Veeam VMCA2022 Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Practice Test

The methods that should be used to scope virtual machine backups based on customer requirements are to create backups based on tags and to create backup jobs with same retention requirements. Creating backups based on tags allows dynamic scoping of backups based on VMware tags assignedto virtual machines. This can simplify backup management, as new or modified virtual machines will be automatically included or excluded from backup jobs based on their tags. Creating backup jobs with same retention requirements allows consistent application of backup policies based on the backup tiers defined by the customer. This can ensure compliance with regulatory and business needs, as different tiers of virtual machines will have different retention periods and restore points.

The component that should be deployed based on the customer’s security requirements around restore capabilities is Enterprise Manager with granular RBAC policies defined. Enterprise Manager is a web-based interface that allows centralized management of multiple Veeam backup servers. It also provides granular RBAC policies that enable control over user permissions and access to restore data. For example, you can assign different roles to different users or groups based on their responsibilities and needs, such as backup administrator, restore operator, security officer, etc. You can also define custom scopes and rules for each role to limit their access to specific objects, jobs, or actions.

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.

The retention requirement for gold tier virtual machines is that they must have 14 daily, eight weekly, three monthly and seven yearly backups. This requirement can be derived from the technical requirement of having eight weekly backups, three monthly backups, and seven yearly backups for regulatory purposes, as well as the business requirement of having daily backups for gold tier virtual machines.

The number of vSphere clusters and the total of virtual machines are important information related to the virtual infrastructure that are missing and must be collected during the discovery phase. These information can help you estimate the backup performance, scalability, and resource requirements for the Veeam backup infrastructure. For example, you can use the number of vSphere clusters to determine how many Veeam backup servers and proxies you need to deploy and how to distribute the backup load among them. You can also use the total of virtual machines to calculate the total amount of data to be backed up, the storage space required, and the network bandwidth needed.

References: [Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practices], [Veeam Backup Infrastructure Sizing Calculator]

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 preferred method to achieve the requirement of excluding the H: drive on MSSQL server virtual machines is to set up VMDK exclusion for the disk on which the H: resides in the Virtual Machines > Exclusions page for each virtual machine. This method allows you to exclude specific virtual disks from being processed by backup jobs based on their SCSI IDs or disk labels. This can save backup time and storage space by skipping unnecessary data. This method also works reliably regardless of whether the MSSQL servers are built on demand or from virtual machine templates.

The repository type that will be most impacted by using Veeam’s native encryption is dedupe repositories. Dedupe repositories are backup repositories that use deduplication appliances or software to reduce backup size and optimize storage utilization. However, if you use Veeam’s native encryption for backup jobs that target dedupe repositories, you will lose most of the deduplication benefits, as encrypted data blocks cannot be deduplicated effectively. Therefore, it is recommended to use either the encryption feature of the deduplication device or software, or avoid encryption altogether for dedupe repositories.

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 Veeam feature that can be used to help achieve compliance with privacy regulations is location tags on repositories. Location tags are labels that can be assigned to backup repositories to indicate their physical or logical location, such as country, region, or data center1. Location tags can help ensure that backup data is stored and processed in compliance with data residency and privacy laws, such as GDPR or CCPA, by allowing backup administrators to create backup policies based on the location of the source and target data2. The other options are not related to privacy compliance, as they are either used for network optimization (preferred networks), server identification (location tags on Veeam Backup & Replication servers), or backup scope (location tags on subnets). References: Location Tags, Using Location Tags.

The best way to deploy the proxies for the remote office is to deploy eight virtual proxies with eight CPUs and 16 GB of RAM each. This option allows to leverage the Virtual appliance (Hot-Add) mode, which is the recommended transport mode for VSAN storage1. Virtual appliance mode enables LAN-free data transfer between the source datastore and the proxy, as well as load balancing and fault tolerance across multiple proxies2. The other options are either not optimal (option A and B, as physical proxies require LAN or SAN connection to access the source data, which may impact the networkperformance and backup SLAs3) or not supported (option C, as virtual proxies with more than eight CPUs are not compatible with Virtual appliance mode). References: Transport Modes, Virtual Appliance Mode, Direct Storage Access Mode, [Requirements and Limitations for VMware Backup Proxies].

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 best option to still satisfy the requirement for offsite, immutable or air gapped backups if the cloud provider selected for archive storage does not support immutability is to set up Scale-out Backup Repository capacity tier to a different cloud provider than the archive tier. Scale-out Backup Repository is a logical entity that groups several backup repositories into a single pool of storage, and allows to move backup files between performance and capacity tiers1. The capacity tier can be configured to use Amazon S3 or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, which support Object Lock feature for immutability2. By using a different cloud provider for the capacity tier than the archive tier, the backup data can be stored in two separate locations, with one copy being immutable or air gapped. The other options are either not feasible (option A, as the scenario does not mention another site), not secure (option C, as the backup data can still be accessed or modified when the repository is online), or not offsite (option D, as the scenario requires a copy of backup data in a public cloud). References: Scale-out Backup Repository, Object Storage Immutability.

