Just Virtualization

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 – Blog Series – Part 1

For this blog series, I will look at M365, which many people use daily, and why it is necessary to have backups using the Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. Now my approach will be coming not from a typical user perspective but from an MSP (Managed Service Provider) perspective. I work for ThinkOn, which provides many services, including Veeam for Microsoft 365.

I will start part one of this series by going through the shared responsibility model for Microsoft 365 and how Veeam plays a key role there. As we progress through the series, I will talk more about the installation of Veeam for Microsoft 365 and other best practices. I will even make mention a custom portal that we have developed here at ThinkOn to make management of your backups as easy as 1-2-3.

Shared Responsibility Model

The shared responsibility model regarding your data relates to what Microsoft is responsible for and what you as the end-user are responsible for in protecting your data. Many thought that Microsoft did backups for your data, and that assumption could not be farther from the truth. When your data resides in Microsoft 365 as the end-user, you are responsible for backing up your data.

What is explicitly each party responsible for, you ask? Well, here is an outline with a chart also that explains:

Microsoft:

Global Infrastructure – Uptime of the Cloud service
O365 data replication – DC to DC for geo-redundancy
Recycle Bin – limited time data recovery and no point in time recovery
Security – physical, logical, app-level, and User/Admin controls
Regulatory – data privacy, regulatory controls, industry certifications, HIPPA compliance

Customer:

O365 Data – access and control of the data
Office 365 Backup – a copy of data stored in another location, including full data retention
Point in Time Recovery – ability to recover to a specific point in time
Data-Level: Internal – accidental deletion, malicious insiders, employee retaliation, evidence tampering
Data-Level: External – ransomware, malware, hackers, rogue apps
Owner Role – corporate and industry regulations

And a few more reasons why you need a backup solution for Microsoft 365:

This is where having a solution like Veeam for Microsoft 365 allows the Service Provider and end-user to protect their data that resides in the Microsoft Cloud. This can be on-premise for both the end-user and provider or within the Service Providers’ infrastructure for the end-user. When using a Service Provider where I work at ThinkOn, we have developed our own portal and solution for backups, which I will not go too detailed on but just leave this picture.

This will conclude Part 1 of the Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 backup series. In part 2, I will start to get into the application for Veeam and discuss some configurations and best practices. For now, I will leave these URLs below for resources and references regarding Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and my company site if you know anyone interested in our services or are looking for a Service Provider for your backup needs.

One more thing I forgot in this post – BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP is needed! See the following links, including one from Microsoft.

Recover from Ransomware – Microsoft 365 – Recover from Ransomware

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 – https://www.veeam.com/backup-microsoft-office-365.html

ThinkON – https://thinkon.com/cloud-backup-microsoft-365/

And another great resource recently released by Dave Kawula, Cristal Kawula, and Cary Sun –

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365: Operational Guide

VeeamON 2022 Live – Recap

VeeamON 2022 was live this year in Las Vegas and it was a great event. I am a little late with my review of the conference due to catching COVID when I got back which took me out last week. But I am back to feeling great again so here is my in-depth review and many of the new things coming in v12.

Being able to walk the strip as well being my first time in Vegas was something of amazement with the sights and sounds as well as the lights. You definitely get your steps in when you go to Vegas!

First off the conference was great and to be able to attend live again was something else. Being able to discuss and mingle with the vCommunity again was terrific as chatting with someone in person is something special. The conference was packed into three days of exciting sessions, the welcome reception, expo hall, tech town, swag shop and even a visit from some friendly little dogs to lighten your day.

The welcome reception on the first night was filled with music, live performers, some great food and the ability to just mingle and chat with everyone. After a long first night, the next two days would be jam-packed with sessions, expo hall meeting vendors and tech town where you could do the Hands-On-Labs or participate in LabWarz with the chance to win $10,000!!

