VMCA2022 VMCA 2022 Questions and Answers

The number of vSphere clusters and the total of virtual machines are important information related to the virtual infrastructure that are missing and must be collected during the discovery phase. These information can help you estimate the backup performance, scalability, and resource requirements for the Veeam backup infrastructure. For example, you can use the number of vSphere clusters to determine how many Veeam backup servers and proxies you need to deploy and how to distribute the backup load among them. You can also use the total of virtual machines to calculate the total amount of data to be backed up, the storage space required, and the network bandwidth needed.

References: [Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practices], [Veeam Backup Infrastructure Sizing Calculator]

The recommended storage option for the backups kept on-premises is a physical server with Veeam Hardened Repository. A Veeam Hardened Repository is a type of backup repository that provides immutability and ransomware protection for backup files by using Linux XFS file system features and Linux access control mechanisms. A physical server is preferred over a virtual server for better performance, security, and scalability. A Veeam Hardened Repository meets the customer’s requirements for compliance, security, and retention, as well as supports all backup types and features.

The configuration that would verify the SLA compliance during audits and protection against exposure to personally identifiable information in the event of exposure is to create a virtual lab environment and periodically perform staged restores with custom scripts. A virtual lab is an isolated environment where you can run your backups or replicas without affecting the production environment. A staged restore is a process that allows you to run custom scripts on the restored data before publishing it to the production environment. By using these features, you can demonstrate that your backups are recoverable and compliant with legal regulations, as well as remove or mask any sensitive data before restoring it.

The information related to sizing the NAS infrastructure that is missing and must be collected during the discovery are the size of the source data set and the recovery point objective (RPO). These information are important for designing and sizing the NAS backup jobs and repositories. For example, you can use the size of the source data set to estimate how much storage space and network bandwidth are required for backing up NAS devices. You can also use the RPO to determine how frequently you need to run NAS backup jobs and how many restore points you need to keep on the backup repositories.

The preferred method to achieve the requirement of excluding the H: drive on MSSQL server virtual machines is to set up VMDK exclusion for the disk on which the H: resides in the Virtual Machines > Exclusions page for each virtual machine. This method allows you to exclude specific virtual disks from being processed by backup jobs based on their SCSI IDs or disk labels. This can save backup time and storage space by skipping unnecessary data. This method also works reliably regardless of whether the MSSQL servers are built on demand or from virtual machine templates.

The backup repository design that would meet the security, throughput, and retention requirements is to use backup jobs to Hardened Linux XFS-based repositories at the same site as the source data and use Backup copy jobs to Hardened Linux XFS-based repositories at the secondary site. A Hardened Linux repository is a type of backup repository that provides immutability and ransomware protection for backup files by using XFS file system features and Linux access control mechanisms. A Backup copy job is a type of backup job that copies backups from one repository to another, either on-site or off-site, with different retention settings. By using these features, you can ensure that your backups are secure, efficient, and compliant with regulatory and business needs.

The action that Veeam Life and Indemnity should take to improve the likelihood that a ransomware attack on the Veeam infrastructure will not be successful is to protect the Veeam components on the production Active Directory Forest with multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security mechanism that requires users to provide two or more pieces of evidence to prove their identity before accessing a system or resource. MFA can prevent unauthorized access to the Veeam components even if the user credentials are compromised by ransomware or other means.

A possible issue that could arise if you put the backup repositories in the backup network only is that laptop agents cannot communicate with the repository. This is because laptop agents are not part of the backup network, which is non-routable according to the existing technical environment.Therefore, laptop agents cannot access or write data to the backup repositories in the backup network unless there is a proxy or gateway server that can bridge the communication between them.

References: [Veeam Agents Management Guide], [Veeam Backup Infrastructure Sizing Calculator]

Thank you for your question. I’m glad to help you with your VMCA 2022 project.?

To design a solution that meets the database requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the options and features that can support and integrate with Oracle databases. This will help you to ensure the consistency and reliability of the Oracle backups and restores, as well as the compatibility and supportability of the native Oracle tools with Veeam products and features.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, the option that most closely matches the requirements of having native Oracle utilities available for backups and restores is D. Install the Veeam RMAN Plug-in to allow native RMAN backups and restores to leverage Veeam repository directly from the Oracle servers.