Changing the backup window from 12 hours to 14 hours means that the backup jobs will have more time to complete, and therefore less concurrency will be required. This will reduce the load on the proxies, which are the data movers that perform backup, replication, and restore tasks1. The proxies will need fewer resources, such as CPU and memory, to handle the same amount of data.

The other options are incorrect because:

• A) Proxies will not require more resources, as explained above.
• B) Mount servers will not require fewer resources, as they are not affected by the backup window. Mount servers are used to mount backup files and restore data from them2. Their resource consumption depends on the restore frequency and performance, not the backup window.
• D) Repositories will not require more storage space, as the backup window does not affect the backup size. Repositories are storage locations where the backup files are stored3. Their storage space consumption depends on the amount of data to be backed up, the backup method, the retention policy, and the compression and deduplication settings, not the backup window.

You can find more information about the backup window and the Veeam components in the following resources:

• Backup Window
• Mount Server
• Backup Repository

The requirement C will act as a constraint on the decision of whether to use a local repository or not for the remote sites. Data locality and privacy laws may vary by country or region, and may impose restrictions on where the backup data can be stored or transferred. For example, some countries may prohibit the export of personal data outside their borders, or require encryption or anonymization of sensitive data. Therefore, the Veeam solution must comply with these laws and regulations, and may need to use a local repository for each remote site, or use a cloud provider that has a local presence in each region. The other requirements are not constraints, as they can be met with either a local or a central repository, using the features and options of the Veeam solution. References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 11; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 5.

Database administrators and operations team are the most relevant stakeholders to talk to in order to collect business and technical requirements related to virtual infrastructure. Database administrators can provide information about the performance, availability, and recovery needs of the SQL and Oracle servers, as well as the custom financial application on AIX servers. Operations team can provide information about the network bandwidth, firewall rules, storage capacity, and backup windows for the virtual machines and NAS devices. The other stakeholders are less relevant, as they are either not directly involved with the virtual infrastructure (web design team, sales staff) or have minimal requirements (laptop users). References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 8; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 2.

Backup from storage snapshot 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 environment1. Backup from storage snapshot is supported for VSAN datastores on NetApp, Nimble, Dell EMC, HPE, and Pure Storage systems2.

Using backup from storage snapshot for the virtualized stock trading application servers can improve the backup performance and reduce the latency, as it minimizes the time that the VM is running on a snapshot and avoids the network overhead of other transport modes3.

The other options are not recommended because:

• B) Implementing Veeam Agent on the virtualized stock trading application servers is not necessary, as Veeam Backup & Replication can protect VMware VMs without agents. Veeam Agent is mainly used for physical servers, workstations, or cloud instances4.
• C) Using Veeam Replication to create replicas of the virtualized stock trading application servers at the remote site, then back up the replicas is not optimal, as it adds more complexity and cost to the backup process. Veeam Replication is mainly used for disaster recovery purposes, not for backup5.
• D) Turning off application-aware processing for the virtualized stock trading application servers is not advisable, as it may compromise the consistency and recoverability of the application data. Application-aware processing is a feature of Veeam Backup & Replication that ensures that the application data is in a consistent state before the backup or replication job starts.

You can find more information about backup from storage snapshot and other backup options for VSAN in the following resources:

• Backup from Storage Snapshots
• Storage Systems Supported for Backup from Storage Snapshots
• Optimizing Veeam Backup & Replication Configuration for VMware VSAN
• Veeam Agent Management
• Veeam Replication
• [Application-Aware Processing]

The configuration that is unsupported by Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN based on the technical requirements is physical windows server with Oracle. Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN only supports Oracle databases running on Linux, Solaris, or AIX operating systems1. The other configurations are supported by either Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN or Veeam Backup & Replication. References: Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN, Oracle | Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide.

The requirement C is vague and needs more clarification from the customer. It does not specify which public cloud provider, service, or storage tier should be used for the backup data. It also does not indicate how the backup data should be transferred, secured, or managed in the public cloud. The other requirements are more clear and specific, and can be met with the Veeam solution features and best practices. References: Veeam Certified Architect 2022 Exam Guide, page 9; Veeam Backup & Replication v11: Architecture and Design course, module 6.

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]

To design a solution that meets the immutability requirement for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider how this constraint affects the other requirements and expectations of the customer. This will help you to avoid any conflicts or inconsistencies that may arise from applying immutability settings to the backup data.

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 periodexpires. 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 requirement that is impacted by the immutability constraint is D. Backup must take advantage of public cloud storage for long-term retention.

This requirement is impacted by the immutability constraint because:

•Public cloud storage is a type of storage that is provided by a third-party service provider over the internet, such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, etc.

•Public cloud storage can be used for long-term retention, which is a policy that defines how long backup data should be kept for compliance or historical purposes, such as months, years, or decades.

•Public cloud storage can also support immutability, which is a feature that prevents backup data from being deleted or modified by anyone until the specified retention period expires, such as days, weeks, or months.

