalid credential issue – unable to add HyperV standalone to Veeam Backup and Replication inventory“.

Note: Do not add to Microsoft Hyper-V host(s) or clusters managed by an SCVMM server. That is, if this SCVMM server is already added to the backup infrastructure.

Create and Format with REFS

If you want to use Fast Clone in the Microsoft Windows backup repository. You should format your drive with the ReFS fie system. By default, Veeam Backup & Replication uses Fast Clone for all Microsoft Windows and SMB backup repositories that meet the requirements.

Veeam recommends that you use ReFS volume formatted with 64 KB cluster size to provide better performance with large data volumes as shown below.

Note: Fast Clone and Windows data deduplication cannot be used simultaneously. Thus, if you target a backup job to a repository supporting Fast Clone and enable Windows data deduplication, the Fast Clone technology will not be used for this job.

Also, if you target a backup job to an SMB (CIFS) ReFS repository and enable Windows data deduplication, the job will fail. Veeam Backup & Replication does not support such scenario.

Backup Repository

A backup repository is a storage location where Veeam keeps backup files and metadata for replicated VMs.

Note: Veeam recommends to place the repository servers in a Restricted Zone, because these servers contain a 100% copy of your production environment. The repository servers should be physically secured and have appropriate access control systems in place. This way access is restricted, who does have access is registered and monitored at certain specified levels.

Also, if you have the Repository on the same VBR server, you will not be meeting the best practice due to the error displayed on the “Security and Compliance” wizard. Therefore I will be showing you very shortly how to create an SMB (CIFS) share in the next guide.

Note: In this guide, I will be using the HyperV host (not recommended) with local disk as it is in my . The recommended approach is to use a different Windows Server as a backup repo. What you could also do is use a directly attached storage as a backup repository on the Windows Server such as a USB hard drive, iSCSI/FC SAN LUN in case the server is connected into the SAN fabric. I will be showing all these steps in the subsequent articles.

Note: Having a physical windows server with disks (Direct attached storage) is preferred as windows backup target to using SMB share (Network Attacked storage).

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Create Windows Server Repository

Note: If you have your Repository is on the same VBR server. You will not be meeting the best practice and an error will be displayed on the “Security and Compliance” wizard.

Open the Backup Infrastructure view. In the inventory pane, right-click the Backup Repositories node and select Add Backup Repository. Alternatively, you can click Add Repository on the ribbon as shown below.

Click on DirectAttached Storage

Select Microsoft Windows.

Enter the name and description for the backup repository and click Next.

Note: From the Repository server list, select a Microsoft Windows server that you want to use as a backup repository.

The Repository server list contains only those servers that are added to the backup infrastructure. If the server is not added to the backup infrastructure yet, you can click Add New on the right to open the New Windows Server wizard.

Click Populate to see a list of disks connected to the server, their capacity and free space.

Click Next.

At the Repository step of the wizard, the repository settings including path to the repository folder and load control, and also advanced repository settings. See the official guide on to learn more about the Backup Repository Settings.

I am fine with the default Mount Server Settings, click Next to continue.

The The mount server is required for file-level and application items restore. During the restore process, Veeam Backup & Replication mounts the VM disks from the backup file residing in the backup repository to the mount server. As a result, VM data does not have to travel over the network, which reduces the load on the network and speed up the restore process

Review Properties and Components and click on Apply.

As you can see below, Veeam Backup & Replication has installed and configured all required components. Click Next to proceed.

At the Summary step of the wizard, review details of the added backup repository. Then click Finish to exit the wizard

You will be prompted to confirm the change of the backup repository location to a new location, click Yes.

We have successfully created our Microsoft Windows Server Backup Repository.

Add HyperV Host to Veeam inventory

You do not want the Veeam repository to be tied to the same Windows Active Directory domain you are protecting with the backup. You may also want to see how to Install Veeam Backup and Replication with the default PostgreSQL, How to upgrade Veeam Backup and Replication v11 to 12.1, and

When protecting the production environment with VBR, and to be able to authenticate and restore workloads when the domain is no longer available. We have placed our VBR in a work group. Furthermore, if a Domain Admin account is compromised you do not want that account to be able to overrule a backup repository account password. So the hacker can get access to the backup files together with access to the whole environment.

To add over HyperV host to Veeam, click on the Inventory view. In the inventory pane select the Add Server or from the “ribbon”.

Select Microsoft Hyper-V

Note: Note: When working with HyperV standalone, when you migrate VMs between standalone hosts that are not a part of one cluster or SCVMM server registered in Veeam Backup & Replication. You will have to reconfigure jobs to include the migrated VMs. After that, Veeam Backup & Replication will create full backups for these VMs. If you do not reconfigure the jobs, they will fail.

Specify the DNS Name or IP

Enter the name or IP address of the Hyper-V host.

You can use IPv6 addresses only if IPv6 communication is enabled.

Select Microsoft hyper-V Server (Standalone) as shown below and click next.

From the Credentials list, select credentials for the account that has administrator privileges on the Microsoft Hyper-V server. If you have not set up credentials beforehand, click the Manage accounts link or click Add on the right to add the credential.

Note 1: If the Hyper-V server being added to Veeam Backup & Replication is joined to a domain (as recommended by Microsoft). A domain account that is a member of the local Administrators group on the Hyper-V server should be used to add the server to Veeam Backup & Replication.

If the Hyper-V server being added to Veeam Backup & Replication is not joined to a domain. Or there is a need to avoid using a domain account to aviod the need to authenticate to the Domain controller. The built-in account named Administrator must be used to add the server to Veeam Backup & Replication. Other local accounts will be restricted by UAC, even if they are members of the Administrators group. In this case, you will have to disable Remote UAC by setting the Registry value of “LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy” to 1

Note: If the local built-in Administrator account has been renamed, it can still be used as the unique SID that bypasses Remote UAC Restrictions remains valid.

I will be using the Local Admin Account for my Hyper-V host. Enter the username and password and click on OK.

The credentials will be validated as shown below. If it fails, see the article link above for the resolution.

Now, click Next to proceed.

Review the settings and apply.

You can click on Finish here or Next as it is in my case.

On the Summary wizard, click on Finish to complete this process.

If you add a Hyper-V host to a cluster that is already added to your backup infrastructure, Veeam Backup & Replication may not display this Hyper-V host in the list of managed servers. To display the Hyper-V host and make it accessible from the Veeam Backup & Replication console, do the following:

• If the Hyper-V host is added to a cluster that is managed by SCVMM, right-click the SCVMM server, select Properties and go through the steps of the Edit Hyper-V Server wizard.
• If the Hyper-V host is added to a cluster that is not managed by SCVMM, right-click the cluster and select Rescan.

To ensure that all Veeam Backup & Replication components on the Hyper-V host are up to date, right-click the Hyper-V host, select Properties and go through the steps of the Edit Hyper-V Server wizard

Conclusion on how to Create local Backup Repository and Add HyperV to VBR Inventory

By following these steps, you ensure that Veeam Backup & Replication has the necessary credentials with administrative rights to access and manage the Hyper-V host in a workgroup environment using NTLM authentication.

I hope you fund this guide on “Create local Backup Repository and Add HyperV to Veeam Backup and Replication (VBR) Inventory” very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.