This option means that:

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in is a solution that integrates with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and allows you to back up and restore Oracle databases using Veeam repositories as targets.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in supports both virtual and physical Oracle servers, as well as different versions and editions of Oracle databases.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in enables you to use native Oracle tools and commands, such as RMAN, SQL*Plus, Data Pump, etc., to perform backups and restores of Oracle databases, without requiring any additional scripts or configurations.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in leverages the benefits and features of Veeam Backup & Replication, such as backup compression, deduplication, encryption, immutability, etc., to improve the backup performance and efficiency, as well as the backup security and integrity.

This option is the best match for the requirements, as it allows you to use native Oracle utilities for backups and restores, while also taking advantage of Veeam products and features.

To design a solution that meets the replication requirement for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the mitigating techniques that might be required for the virtual machines that have several separate large VMDKs with a high change rate per virtual machine on the same datastore. This will help you to overcome some of the challenges and limitations that may affect the replication performance and efficiency, as well as the recovery point objective (RPO) of the organization.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, some of the mitigating techniques that might be required are:

•Implement WAN accelerator. This technique can help you to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred and processed between the source and target sites, by using caching, deduplication, compression, and encryption. You need to deploy a pair of WAN accelerators, one at the source site and one at the target site, and configure them in the replication job settings. This technique can improve the replication speed and efficiency, as well as save network bandwidth and storage space.

•Recommend migrating some of the VMDKs to alternative datastores. This technique can help you to avoid performance degradation and resource contention on the source datastore, by distributing the load and I/O across multiple datastores. You need to use VMware tools or commands, such as Storage vMotion or svmotion, to migrate some of the VMDKs to other datastores that have enough capacity and performance. This technique can improve the replication stability and reliability, as well as reduce the impact on the production environment.

Therefore, based on these techniques, the answer that describes which mitigating techniques might be required is A and C.

To design a solution that meets the requirements for off-site immutable backups for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the options and features that Veeam products and features offer. This will help you to ensure the security and integrity of your backup data, as well as the compatibility and supportability of the cloud provider that does not currently support immutability.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, immutability is a feature that prevents backup files from being deleted or modified by anyone until the specified retention period expires. Immutability can be achieved by using S3 Object Lock or Hardened Repository, which are two different solutions that Veeam Backup & Replication supports.

Based on this definition, the best option to still satisfy the requirements for off-site immutable backups is A. Backup copy to a hardened repository.

This option means that:

•The backup copy is a type of job that allows you to create and maintain copies of your backup data on a secondary backup repository. You can use backup copy jobs to send your backup data off-site, as well as to apply different retention settings and policies.

•The hardened repository is a solution that allows you to add a hardened repository based on a Linux server to your backup infrastructure. You can use hardened repository with Veeam Backup & Replication to make your backups immutable on-premises or off-site.

•The backup copy to a hardened repository can be configured and managed by Veeam Backup & Replication, regardless of the cloud provider that does not currently support immutability. You only need to deploy and connect a Linux server with a hardened repository in the cloud environment, and then use it as a target for your backup copy jobs.

To design a solution that meets the immutability requirement for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider how this constraint affects the other requirements and expectations of the customer. This will help you to avoid any conflicts or inconsistencies that may arise from applying immutability settings to the backup data.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, immutability is a feature that prevents backup files from being deleted or modified by anyone until the specified retention periodexpires. Immutability can be achieved by using S3 Object Lock or Hardened Repository, which are two different solutions that Veeam Backup & Replication supports.

Based on this definition, the requirement that is impacted by the immutability constraint is D. Backup must take advantage of public cloud storage for long-term retention.

This requirement is impacted by the immutability constraint because:

•Public cloud storage is a type of storage that is provided by a third-party service provider over the internet, such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, etc.

•Public cloud storage can be used for long-term retention, which is a policy that defines how long backup data should be kept for compliance or historical purposes, such as months, years, or decades.

•Public cloud storage can also support immutability, which is a feature that prevents backup data from being deleted or modified by anyone until the specified retention period expires, such as days, weeks, or months.

