The feature we want to talk about in this post though is the ability to leverage XFS as a backup repository (not new in v10) but with the ability to integrate into the block cloning technology or data block sharing feature of XFS also known as reflink. A similar story to Windows ReFS which there has been lot of content over the last few years in that space.

Using XFS and Block Cloning for a Veeam repository

As I mentioned before Windows ReFS integration came about a few years ago from a Veeam Backup & Replication point of view which brought some benefits to certain processes when it comes to the Veeam backup process. In general, what both block cloning technology enables is the ability to perform faster merges as well space less synthetic full backups.

Ultimately this will enable faster backup jobs (faster merges) and reduce space consumed when using synthetic full backups.

This post will be a short introduction into XFS and Ubuntu, we have been able to use XFS as a repository for years running on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, this post will run through the adding a disk to an Ubuntu machine and getting things set and ready for taking advantage of this block cloning technology.

XFS as a file system is available on other distributions of Linux but the one being used here today is Ubuntu, requirements can be found here in the Veeam Help Centre.

Benefits of Block Clone for Backup Repository

I have already mentioned some of the benefits in previous sections but I think the visual concept of these benefits also are worth seeing, this YouTube video demo below is based on Windows ReFS but the concept is the same for those fast merges and space less synthetic full backups.

https://youtu.be/NndMBCDPBDY

more details from a Windows ReFS point of view is explained in this blog post.

Preparing your Ubuntu XFS repository

For the purposes of the demo I am using a virtual machine and I am going to add a disk to that virtual machine and then run through these steps, the same steps will apply for a physical Linux system to achieve the same thing.

We first need to add the new disk to our virtual machine, obviously you can use a previously added disk but you will be formatting this drive so please do take care before just running through some of the following steps especially if you are holding existing backups on the disk you are about to format.

Once added reboot the VM

Now that your system is back up and you are connected again run the following command, this will now show you your newly added disk.

fdisk -l

At this stage this disk is not mounted or useable, so we must run the following command, where /dev/sdc is label of your disk shown above.

Mkfs.xfs -b size=4096 -m reflink=1,crc=1 /dev/sdc

Next we need to create a mount point run the following command, I am using the name /backup you can choose to call this what you wish but advice is something relevant to what you will be storing in this extent.

mkdir /backup

to this point you will now have a useable disk where you can store data but on reboot this mount will be removed so we need to make it persistent across reboots. We can do this by inserting the new disk device and mount point to the following. Run the following command.

vi /etc/fstab

then hit I to insert

/dev/sdc    /backups    xfs    defaults    1 2

To commit these changes hit ESC and the following.

:wq

Now we can mount the new disk and file system using the following command.

mount /dev/sdc

Now just to confirm that you have your newly created disk and mount point type the following command.

df -h

Adding new XFS disk to Veeam Backup & Replication as a Backup Repository

Now we are ready to add the machine above into Veeam Backup & Replication so we can start sending our backups and take advantage of the data block sharing. First up we need to open the Veeam Backup & Replication console and navigate to Backup infrastructure and Backup Repositories and hit Add Repository you will then select direct attached storage and walk through the wizard below or edit if you previously had this machine added. Give the repository an appropriate name.

If this is a new Linux machine you will have to add the Linux box as a managed server if it already added, then it will be available in the drop down. When you add and you select populate you will see all the available paths that can be used, this also gives you the capacity and free space.

Next, we need to define the path to the folder we want to use for the backup repository, this is where we must remember to tick use fast cloning on XFS volumes.

The following screens to completion are to define the mount server, this is used for restoring scenarios so choose something close to the repository or use the local Veeam Backup & Replication server if all in the same environment. Then we have review, apply and the summary of what you have just created.

From here you can go and create your backup job and point your backups to land on the new repository. As part of the job configuration be sure to enable synthetic full. You will find this setting under storage, and advanced settings with the following window.

To confirm those space less synthetic full backups you can jump back onto the Linux machine and run the following command and see the space used.

dh -h

You should not be using root!

It was suggested that I should add a section on creating a specific user so that we are not just using the root account, I in fact do not just use the god mode to add the repository but I follow this process when creating or editing a repository server to be used within Veeam Backup & Replication. Aside from the obvious security issues with using root which works fine for most lab environments it is not going to be best practice for most organisations (this should be not best practice for any organisation)

Veeam only needs a regular user that has the correct permissions to be able to write to the specific repository folder. Sudo is not required and again why would it be based on the best practice I just mentioned. The best approach is to create a restricted user, set the appropriate required permissions and then set the repository folder to only that user.

