VMCA2022 Sample Questions Answers

To access encrypted datastores in VMware, you need to use a transport mode that supports encryption. The following transport modes support encryption:

•Network mode with Encryption (NBDSSL): This mode uses an encrypted network connection between the backup proxy and the ESXi host to read and write data from the encrypted datastore. This mode does not require direct access to the datastore, but it can be slower than other modes due to network traffic and encryption overhead2

•Virtual Appliance (HotAdd) mode: This mode uses a virtual backup proxy that runs on an ESXi host and attaches virtual disks of the encrypted VMs to itself using the VMware vSphere API. This mode requires that the backup proxy and the source VMs reside on the same datastore or on datastores that are accessible by the same ESXi host. This mode can offer better performance than network mode, but it can also cause SCSI reservation conflicts if multiple backup proxies access the same datastore simultaneously3

•Direct SMB: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the SMB protocol. This mode requires that the datastore is configured as an SMB share and that the backup proxy has read and write permissions on it. This mode can offer high performance and scalability, but it also requires additional configuration steps and security considerations4

The following transport modes do not support encryption:

•Network (NBD) mode: This mode uses an unencrypted network connection between the backup proxy and the ESXi host, which cannot access encrypted datastores2

•Direct SAN: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the SAN fabric, which cannot decrypt encrypted data5

•Direct NFS: This mode uses a physical backup proxy that accesses the encrypted datastore over the NFS protocol, which does not support encryption6

References:

1: Hardened Repository - User Guide for VMware vSphere 2: Network Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 3: Virtual Appliance Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 4: Direct SMB Access Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere 5: Direct SAN Access Mode - User Guide forVMware vSphere 6: Direct NFS Access Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide1, the proxy and repository servers are the components that should be sized correctly to ensure that synthetic operations and backup copy jobs can be completed in the desired window. This is because:

•The proxy server is responsible for retrieving data from the source and sending it to the target. The proxy server performance depends on the CPU, memory, network, and storage resources available. The proxy server should have enough CPU cores and memory to handle concurrent tasks, as well as sufficient network bandwidth and storage throughput to transfer data efficiently.

•The repository server is responsible for storing backup files on the target storage. The repository server performance depends on the CPU, memory, network, and storage resources available. The repository server should have enough CPU cores and memory to handle concurrent tasks, as well as sufficient network bandwidth and storage throughput to write data efficiently. The repository server should also support the backup format and retention policy chosen for the backup copy job.

References: 1: Backup copy jobs - Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide

To design a solution that meets the NAS environment requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to collect some information during the discovery phase. This information will help you to understand the characteristics and performance of the NAS systems, the size and type of the data, and the backup and recovery objectives.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, some of the information that you should collect from the customer about the data stored on the NAS per site are:

•Total number of files (in millions) to be backed up. This information will help you to estimate the backup storage requirements, as well as the backup performance and scalability, based on the number and distribution of files.

•Largest file size. This information will help you to determine the optimal backup block size and alignment, as well as the backup compression and deduplication ratios, based on the size and type of files.

To design a solution that meets the replication requirement for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the mitigating techniques that might be required for the virtual machines that have several separate large VMDKs with a high change rate per virtual machine on the same datastore. This will help you to overcome some of the challenges and limitations that may affect the replication performance and efficiency, as well as the recovery point objective (RPO) of the organization.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, some of the mitigating techniques that might be required are:

•Implement WAN accelerator. This technique can help you to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred and processed between the source and target sites, by using caching, deduplication, compression, and encryption. You need to deploy a pair of WAN accelerators, one at the source site and one at the target site, and configure them in the replication job settings. This technique can improve the replication speed and efficiency, as well as save network bandwidth and storage space.

•Recommend migrating some of the VMDKs to alternative datastores. This technique can help you to avoid performance degradation and resource contention on the source datastore, by distributing the load and I/O across multiple datastores. You need to use VMware tools or commands, such as Storage vMotion or svmotion, to migrate some of the VMDKs to other datastores that have enough capacity and performance. This technique can improve the replication stability and reliability, as well as reduce the impact on the production environment.

Therefore, based on these techniques, the answer that describes which mitigating techniques might be required is A and C.

To design a solution that meets the requirements for off-site immutable backups for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the options and features that Veeam products and features offer. This will help you to ensure the security and integrity of your backup data, as well as the compatibility and supportability of the cloud provider that does not currently support immutability.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, immutability is a feature that prevents backup files from being deleted or modified by anyone until the specified retention period expires. Immutability can be achieved by using S3 Object Lock or Hardened Repository, which are two different solutions that Veeam Backup & Replication supports.