While attending sessions there was also work meetings and discussions with Veeam on future outlooks and strategies which was another great benefit of attending live. Below are some of the highlights from the event and what is coming in v12 for Veeam Backup & Replication which many I am looking forward to.

v12 – What’s New & Enhancements

Veeam Console

Better Kerberos support
MFA Login – ability to use Authenticator app for secure logins – this will help improve security and also allow us to keep Veeam off the Domain now possibly (needs testing)
Auto-Logoff option now to kill disconnected sessions – will save memory and usage on Veeam servers
Group Managed Service Account (gMSA)
- The backup server does not store passwords for application processing
- The backup server gets passwords on-demand from Active Directory

Core

Improved retention for freeing up space on repositories
Drastically improved per-machine backup chains – separate VBM for every VM in a job now
NEW – PostgreSQL database option and a migration path from SQL – saves MS licenses

Better Compression algorithms:

High compression
- Backup: up to three times faster, up to 20% better compression
- Restore: two times faster
Extreme compression
- Backup: up to 40% faster, up to 15% better compression
- Restore: two times faster

VCC Improvements

CDP for Service Providers now – tenant can direct CDP to VCC
CDP to vCloud Director – can direct CDP to vAPPs
CDP from VCC to another VCC – ability to set up CDP to send data from one VCC to another VCC at another Datacenter
The ability of the Service Provider to complete a restore within the VCC environment from Tenant backups (Instant Recovery)

VSPC

Ability to patch remotely managed VBR servers – improved

VeeaMover (not the final name)

Any file system to any other file system
Move backups to a different repository
Scale-Out Repository extent evacuation
Migrate NTFS to REFS (any to any)
Copy backups to a different repository
Rebalance Scale-Out Repository
Migrate REFS to XFS for Hardened Repository

Job level move
- Disables job during migration
- Moves backup files (including transaction logs)
Machine level move
- Excludes machine(s) from existing job
- Moves backup files (including transaction logs)
- Includes machine(s) to a new job

SOBR rebalance:

Puts extents into maintenance mode and rebalances

Object storage

Can be used as a performance tier as well as a capacity tier
Can go straight from performance tier to archive tier without a capacity tier (optional)
Can be used as extents in SOBR with immutability for a set number of days
Can export full backup from object storage
Agents can send directly to OBS now
Improved Object Storage format of files
Export full backups from OBS

New Features for Linux:

Linux proxy: backup from Storage Snapshots for NFS
CDP proxy
Tape server

Top Secret session

VM365 integration with VeeamONE and VSPC coming in VM365 v7

Monitoring and reporting on controllers, repository/proxy servers, object storage repository

While all these enhancements and new offerings for v12 are coming I think one of my favourites is the “VeeaMover” that is going to allow easy migrations from ReFS to XFS and vice versa as well as the ability to rebalance your SOBR now! Game changer!!

Many of the sessions that were live are also now available on-demand to watch including the virtual content as well. You can check it out here – VeeamON 2022 – On-Demand

One other noteworthy announcement is that VeeamON 2023 is returning to Miami next year, so get your sunscreen and bathing suits ready to hit the beach with Veeam next year.

VeeamON 2022 – Backups Premier Event – LIVE AGAIN!!

I have been a Veeam Vanguard for five years now and was fortunate enough to have attended the VeeamON 2017 event in New Orleans, and it was fantastic. Great sessions, lots of networking and meeting more of the Veeam folks as well as Vanguards.

Being a Vanguard is a real honour, and many people ask me when they see my Veeam Vanguard jacket or shirt – What is Veeam? My answer is a typical one – it is backup software for your infrastructure for now and the future, leading to a conversation around technology, backups, and many other things.

This year’s event is back in Las Vegas in the hybrid mode with in-person and virtual attendees. It will be the first event since 2019 in Miami that will be back to live attendance which is a great thing. In the last couple of years, with the COVID pandemic, the switch to all virtual has left many people feeling disconnected, including me, so getting back to being able to speak to people and share technology stories will be great.

One other great benefit is if you register, you have the chance to win the wicked Veeam Kicks sneakers as well!

Attending VeeamON is one of the best events to learn more about backup and what Veeam is all about. This event is packed with something for everyone, from user sessions to networking and training.

Please also check out the CrowdCompass App (hopefully, that is what will get used again this year) that lets you organize your day and sessions to attend. Available for Android and Apple as well –

VeeamON – crowdcompass app – VeeamON 2022 – CrowdCompass

Google Play store –
CrowdCompass – Google Play Store

iTunes –
CrowdCompass – iTunes

Agenda – Agenda

Veeam Industry Speakers – Industry Experts

Experiences – Experiences at VeeamON

Veeam Certified Training – VMCE/VMCA Training

Hopefully, those that can join in person do and here is to having a great experience again live. I hope to see you there!

If you’re interested in learning more about the event from fellow Veeam Vanguards, please click on the links below:

VMWare vExpert Subprogram Acceptance – Cloud Provider 2022

I got accepted to the vExpert Cloud Provider subprogram!

