As I have started to use XFS in bite-size deployments to gain experience with it I wanted to write up some of the toolings I found to manage XFS file systems. Here’s how to check/repair/defragment an XFS volume.
My main use case for XFS volumes is on hardened Linux repositories with immutability to use with Veeam Backup & Replication v11 and higher. It’s handy to be able to find out if XFS needs repairing and if they do, repair them. Another consideration is fragmentation. You can also check that and defrag the volume.
Check XFS Volume and repair it
xfs_repair is the tool you need. You can both check if a volume needs repair and actually repair it with the same tool. Note that the use of xfs_check has been depreciated or is not even available (anymore).
To work with xfs_repair you have to unmount the filesystem, so there will be downtime. Plan for a maintenance window.
To check the file system use the -n switch
sudo xfs_repair -n /dev/sdc
Check, repair and defragment an XFS volumea dry run with xfs_repair -n
There is nothing much to do but we’ll now let’s run the repair.
sudo xfs_repair /dev/sdc
Repairing an XFS file system
The output is similar as for the check we did for anything to repair is basically a dry run of what will be done. In this case, nothing.
Now, don’t forget to mount the file system again!
sudo mount /dev/sdc /mnt/veeamsfxrepo01-02
Check a volume for fragmentation and defrag it
Want to check the fragmentation of an XFS volume? You can but again, with xfs_db. The file system has to be unmounted for that or you will get the error xfs_db: can’t determine device size. To check for fragmentation run the following command against the storage device /file system.
sudo xfs_db -c frag -r /dev/sdc
A lab simulation of sudo xfs_db -c frag -r /dev/sdc – Yeah know it’s meaningless 😉
Cool, now we know that we can defrag it online. For that we use xfs_fsr.
xfs_fsr /devsdc /mnt/veeamxfsrepo01-02
There is nothing to do in our example
xfs_scrub – the experimental tool
xfs_scrub is a more recent addition but the program is still experimental. The good news is it will check and repair a mounted XFS filesystem. At least it sounds promising, right? It does, but it doesn’t work (Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS).
No joy – still a confirmed bug – not assigned yet, importance undecided. Not yet my friends.
Conclusion
That’s it. I hope this helps you when you decide to take XFS for a spin for your storage needs knowing a bit more about the tooling. As said, for me, the main use case is hardened Linux repositories with immutability to use with Veeam Backup & Replication v11. In a Hyper-V environment of course.
A File-Level Restore in a hardened environment can trip you up. In Veeam Backup & Replication the ability to do file-level restores from virtual machine backups is a handy option to have. In secured environments with an isolated and protected Veeam backup fabric, this is not always a straightforward or fast process. Let’s look at this and make some suggestions for a solution or workarounds.
The Veeam Backup browser for File-Level Restores
Veeam File-Level Restore in a hardened environment
Nowadays, it is a common best practice that the Veeam Backup & Replication environment is isolated and independent from the fabrics it protects. It is even more than a best practice and ransomware educated many of us fast and hard on the need for this.
In such an environment every server in the Veeam backup fabric solution is isolated, with their own credentials and not joined or in any way dependent on the environment it is protecting. Dedicated accounts are used to run the actual backup jobs and these are not used for normal administrative or operational tasks.
The majority of Veeam functionality works just fine in such an environment. But there are some things that need to be addressed. One such thing is a file-level restore (FLR). In a secured and isolated environment, an FLR job cannot leverage admin shares to gain access to the virtual machine to where files are being restored or access the data in the backup. To work around this Veeam can leverage PowerShell Direct by which it can securely restore the files into the virtual machine anyway.
But leveraging PowerShell Direct comes at the cost of speed. 7 MB/s is okay for a small number of smaller files. It becomes frustratingly slow when it comes to restoring many and larger files. Minutes turn into hours. In some cases, this just won’t do. In our case, the DBA who needed to do the database restore was not happy and the developers waiting for the restored database were not overly pleased either.
So what other options do we have?
Set up a secured file share in the protected environment
Below we will discuss the other options you have for a File-Level Restore in a hardened environment via FLR in Veeam Backup & Recovery. But first, we prepare a landing zone in the secured environment where we can copy restored files to. For this, we set up a restore share in the protected environment where a few admins that are responsible for backup and restores can write to. No one else can enumerate, read, or write to that share. When a file gets restored there they can copy it over to where the people that need it can access it. This helps protect and limit access to restored files to just the people that need to get to it. The accounts used to access that share from the isolated backup environment do not get admin permissions on the system where that share resides or anywhere else.