Based on this definition, the best option to still satisfy the requirements for off-site immutable backups is A. Backup copy to a hardened repository.

This option means that:

•The backup copy is a type of job that allows you to create and maintain copies of your backup data on a secondary backup repository. You can use backup copy jobs to send your backup data off-site, as well as to apply different retention settings and policies.

•The hardened repository is a solution that allows you to add a hardened repository based on a Linux server to your backup infrastructure. You can use hardened repository with Veeam Backup & Replication to make your backups immutable on-premises or off-site.

•The backup copy to a hardened repository can be configured and managed by Veeam Backup & Replication, regardless of the cloud provider that does not currently support immutability. You only need to deploy and connect a Linux server with a hardened repository in the cloud environment, and then use it as a target for your backup copy jobs.

The tiers of Veeam Financial Services’ backups that will require SureBackup jobs are the silver and gold tiers. SureBackup jobs are used to verify the recoverability of backup files by running virtual machines from backups in an isolated environment and performing tests against live applications1. This feature is suitable for the silver and gold tiers, which have recovery time objectives of six hours and 30 minutes, respectively, and require backups to be verified. The bronze tier, which consists of development machines and field portables, has a recovery point target of seven days, with no recovery time target set, and does not require backup verification. Therefore, SureBackup jobs are not necessary for the bronze tier. Laptop backups are performed by Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, which does not support SureBackup jobs2. References: SureBackup, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows.

Snapshot stun is a phenomenon that occurs when a VMware snapshot is removed and the virtual machine (VM) experiences a temporary freeze or performance degradation1. This can affect the availability and consistency of mission critical applications running on the VM.

To avoid snapshot stun, Veeam Backup & Replication offers several options for backing up Linux VMs, such as backup from storage snapshots, direct SAN access, or hot-add2. However, based on the business requirements, the best option is to run pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts before backing up the workload.

Pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts are custom scripts that you can configure to run on the Linux VM before and after the snapshot is taken. The pre-freeze script can be used to quiesce the application and flush its data to disk, ensuring a consistent backup. The post-thaw script can be used to resume the application and perform any necessary cleanup actions3.

By using pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts, you can achieve application consistency and minimize the impact of snapshot stun on the Linux VM. You can use the Veeam Backup & Replication user interface or the Veeam PowerShell snap-in to configure the scripts for the backup job3.

You can find more information about pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts and how to use them in the following resources:

• Pre-Freeze and Post-Thaw Scripts
• Best Practice for Backing Up Linux VMs
• Snapshot Stun Issue

Backup from Storage Snapshots and Direct NFS are the preferred processing modes for NFS datastores, as they offer the best performance and reliability for backup and restore operations12.

Backup from Storage Snapshots is a feature of Veeam Backup & Replication that leverages the native snapshot capabilities of the storage system to create a consistent point-in-time copy of the VM data. Veeam Backup & Replication then reads data directly from the storage snapshot, bypassing the ESXi host and reducing the impact on the production environment3. Backup from Storage Snapshots is supported for NFS datastores on NetApp, Nimble, Dell EMC, HPE, and Pure Storage systems4.

Direct NFS is a proprietary transport mode of Veeam Backup & Replication that uses a native NFS client deployed on the backup proxy to read and write data directly from and to the NFS datastore. Veeam Backup & Replication also bypasses the ESXi host and reduces the load on the production environment. Direct NFS is supported for NFS datastores on any storage system that supports NFS version 3 or 4.1.

The other options are not preferred because:

• B) Network (NBD) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to communicate with the ESXi host over the network. This mode produces additional load on the ESXi host and the network, and may result in slower backup and restore performance.
• C) Virtual Appliance (HotAdd) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to attach the disks of the processed VM to the backup proxy VM. This mode also produces additional load on the ESXi host and the network, and may cause issues with disk alignment or SCSI controller limitations.
• D) Network mode with Encryption (NBDSSL) mode is a transport mode that uses the VMware VDDK to communicate with the ESXi host over the network with SSL encryption. This mode provides an extra layer of security, but also adds more overhead and reduces the backup and restore performance.