I will also mention that I create my Ubuntu / CentOS boxes with a template using a more privileged account, depending on your distribution and how you are attaching disks or first starting here you may have to use sudo depending on your default access user to make the required Veeam accounts for repository use. But, the point is that Veeam does not require root access or sudo to your repository servers.

Creating the user

Useradd –d /home/veeam -m veeam

Passwd Veeam123!

(BYOP – Bring Your Own Password)

Configure the folder / repository permissions

Chown veeam.veeam /disk3/backups

Chmod 700 backups

Then when you go and add this repository server to Veeam Backup & Replication then you will add the Linux account and credentials like below

Let’s show some savings

I am interested in people that have already gone down this route and those that are seeing some good savings from using XFS and Reflink. I know a number of Service Providers that have gone down this route. My ask is that if you can share your results and show us the savings. If you mail them to me Michael.Cade@veeam.com I will upload the results here to show the benefits from a real life scenario rather than just lab testing.

There are 4 steps you need to take.

Navigate to the YouTube channel you wish to add to your RSS feed.

Next we need to view the page source code, right click anywhere on the page to get the context menu and select view page source.

You will likely now see something like below,

We then need to find the following text hit F3 or CNTRL + F and search for “channel-external-id”

Get the value of the external ID and then you have your RSS feed URL

Replace that value into this URL:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC76WpBnpf9aEqxMqu-C9yIw

Then to add to teams but this works for any RSS feed software. Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the channel you wish the RSS feeds to be mentioned. 3 dots in the top right will give you the context menu, select connectors to configure RSS

You will then have a window that shows all available connectors if you have not done so already add the RSS connector and click configure.

Simply give your feed a reference name and then paste the RSS feed URL we obtained earlier and a schedule in which you would like this to be checked for updates.

This might help a few people out but wanted to add this here as I recently had to go searching for a solution.

The build

The final build & review

Those that followed #Project_Freddie this was the makeover for the home office and that included a 49″ ultrawide monitor, a lot of people have asked about this and it is a game changer, going from 2 x 27″ monitors to this is really nice, losing that bezel and gap down the middle is the best thing.

The Challenge

However, when you need to share your screen you are sharing a lot of real estate (3840 x 1080 to be precise) and if your audience doesn’t have the same or similar then this image is going to look very very small. Yes, people can use zoom functions to see it better on their end but that’s a lot of hassle.

The plan or outcome I needed was a way to change my resolution quickly, and by quickly I didn’t mean right click on my desktop, select display settings and then change the display resolution each and every time I needed to create a smaller looking desktop that is more readable for the audience. I mean that’s a lot of steps.

Finding a Tool

Keeping the stream deck option in the back of my head I had to find a program or a way in which to change between the full resolution and something more viewable. The best one I found was from 12noon called Display Changer, simple stuff.

Download this and it will be installed unless you state otherwise to the C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\ directory.

Now I only have one monitor so I only need to change one resolution at one time, this tool is also applicable and useful though if you have multiple monitors and there are commands you can use to list monitors and then define resolutions and other settings for each monitor.

After messing around in the command line for a bit with some settings I found that the following two commands were the settings I would like to flip between. The first one is the recommended resolution for the monitor and the second is the more viewable option when I am sharing my screen.

“C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc.exe” -width=3840 -height=1080 -refresh=max -depth=max

“C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc.exe” -width=1920 -height=1080 -refresh=max -depth=max

Running the above commands from the command line would in turn change the resolution, but who wants to run a command every time they want to change their resolution. Not I!

Stream Deck

Next up we want to take two of those little LED buttons and make them switches for my command above.

Open your stream deck software and you will see your deck with all your pretty LED button icons.

Next up find an icon to use here so that you can quickly identify what the button is going to do, a shout here to @ArtificialCC with the custom packs available here.

Choose your button option, for this to function correctly we need to use the System > Open button on the right hand side of the window.

Firstly, change the icon of the button so you can identify what the function button will do for you.

I then gave a name to mine, but likelihood is that once I am completely used to the icons I will remove the text, I find that the text is just too small and makes the clean icons not look as clear.

We then add in our command line that I showed previously to the App / File location as you can see below.

Repeat that step for as many resolution change buttons you want and then you can toggle between them for whatever reasons you have, I have also since found that this also helps when recording my YouTube content videos is that I can condense the whole resolution down, this helps with post edit.