Providing a restore share in the protected environment is safe. You only allow certain admins to have access to it, no one else. Since the less trusted environment (the one we protect) allows access from a more secure environment (the backup environment) this does not expose the backup environment to extra danger. At no point does this allow any access to the backup environment from the protected environment.
Use the FLR wizard to copy the files
You can use the FLR wizard to copy the file locally in the secured Veeam backup environment.
File-Level Restore in a hardened environmentFLR, copy the file to restore to a local folder
From there you can copy it to the restore share in the protected environment. This is very fast as nothing is. On our network we get 230 MB/s.
But what if you don’t have the space for that locally? Not everyone can have a large local restore disk onWould it not be handy to copy it to restore share in the protected environment directly? Well yes, you can try in the wizard and it will ask for the credentials to access the file share.
But it will fail to read and restore the backups but this will fail with an “Access is denied” error.
You could work around it if you use the account VBR uses to actually make the backups. But that won’t do. For one those credentials should be guarded and not use by anything or anyone but VBR. Secondly, it doesn’t work anyway.
So are you out of luck? The good news is no, you are not, so read on!
Copy the files directly from the VeeamFLR mountpoint
If you don’t have the space to restore the file locally in the secure backup environment, there is another trick. When you look at the restore log you will see what the mount server is. That is the node where you can find the C:\VeeamFLR folder, which is where the content of the virtual Machine VHDX volumes is being mounted. This means that on that node you can navigate to the folder or files you want to restore.
Copy the files directly from the VeeamFLR mountpoint
Select the ones you want to recover and just copy them. Navigate to restore share in the protected environment. You just need to provide the credentials of the dedicated account with write access to that share. Those are the only rights you need on that share. The copy is again fast at 230 MB/s. That is a lot better than 7MB/s.
There is an issue with this, however. In this scenario, you need access to the server where the volumes of the virtual machine get mounted. Normally that would be the local repository where the backup files reside and guess what, you lock these down as much as possible and don’t log on to them unless needed. You could specify another, but then it needs to be a server where you have access to and it copies the data over the network, which is slower. With 10Gbps or more that’s not an issue but with 1Gbps, it can take a while with a lot of large files. Can we fix this? Yes. with Mount to Console!
Mount to Console to the rescue
But hey, this would not be Veeam if they did not have yet another option on their sleeve! You can use the Mount to Console button on the ribbon of the Veeam Backup browser to create an extra mount point on your VBR console server. From here you can copy the files to the restore file share in the protected environment a lot faster as well. All you need for this is a local user (non-administrator account) with the Veeam Restore Operator role.
Mount to console to the rescueEt voila, you can browse the files even if you don’t have space on your console server
Veeam Enterprise Manager addresses the challenges we worked around here. But you’ll need Enterprise (plus) to get full-featured use of that. It is nice as it takes care of the above scenario and you can have restore rights assigned to people without compromising your backup environments operational security. So, yes, use Enterprise Manager when possible. If not, see the above workarounds for other options.
Conclusion
Having some insights into how Veeam Backup & Replication works can be in handy at times. It also helps if you can think a bit outside the box and act on those insights to come up with some alternatives or workarounds. This is exactly what we did here with great results. The DBA could do his restores faster while the devs have the version of the database they needed. Do note that the correct answer lies in Veeam Enterprise manager, but lacking that. You now have some options. I hope these insights into a File-Level Restore in a hardened environment help you out someday.
I am attending Veeam Live 2020 from the comfort of my home this year. I can stay safe and still learn, connect, and investigate new technologies and options.
This works for me 🙂
Allow me to invite you Veeam Live 2020. This year the content focus area is on “Cloud Data Best Practices”. The online event takes place on October the 20th 2020 for a full day. Veeam is gathering its global talent pool to present at this event. That talent is both internal to Veeam as well as external. Some of my fellow Veeam Vanguards are presenting and sharing their expertise.
With names like Anton Gostev, Danny Allen, Rick Vanover, Michael Cade, Anthony Spiteri, Dave Kawula, Andrew Zhelezko, Dmitry Kniazez, David Hill, Karinne Bessette, Kirsten Stoner, Dave Russel Melissa Palmer, Sander Berkouwer, Drew J. Como and so many others, the experience and expertise to share are second to none. Many industry and customer experts are also joining in to share their insights.
As Veeam states
At Veeam Live, you’ll gain data management guidance you can activate today. You’ll learn how to up your data protection game across your enterprise, connect with like-minded professionals, set the strategy right for your organization, and be part of the future of Cloud Data Management™.”