You can find more information about the processing modes and how to choose the best one for your environment in the following resources:

• Transport Modes
• Selecting a Transport Mode
• Backup from Storage Snapshots
• Storage Systems Supported for Backup from Storage Snapshots
• [Direct NFS Access]
• [Network Mode]
• [Virtual Appliance Mode]
• [Network Mode with Encryption]

The information related to the virtual infrastructure that is missing and must be collected during the discovery are the total number of virtual machines and the size of the source data set. These are essential metrics for sizing the backup components, such as proxies, repositories, and transporters, as well as estimating the backup storage requirements and bandwidth consumption. The other options are either already provided in the scenario (recovery time objective, backup window) or not relevant for the Veeam solution (speed of Fibre Channel fabric). References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 10; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 3.

The things that can be done to validate that the design meets target SLAs and reduces the headcount required to manage the solution are:

• Use tagging and scripts to auto-generate backup jobs, set the start time and windows, letting the backup server manage resource allocation. This option allows to automate the backup job creation and configuration, based on the tags assigned to the source objects, such as VMs, hosts, or clusters1. This reduces the manual effort and human error involved in managing the backup jobs, and ensures that the backup server allocates the optimal resources for each job, based on the load balancing and performance settings2.
• Explain how to detect configuration changes, reporting and using backup job templates to maintain consistency. Document self-service restore the streamline service desk engagement. This option allows to monitor the backup infrastructure and detect any changes that may affect the backup performance or reliability, such as adding or removing VMs, hosts, or clusters3. It also allows to use backup job templates to create consistent and standardized backup policies, and apply them to multiple backup jobs4. Additionally, it allows to document the self-service restore process, which enables end-users to perform file-level restores from their own backups, without involving the backup administrator or the service desk5.
• Review the design so that the slowest part of the infrastructure is fast enough to meet backup window requirements. This option allows to identify and optimize the bottleneck in the backup infrastructure, which is the component that limits the backup speed and throughput. By reviewing the design and ensuring that the slowest part of the infrastructure can meet the backup window requirements, the backup SLAs can be achieved and the backup performance can be improved.

The other options are either not relevant for validating the design (option A and E, as exporting the configuration, scheduling a review, and reviewing the design for bottlenecks are part of the design process, not the validation process) or not effective for meeting the SLAs and reducing the headcount (option C, as using inventory information, backup chaining, and fine tuning are manual and complex tasks that may not guarantee the backup window compliance or resource efficiency). References: Tagging, Load Balancing and Performance, Configuration Change Tracking, Backup Job Templates, Self-Service File Restore, [Bottleneck Statistics]

Immutable repositories are backup storage locations that prevent unauthorized modifications or deletions of backup data, ensuring its integrity and recoverability. Immutable repositories are essential for protecting backups against ransomware attacks, accidental deletions, or malicious insiders1.

Veeam Backup & Replication supports several types of immutable repositories, such as hardened repositories, immutable object storage repositories, and immutable deduplicating storage appliances2. Among these options, the best configuration for ensuring SLA compliance and providing protection against ransomware is to leverage hardened repositories at both primary and secondary sites, and offload to object storage in a public cloud with immutability enabled.

Hardened repositories are Linux-based repositories that use XFS file system with immutability flag to protect backup files from changes or removals. Hardened repositories can be used as primary or secondary backup targets, and can be combined with Veeam Scale-out Backup Repository to simplify backup management and optimize storage utilization3.

Object storage repositories are cloud-based repositories that use object storage services, such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, or Google Cloud Storage, to store backup data. Object storage repositories can be used as secondary backup targets, and can leverage the immutability feature of the cloud provider to prevent backup data from being overwritten or deleted.

By using hardened repositories at both primary and secondary sites, you can achieve high availability and redundancy for your backup data, as well as fast and reliable restores. By offloading to object storage in a public cloud with immutability enabled, you can achieve long-term retention and compliance, aswell as cost savings and scalability. This configuration also follows the 3-2-1-1 backup rule, which recommends having three copies of data, on two different types of media, with one copy off-site and one copy immutable.

You can find more information about immutable repositories and how to configure them in the following resources:

• Immutable Backup Solutions: Linux Hardened Repository
• Unstructured Data Backups in Immutable Repositories
• Hardened Repository
• [Immutability for Object Storage Repositories]
• [3-2-1-1 Backup Rule]

The information that is still needed for a complete architectural design is how often backups are required for silver machines. This is not stated in the technical requirements, where only the recovery time objective and recovery point objective are given for the silver tier. The backup frequency affects the backup storage consumption, the backup window, and the restore point granularity. The other options are either already provided in the technical requirements (daily backup retention, amount of time required for a successful restore for gold machine) or not relevant for the architectural design (RMAN configuration guidelines). References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 10; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 4.

