Veeam Backup & Replication is a software program for backup, replication, and recovery of VMware vCloud Director virtual machines.

Integrating BILLmanager with Veeam will allow customers to back up virtual machines created in VMware vCloud Director. The following is a list of supported functions:

  • Individual schedule for VM backup;
  • Creation of unscheduled backup copies;
  • Data restore;
  • Accounting of disk space occupied by backup copies on Veeam servers.

Backup store type and the number of service backup copies that are kept simultaneously are limited. They are specified by the Veeam administrator.

Processing module

Note:

Before installing the module, you need to purchase the license in your Client area.

Integration is configured in the process of creating a service processing module in BILLmanager.

To create a service processing module, enter Integration → Processing modules → click Add. The processing module adding wizard consists of the following steps:

  1. Product type: select "Backup of VDC virtual servers".
  2. Processing module: select "Veeam".
  3. Configuring integration. Specify the data for integration:
    1. URL — enter the URL with the  "/api" predix to connect to API. This is the URL of the server where Veeam is installed, e.g. https://veeam:9399/api.
    2. Username — enter the Veeam admin username that will be used to access API Veeam.
    3. Password — enter the Veeam admin password.
    4. Server name — the name of the backup server in Veeam. For more information please refer to Processing module at work.
    5. Host name — the name of the root host on the Veeam server. For more information please refer to Processing module at work.
  4. Parameters of the service processing module. Configure internal (within BILLmanager) parameters of the service processing module.

Peculiarities of tariff configuration 

This section describes the peculiarities of the tariff configuration. The basic information about tariff plans in BILLmanager is explained under How to create and configure a tariff plan.

Enter 1 in the Rate field on the Additional settings tab to collect resources based on statistics. BILLmanager doesn't support other methods for collecting backup resources. 

The processing module supports the use of one resource Disk space. The internal names is disc.

Processing module at work 

Every backup service in BILLmanager is represented as a job in Veeam. The job contains a list of virtual machines for which backup copies are created and the schedule. Jobs in Veeam are kept on a separate backup server (server). Backup copies are kept on the other server for virtual machines (host). The servers are associated with certain jobs. 

When integrating the billing platform with Veeam, a service provider can set up one server+hosy. To set up several pairs you need to create several processing modules.

When a client orders a service BILLmanager sends to Veeam the API-call to create a new job. The call contains a list of virtual machines for which backup copies will be created and the schedule for every virtual machine. 

Note:

The backup start time is specified in UTC.

Service deletion 

You cannot delete a  Veeam job via API: when a user deletes a service in BILLmanager, it will get suspended in Veeam. The service will be deleted in the billing platform and a new task to delete the service in Veeam will be created for the staff.  

Synchronization

Data synchronization is started with the cron job processing.syncserver.cron. The cron job is started every 4 hours.  

Statistics

The Veeam processing module collects Disk space statistics. The statistics is collected for the previous day. 

The process is started with the cron job statdaily.cron.

Logs

The Veeam log file is located in /usr/local/mgr5/var/pmveeam.log. 

You can define the following actions in the log file:

  • processing/pmveeam --runningoperation <current operation id> --command open — activate a service; 
  • processing/pmveeam --runningoperation <current operation id>  --command close ---  close a service; 
  • processing/pmveeam --command sync_server --module <processing module id> — data synchronization; 
  • processing/pmveeam --command stat --module <processing module id> — statistics collection.