Whitepaper Availability complete visibility service provider

Availability & Complete Visibility for the Service ProviderKirsten StonerProduct Strategy Coordinator

Availability & Complete Visibility for the Service Provider

2© 2015 Veeam Software

ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-in for LabTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Backup monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Remote management and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Veeam Backup & Replication Add On for Kaseya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Backup monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

About Veeam Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12



IntroductionWhen it comes to data availability, visibility can be a key challenge facing many IT administrators or IT

service providers . This lack of visibility can lead to data recovery failure, the inability to identify factors that

cause poor performance and a delayed response time when troubleshooting, among other challenges .

IT professionals can combat data availability challenges and gain the capability to verify backup and

recoverability, identify bottlenecks effecting performance and accelerate the response time needed

to troubleshoot by establishing visibility through the implementation of the appropriate solutions . To

combat the challenges in data availability today, Veeam® has introduced a solution for LabTech managed

service providers (MSPs) . This includes Veeam Backup & Replication™ Plug-in for virtual infrastructures

and Veeam Endpoint Backup™ for LabTech for physical environments . Additionally, Veeam offers Veeam

Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya to have visibility into the Veeam Backup infrastructure for all MSPs

using Kaseya Virtual Systems Administrator (VSA) . These two solutions give managed service providers

what they need to keep their customers Always-On™ and available .

Visibility may be a key concern when implementing and evaluating protection for endpoint devices . To

ensure physical endpoints are always available to users, it’s important to have the ability to identify poor

or slow performance, troubleshoot backup failures, and remotely monitor and manage these machines .

Veeam has tackled this challenge with the addition of Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech . Veeam

Endpoint Backup for LabTech adds functionality to the LabTech Remote Management Platform (RMM)

enabling remote control along with monitoring and reporting capability for overall visibility . These two

additions into the LabTech Solution Center allow service providers to face visibility challenges head on

and gives them a competitive advantage when servicing customers .



Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-in for LabTechThe LabTech RMM platform enables MSPs to proactively monitor and manage customer virtual

machines (VMs) and endpoints . The Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-In for LabTech adds additional

capabilities to enhance visibility in the backup infrastructure . Through these techniques, MSPs can

better utilize labor and resources . Not only does LabTech RMM allow you to have all your customer’s

IT objects in one window, it also allows you to work on multiple users and computers at the same

time and connect all your customers to the same interface . The Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-

in for LabTech adds tools that include the backup infrastructure dashboard, backup jobs dashboard,

data views, and alerts and tickets . These views ensure that your customer’s IT infrastructure is being

protected and is available to them at all times .

Backup monitoring

The Backup Infrastructure Dashboard allows you to look at Veeam’s Backup Infrastructure components

including inventory, repository space, Veeam jobs (including backup, backup copy, replication,

SureBackup® and tape jobs) and your customers’ protected VMs .

The figure above shows the Backup Infrastructure dashboards . This view allows MSPs to monitor their

customers’ backups and ensure that the backups are performing successfully . As an MSP, you have the

added functionality of clicking on the objects to see the number of servers, proxies and WAN accelerators

that have been deployed in the backup architecture . This allows you to see what elements are being used

in the backup process and allows you to keep a record of what components are included .



Along with monitoring backup infrastructure components, you can also monitor backup jobs and their

status . If a job has failed, you can click on the job and the plug-in will display details about the error .

The Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-In for LabTech can even identify if the error was caused by a user .

Jobs shown in this view can display job history, the number of times the job has run, if the job has ever

failed and how many VMs are included in the job .

The Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-In for LabTech incorporates predefined alerts, data views for events,

jobs and protected VMs . Alerts and tickets will be shown when certain conditions are met on an agent-

enabled Veeam Backup server . Some conditions can be defined to allow MSPs to view specific customers

at a certain locations . The LabTech Control Center raises an alert when a monitor has reached a predefined

threshold and has been assigned an alert template . If you have been working with LabTech specifically,

you may have noticed that you can access the alerts in different views within the control center . These

alerts are identified by severity with a corresponding color . An example is in the figure below .



Critical alerts will show up in an orange color . You can see in this lab environment there is one major alert

which is that the tape job that has been setup failed . From this screen, you can see if other technicians

have left any messages regarding the issue . By clicking on the alert you can create a ticket for the issue .

Tickets created by Veeam monitors support all the possibilities included in the LabTech ticketing system .

Reports

Along with monitoring and alerting, you can also generate reports through the Veeam Backup &

Replication Plug-In for LabTech . Reports that are generated assess and document the latest backup

status, VM backup status, and protected VMs . As an MSP, it’s important to show your customers what

you are doing in the background of their day-to-day operations . Reports can assist on identifying areas

for improvement and be used to ensure customer’s that their data is protected . These reports can be

specified by customers at different locations or be defined by groups or computers . The Veeam Backup

& Replication Plug-In for LabTech will even allow you to report on all customers at once . To access these

reports, you will find them in the Report Manager .

