Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are the minimum system requirements?
You must be using Veeam v10 or later to backup your VMware servers and be sending a copy of your backups to S3 compatible object storage.
What does this service do?
Our platform builds an on-demand bare-metal environment and restores all your VMware virtual servers to your dedicated physical VMware ESXi host(s).
How long does it take to restore my environment?
Most SMB’s recoveries are completed in less than a few hours, but can take longer, depending on how large your backups are.
What type of servers does Cloud IBR support?
Cloud IBR provides full recovery of VMware virtual servers that were backed up with Veeam that are stored in an S3 object storage bucket, either backed up via Direct to Object Storage with v12, or Scale-Out-Backup-Repository (SOBR) offloads with v10 or later. We also perform a fully automated Instant Recovery of Veeam agent-based backups and Hyper-V backups, but these servers will require you to assign an IP address to them via their console, as Veeam Instant Recovery will not recover them with an IP address.
Why does Cloud IBR not support Scale-Out-Backup-Repository (SOBR) with Encryption enabled?
Cloud IBR is designed to use Read-Only keys to perform restores from your object storage. Read-Only keys work with object storage buckets used with “Direct to object storage backups” in Veeam v12 as well as with Scale-Out Backup Repositories (SOBR) created by Veeam v10 and later, that do not have Encryption enabled at the SOBR level. For SOBR’s that have Encryption enabled, Veeam requires Read-Write access to the bucket when adding it to the Cloud IBR Veeam server, which we chose not to support in the initial launch. You can confirm if you have an encryption key assigned to your SOBR by opening the properties of your SOBR and checking your configuration as shown here. To work around this limitation, simply make sure you have enabled encryption on each of your backup jobs by editing each job, click the Storage section, click Advanced button, select the Storage tab and check “Enable backup file encryption”, as shown here. You can then safely disable encryption for the SOBR, as having encryption enabled in both locations does not provide any additional benefit, since the data offloaded to object storage will already be encrypted once you enable encryption on each backup job.
How long till after I sign up, will I receive the service?
You can begin using the service for recovery, immediately upon signing up.
What is the maximum size environment Cloud IBR can recover?
The current version of Cloud IBR recovers all of your VM’s to a single VMware ESXi host with up to 25TB of network storage and the next release will support multiple ESXi hosts. At the start of each recovery test, we automatically choose the highest performing server available from PhoenixNAP’s inventory. To confirm Cloud IBR can handle recovering your environment, sign up, run as many recovery tests as you want, and if the performance doesn’t meet your requirements, you can take advantage of our 7-day money back guarantee.
What is the refund/cancellation policy?
We offer a 7-day, no questions asked, money back guarantee.
What happens if data is missing from my recovery environment?
If the server have been recovered, but data is missing, this typically means your data has not been backed up properly. If any servers were not restored at all, look under the section “Skipped Servers / Encrypted Backups” in your Cloud IBR recovery, to see if any backups were found but were skipped due to being outdated or due to a missing or incorrect Veeam encryption key provided during your onboarding.
How do I access a restored environment?
There are several methods of remotely accessing your restored environment:
- Use the OpenVPN client to connect to your recovery VPN server.
- Use RDP to connect to your Veeam recovery server and then a browser to connect to your ESXi host(s).
- Connect to any of your servers via the port mappings you created in the Cloud IBR dashboard.
How long can I keep my restored environment online?
There is no time limit on how long you can keep your environment online after performing a recovery. Keep in mind that your credit card will be charged for hourly usage of the recovery infrastructure, so if you intend on keeping the environment running long-term after an actual disaster, contact us for long term pricing options.
How much will I be charged by PhoenixNAP in addition to Cloud IBR?
Your subscription to Cloud IBR covers unlimited usage of the Instant Business Recovery platform. PhoenixNAP is an infrastructure provider that we use as the destination for restoring all your servers. When you sign up for Cloud IBR, we create an account for you at PhoenixNAP using your email address and credit card. Each time you run a recovery test, we provision servers on-demand at PhoenixNAP, on your behalf, who charges you hourly for the physical servers you utilize during the recovery test. You can see their hourly pricing on this page, which ranges from ten cents to a few dollars per hour, depending on the server type assigned during a recovery test. During your onboarding, you will be asked how much memory (RAM) your recovery environment requires, which can be used as the base metric for estimating your usage fees.
This screenshot shows the monthly usage fees for an account that ran two disaster recovery tests, one in Ashburn, VA with 128GB of RAM and one in Phoenix, AZ with 512GB of RAM, for a total of $10.58 for the two tests, which ran for two hours each.
Who is Backblaze?
