Veeam vPower NFS is used when performing instant recovery from a Veeam backup file and allows Veeam to present a compressed backup file to your ESXi host as a regular VMDK.
VPower technology allows you to perform the following functions:
- Recovery Overview
- Instant recovery VM
- Immediate recovery of a virtual machine disk
- Prepared reconstruction
- Universal Recovery of Application Elements (U-AIR)
- Restore at file level with multiple operating systems
The key element of vPower technology is the vPower NFS service. The vPower NFS service is a Microsoft Windows service that runs on a Microsoft Windows computer and allows that computer to act as an NFS server.
Veeam Backup & Replication creates a special directory on the vPower NFS server, the vPower NFS data warehouse. When you run a VMDK or disk of a virtual machine from backup, Veeam Backup & Replication “publishes” the VMDK files of the virtual machine from backup to the vPower NFS data warehouse. Technically, Veeam Backup & Replication simulates the presence of VMDK files in a vPower NFS data warehouse. The VMDK files themselves are still in the backup file in the backup repository.
The vPower NFS data repository is then mounted on the ESXi host. As a result, the ESXi host can “see” virtual machine images backed up by the vPower NFS data repository and work with them in the same way as with regular VMDK files. Emulated VMDK files act as pointers to real VMDK files in a backup in the backup repository.
Table of Contents:
Location of the vPower NFS Server
If you store backups in a Microsoft Windows backup repository, it is highly recommended to enable vPower NFS server in this backup repository. In this case Veeam Backup & Replication can establish a direct connection between the backup repository and ESXi where the vPower NFS data warehouse is mounted.
Veeam vPower NFS can also run on any Microsoft Windows server in the backup infrastructure, including the backup server itself. In this case, however, the performance of the recovery check may degrade. The connection between ESXi host and backup repository is divided into two parts:
From ESXi host to vPower NFS server.
From vPower NFS server to backup repository
Specify Data Locations
The Data Location wizard step is available if you have manually configured the installation options.
You can specify where to store the record cache and index data.
[For VMware environments] In the Write cache for immediate recovery section, specify the path to the IR cache folder. The IR Cache folder stores the record cache for computers that run during recovery verification or backup operations. Make sure that you have at least 10 GB of free space to store the cache record.
By default, the Installation Wizard creates an IR cache folder on a volume with maximum free space, for example. B. C: \ ProgramData \ Veeam \ Backup \ IRCache.
You do not need to configure this data location for Microsoft Hyper-V environments.
In the “Guest file system directory” section, specify the path to the folder where the index files will be stored.
By default, the installation wizard creates a VBRCatalog folder on a volume with maximum free space, for example. For example: C: \ VBRCatalog.
How to Change the vPower NFS Path
- Immediate recovery is already performed on the server listed below, so C: already has enough disk space, and D:, E: and G: has a lot of free space. Therefore we will move the vPower NFS E : path.
- Open Veeam Backup and select “Backup infrastructure” from the menu on the left. Then select the default backup repositories, right-click on the default backup repositories and select “Properties”.
- The “Modify Backup Repository” dialog box will open.
- On the left, select the vPower NFS option.
- In the “Folder” field enter vPower NFS or go to the new path.
- This dialog box will appear when Veeam detects an existing vPower NFS installation.
- When you are done, click the “Finish” button.