•However, not all public cloud storage providers or services support immutability, or support it in the same way. For example, Amazon S3 supports S3 Object Lock, which allows you to apply a legal hold or a retention period to individual objects or object versions. Microsoft Azure supports Immutable Blob Storage, which allows you to create time-based policies or legal holds for blob containers. Google Cloud supports Bucket Lock, which allows you to lock a bucket and prevent objects from being overwritten or deleted.

•Therefore, the choice of the public cloud storage provider or service may affect the immutability setting and requirement for the backup data. You need to verify and compare the compatibility and supportability of the public cloud storage providers or services with Veeam Backup & Replication and with the customer expectation.

To access encrypted datastores in VMware, you need to use a transport mode that supports encryption. The following transport modes support encryption:

•Network mode with Encryption (NBDSSL): This mode uses an encrypted network connection between the backup proxy and the ESXi host to read and write data from the encrypted datastore. This mode does not require direct access to the datastore, but it can be slower than other modes due to network traffic and encryption overhead2

•Virtual Appliance (HotAdd) mode: This mode uses a virtual backup proxy that runs on an ESXi host and attaches virtual disks of the encrypted VMs to itself using the VMware vSphere API. This mode requires that the backup proxy and the source VMs reside on the same datastore or on datastores that are accessible by the same ESXi host. This mode can offer better performance than network mode, but it can also cause SCSI reservation conflicts if multiple backup proxies access the same datastore simultaneously3

•Direct SMB: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the SMB protocol. This mode requires that the datastore is configured as an SMB share and that the backup proxy has read and write permissions on it. This mode can offer high performance and scalability, but it also requires additional configuration steps and security considerations4

The following transport modes do not support encryption:

•Network (NBD) mode: This mode uses an unencrypted network connection between the backup proxy and the ESXi host, which cannot access encrypted datastores2

•Direct SAN: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the SAN fabric, which cannot decrypt encrypted data5

•Direct NFS: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the NFS protocol, which does not support encryption6

References:

1: Hardened Repository - User Guide for VMware vSphere 2: Network Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 3: Virtual Appliance Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 4: Direct SMB Access Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 5: Direct SAN Access Mode - User Guide forVMware vSphere 6: Direct NFS Access Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere

Thank you for your question. I’m glad to help you with your VMCA 2022 project.?

To design a solution that meets the needs and requirements of Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider the impact and benefit of adding extra proxy servers to your backup infrastructure. This will help you to optimize the performance and efficiency of your backup and restore operations, as well as to prepare for future growth and expansion.

According to the web search results, a proxy server is a component that retrieves data from the source host, processes it and transfers to the backup repository. It also performs data compression, deduplication, encryption, etc. You can deploy backup proxies both in the primary site and in remote sites1.

The immediate result of adding the extra proxy server is A. The time for backup to complete could be reduced.

This result means that:

•The time for backup to complete is a metric that measures how long it takes to perform a backup job from start to finish. It depends on various factors, such as the size and type of data, the backup method and frequency, the network bandwidth and latency, etc.

•Adding an extra proxy server can reduce the time for backup to complete, by distributing the backup workload between available proxy servers. This can improve the backup performance and efficiency, as well as reduce the impact on the production environment.

•Reducing the time for backup to complete can also help you to meet your backup window and recovery point objective (RPO) requirements, as well as to free up more resources for other tasks or jobs.

•The RMAN plugin is a component that integrates Veeam Backup & Replication with Oracle RMAN, which is a native tool for Oracle backup and recovery12.

•The RMAN plugin allows you to use Oracle RMAN commands to back up and restore Oracle databases to Veeam backup repositories, as well as perform log shipping and point-in-time recovery12.

•The RMAN plugin supports Oracle databases running on any supported operating system or hypervisor, as well as physical servers or cloud environments12.

•The RMAN plugin leverages the features and benefits of Veeam Backup & Replication, such as compression, deduplication, encryption, scalability, and reliability12.

To design a disaster recovery solution that meets the requirement of having the replicated virtual workloads data not more than one hour old, you need to consider some of the potential risks and challenges that may affect the service level agreement (SLA) for the offsite disaster recovery aspect of this requirement. This will help you to ensure the availability and reliability of the replication and failover processes, as well as the recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) of the organization.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, one of the potential risks to the SLA for the offsite disaster recovery aspect of this requirement is B. Data change rate.