Backblaze is a leading S3 Object Storage provider, with over two billion gigabytes of data storage under management. The company currently works with more than 500,000 customers in over 175 countries. Backblaze is a Veeam Ready Partner, certified by Veeam for their Object with Immutability integration with Veeam Backup & Replication software.
Does Cloud IBR help me qualify for industry certifications and insurance or customer requirements?
Absolutely. Every recovery test you run with Cloud IBR provides a full report of your disaster recovery test, which is perfect for showing proof of recovery to your auditor, insurance carrier, customer, etc. By enabling the fully automated scheduled DR test, whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly, you’ll always have an up-to-date report showing that you are recoverable, or letting you know when a change made to your production environment prevents a 100% successful recovery.
How do I backup my systems, after performing a recovery?
Once you’ve recovered your servers in our infrastructure, you can RDP to the Veeam server that we built for you, to create and manage the backups of your newly built environment, just like you’ve always done in your production environment. For our Platinum customers, this service is automatically performed by our staff at no charge. When performing this on your own, make sure to add a new read-write key to the S3 repository in your Veeam console, so that the VBR has permissions to send new backups to your bucket.
How do I move my systems back to production, after performing a recovery?
Once you are running your production environment in our cloud infrastructure and you’ve configured backups as discussed above, you can schedule a switchback to your production environment at any time that is convenient for you. The process is simply the reverse of how we recovered you to our infrastructure. For our Platinum customers, the switchback is performed by our staff at no charge. When performing this on your own, and once you have your original production environment rebuilt, you will schedule a maintenance window to shutdown your recovery servers, perform a final backup to your Backblaze B2 S3 object storage, and then restore them to your newly built production environment using the Veeam server you’ve built in your environment. There are more costly options for replicating the data from our cloud to your hardware and performing a switchback in a shorter window, but the standard method described here is sufficient for most small businesses, as the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) will be similar to the one you experienced when you recovered using Cloud IBR. Alternatively, if you’d like to leave your production systems running in our cloud long-term, please contact us for long-term pricing options.
What level of support is provided with Cloud IBR?
Our team provides support to all customers at no fee, for any issues or bugs directly related to our SaaS offering.
Our Platinum service offering provides 24/7 monitoring and management of your backups in your production environment, to ensure backups are always operational, as well as 24/7 recovery assistance with resolving issues in your production environment that prevent it from being fully recoverable. Platinum also includes assistance from our Certified Business Continuity Planners (CBCP) for disaster recovery questions on your compliance and insurance audits/applications.
Our Silver service offering provides recovery assistance at a rate of $250.00USD/hour, when available. As we grow our network of MSP’s, you will also have the option of selecting a local partner for you to work with.
Do you support recovery of servers synced or backed up to Backblaze from a Synology Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliance?
No. This is because Synology writes their backups/syncs to Object Storage in a format that is only readable by the Synology platform and not by Veeam. To recover servers with Cloud IBR, you can either create a Direct to Object Storage backup job in Veeam v12, or add the Synology to a Scale-Out-Backup-Repository (SOBR) that offloads backups to Backblaze, with Veeam v10 or later.
What Veeam license do I need to backup direct to object storage or enable Scale-Out-Backup-Repository (SOBR) offloads?
Both options require a Veeam Enterprise license. If you currently use the Veeam Community Edition, you can take advantage of our 30-day trial license promotion by signing up for Cloud IBR and opening a ticket requesting your 30-day Veeam Enterprise edition trial license. We provide two pricing options for purchasing Veeam licensing:
Veeam Universal License (VUL): Click here to calculate your annual subscription fees.
Monthly Rental through Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) program:
- $11.00 per VM/Hyper-V guest backup
- $12.00 per Agent Based backup
- $12.00 per File Share backup, i.e. NAS backup
- $5.25 per workstation backup
- $12.00 per public cloud VM backup
Please note that the VUL annual subscription allows you to open tickets directly with Veeam as per their Support Policy. For monthly rental licensing, our Platinum customers can open Veeam support tickets with us at no cost and Silver subscribers are billed $125.00USD/hour for Veeam support tickets.
How many public IP addresses are available at time of recovery?
The Cloud IBR automated recovery process provisions a /29 block of IP addresses. All 6 usable IP addresses are automatically assigned during the recovery to provide remote access into your infrastructure. One of the IP’s is assigned to a router, two are assigned to the management port on physical hosts and the remaining three are assigned to the firewall, which is used for your server port mappings that you specify in the Cloud IBR console during onboarding. If you require additional IP’s, you can purchase additional /28 or /29 blocks in the PhoenixNAP BMC console, after you perform your recovery.