The final look can be a quick and easy way to manipulate your screen resolution for the task you have.

And there was me thinking that maybe I need to have a second screen above, maybe a 32/34″ ultrawide curved screen… never say never.

If this was useful let me know, if you would like to see a walk-through video on how this was done end to end also let me know below.

This post will run through some true stories and scenarios that keep all of you on your toes on a daily basis as well as touch on some of the latest FREE tools from Veeam Software.

Introduction – Praise the sysadmin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_administrator

Downtime

Over the past 12 months we saw some major downtime events lead to lost revenue for several highly recognisable brands and caused a severe knock on effect to their consumer confidence and their brand reputation.

One of the most common causes of outages is unplanned configuration changes to a system, often when an immediate fix for a bug or potential system vulnerability unintentionally creates a much larger problem.

True Stories

BA – https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjnqva0-obVAhVBJVAKHa3PBNgQFggoMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbusiness%2F2017%2Fmay%2F30%2Fbritish-airways-it-failure-experts-doubt-power-surge-claim&usg=AFQjCNEEPDeqtosSvmM3EUmxAPpQ7gXGjw

AWS – https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjnqva0-obVAhVBJVAKHa3PBNgQFghdMAk&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.recode.net%2F2017%2F3%2F2%2F14792636%2Famazon-aws-internet-outage-cause-human-error-incorrect-command&usg=AFQjCNF5mqkFb4RJ53IOFnYWaC-ckYbDKQ

https://www.cloudendure.com/blog/7-system-downtime-incidents-of-2017/

But also, it’s always the IT Department – Fix the lights, if it has electric flowing through it then generally the IT team are going to get asked to replace, fix or troubleshoot.

Don’t Annoy the IT Guy – Don’t try this at home y’all

http://www.cracked.com/article_19528_5-true-stories-that-prove-you-shouldnt-piss-off-it-guy.html

1. Omar Ramos-Lopez Remotely Shuts Down 100 Cars
2. Terry Childs Holds San Francisco Hostage
3. Joseph Nolan and Jason Cornish Should Not Be Trusted With Passwords
4. Timothy Lloyd Plants $10 Million Time Bomb

Key Takeaways

Identify what is mission critical

To avoid unexpected interruptions or downtime, System Administrators should tier their services and identify the systems that are mission critical to the business, these applications should include those are directly linked to the success or failure of the business, point of sale, ticketing or billing.

Develop a failover plan for top tier systems

Offering a high level of availability is not something that just happens by chance, careful planning for every aspect of the environment is key. The failover plan should be one that carefully plans for load capacity to handle unexpected spikes.

Monitoring

If you cannot see it, you cannot see it coming. The only way to ensure that you have an active grasp on your IT environment is with visibility into your IT Systems, knowing what has been affected and possibly how to fix that in the least amount of time possible.

Free Stuff

It’s been a while since I took a look at the plethora of FREE stuff available from Veeam and the list has grown quite a bit. These are some of the noticeable products available as free tiers but there are more and I will actually try and put together a post based on these later on in the year.

Veeam Agent for Windows Free Edition – https://www.veeam.com/windows-backup-free-download.html?ad=in-text-link

Veeam Agent for Linux Free Edition – https://www.veeam.com/linux-backup-free-download.html?ad=in-text-link

Veeam Backup Free Edition – https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free-download.html?ad=in-text-link

Veeam ONE Free Edition – https://www.veeam.com/virtual-server-management-one-free-download.html?ad=in-text-link

Free AWS backup from N2W Software – https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0748HYJSB?ref=_ptnr_web_veeamfreetools

Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 v2 (Community Edition) – https://www.veeam.com/free-backup-microsoft-office-365-download.html?ad=in-text-link

VMworld 2018 – Win a FREE ticket to VMworld – https://www.veeam.com/vmworld/tickets?ad=onpage

Veeam FastSCP for Microsoft Azure – https://www.veeam.com/fastscp-azure-vm-download.html?ad=in-text-link

Veeam Powered Network – https://www.veeam.com/cloud-disaster-recovery-azure-download.html?ad=in-text-link

If you want to find out more about this sacred day for the SysAdmin this looks to be the best place to find out more so for next year you can plan your day, week or month accordingly.

http://sysadminday.com/

More examples of big brand outages. – http://www.csoonline.com/article/3152801/security/tech-outages-of-2016-and-how-to-prevent-them-in-2017.html#slide2