This year I was accepted to the vExpert 2022 program for the third year in a row and decided to apply to the subprogram for Cloud Provider. Since I work with an MSP and we have many vCloud/NSX installed in our datacenters, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to expand my skills further on the Cloud side of things with @VMware.

As always with any evangelist program applications, the waiting is the hard part, and then an email came yesterday indicating the acceptance emails were going out, but nothing was received. Wait – is this a good thing, maybe? So after another day of waiting, the email finally arrived with an acceptance.

Thanks to the @vExpert program and Corey Romero – @vCommunityGuy. I look forward to what this subprogram brings and helping to contribute in any way I can. I will post back on some of the benefits of the subprogram once I have more information on it.

Synology DS920+ Network Attached Storage – DX517 Expansion

I have been using my Synology DS920+ now for just over a year. I got contacted by someone there about testing a unit, and my initial blog was in February 2021 – Synology Initial Blog and I have since written other blogs about different aspects of the Synology interface, etc. –

Synology Web Console

Synology Active Backup for Business

Synology DMS – iSCSI Accidental Deletion

Since then, I have been in touch with Synology and received at the end of last year the DX517 expansion unit, which is a 5-bay device attached using an eSATA cable to the central unit.

When I received the unit, I got told by the contact at Synology that they were sorting out hard drives for the unit as it did not come with any. So I had to wait on the drives.

So on March 3, 2022, I finally received my drives for the unit, the Seagate Ironwolf Pro 10TB drives (5 of them).

So I proceeded to install the drives into the caddies in the unit to get them all ready. I then moved the unit under my office desk where the main DS920+ was located to place this one underneath it since it was larger in length and so that the central unit could sit on top of it, making the cable connection for the eSATA easier.

So I cabled everything, including power, and powered up the expansion unit before turning on the central unit to recognize it on boot up. During this process, I happened to unplug my central unit, which has my VMware lab running on it and corrupted my Domain Controllers, but that will be another blog and how to restore LUNs from backup after my testing.

So, upon initial configuration, I decided to go with RAID5 for the expansion as having five 10TB drives, I would lose one for parity but still, get close to 40TB of useable space. I kicked off the configuration, which then created Storage Pool 1 –

So once the storage pool was created, I then proceeded to create three extra volumes since I already had one volume from Storage Pool 2, which is the main unit with four drives in it that are 8TB a piece using the Synology file system format (Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)), not your typical RAID. The volumes started at one and then skipped two since it was already created in Storage Pool 2 –

So I will have three extra storage volumes to use for my homelab now, and I divided them up as –

2 x 10TB and 1 x 16TB (remaining space)

I may even eventually move the information on the primary unit to the expansion and redo the RAID configuration, but that has not been decided just yet. I plan to spread out the LUNs I currently have on to each of the volumes to allow for better performance in VMware.

The next steps will be to create LUNs that can be mapped to my four homelab hosts (NUCs) to be used within the VMware environment for additional VMs and used for storing backups for Veeam. As you can see in the above pictures, I need to wait for the Optimization task that runs once you set up new pools and volumes to complete.

So it is going to be great to have much more storage to use with my homelab and test out how the DX517 works with the DS920+. I also have two NVME SSD drives in the DS920+ used for caching, and with the upgrade to the DSM 7.1 Beta, I can use the same cache across multiple volumes, so I cannot wait; to test this!

Again thank you to @Synology for shipping me this stuff to use in my homelab, as it has been a blessing to have good storage.

Until my next blog, I will cover the power mishap and restoring of LUNs.

Veeam Vanguard 2022 – Year Five

WOW! Accepted for the fifth year in a row. #VeeamVanguard

Veeam Vanguard 2022

I was a part of the Veeam Vanguard program for the past four years in 2018-2021 with the hopes of another renewal for the 2022 year. Applications opened up for the 2022 year, and this time, it was all based on your application, whereas in previous years, you could have others nominate you. I had been very active and remain active with the Veeam space promoting the product, blogging, Twitter, Paper.li E-Newspaper, and even wrote a second edition of my book for Packt Publishing – Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication v11

So I filled out the application with examples of all my activities throughout the year in the hopes I would be accepted. After applying to wait is the hard part for that email indicating you are in or out.

So based on my post as you can imagine, I was accepted for a fourth year into one of the best evangelist programs out there – Veeam Vanguard. Many thanks to @RickVanover @NikolaPejkova and the amazing people at @Veeam @Veeamvanguard

To be part of such a great group is an amazing feeling. This program is one of the best out there for promoting the Veeam products and giving insight to the Veeam Team.

