Veeam Enterprise Manager
Whether to Deploy?
Enterprise Manager is intended for centralized reporting and management of multiple backup servers. It provides delegated restore and self-service capabilities as well as the ability for users to request Virtual Labs from backup administrators. It provides a central management point for multiple backup servers from a single interface. Enterprise Manager is also a part of the data encryption and decryption processes implemented in the Veeam solution and best practice recommend deploying Enterprise Manager in the following scenarios:
- It is recommended to deploy Enterprise Manager if you are using encryption for backup or backup copy jobs. If you have enabled password loss protection (https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/em/em_manage_keys.html?ver=95) for the connected backup servers backup files will be encrypted with an additional private key which is unique for each instance of Enterprise Manager. This will allow Enterprise Manager administrators to unlock backup files using a challenge/response mechanism effectively acting as a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
- If an organization has a Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) deployment then leverage Enterprise Manager to provide site administrators with granular restore access via web UI (rather than providing access to Backup & Replication console).
- In enterprise deployments delegation capabilities can be used to elevate the 1st line support to perform in-place restores without administrative access.
- For deployments spanning multiple locations with stand-alone instances of Enterprise Manager will be helpful in managing licenses across these instances to ensure compliance.
- Searching the Indexes can also be used to find files that have been backed up and the indexes stored in the Enterprise Manager database.
- Enterprise Manager is required when automation is essential to delivering IT services — to provide access to the Veeam RESTful API.
If the environment includes a single instance of Backup & Replication you may not need to deploy Enterprise Manager, especially if you want to avoid additional SQL Server database activity and server resource consumption (which can be especially important if using SQL Server Express Edition).
Note: If Enterprise Manager is not deployed, password loss protection will be unavailable.
Using Enterprise Manager for Restore Operations
1-Click File-level Restore
With Enterprise Manager, you can restore VM guest files with a single click. To support this capability the VM restore point must be created with application-aware image processing enabled. Additionally, if guest file system indexing is enabled, it is possible to search for files across VM backups.
Note: It is possible to restore VM guest files even when application-aware image processing or file indexing is disabled. If both are disabled, the restore operator must type in guest OS credentials during a file-level restore.
The backup catalog on the Enterprise Manager server will be used to store indexing data replicated from the backup catalog on Veeam backup server(s). For more information about the process, refer to the Enterprise Manager User Guide. To learn more about Veeam Backup Catalog sizing refer to the “Indexing” section of this document.
1-Click Application Item-level Restore
You can restore items from Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle Databases with a single click using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager. These capabilities were developed to elevate the 1st line support engineers, enabling them to recover mail items and other Microsoft Exchange objects without any direct visibility of the mailbox or database content. Database administrators are now able to restore Microsoft SQL Server and/or Oracle databases without addressing the backup team.
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Items Restore
The process of restoring an Exchange mailbox is described in the Backup and Restore of Microsoft Exchange Items section of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager User Guide.
To create an application-aware image backup of Microsoft Exchange database VM ensure you back up at least one server holding the Client Access Server (CAS) role (This can be Exchange Server with the Mailbox Database role or a dedicated server. Contact the Exchange administrator if necessary). A server holding the CAS role is used to discover the mailbox location for the corresponding user. You should supply credentials for authentication with the CAS server on the Configuration > Settings page as described here.
Microsoft SQL Server Database Restore
To perform database level restores of SQL Server databases using Enterprise Manager ensure you enable application-aware image processing for the corresponding backup job. To use point-in-time recovery enable log file backups of the Microsoft SQL Server VM. For more details refer to the Backup and Restore of Microsoft SQL Server Databases section of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager User Guide.
Oracle Database Restore
To perform database level, restore of Oracle databases using Enterprise Manager ensure you enable application-aware image processing for the corresponding backup job. To use point-in-time recovery, enable log file backups of the Oracle VM. For more details refer to the Backup and Restore of Oracle Database section of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager User Guide.
You have two options to restore through Enterprise Manager: 1-Click Restore to Original Location or Restore with Custom Settings. When restoring with custom settings make sure that the restore operator is enabled to also restore Oracle Databases. For more information see providing access rights
Note: Database restore from storage snapshots via Enterprise Manager is not supported.
Self-Service File Restore
In addition to 1-Click File-Level Restore Backup & Replication allows VM administrators to restore files or folders from a VM guest OS using a browser from within the VM guest OS, without creating specific users or assigning them specific roles at the Veeam Enterprise Manager level. To do this an administrator of the VM can access the self-service web portal using the default URL: "https://ENTERPRISE_MANAGER:9443/selfrestore".
Tip: This feature is available only for the Windows-based VMs and requires Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Plus license. The VM needs to be in the same domain with the Enterprise Manager or in a trusted one (for SID resolution)
The process goes as follows:
- 1.During the backup of a VM with guest processing enabled, Veeam detects users who have local administrator access rights to that machine and stores this information in the Enterprise Manager database.
- 2.User enters the self-service web portal URL in the web browser and enters the account name and password to access the necessary VM guest OS.
- 3.After logging in the user is presented with the most recent restore point for that VM (the one this user authenticated to) on the Files tab of the web portal.
Note: This feature also works for backups from Veeam Agents for Windows stored on a Veeam Backup & Replication repository.
For more information on using this feature refer to the Self-Restore of VM Guest Files section of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager User Guide.
Self-Service Backup Portal for vCloud Director
Enterprise Manager in version 9.5 also supports a Veeam Self-Service Backup Portal that provides vCloud Director organization administrators with a UI for self-service operations on VMs protection. For that, a vCloud Director organization administrator can access the self-service portal using the default URL: "https://enterprise_manager_host_name:9443/vCloud/OrgName".
RESTful API Service
The RESTful API service is installed as part of Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager. To provide access to the API consider that authentication will take place through Enterprise Manager. Enterprise Manager user role assignments (Portal User, Restore Operator, Portal Administrator) and their access scopes access will be inherited by the RESTful API service. For more information on role assignment see the Configuring Security Settings section of the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager User Guide.