Learn how to set up Direct NFS Access for Veeam Backups and its many benefits. Our NFS Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to Set Up Direct NFS Access for Veeam Backups

Did you know that when it comes to backing up virtual machines stored on NFS data stores, choosing the right transport mode can make a huge difference in performance and efficiency?

This is why our Experts recommend Direct NFS access for Veeam Backup & Replication. It offers an effective alternative to the traditional Network mode.

Today, we will look at how Direct NFS access works, its benefits, and how to set it up in our environment.

An Overview:

1. The Problem with Network Mode
2. What is Direct NFS Access
3. Key Features of Direct NFS Access  
4. Why Choose Direct NFS Access
5. How to Set Up Direct NFS Access
6. Limitations of Direct NFS access
7. How to Configure Direct NFS Access
8. Monitoring Direct NFS Access
9. Performance Benefits

The Problem with Network Mode

Before we begin, let’s look at the problem with Network Mode.

Veeam Backup & Replication uses VMware VDDK to communicate with the ESXi host and process VM data in network mode. This method introduces an additional load on the ESXi host, which can impact its performance and the overall efficiency of the backup operations.

What is Direct NFS Access

Direct NFS Access is a transport mode used in Veeam Backup & Replication for efficiently backing up and replicating virtual machines stored on NFS datastores. This is done by deploying a native NFS client on the Veeam backup proxy.

This then handles the data transfer between the NFS datastore and the backup repository. This helps reduce the load on the ESXi host and improves backup and replication performance.

Key Features of Direct NFS Access

• By bypassing the ESXi host, Direct NFS Access reduces the processing load on the host. This allows it to perform other critical tasks without being burdened by backup operations.
• Directly accessing the NFS datastores enhances I/O throughput, and leads to faster backup and replication processes compared to other modes, such as Network mode.
• Since the ESXi host is not involved in data transfer, the impact on the host’s performance is minimized.
• Direct NFS Access supports environments using NFS versions 3 and 4.1, making it suitable for a wide range of configurations.

Why Choose Direct NFS Access

Direct NFS access mode offers a more efficient approach by allowing Veeam Backup & Replication to bypass the ESXi host entirely. Instead, it reads and writes data directly from and to NFS datastores using its native NFS client on the VMware backup proxy. This reduces the load on the ESXi host while keeping data traffic within the LAN.

We can use Direct NFS for different operations involving the VMware backup proxy, like:

• Backup
• Replication
• Quick migration
• VM copy
• Entire VM restore
• VM disk restore
• Replica failback

How to Set Up Direct NFS Access

In order to implement Direct NFS access, we have to meet these conditions:

• Direct NFS access supports NFS versions 3 and 4.1 within VMware vSphere environments. So check the versions before setting up Direct NFS access.
• The VMware backup proxy needs access to the NFS datastores containing the VM disks.
• If NFS volumes are mounted on the ESXi host using names instead of IP addresses, ensure these names are resolvable by DNS from the VMware backup proxy.

Limitations of Direct NFS access

It’s important to be aware of certain limitations with Direct NFS access:

• Veeam cannot parse delta disks in Direct NFS access mode. Hence:
  • VMs with at least one snapshot cannot use Direct NFS access.
  • During the first session of a replication job, Direct NFS is used. Subsequent sessions will require another transport mode due to snapshots.
• If enabled, Veeam will not use Direct NFS for running Microsoft Windows VMs with VMware Tools installed.
• VMs with disks that cannot be processed in Direct NFS access mode will default to Network transport mode.

How to Configure Direct NFS Access

To set up Direct NFS access, follow these steps:

1. First, go to the Proxies section in the Veeam Backup & Replication interface.
2. Then, right-click the proxy you wish to configure and select Properties.
3. Under Transport Mode, select Automatic Selection. This allows the proxy to choose the best transport mode, defaulting to Direct NFS if applicable.
4. Also, make sure that the failover to Network mode is enabled to prevent backup job failures if Direct NFS is unavailable.
5. In the job settings, select Automatic Selection for the proxy. This makes sure the best proxy is used for backups and Direct NFS.
6. If not all proxies have access to NFS storage, we have to make sure the correct proxy with access and permissions is selected for specific jobs.

Monitoring Direct NFS Access

Furthermore, we can verify if backups are using Direct NFS access by checking the job log. All we have to do is look for these transport modes:

• [nfs] – Direct NFS Access mode.
• [san] – iSCSI and Fibre Channel Mode (not applicable for virtual disks on NFS storage).
• [nbd] – Network Block Device Mode.
• [hotadd] – Virtual Appliance Mode.

These modes appear in the job log after each virtual disk backup.

Performance Benefits

Implementing Direct NFS access can boost our backup performance by:

• Reducing the time a VMware snapshot remains open during backup or replication.
• Minimizing the time required for additional steps, such as mounting and dismounting proxy disks with HotAdd.
• Increasing I/O throughput across all job types.

Direct NFS access is particularly useful for environments using NetApp storage, and Enterprise Plus installations can leverage backup from storage snapshots.

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Conclusion

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to set up Direct NFS Access for Veeam Backups and its many benefits.