This risk means that:

•The data change rate is the amount of data that is modified, added, or deleted in a given time period. It is usually measured in percentage or megabytes per hour.

•The data change rate affects the replication performance and efficiency, as it determines how much data needs to be transferred and processed between the source and target sites.

•The data change rate also affects the replication frequency and consistency, as it determines how often and how accurately the replicas are updated and synchronized with the source workloads.

•The data change rate may vary depending on the type and activity of the workloads, such as database, file server, web server, etc. Some workloads may have a high data change rate, while others may have a low data change rate.

•The data change rate may exceed the available bandwidth or storage capacity between the source and target sites, which may result in replication failures, delays, or errors. This may compromise the SLA for the offsite disaster recovery aspect of this requirement, as it may cause the replicated virtual workloads data to be more than one hour old.

This risk has some implications for designing a solution with Veeam products and features, such as:

•The customer or a third-party vendor must monitor and measure the data change rate of the workloads that need to be replicated, as well as the available bandwidth and storage capacity between the source and target sites. This will help to plan and optimize the replication infrastructure, such as the proxy servers, repository servers, WAN accelerators, and failover plans, based on the data change rate.

•The customer or a third-party vendor must configure and adjust the replication settings and policies, such as the replication method, schedule, frequency, retention, compression, deduplication, etc., based on the data change rate. This will help to improve the replication performance and efficiency, as well as to meet the SLA for the offsite disaster recovery aspect of this requirement.

•Virtual machine backup jobs with log shipping enabled allow you to create image-level backups of SQL Server databases and also back up the transaction logs periodically12.

•Scale-out Backup Repository is a logical entity that groups several backup repositories into a single pool of storage, allowing for better backup performance, scalability, and management3.

•Scale-out Backup Repository capacity tier is a feature that allows you to offload older backup files to a public cloud object storage, such as Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage .

The other options are not as effective or efficient, as they either do not use Veeam features, do not offload to object storage, or do not create image-level backups.

References: 1: Transaction Log Shipping - User Guide for VMware vSphere 2: How to Back Up SQL Server Transaction Logs - Veeam 3: Scale-Out Backup Repository - Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide : Capacity Tier - User Guide for VMware vSphere : How to Use Capacity Tier in Veeam - Veeam

To design a solution that meets the backup and replication requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the components that are needed for the on-premises design. This will help you to ensure the performance and reliability of the backup and replication operations, as well as the scalability and manageability of the backup infrastructure.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide1, some of the components that are needed for the on-premises design are:

•Backup server. This is the core component of Veeam Backup & Replication that controls and coordinates backups, replication, recovery verification, and restore tasks. It also manages backup infrastructure components, such as proxy servers, repository servers, WAN accelerators, etc. You need to have a backup server at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide2.

•Backup proxy. This is a component that retrieves data from the source host, processes it and transfers to the backup repository. It also performs data compression, deduplication, encryption, etc. You need to have at least one backup proxy at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide3.

•Backup repository. This is a server where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps backup files, backup copies and metadata of replicated VMs. It can be a Windows or Linux server, a NAS device, a deduplication appliance, etc. You need to have at least one backup repository at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide4.

•Mount server. This is a component that mounts backup files from the backup repository to the backup proxy during restore operations. It also performs data decompression, deduplication, decryption, etc. You need to have a mount server at each site where you plan to perform restores, as recommended by the best practice guide5.

•Gateway server. This is a component that acts as a data mover between the backup proxy and the backup repository when they are located in different sites or networks. It also performs data encryption and decryption for secure data transfer. You need to have a gateway server at each site where you have a backup repository that is accessed by a remote backup proxy, as recommended by the best practice guide.

Therefore, based on these components, the answer that describes which components are needed for the on-premises design is D. Backup server, backup proxy, backup repository, mount server, gateway server.

To design a solution that meets the virtual infrastructure requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to collect some information during the discovery phase. This information will help you to understand the configuration and performance of the VMware clusters, the size and type of the data, and the backup and recovery objectives.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, some of the information related to the virtual infrastructure that is missing and must be collected during the discovery phase are:

•Local area network speed. This information will help you to determine the network bandwidth and throughput that are available for backup and replication traffic, as well as the impact of backup and replication activities on the network performance and latency.

