Create and Manage VBA Jobs in the Console

Create local jobs

To configure Veeam Backup Agent, you can log into the Service Provider Console from any computer. Log in with your Reseller account.

Select Backup Jobs on the left side of the console. Tick the box next to the desired machine and click +Create Job.

The Agent Jobs page loads, choose create a new job.

Give it a name.

Depending on what type of computer you’re backing up, chose the operation mode.

You may choose between the different backup modes, the default and recommended is to backup the entire computer.

In case, you are backing up to a local storage, choose the Volume level backup and exclude the drive where you store your backups.

Choose the repository you want to use. 

Local Storage

To save disk space, reduce the number of restore points to less than 14 in the Backup Resources -> Retention Policy section.

Shared folder

Advanced settings

Click on Advanced settings

In case you have plenty of space, you can create synthetic full backups every week. It reduces the time required for a restore. However, the default backup method (for using the least possible space) is the forever forward incremental method. In this method, periodic full backups (synthetic or active) is not created, you only have 1 full backup file and many increments. 

On the Storage-level Corruption Guard tab tick in Perform backup files health check. 

On the Storage tab, you can choose the compression level. The higher the compression level, the greater load is on the source computers CPUs, but the backup sizes become smaller. Choose the one appropriate to your scenario.

Under storage optimization choose the appropriate settings depending on the destination of your backups. Review the table here to get more information.

Enable encryption if it is required by the customer. 

Caution: store the password securely because it will be needed in case of a restore. If you lose it, we cannot recover it.

Click Apply when all the required configurations are done.

GFS - Optional

Use the GFS retention policy, if you need to store some backup files for a longer time (e.g. for months / a year).

Under the Retention policy section of the wizard: tick in Keep some periodic full backups longer for archival purposes. These backups are created weekly / monthly / yearly - and they have a different retention policy compared to the one you defined (e.g. a GFS yearly backup is kept for a year, while the normal daily backups are kept for the set retention time e.g. here it's 7 days).

Click configure, and choose the settings that the customer needs.

Important: always use periodic full backups (synthetic or active) if you want to use GFS retention!

Guest Processing

For a server running a database, you can truncate logs by enabling application-aware processing.

Caution: use this option ONLY if you are very sure of what you are doing. Using both Veeam SQL backup and native SQL backups will render both of those backups useless! More on SQL backups here. Let us know if you need help in this, we are happy to assist.

Schedule

To change when a backup job starts automatically, navigate to Schedule. Set the time and options for automatic retries.

If you need to use a backup window i.e. the backups can run during specific times e.g. only at night, tick in Terminate the job if it exceeds allowed backup window

Click on Window...

Mark the times when you don't want the job to run > if the small squares are grayed out, it means the job won't run during those times.

Click Apply

Click Next to review the summary.

Click Finish when ready. Finally, click Start to begin the backup job for the selected machine.

The console will show a progress bar, but you can also track the progress and status on the machine you are backing up. Open Veeam Agent Control Panel from the system tray or start menu to see the details. All current and future backups will appear in the Veeam Agent Control Panel.

 

Create a backup job to the cloud (to the VCC server of the SP)

To configure Veeam Backup Agent, you can log into the Service Provider Console from any computer.

Select Backup Jobs on the left side of the console. Tick the box next to the desired machine and click +Create Job.

The Agent Jobs page loads, choose create a new job.

Give it a name.

Depending on what type of computer you’re backing up, choose the operation mode.

You may choose between the different backup modes, the default and recommended is to backup the entire computer.

In case you have backups on a local storage, choose Volume level backup and exclude the drive that stores the local backups!

Choose Veeam Cloud Connect repository

Choose the available repository.

Click on Advanced settings

Advanced settings

Click on Advanced settings

In case you have plenty of space, you can create synthetic full backups every week. It reduces the time required for a restore. However, the default backup method (for using the least possible space) is the forever forward incremental method. In this method, periodic full backups (synthetic or active) is not created, you only have 1 full backup file and many increments. 

On the Storage-level Corruption Guard tab tick in Perform backup files health check. 

On the Storage tab, you can choose the compression level. The higher the compression level, the greater load is on the source computers CPUs, but the backup sizes become smaller. Choose the one appropriate to your scenario.

Under storage optimization choose the appropriate settings depending on the destination of your backups. Review the table here to get more information.

Enable encryption if it is required by the customer. 

Caution: store the password securely because it will be needed in case of a restore. If you lose it, we cannot recover it.

Click Apply when all the required configurations are done.

GFS - Optional

Use the GFS retention policy, if you need to store some backup files for a longer time (e.g. for months / a year).

Under the Retention policy section of the wizard: tick in Keep some periodic full backups longer for archival purposes. These backups are created weekly / monthly / yearly - and they have a different retention policy compared to the one you defined (e.g. a GFS yearly backup is kept for a year, while the normal daily backups are kept for the set retention time e.g. here it's 7 days).

Click configure, and choose the settings that the customer needs.

Important: always use periodic full backups (synthetic or active) if you want to use GFS retention!

Provide the credentials that you've previously set up for the customer in the Console.

Tick in "Enable backup cache" if you have enough storage on the local side. Local cache is used if connection to the cloud repository cannot be made. In that case, a local backup is created first, and then it is transported to the cloud storage when the connection can be established.

For a server running a database, you can truncate logs by enabling application-aware processing.

Caution: use this option ONLY if you are very sure of what you are doing. Using both Veeam SQL backup and native SQL backups will render both of those backups useless! More on SQL backups here. Let us know if you need help in this, we are happy to assist.

To change when a backup job starts automatically, navigate to Schedule. Set the time and options for automatic retries.

Backup Window

If you need to use a backup window i.e. the backups can run during specific times e.g. only at night, use the Backup Window option.

Caution: if you set a tight backup window for your cloud backup (e.g. only a few hours), it may never finish. If you have a lower bandwidth, instead of a backup window, set up network throttling.

Tick in Terminate the job if it exceeds allowed backup window

Click on Window...

Mark the times when you don't want the job to run > if the small squares are grayed out, it means the job won't run during those times.

Click Apply

Click Next to review the summary.

Click Finish when ready. Finally, click Start to begin the backup job for the selected machine.

The console will show a progress bar, but you can also track the progress and status on the machine you are backing up. Open Veeam Agent Control Panel from the system tray or start menu to see the details. All current and future backups will appear in the Veeam Agent Control Panel.

Important for PC users: in order to have a successful first full backup of your machine, the computer needs to remain running as long as the first backup job is not finished! If you turn it off for the night, the cloud backup will never be successful.