I have a single ESXi 5.1 box with license to VSphere Essentials and am ready to deploy Veeam. I have been using the free version with VeeamZIP to backup my VMs but would like to switch to the fully licensed version (Veeam Essentials) for this host as soon as possible. My plan is to get a second ESXi box in the next 6 months. I will be backing up to a Drobo B800i locally and would like to eventually do host-to-host replication of mission critical VMs as well as replication over WAN to another site for DR.
Based on what I have described above, how many Veeam servers do I need in my environment?
I was thinking create one Veeam server that runs Backup and Replication (have the Veeam database be part of my existing SQL 2005 server) and one backup proxy (both VMs). Is it best to attach to my existing SQL instance or use a separate database for Veeam (comes with SQL 2008 R2 Express)? In this case my SQL box is physical.
Do I need Enterprise Manager since I only have one ESXi host right now?
If I do need Enterprise Manager, should it be separate from the Backup and Replication server or on the same VM?
Do I need to attach the Drobo as an iSCSI target on the Backup and Recovery server or on the backup proxy server?
I will need to backup about 5-10 VMs in the beginning, which will only grow with time. I was reading through their deployment scenarios, and it looks like a simple deployment model might not be best for my environment.
Any advice you can offer is much appreciated.