•Size of the source data set. This information will help you to estimate the backup storage requirements, as well as the backup compression and deduplication ratios, based on the size and type of the data.

Therefore, the correct answer is A and D.

The Veeam backup method that should be used for the virtualized stock trading application is to separate the virtual machine into its own job and enable application aware processing. This method allows Veeam Backup & Replication to create transactionally consistent backups of the application, by quiescing the application and creating a snapshot of its data1. This ensures that the application can be restored to a working state, without data loss or corruption. The other options are either not suitable for the application (option A, as Veeam agent is designed for physical machines or cloud instances2), not sufficient for the application (option C, as pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts do not guarantee transactional consistency3), or not related to the backup method (option D, as replication is a different process from backup). References: Application-Aware Processing, Veeam Agent Management, Pre-Freeze and Post-Thaw Scripts, [Replication].

The retention requirement for this project is 12 weekly backups, six monthly backups and seven yearly backups. This is stated in the business requirements section of the scenario, where it says “To meet regulatory requirements, backups must be retained for four years.” This implies that the backup data must be archived for long-term retention, and the Veeam solution supports the 3-2-1 rule, which means having three copies of data, on two different types of media, with one copy off-site1. The other options are not retention requirements, but rather technical requirements or design choices, such as having on-premises backups on hardened repositories, having at least one copy of data on-premises, or having 14 daily backups on-site. References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 9; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 4.

Snapshot stun is a phenomenon that occurs when a VMware snapshot is removed and the virtual machine (VM) experiences a temporary freeze or performance degradation1. This can affect the availability and consistency of mission critical applications running on the VM.

To avoid snapshot stun, Veeam Backup & Replication offers several options for backing up Linux VMs, such as backup from storage snapshots, direct SAN access, or hot-add2. However, based on the business requirements, the best option is to run pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts before backing up the workload.

Pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts are custom scripts that you can configure to run on the Linux VM before and after the snapshot is taken. The pre-freeze script can be used to quiesce the application and flush its data to disk, ensuring a consistent backup. The post-thaw script can be used to resume the application and perform any necessary cleanup actions3.

By using pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts, you can achieve application consistency and minimize the impact of snapshot stun on the Linux VM. You can use the Veeam Backup & Replication user interface or the Veeam PowerShell snap-in to configure the scripts for the backup job3.

You can find more information about pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts and how to use them in the following resources:

• Pre-Freeze and Post-Thaw Scripts
• Best Practice for Backing Up Linux VMs
• Snapshot Stun Issue

The best option to still satisfy the requirement for offsite, immutable or air gapped backups if the cloud provider selected for archive storage does not support immutability is to set up Scale-out Backup Repository capacity tier to a different cloud provider than the archive tier. Scale-out Backup Repository is a logical entity that groups several backup repositories into a single pool of storage, and allows to move backup files between performance and capacity tiers1. The capacity tier can be configured to use Amazon S3 or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, which support Object Lock feature for immutability2. By using a different cloud provider for the capacity tier than the archive tier, the backup data can be stored in two separate locations, with one copy being immutable or air gapped. The other options are either not feasible (option A, as the scenario does not mention another site), not secure (option C, as the backup data can still be accessed or modified when the repository is online), or not offsite (option D, as the scenario requires a copy of backup data in a public cloud). References: Scale-out Backup Repository, Object Storage Immutability.

The requirement C is vague and needs more clarification from the customer. It does not specify which public cloud provider, service, or storage tier should be used for the backup data. It also does not indicate how the backup data should be transferred, secured, or managed in the public cloud. The other requirements are more clear and specific, and can be met with the Veeam solution features and best practices. References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 9; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 6.

The additional information that is necessary for sizing the backup solution and must be gathered during further discovery are the amount of virtual machines to be protected and the total amount of production storage provisioned space. These metrics are used to calculate the backup storage requirements, the backup proxy and transporter resources, and the backup job configuration. The other options are either not relevant for sizing the backup solution (repository storage file system, replication schedule) or already provided in the scenario (the available bandwidth per site). References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 10; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Designcourse, module 3.