You can read about it here – https://www.veeam.com/vanguard.html

Veeam Vanguard benefits include the following:

Access to Veeam Product teams
A forum to provide feedback and perspective
Sharing of unique perspectives in the industry and exclusive networking opportunities
NFR licenses for all Veeam products.
Access to pre-releases and betas.
Exclusive access to Veeam Forums and Support.
Exclusive access to Veeam events like VeeamON.

One of the best benefits is the #VanguardFriday calls we have on Teams where you are able to chat about anything as it ends the week on a good note even when we are all busy.

Here is to another successful year of the Veeam Vanguard program for 2022 and looking forward to meeting many of you in person again at VeeamON.

VMware vExpert 2022 – Year 3

VMware vExpert 2022

It is official, I have been awarded VMware vExpert 2022 for the 3rd year in a row.

I first applied in 2020 as my first go-round and was accepted, so continued to apply again in the Evangelist Path for 2022. As luck would have it I was accepted for 2022 so another year in a great program.

Just to highlight what it takes to be a vExpert and the official benefits, however, the non-official benefits of resources and career growth I feel benefitted me most from being in the program.

Benefits of being a vExpert

Here’s is a list of some of the benefits when receiving the award.

Networking with 2,000+ vExperts / Information Sharing
Knowledge Expansion on VMware & Partner Technology
Opportunity to apply for vExpert BU Lead Subprograms (see below)
Possible Job Opportunities
Direct Access to VMware Business Units via Subprograms
Blog Traffic Boost through Advocacy, @vExpert, @VMware, VMware Launch & Announcement Campaigns
1 Year VMware Licenses for Home Labs for almost all Products & Some Partner Products
Private VMware & VMware Partner Sessions
Gifts from VMware and VMware Partners
vExpert Celebration Parties at both VMworld US and VMworld Europe
VMware Advocacy Platform Invite (share your content to thousands of vExperts & VMware employees who amplify your content via their social channels)
Private Slack Channels for vExpert and the BU Lead Subprograms

Which Path Should you Apply for?

Evangelist Path
The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, VMTN contributors, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist path. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public.

Customer Path
The Customer Path is for leaders who evangelize VMware. We are looking for passionate customers who do the work to evangelize within their organization or worked with VMware to build success stories, act as customer references, given public interviews, spoken at conferences, or were VMUG leaders. The actives must not be related to your position within the company, i.e. not being paid for evangelizing VMware. A VMware employee reference is recommended if your activities weren’t all in public.

Partner Path
The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning through accreditations and certifications and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements.

VMUG & VCDX

If you are an active VMUG Leader or hold the title of VCDX you will qualify for the vExpert award. VMUG leaders are verified through the VCDX directory. VMUG leader titles and activities are also verified and you must be an active leader in your chapter. Inactive VMUG leaders will not qualify for the award. To apply via VMUG or VCDX, please use the evangelist path and state you are a VCDX or VMUG leader and which chapter. All VCDX applicants will be verified via vcdx.vmware.com.

To apply you need to enter vexpert.vmware.com in your browser. If it is for the first time, you need to create an account and then you can apply. If you need any help with your application you can always contact a vExpert PRO. They will assist you with how to apply and explain the best way to apply.

Congratulations to all those awarded the vExpert 2022 and welcome to the newcomers. Don’t be shy about reaching out and asking questions on the Slack channel.

If you did not apply when applications were opened at the end of 2021, you can apply again in the vExpert 2022 second-half applications that should be open around June/July.

My vExpert page: vExpert – Chris Childerhose
My VMware forum page: VMware Forums – Chris Childerhose

VMware Advocacy Program: https://advocacy.vmware.com/

Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication v11 — PUBLISHED

“Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication 11” is now in publication (since February 2022) and is ready to order either the book or e-book/kindle.

Well, since writing my first book on v10, I debated to myself about writing the update of the book to v11. It took me some time to process and think about if I wanted to do it, which I then took the plunge. This time, the process was much smoother as I had already done the first book and understood the templates, formatting, etc. The team at Packt worked with me again and my busy schedule to create something I think that everyone will enjoy reading. Whether you are a newbie with Veeam or a seasoned expert, you can learn something I think from this book.