The first report mentioned measures the Latest Backup Job State . This report identifies and provides

details about the status of backup, backup copy, and replication jobs . You can filter this report based on

criteria needed to be identified whether it be by customer, computer, location or the type of job . The

report provides a diagram that shows completion status with a table of details regarding different jobs .

Reports that measure the latest VM backup state can be performed for the current week, the past

month or the past week . These reports provide the status of all managed VMs . Similar to the Latest Backup Job State, you are given the option to filter the data that the report shows based on certain

criteria . Some of the data filters include by customer, VM name and location .

The protected VMs report can be performed to show data from the last month, last week and the past

day . These reports identify which VMs have the proper backup or replica protection . A VM is protected

if a backup or replica restore point meets the specified recovery point objective (RPO) range that has

been previously determined . If the VM is deemed unprotected, then there is a missing or outdated

backup, replica or restore point . Both protected and unprotected VMs are shown in a diagraph along

with the last backup state showing completion statistics . You’ll also find a table including the details of

each protected and unprotected VM that has been defined in the report .

All of these reports are integrated with LabTech to allow MSPs to evaluate the Veeam infrastructure and

its different components . This visibility allows you to plan ahead and be proactive with your customers .



Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTechAvailability of workstations and laptops can also be challenging when it comes to visibility, central

control and remote management . To provide a comprehensive, cohesive solution, Veeam has built

Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech to provide robust protection for physical endpoints . This allows

MSPs to establish visibility, reporting and remote management and configuration on their customers’

physical endpoints . One of the key features that this solution addresses with the integration with

the LabTech RMM, is the ability to have a centrally managed console . When using the LabTech RMM

platform, MSPs who have integrated Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech into their environment will

be able to remotely install, configure and recover a customer’s endpoint devices — including remote

bare-metal restores . Additionally, reporting and monitoring capabilities enhance the solution for the

best management of Windows-based endpoints .

Remote management and control

Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech includes a system dashboard with information regarding licensing

and managed customers that can be filtered per customer or location . From the system dashboard you

will gain a set of tabs that enables remote management for customers’ endpoints . As mentioned earlier,

Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech can remotely deploy Veeam Endpoint Backup onto physical

systems . This is all done silently in the background and also gives you the ability to find those machines

that already have Veeam Endpoint Backup installed on them to add to the managed console . To

note, these machines must have the LabTech agent installed on them for Veeam Endpoint Backup for

LabTech to recognize the machines .

Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech can remotely configure backups through the computer

management screen . All from one screen, MSPs can stop and start jobs and download logs for

troubleshooting . Digging deeper, MSPs gain all information regarding backup jobs including the

number of restore points, backup size, average duration, restore point duration and status of jobs . For

each different client location, there are additional tabs that show an overview of the latest backup jobs,

trends, listed endpoints at that location and RPO statistics . This view can also identify which endpoints

are experiencing the most backup issues .

Another unique feature is the ability to remotely perform bare metal restores . This feature eliminates

the need for a visit to the client’s site . To accomplish this, the customer’s staff would need to insert the

Veeam bootable recovery media (i .e USB stick or other bootable removable media) and boot up the

endpoint from it . When the connection is established, the MSP can finish the entire process remotely as

the LabTech agent is built-in to the Veeam Endpoint Backup recovery media .

Reporting

Similar to the Veeam Backup and Replication Plug-In, Veeam Endpoint for LabTech will include reports that

assess the backup environment . Some reports that are included will show protected endpoints, endpoint

job status, and licensing . The MSP will be able to review the reports, show them to their clients if needed, and

identify areas for improvement . These reports can be filtered by criteria which include location, computer type,

computer, group, or client offering a solution that will benefit backup manageability and monitoring .



Veeam Backup & Replication Add On for Kaseya The Veeam Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya allows visibility into the Veeam Backup &

Replication infrastructure by enabling service providers to monitor backup jobs, check alarms,

discover machines and run reports . Veeam Backup and Replication is an agentless solution

that ensures your virtual environment is available at all times to meet the demands of today’s

business operations . Veeam Backup & Replication offers 47 restore scenarios that can be utilized

in virtual environments . Veeam Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya relies on the following

components: Veeam Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya installed on the Kaseya Server

and the Kaseya agents deployed inside the managed machines . These components collect and

gather information about the managed machines, then use the information for dashboards,

views, reports and alarms . Additionally, some key benefits of Veeam Backup & Replication

Add-On for Kaseya include the ability to review the state and performance of backups, analyze

VM data protection to ensure the proper restore points are available, and the ability to monitor

backup infrastructure machines and protected VMs . The next few paragraphs will dive deeper

into these benefits and how you can use them to establish enhanced availability .

