Custom SureBackup job with Veeam for application verification

This article quickly covers the creation of Veeam custom SureBackup configurations that can be used to verify enterprise applications. In reality this is for any application included in the backup. In particular, as also seen in the previous article Veeam SureBackup configuration consists in the creating an Application Group and a Virtual Lab.

In the case of Application Groups it is possible to specify the intended configurations for the verification process by mean of SureBackup roles (SBRoles). The SBRoles are configuration files in the xml format which instruct Veeam Backup Server on how to conduct the verification for a particular application. At the time of writing the Veeam Backup Server already ships with some examples for popular enterprise applications like:

• DNS Server
• Domain Controller (Master, Non-Authoritative, Global Catalog)
• Mail Server
• SQL Server
• Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365
• Web Server

It is possible to add more applications indeed. How to create Veeam custom SureBackup configuration files?

All is required is to create a new xml file (based on existing one) and just change the pertinent details. One of them is GUID number that for obvious reasons needs to be unique. This article covers the entire process for the creation of a custom SureBackup configuration file to verify an Oracle Database Server. Once the custom SBRole file is created it is just a matter of associating this with the pertinent Veeam SureBackup job. The idea is to provide simple steps in this article to test a Service making sure it is alive and kicking by simply checking the associated Network Port. There are plenty of other examples like the connectivity to specific CIFS and NFS Shares rather than running custom scripts to test specific parameters for the intended applications to verify. Such scripts can be the current ones maybe already available in the Production environment. These scripts can be reused for the automatic Veeam verification process. The idea in this article is eventually to start building a gallery hosting Veeam custom SureBackup configuration files hosted on this blog that can be used for free. The first application is Oracle Database Server.

Create Veeam custom SureBackup job for application verification

This scenario covers the verification process for the Oracle Database Server verification. By default, the Oracle Database Server uses Network Port 1521 to listen to any incoming request for its instances. Actually this is the Oracle default Listener Port. The idea is to create a rule (SBRole) to check if this service is up and running when restoring the Oracle Database Server. As a first step let’s make sure to detect the configured port for the Oracle Database Server Listener. In this example from a Windows based installation of Oracle Database a “netstat” command will show the active connections. As anticipated connection to Network Port 1521 is established.

Now that the Network Port is known the next step is to obtain a unique GUID number that can be used to create the custom SureBackup configuration file. For this purpose the GuidGenerator website offers free numbers that can also be created in batches up to 2000 GUIDs. So plenty for any application to test!

At this point everything is ready to proceed with the creation of Veeam custom SureBackup configuration file for Oracle Database Server. The built-in Veeam SBRole files are located on the Veeam Backup Server in

“%ProgramFiles%\Veeam\Backup and Replication\Backup\SbRoles”.

Let’s create a copy of an existing one to use as a template and rename it after the application desired. In this case it was a copy of the MailServer.xml file and then renamed to “Oracle”.

By opening the xml file with a text editor it shows the current structure.

There is a number of fields that need to be updated and make this SBRole configuration file unique:

• ID (replace with new generated GUID number)
• Name for SBRole section (Identifies the name of the SBrole)
• Name for SBVerificationOption (Identifies the name of the verification test script)
• Arguments (identifies the Network Port to use for verification)

This is a simple example. In reality, it is possible to elaborate more by adding more sections for network Ports to tests and also custom executable and scripts with the pertinent arguments which will be passed on. It is important to include a success exit status on script to let Veeam SureBackup job to include this in the main job Report.

Once the file is created the next step is to create a new Veeam SureBackup job which includes the Application Group for Oracle Database Server and the newly created Veeam custom SureBackup configuration file.

Let’s add the Oracle Server from Backup file and click on edit to set the custom settings.

In the Verification Option windows there is the newly created one for Oracle.

Let’s accept or change the Startup Options as required.

In the Test Script tab there is the list of verification test to run and in particular the test with Network Port 1521 as desired.

From the edit button it is possible to change the verification settings, add and remove them.

Last step is to specify the user account under which the custom script will be run.

At this point the Application Group shows the selected role for Oracle.

A final summary to review main information.

Next is to create the Veeam custom SureBackup job for Oracle.

Select the desired Virtual Lab.

Select the desired Application Group.

Optionally add more machines from existing backups to extend the verification process based on dependencies.

In the settings the option to add SNMP trap and email settings for notifications where to send the Report.

And the ability to schedule the verification process periodically and even based on other jobs executions.

A final summary shows the main detail before saving changes.

At this point when running the custom SureBackup job it will show in the log the execution of each step including the results for the custom SureBackup configuration as per screenshot below.

The execution results are also available in the main job report.

This is just a simple and practical example on how Veeam easily helps running custom SureBackup verification jobs for pretty much any application with complex requirements. It leverages built-in commands and also the execution of any script based on Command, PowerShell and BASH depending if on Windows or Unix/Linux machines.