Protect your cloud, virtual, and on-premises environments by implementing Veeam’s powerful backup and replication technology

Key Features

Gain in-depth knowledge of CDP and Hardened Repositories to use in your virtual environment
Explore Veeam’s monitoring and reporting utility – Veeam ONE – along with Linux proxy enhancements
Work with the new Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator (VDRO) for testing failovers and backups.

Book Description

Veeam is one of the leading modern data protection solutions, making it a necessary skill for anyone responsible for securing virtual environments. This new second edition of Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication is updated to cover Veeam version 11. This book guides you through implementing modern data protection solutions for your cloud and virtual infrastructure with Veeam, all while mastering advanced concepts such as CDP, Extended Object Storage support, Veeam ONE enhancements, and VDRO.

Starting with Veeam essentials, including installation, best practices, and optimizations for Veeam Backup & Replication, you’ll get to grips with the 3-2-1-1-0 rule to safeguard data. You’ll understand how to set up a backup server, proxies, repositories, and more and then advance to cover a powerful feature of Veeam 11 – Continuous Data Protection (CDP). As you progress, you’ll learn about immutability (also known as hardened repositories) and discover best practices for creating them. In the concluding chapters, you’ll explore the new proxy option available in Linux and become well-versed with advanced topics such as CDP, extended object storage support, Veeam ONE enhancements, and VDRO.

By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the skills you need to implement Veeam Backup & Replication for securing your environment and disaster recovery.

What you will learn

Discover the advanced concepts of Veeam Backup & Replication 11
Master application optimization based on Veeam best practices
Get to grips with configuring CDP and working with repositories and proxies
Explore ways to protect your backups with immutable hardened repositories
Understand the enhancements to backups, instant recovery, and Linux proxies
Explore the Veeam ONE enhancements
Become well versed in Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator

Who This Book Is For

This Veeam backup book is for IT professionals who have intermediate to advanced-level knowledge of virtualization and backups and backup applications. Anyone who needs a reference guide for learning the advanced features of Veeam Backup & Replication and how they are used, including best practices and optimizations, will also find this book helpful.

Installing and Upgrading Veeam
The 3-2-1-1-0 Rule – Keeping Data Safe
CDP – Continuous Data Protection
Immutability – Hardened Repositories
Backup Enhancements – Jobs, Copy Jobs, Restores, and More
Expanded Object Storage Support – Capacity and Archive Tiers
Linux Proxy Enhancements
Instant Recovery
Veeam ONE v11
Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator (Orchestrator)

While some of the book chapters got a refresh for v11, there are many new chapters on the latest and exciting features of v11a, including a first look at Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator. I believe it will be a great reference guide as well once you have completed it to quickly refer back to when doing a new deployment or possibly trying to remember something about CDP. It might just be helpful for the VMCE exam and an additional study resource.

So I hope I have piqued your interest, and if so you can order the book below at the link to Packt Publishing and Amazon, where the Kindle version is available, and the paperback will be shortly.

Order the book/e-book here – Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication 11

Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication v11 – Publication SOON

It is almost time and excitement when writing a book, and then the marketing department contacts you to say time for the big push! Well, I was contacted today by Packt Publishing to indicate that my new book – Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication v11, will be out in approximately two weeks (give or take).

I look forward to this book with updated content and some new stuff directly from v11. I will create another blog post once my book is published, but you can use the link to pre-order the book until then.

Exciting times ahead!!

Veeam Certified Architect 2022 – Achieved & Unlocked

It took two tries, but I completed the Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) certification exam. While taking it twice was not my ideal way to pass the exam, I found the newest version of the exam much easier to handle, including the setup and much better than the initial exam release for v1. Below are my thoughts on the exam itself and things you can prepare before you book it.

Training Requirements

If you are new to Veeam exams, there is a requirement for taking the courses before you site the exams for both VMCE and VMCA. While I had the VMCAv1 already, and I didn’t need to sit in the class, I did nonetheless. I am thrilled I sat the course as it was a complete overhaul of the v1 course and a much better way to learn is primarily hands-on. You can read my course review here –

Veeam Certified Architect 2022 – Course Review

Further, each is now a “versioned” exam for each year – in this case, VMCA 2022, with versioning done on an annual basis. Each exam will need to be independently renewed. As long as you pass each year, you will not be required to retake the class to upgrade, but if you miss a year, you will need to retake the course. This process can be challenging for many, and paying for each class and exam can hit the wallet if your company does not.

