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RLC0101's avatar
RLC0101
Level 4
14 years ago

Help with configuring BEW with Hyper V and Hyper V cluser

We are setting up a new Hyper V environment and trying to use Backup Exec 2010 R2 to provide backup for this environment.


We have Backup Exec running on a separate pyhsical server on the same VLAN as the Hyper V servers.  The BE server has an LTO5 tape drive directly attached.  We have installed a BE agent on one of the virtual hosts and are backing it up nightly to tape.  So far so good.

We have licensing some 5 BE hosts and 2 Hyper V agents.

The Hyper V environment consists of 2 nodes with 5 hosts confugured with one virtual Hyper V cluster.

We are new to Backup Exec at the Hyper V level and need some guidance.  Need some help with the best configuration of backing up this configuration?  Do we:

1)  Backup individual hosts separately?

2)  Backup up nodes (if so what modules in those nodes)?  What are pros and cons of this methodology?

3)  Backup cluster?  What are pros and cons of this methodology?

4)  All the above or some of the above

5) Another option not noted above?

Is it best practice to backup the VHDs on the cluster share volume or backup at the virtual node level.

 

Agents
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Best Practice
  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    13 years ago

    You should look at these documents

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO21770

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH64567

    The Hyper-V agent licence is per physical host.  This licence also entitles you to install RAWS in any number of VM's hosted on this physical host.  If you need GRT restores for applications, like Exchange, SQL databases, then you need to buy 1 corresponding application agent licence per VM hosting the application.

  • D4n's avatar
    D4n
    Level 2
    13 years ago

    You should use a D2D2T (disk to disk to tape) backup for many reasons.

    1. push agents out to all hyper-v host

    2. create job to backup the whole cluster by placing a check next to the cluster name, Not any of the indvidul servers.

    This setup will automatically backup all guest vms in the cluster and new ones that are added.

    It will back them up one at a time from the server that is the current owner.

     

    If you want to use GRT push agents out to guest VMs and select the option in the backup job properties.

     

    The limitation with this setup is the managment interface on your hyper-v hosts.  If it is a 1Gb connection your backup jobs will be able to run at about 4,500MB/min(there is some proccessing that takes place between VMs), this will allow about a 1TB of vms to be backuped in 5 hours. 

    If you have 10Gbe managment interfaces than you will not be bottle necked by the network but, at current you need to plan this in to the backup design.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    You should look at these documents

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO21770

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH64567

    The Hyper-V agent licence is per physical host.  This licence also entitles you to install RAWS in any number of VM's hosted on this physical host.  If you need GRT restores for applications, like Exchange, SQL databases, then you need to buy 1 corresponding application agent licence per VM hosting the application.