The best way to deploy the proxies for the remote office is to deploy eight virtual proxies with eight CPUs and 16 GB of RAM each. This option allows to leverage the Virtual appliance (Hot-Add) mode, which is the recommended transport mode for VSAN storage1. Virtual appliance mode enables LAN-free data transfer between the source datastore and the proxy, as well as load balancing and fault tolerance across multiple proxies2. The other options are either not optimal (option A and B, as physical proxies require LAN or SAN connection to access the source data, which may impact the networkperformance and backup SLAs3) or not supported (option C, as virtual proxies with more than eight CPUs are not compatible with Virtual appliance mode). References: Transport Modes, Virtual Appliance Mode, Direct Storage Access Mode, [Requirements and Limitations for VMware Backup Proxies].

If you separated the large VMDKs into their own backup jobs, you would be creating more manual work for the backup administrator, who would have to configure and maintain multiple jobs for the same group of VMs. This would go against the requirement of reducing administrative overhead by using dynamic scoping.

Dynamic scoping is a feature of Veeam Backup & Replication that allows you to automatically include or exclude VMs from backup jobs based on tags, attributes, or policies1. For example, you can use VMware tags to assign a backup policy to a VM, and then use the tag as a filter in the backup job. This way, any VM with that tag will be automatically added to the backup job, and any VM without that tag will be automatically excluded. This simplifies the backup management and ensures that all VMs are protected according to their assigned policy.

For large VMDKs with high I/O, you can use alternative backup methods to avoid performance impact and stuns, such as storage snapshots, direct SAN access, or hot-add2. You can also use different storage optimization options to balance the deduplication ratio and the backup file size3. These options can be configured within the same backup job, without the need to separate the large VMDKs.

You can find more information about dynamic scoping and backup methods for large VMDKs in the following resources:

• How to Use Dynamic Scoping in Veeam Backup & Replication
• Backing up large vmdks (~12 TB)
• Backup strategies for a large VM

The information that is still needed for a complete architectural design is how often backups are required for silver machines. This is not stated in the technical requirements, where only the recovery time objective and recovery point objective are given for the silver tier. The backup frequency affects the backup storage consumption, the backup window, and the restore point granularity. The other options are either already provided in the technical requirements (daily backup retention, amount of time required for a successful restore for gold machine) or not relevant for the architectural design (RMAN configuration guidelines). References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 10; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 4.

Backup from Storage Snapshots and Direct NFS are the preferred processing modes for NFS datastores, as they offer the best performance and reliability for backup and restore operations12.

Backup from Storage Snapshots is a feature of Veeam Backup & Replication that leverages the native snapshot capabilities of the storage system to create a consistent point-in-time copy of the VM data. Veeam Backup & Replication then reads data directly from the storage snapshot, bypassing the ESXi host and reducing the impact on the production environment3. Backup from Storage Snapshots is supported for NFS datastores on NetApp, Nimble, Dell EMC, HPE, and Pure Storage systems4.

Direct NFS is a proprietary transport mode of Veeam Backup & Replication that uses a native NFS client deployed on the backup proxy to read and write data directly from and to the NFS datastore. Veeam Backup & Replication also bypasses the ESXi host and reduces the load on the production environment. Direct NFS is supported for NFS datastores on any storage system that supports NFS version 3 or 4.1.

The other options are not preferred because:

• B) Network (NBD) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to communicate with the ESXi host over the network. This mode produces additional load on the ESXi host and the network, and may result in slower backup and restore performance.
• C) Virtual Appliance (HotAdd) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to attach the disks of the processed VM to the backup proxy VM. This mode also produces additional load on the ESXi host and the network, and may cause issues with disk alignment or SCSI controller limitations.
• D) Network mode with Encryption (NBDSSL) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to communicate with the ESXi host over the network with SSL encryption. This mode provides an extra layer of security, but also adds more overhead and reduces the backup and restore performance.

You can find more information about the processing modes and how to choose the best one for your environment in the following resources:

• Transport Modes
• Selecting a Transport Mode
• Backup from Storage Snapshots
• Storage Systems Supported for Backup from Storage Snapshots
• [Direct NFS Access]
• [Network Mode]
• [Virtual Appliance Mode]
• [Network Mode with Encryption]