That said, if you are like me, you may have employer requirements to maintain the credential, so this is for you. Where I work, we are a Pro Partner and VASP Platinum. You can find us on the VCSP Reseller Ready website – VCSP Reseller Ready Companies

My VMCA Journey

I have worked with Veeam for close to 10 years now, and as I got deeper into the program, I started looking at certification. My first attempt at a Veeam certification was on the VCMEv9 one, which took me two tries to pass as well. Once I got past that, I started to look at the VMCA side of things on how it could help me do the Architecture components and design a new solution for my company. Here comes the v1 course, which I took back in the Summer/Fall of 2019 and was able to write the exam and pass on the first try. The exam for VMCA went better than the VMCE exam that I wrote on the same version.

The exam was very heavy on memorizing formulas for things like Proxy and Repository configurations and how you arrive at the CPU/RAM values. This was much harder than the current VMCA 2022 course and exam, which was not the case.

Starting in 2021, Veeam retooled the course to be more approachable and more hands-on, working with classmates to develop all the input and designs needed. The course was not heavy on lecture but rather hands-on working on an actual case study scenario to help you collect all the data. I work at ThinkOn Inc., where I am now the Lead Infrastructure Architect doing all our Datacenter designs and documentation. This course fitted right into my role and was something I am glad that I took before writing the exam.

The Exam Methodology

While the VMCE exam is multiple-choice based and requires your knowledge of the Veeam products, the VMCA exam gets based on a single scenario similar to the class. There are more than one of these, so if you have to retake, it won’t be the same, so don’t bother with trying to memorize any of the questions or answers; however, in my case, I did happen to get the same case study which I found odd. Also, the practice exam found in the Veeam LoChoice site will not be part of the exam either, so use that as just practice. The exam itself is split-screen, and the scenario is broken up into several tabs (5) and will always be present on the left side of your screen as you take the exam to refer back to it as needed for questions. I recommend for those questions that you have a more challenging time with refer back to the case study and use the Find feature (CTRL+F) for quick searches.

Even though the case study is available as you progress through the exam, be sure to take the first 10-20 minutes to read through the entire thing. Hence, you understand what they are looking for, especially the Business and Technical Requirement tabs.

Once you get through the scenario, there will be 40 multiple choice questions that all relate to the case study, but one thing to note directly from the exam guide notes –

This makes taking the exam slightly easier where each question you get asked is irrelevant to the previous one, so you don’t have to worry if you got the last wrong question making the current question harder – that is not the case as noted!

Preparation

As noted above, you can read my course review on my blog, but I highly recommend taking the course before the exam as it helps to cement the foundation of what being a VMCA means and how to think through the process.

For my preparation, I completed the following –

Reviewed the Exam Guide as it outlines things like the number of questions and the part about each not being related to the other
Reviewed my course notes, and you get a completed Word document at the end with all the answers to each part of the lab with the scenario, which is invaluable
Completed the practice test on the Veeam LoChoice website several times
Reviewed the questions with Rasmus Haslund (@haslund) on his YouTube channel, which he shared from the practice test – he walks through each question, and it is not the answer to the question that is the most valuable; it is how he looks at the question, relates it to the scenario and then goes through the answers to help select the correct ones –> This was probably my most valuable asset after failing the first time by only a couple questions was to review his YouTube channel – A MUST!!!

Rasmus YouTube channel for VMCA 2022 review – Rasmus Haslund – VMCA 2022 Question Review

Rasmus also does excellent review exams for the VMCE 2021 exam as well which you can find on his website – VMCE 2021 Practice Exams – Rasmus Haslund

Another highly recommended resource you consider is the Veeam Best Practices guide – Veeam Best Practices. This content is created and managed by the Veeam Solutions Architecture group. It is exceptional for understanding how you need to consider things both for the scope of this exam but also for right-sizing and designing your environment.

Conclusion

While the VMCA (or even VMCE, for that matter) is not for those who want to get another credential to add to your list, you need to have the skills and hands-on with Veeam to pass these challenging exams. But if you are looking to work with Veeam daily, I highly recommend at least the VMCE 2021, and if you are an Architect doing designs or customer implementations with Veeam, then taking the VMCA 2022 will help you on your journey. I also cannot say enough about taking the course, which should be a MUST for anyone looking to go the route of VMCA. And last but not least – take the practice test and review Rasmus’s YouTube channel for the VMCA 2022 questions as it will prove to be invaluable as it was for me.