•However, not all public cloud storage providers or services support immutability, or support it in the same way. For example, Amazon S3 supports S3 Object Lock, which allows you to apply a legal hold or a retention period to individual objects or object versions. Microsoft Azure supports Immutable Blob Storage, which allows you to create time-based policies or legal holds for blob containers. Google Cloud supports Bucket Lock, which allows you to lock a bucket and prevent objects from being overwritten or deleted.

•Therefore, the choice of the public cloud storage provider or service may affect the immutability setting and requirement for the backup data. You need to verify and compare the compatibility and supportability of the public cloud storage providers or services with Veeam Backup & Replication and with the customer expectation.

Based on the requirements, one of the factors that should be considered in the physical design when implementing the virtual machine replication between sites is to ensure that the proper firewall ports are open between the proxies at each site. This is because Veeam Backup & Replication uses network ports to communicate with backup infrastructure components and transfer data during replication. You need to make sure that the required ports are not blocked by firewalls or other network devices. For a list of ports used by Veeam Backup & Replication, see this article2

The gateway is a component that acts as a data mover between the backup proxy and the backup repository. If the gateway does not have enough CPU, RAM and task slots assigned, it may not be able to handle the incoming data from the backup proxy efficiently, and cause a bottleneck at the target. By increasing the resources and task slots for the gateway, you can improve its performance and throughput, and reduce the load on the target2

To design a solution that meets the needs and requirements of Veeam University Hospital, you need to collect some critical information during the discovery phase. This information will help you to understand the current state of the environment, the goals and expectations of the stakeholders, and the constraints and challenges of the project.

According to the case study, some of the critical information that was missing from discovery are:

•Size of current data sets. This information is critical because it helps you to estimate the backup storage requirements, as well as the backup performance and efficiency, based on the size and type of data. You need to know how much data is stored on each workload, such as virtual machines, physical servers, NAS systems, etc., as well as how much data is changed or added on a daily or weekly basis.

•Backup retention policy. This information is critical because it helps you to define the backup retention settings and policies, such as the number and frequency of backup copies, the backup storage tiers, the backup deletion rules, etc. You need to know how long the backup data should be kept for compliance or historical purposes, as well as how much backup storage capacity is available or needed.

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

The Gateway Server is a component that acts as a data mover between the backup proxy and the NFS storage. By placing the backup proxy and the Gateway Server together at the source site, you can reduce the network traffic and latency between them, and improve the data transfer speed. The Gateway Server will read data from the NFS storage and send it to the backup proxy over a local connection, and the backup proxy will process and compress the data before sending it to the target site1

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.

Option C uses replica seeding to reduce the network traffic during the initial replication. By creating a backup job of the source VM at the primary site and pointing the replica job to that backup repository at the secondary site, Veeam Backup & Replication can restore the VM from the backup and synchronize it with the latest state of the source VM. Then it can use the restored VM as a replica2

To design a solution that meets the backup and replication requirements for Veeam University Hospital, you need to consider some of the components that are needed for the on-premises design. This will help you to ensure the performance and reliability of the backup and replication operations, as well as the scalability and manageability of the backup infrastructure.

According to the Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide1, some of the components that are needed for the on-premises design are:

•Backup server. This is the core component of Veeam Backup & Replication that controls and coordinates backups, replication, recovery verification, and restore tasks. It also manages backup infrastructure components, such as proxy servers, repository servers, WAN accelerators, etc. You need to have a backup server at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide2.

•Backup proxy. This is a component that retrieves data from the source host, processes it and transfers to the backup repository. It also performs data compression, deduplication, encryption, etc. You need to have at least one backup proxy at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide3.

•Backup repository. This is a server where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps backup files, backup copies and metadata of replicated VMs. It can be a Windows or Linux server, a NAS device, a deduplication appliance, etc. You need to have at least one backup repository at each site, as recommended by the best practice guide4.

•Mount server. This is a component that mounts backup files from the backup repository to the backup proxy during restore operations. It also performs data decompression, deduplication, decryption, etc. You need to have a mount server at each site where you plan to perform restores, as recommended by the best practice guide5.

•Gateway server. This is a component that acts as a data mover between the backup proxy and the backup repository when they are located in different sites or networks. It also performs data encryption and decryption for secure data transfer. You need to have a gateway server at each site where you have a backup repository that is accessed by a remote backup proxy, as recommended by the best practice guide.

Therefore, based on these components, the answer that describes which components are needed for the on-premises design is D. Backup server, backup proxy, backup repository, mount server, gateway server.

•The RMAN plugin is a component that integrates Veeam Backup & Replication with Oracle RMAN, which is a native tool for Oracle backup and recovery12.

•The RMAN plugin allows you to use Oracle RMAN commands to back up and restore Oracle databases to Veeam backup repositories, as well as perform log shipping and point-in-time recovery12.

•The RMAN plugin supports Oracle databases running on any supported operating system or hypervisor, as well as physical servers or cloud environments12.

•The RMAN plugin leverages the features and benefits of Veeam Backup & Replication, such as compression, deduplication, encryption, scalability, and reliability12.