Source
r/Veeam•
Rodrigoke

Using veeam to archive virtual machines

Hi all,

We are looking into using veeam to backup our live virtual machines, but we also have machines that are “stored” in our cluster.

We might need to run those machines once every few years.

So I want to use veeam to archive those machines and then delete them from our cluster (don’t worry, they aren’t production machines). Is this possible and can we still restore those machines from our veeam backup server even if they are deleted from our cluster?

I assume so since that’s the point of a backup solution but I couldn’t find any documentation about it.

Thank you for your answers.

Posted Sep 27, 2022, 2:03 AM UTC

54
adjacentkeyturkeyVeeam Mod•

VeeamZip is meant for this. It will take a one time full backup of the vm and then you can instruct veeam during this to delete it x days months or never.

You can delete the vm from vsphere after this is done if you wanted. Copy this veeamzip vbk to whatever storage you want or leave it on the veeam repo etc. https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/veeamzip.html?ver=110

15
RodrigokeOP•

Thanks for this. I’ve got two ways of saving them now. Great!

1
nibbles200•

I mean you certainly can. In my own personal lab I sorta do this. I’ll build a machine for the lane and when I’m done I’ll back it up and delete. Some times I’ll restore it a while later and maybe even a couple times and rename ad like a fast clone. If I only need it for a quick test I won’t even restore it but do a live restore where it runs from backup. The down side is they never get updated and just sleep in backup storage.

Just realize it’s not technically backed up of it only resides in one location, so maybe a copy job and ship it to a second location?

1
RodrigokeOP•

Thank you for your information :)

1