Backup monitoring

The Veeam Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya lets the service provider monitor the

Veeam infrastructure and includes a set of views that allow users to browse through different

aspects to identify job status and duration, active alarms and machines that have the Kaseya

agent installed on them . The dashboard view shows an overview of the backup infrastructure

and includes different sections outlining alarms, backup infrastructure inventory, repositories

including the amount of free space each has, job status, protected VMs and top job duration .

The Dashboard allows MSPs to monitor the backup infrastructure as a whole .



The screenshot above shows the dashboard described in previous paragraphs . The alarms list will be

shown at the top of the dashboard with the time that the alarm went off and a brief description of the

trigger . Note that you’ll see the name of the repository, the state of the repository, capacity, free space,

and backup size in the repositories section .

Some of the other views mentioned were backup jobs and active alarms . These views will show more

information regarding backup jobs, including type of job, when the job last ran, average duration and

much more . This allows MSPs to track statistics for Veeam Backup & Replication jobs to help identify

problem areas or areas to improve on data availability . The alarms view, which is separate from the

backup jobs view, will show the severity of the alarm, the time it occurred, the machine that triggered

the alarm and why it occurred . This view enables service provides to minimize response times and filter

through the most important alarms .



Reports

The Add-On includes a set of report templates for MSPs to use that support all possible reporting

situations in Kaseya . You can export reports to a .PDF, .HTML or to Microsoft Excel formats as well as

schedule and deliver reports by email . Some of the included reports show job status, usage on backup

repositories, backup server statistics, machine protection status, protected VMs and verified VMs .

The screenshot above shows the reports available within Kaseya . With each report, this view offers a

brief description of what the report will identify . When the report template is selected, you can view

the report parts . For example, when the machine replicated status is selected, the report parts will be

listed underneath . The report parts included in this report are backups with warnings, failed backups,

successful backups and VM backup status .

The Veeam Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya includes one last section, configuration . This section

allows users to change the visibility of Veeam Backup server and configure advanced options . Any

machines running Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager or Veeam Backup & Replication, along with the virtual

infrastructure servers that were added to the managed servers in Veeam Backup & Replication will be shown

in this view . MSPs can also remove machines that no longer need to be monitored in this view .



SummaryIn conclusion, one of the major concerns facing the managed service providers of today is having the

visibility into the infrastructure to ensure backup functions and processes are performing properly in

the customer’s environment . This visibility issue can be solved by Veeam’s integration with the different

RMM platforms LabTech and Kaseya . The Veeam Backup & Replication Plug-In for LabTech allows MSPs

to remotely monitor, manage and report on their customers’ virtual backup infrastructures . The Veeam

Backup & Replication Add-On for Kaseya gives Kaseya users the same opportunities . These solutions for

LabTech and Kaseya users, can tackle virtual data availability issues and give MSPs an advantage to win

over existing and potential customers . With the addition of Veeam Endpoint Backup for LabTech, Veeam

extends this visibility to the physical side of IT . MSPs that have joined Veeam’s Cloud & Service Provider

Program (VCSP) will have the ability to extend their offering (backup as a service) to physical/virtual

backups and easily recruit new customers .

Altogether, these solutions enable the Always-On Business™ and provide enhanced visibility

for service providers .



Kirsten Stoner is a Product Strategy Coordinator at Veeam Software . Her

responsibilities include community tasks such as providing answers to

Spiceworks user’s online, social media and content for Veeam campaigns .

You can follow Kirsten on Spiceworks at:

http://community.spiceworks.com/people/kirsten-veeam

About Veeam Software Veeam® recognizes the new challenges companies across the globe face in enabling the Always-

On Business™, a business that must operate 24/7/365 . To address this, Veeam has pioneered a

new market of Availability for the Modern Data Center™ by helping organizations meet recovery

time and point objectives (RTPO™) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data, through

a fundamentally new kind of solution that delivers high-speed recovery, data loss avoidance,

verified protection, leveraged data and complete visibility . Veeam Availability Suite™, which

includes Veeam Backup & Replication™, leverages virtualization, storage, and cloud technologies

that enable the modern data center to help organizations save time, mitigate risks, and

dramatically reduce capital and operational costs .

Founded in 2006, Veeam currently has 30,500 ProPartners and more than 145,500 customers

worldwide . Veeam's global headquarters are located in Baar, Switzerland, and the company has

offices throughout the world . To learn more, visit http://www.veeam.com .

About the Author



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Whitepaper Availability complete visibility service provider

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