Veeam Live 2020 October 2020 – Join for free
So no matter what level you are at or what part you play in managing and safeguarding the data of your organization there are things to explore and learn.
Topics
Topics to be discussed are Multi-Cloud Data Management, AWS- and Azure-Native Backup, Office 365 Backup, Ransomware Best Practices, Kubernetes Backup and App Mobility. Check out the full agenda to find the topics and sessions that are of most interest to you.
On all those subjects Veeam is actively developing and releasing new capabilities. Just think about their recent acquisition of Kasten. They are also sharing information about Veeam Backup & Replication V11 which is currently in Beta.
Get your questions answerd
Do you want to find out how you can make your solutions more efficient? Need to figure out the biggest threats and opportunities there are in today’s technical, business, and security landscape? Want to learn what new technologies you need to keep an eye on and learn about? Is the evergrowing ransomware threat keeping you awake at night?
Join us from the comfort of your own (home) office or couch. It all works. Just bring an open mind, a willingness to listen and learn. The interesting thing about Veeam is that they sell solutions that cater to real, existing, and emerging needs of their (potential) customers. They keep it real and have a tradition of explaining why they develop and bring their solutions and offerings to the market. It makes for educational and insightful sessions and events.
So now you know the secret of how I stay on top of things in the data protection and management world. I listen. Not the sound of crickets (that’s for vacations) but to people that are smart, experienced, and have a proven track record of delivering value in a very competitive and ever-changing landscape. So, now you also know how to stay up to speed, all that is left to do is register today. You are very welcome.
Boring as it might be, reading your End User License Agreements can be useful. That is no different for the Veeam Community Editions and the Veeam EULA. The EULA came up recently when discussing Veeam services an IT Service business can offer to its clients.
It includes support for up to 10 Instance licenses and allows you to protect any combination of physical machines, virtual machines, and cloud workloads for free. You get the standard edition backup functionality. Veeam also offers community editions of Veeam ONE™ and Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365. Cool!
The value for you
This is an awesome offering. It helps people with small environments and small budgets out big time. They get top-notch data protection for free, Not just that, they get all the goodness of the well known Veeam data portability, ease of recovery, reliability, and support. Then there are the forums, where you’ll find many helpful and skilled eyes. It is a very active community.
The value for Veeam
First of all, Veeam is smart. They put their products into as many hands as possible. When that happens people get to use, learn, know, and love the products. That leads to sales when 10 instances just don’t cut it anymore. It also leads to a lot of feedback and insights. A lot of the people using it are early adopters and IT professionals. This means that they use the products and if they find issues Veeam gets telemetry and early insights to potential bugs. This helps them deal with then proactively before the big enterprises upgrade as that usually takes a bit longer.
Secondly, Veeam is community-minded. And that is not just lip service, they act on it. I know this first hand and you will to when you experience it. The community editions of their products are just one example of that.
As mentioned, you get support. Within reason, just like with paid support the Veeam support engineers will not do implementations for you. So just doing “click, click next” like a baffling buffoon won’t get you far. Support is not meant to replace your own skills or provide free IT designs and implementations. That work is for you. The support with the community editions is about finding and fixing issues with the product. That’s very valuable for Veeam as early adopters who run into issues help surface those in time to address for the slower moving customers.
Do It Yourself
The Veeam Community Editions EULA boils down to the fact that it is a Do It Yourself (DIY) arrangement.
As a hobbyist, student, enthusiast, employee who wants to learn more about Veeam products or leverage them to protect a company or non-profit workloads you can do that up to the 10 free licenses. It is perfectly legal to do so. But as it is DIY, you cannot hire someone to do this for you. Likewise as an IT consultant. contractor or freelancer, solo or with a company, you cannot offer paid services around Community Edition. For that, they have different licensing options. You can read up on this in the EULA.
Conclusion
The rules around Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition are simple. As an end-user (hobbyist, employee, business) you get most of the famous Veeam capabilities and benefits for free up to 10 instances. Yes, you can use this in production and you get free basic support from Veeam. Then there are the forums, which offer a wealth of insights and where many helpful eyes can assist you. For this to be legal you have to implement and maintain the community editions yourself. You cannot hire people to do it for you. As an IT service company, no matter what the size or nature, you cannot offer commercial services and build a business model around the Veeam Community Editions. That’s what the commercial versions and partnerships are for. As far as EULA’s go, that is crystal clear.