The component that will help the customer meet their stated objectives is to leverage Backup Enterprise Manager to allow end-users to restore files within their scope. Backup Enterprise Manager is a web-based interface that provides access to Veeam Backup & Replication functionality, such as backup, replication, and restore1. One of the customer’s business requirements is to develop a self-service portal and integrate it with the new backup solution. Backup Enterprise Manager can fulfill this requirement by enabling self-service file-level restores for end-users, as well as integration with help desk systems2. The other options are not related to the customer’s recovery requirements, as they are either not necessary (option A, as indexing and RBAC policies are optional features), not sufficient (option B, as deploying the console and setting RBAC policies do not enable self-service restores), or not native to Veeam software (option C, as the technical requirements state that Oracle backups must be managed by Veeam, not RMAN). References: Backup Enterprise Manager, Self-Service File Restore.

The Veeam component that will be required at each site for disaster recovery with a one minute recovery point objective is the Veeam CDP proxy. Veeam CDP proxy is a data mover that transfers data between the source and target hosts, using VMware vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO) to capture the changes in real time1. Veeam CDP proxy can achieve near-zero recovery point objectives for business critical virtual machines, as well as provide short-term restore points and data encryption2. The other components are not required for this scenario, as they are used for different purposes, such as guest processing, backup storage, or backup jobs3. References: VMware CDP Proxies, Continuous Data Protection, Backup Proxies.

To perform backup from storage snapshots for a Fibre Channel SAN, you need to deploy one or more physical servers that will act as backup proxies and connect them to the SAN fabric. This is because Veeam Backup & Replication needs to access the storage system over the Fibre Channel protocol, which is not supported by virtual machines. The backup proxies will read data from the storage snapshots and transfer it to the backup repositories1

Thank you for your question. I’m glad to help you with your VMCA 2022 project.????

To design a solution that meets the database requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the options and features that can support and integrate with Oracle databases. This will help you to ensure the consistency and reliability of the Oracle backups and restores, as well as the compatibility and supportability of the native Oracle tools with Veeam products and features.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide, the option that most closely matches the requirements of having native Oracle utilities available for backups and restores is D. Install the Veeam RMAN Plug-in to allow native RMAN backups and restores to leverage Veeam repository directly from the Oracle servers.

This option means that:

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in is a solution that integrates with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and allows you to back up and restore Oracle databases using Veeam repositories as targets.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in supports both virtual and physical Oracle servers, as well as different versions and editions of Oracle databases.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in enables you to use native Oracle tools and commands, such as RMAN, SQL*Plus, Data Pump, etc., to perform backups and restores of Oracle databases, without requiring any additional scripts or configurations.

•The Veeam RMAN Plug-in leverages the benefits and features of Veeam Backup & Replication, such as backup compression, deduplication, encryption, immutability, etc., to improve the backup performance and efficiency, as well as the backup security and integrity.

This option is the best match for the requirements, as it allows you to use native Oracle utilities for backups and restores, while also taking advantage of Veeam products and features.

Data scrubbing is the process of removing sensitive or confidential data from backups before restoring them, to comply with regulatory or legal requirements1. Veeam Backup & Replication supports data scrubbing for VMware VMs by using a custom script that runs inside the virtual lab2.

To perform data scrubbing, you need to create a virtual lab, an application group, and a SureBackup job. The virtual lab is a fenced-off environment where you can test and verify your backups without affecting the production network3. The application group is a collection of VMs that you want to restore and scrub. The SureBackup job is a task that automates the verification and restoration of VMs in the virtual lab.

The custom script is a PowerShell script that you need to write and configure to run on the VMs in the application group. The script should perform the necessary actions to delete or modify the data that you want to scrub, such as files, folders, registry keys, database records, etc2. You can use the Veeam PowerShell snap-in to access the Veeam functionality and objects from the script.

You can find more information about data scrubbing and how to configure it in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide for VMware vSphere2.

The retention requirement for this project is 12 weekly backups, six monthly backups and seven yearly backups. This is stated in the business requirements section of the scenario, where it says “To meet regulatory requirements, backups must be retained for four years.” This implies that the backup data must be archived for long-term retention, and the Veeam solution supports the 3-2-1 rule, which means having three copies of data, on two different types of media, with one copy off-site1. The other options are not retention requirements, but rather technical requirements or design choices, such as having on-premises backups on hardened repositories, having at least one copy of data on-premises, or having 14 daily backups on-site. References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 9; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 4.

