VMs stored on vVols may experience a significant stun during the snapshot removal process after the backup session.

Below are two solutions for this issue. The first aligns with the recommended solution from VMware, which will require the creation of a Veeam Backup Proxy on every host in the cluster. The second solution does not require the creation of additional proxies and instead introduces a delay between hotadd disk release and snapshot removal request.

VMware Recommended Solution

This solution is based on VMware KB51538, which states:

To resolve this issue place the virtual machine which exists in the vVOL datastore and the virtual machine which involves in the backup process on the same ESXi host. This will ensure that the bind operation is held by the same ESXi host and snapshot consolidation completes without causing long pause.

 

1. Create a Backup Proxy on every host in the VMware cluster where backups occur.
2. Create the following registry value on the Veeam Backup Server.
   
   Key Location: HKLM\Software\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication\
   Value Name: EnableSameHostHotaddMode
   Value Type: DWORD (32-Bit) Value
   Value Data:
   
   For the value data, there are two options, 1 or 2. Both values 1 or 2 will enable a feature that forces Veeam Backup & Replication to first attempt to use, and wait for, the Proxy that is on the same host as the VM to be backed up. The difference between the two is as follows:
   • 1 - If proxy on the same host as VM becomes unavailable, Veeam Backup & Replication will failover to any available proxy and use the available transport mode. This may lead to a situation where a proxy on another host is selected, and hotadd is used, which may cause stun. This ensures the highest performance but may risk VM stun.
   • 2 - If proxy on the same host as VM becomes unavailable, Veeam Backup & Replication will use any available proxy but use network transport mode. This minimizes all stun risk but may reduce backup performance when forced to use Network transport mode.
   Veeam automatically scans for registry values every 15 minutes. Wait 15 minutes for the value to take effect, or stop all jobs and reboot to force the value to be checked.