The backup repository design that would meet the security, throughput, and retention requirements is to use backup jobs to Hardened Linux XFS-based repositories at the same site as the source data and use Backup copy jobs to Hardened Linux XFS-based repositories at the secondary site. A Hardened Linux repository is a type of backup repository that provides immutability and ransomware protection for backup files by using XFS file system features and Linux access control mechanisms. A Backup copy job is a type of backup job that copies backups from one repository to another, either on-site or off-site, with different retention settings. By using these features, you can ensure that your backups are secure, efficient, and compliant with regulatory and business needs.

The component that can help meet the requirement of alternative decryption capabilities on encrypted backups in the event of lost passwords is Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager. Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is a web-based interface that allows centralized management of multiple Veeam backup servers. It also provides a password loss protection feature that enables authorized users to restore encrypted backups without entering passwords if they forget or lose them. This feature requires enabling password loss protection in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager settings and assigning a security officer role to a user who can approve password recovery requests.

References: [Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager], [Password Loss Protection]

The types of jobs that do not support using immutability from S3 Object Lock or hardened repositories are NAS backups and Agent for Mac backups. These types of jobs do not have the option to enable immutability in their settings, unlike VMware, Hyper-V, Linux Agent, or Windows Agent backup jobs. Therefore, they cannot leverage the immutability feature of S3 Object Lock or hardened repositories to protect their backups from ransomware or malicious deletion.

References: [S3 Object Lock Immutability], [Hardened Linux Repository], [NAS Backup], [Agent for Mac]

The additional Veeam capabilities that must be included in the conceptual design for gold level systems are SureBackup and Secure Restore. SureBackup is a feature that allows you to automatically verify the recoverability of your backups by running them in an isolated virtual lab. This can help you meet the requirement of testing the gold tier backups to verify recoverability. Secure Restore is a feature that allows you to scan your backups for malware before restoring them to the production environment. This can help you meet the requirement of scanning all backups for malware before restoring.

References: [SureBackup], [Secure Restore]

The reason that justifies the decision to separate out proxies for gold tier and silver/bronze tier is that gold tier virtual machines run frequently and should not share resources with lower priority virtual machines. This is because gold tier virtual machines have a high RPO of one hour or less, which means that they need to run backup jobs more often than silver/bronze tier virtual machines. Therefore, they should have dedicated proxies that can process their data without competing with other backup jobs for proxy resources. This can improve backup performance, reliability, and scalability for gold tier virtual machines.

The information that is missing from discovery is what the available bandwidth is between Fresno and Carson City. This information is important for designing and sizing the backup copy jobs that need to run daily between the two sites. The available bandwidth can affect the backup copy performance, duration, and size. For example, you can use the available bandwidth to estimate how much data can be transferred between the sites within the backup copy window. You can also use theavailable bandwidth to determine whether you need to use compression, deduplication, or WAN acceleration to optimize the backup copy traffic.

The method that can be used to validate that the design meets target SLAs and does not exceed repository growth projections is to ensure job throughput matches extensions and cross-compare with available network throughput, disk speed and initial sizing calculations. Job throughput is the measure of how much data is processed and transferred by a backup job per unit of time. Job throughput can be affected by various factors such as network bandwidth, disk performance, compression, deduplication, encryption, etc. By ensuring job throughput matches extensions, you can verify that your backup jobs are running as expected and meeting the SLAs. By cross-comparing job throughput with available network throughput, disk speed and initial sizing calculations, you can identify any bottlenecks or discrepancies that might affect your backup performance or storage consumption.

If the repositories are able to accomplish much higher throughput, a new issue that might come up is that the bandwidth between sites might not be sufficient to support the backup copy jobs that need to run daily between Fresno and Carson City. This could cause the backup copy jobs to fail, take longer than expected, or consume too much network resources. Therefore, it is important to measure the available bandwidth between the sites and compare it with the backup copy data size and window. If the bandwidth is not sufficient, some possible solutions are to use compression, deduplication, or WAN acceleration to reduce the backup copy traffic.

The best way to configure backups for a group of MSSQL systems running in an Always-On cluster and sensitive to virtual machine stun is to deploy Veeam agents configured for failover clustering. Veeam agents can provide application-aware processing and transaction log backup for MSSQL servers, as well as support for failover clustering and cluster shared volumes. Veeam agents can also reduce the impact of virtual machine stun by performing backups at the guest OS level, without using VMware snapshots.