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lun0's avatar
lun0
Level 3
13 years ago

SAN-transport mode for VMWare

Hi

I have a 2010r3 installation and I'm currently trying to add VMWare (I have bought AVVI and ADBO licenses) backups to it. Backups using AVVI are fine but they are currently using VMWare snapshots and LAN transport.

The SAN is Dell Equallogic and I have installed ASM/ME to get the hardware VSS provider.
 

I have done extensive searching but have been unable to find a concrete solution for setting up SAN backups, is my understanding of this correct (in the steps needed):

1. Connect media server to SAN

2. Map VMFS volumes to media server, give it access to create snapshots of said volumes (NO disk resignaturing or drive letters)

3. Select SAN-based backup

 

How does BE understand that the locally mapped volume is the correct one for said VM being backed up, is it through the RAWS installed in the guest?

Any other tips or pointers would be appreciated :-)

 

/LUN0

Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
  • teiva-boy's avatar
    teiva-boy
    13 years ago

    Drop into diskpart.exe from a command prompt

    run "automount disable" and "automount scrub" (without quotes)

    Now grant access to the SAN volumes to the Windows Host from within the EQL array GUI

    Connect to those LUNS in the iSCSI tools of the Windows hosts

    In the disk manager you'll see some new disks.  Don't do anything to them!  No signatures, no drive letters, etc.

     

    The VMware API files that are installed as part of BackupExec will be able to communicate to vCenter and know which files to snap and capture as the various driver files and DLL's give Windows the ability to do a read-only mount of VMFS.

    ADBO is not needed here, only AVVI.  ADBO can be used only with Exchange, SQL, and File backups; typically in physical form.  Though a virtual machine with RDM's and ADBO would work..  If you virtualized Exchange, you are better off with AVVI and GRT.  

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  • teiva-boy's avatar
    teiva-boy
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    Drop into diskpart.exe from a command prompt

    run "automount disable" and "automount scrub" (without quotes)

    Now grant access to the SAN volumes to the Windows Host from within the EQL array GUI

    Connect to those LUNS in the iSCSI tools of the Windows hosts

    In the disk manager you'll see some new disks.  Don't do anything to them!  No signatures, no drive letters, etc.

     

    The VMware API files that are installed as part of BackupExec will be able to communicate to vCenter and know which files to snap and capture as the various driver files and DLL's give Windows the ability to do a read-only mount of VMFS.

    ADBO is not needed here, only AVVI.  ADBO can be used only with Exchange, SQL, and File backups; typically in physical form.  Though a virtual machine with RDM's and ADBO would work..  If you virtualized Exchange, you are better off with AVVI and GRT.  

  • lun0's avatar
    lun0
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    Thanks for your pointers and insight so far!

    Looks like its working when I disabled ADBO but I'm getting some other errors, looking into those and will let you know how it turns out!

     

    /lun0

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    13 years ago

    BE makes a request via the Remote Agent process on the media server itself to the vStorage API (provided by VMware that we install with Backup Exec.)

     

    This request asks VMware to snapshot the VM and then asks for details of the snapshot location which includes the disk signatures which is passed back to the vStorage API which then provides the access that BE needs to perform the backup.

  • lun0's avatar
    lun0
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    Thanks, everything is working well now, getting speeds of about 4500-5000MB/min, just some minor issues when it comes to verifying the backup, it always completes with exception and claims that it cannot connect to the VM to collect metadata (for GRT), I don't have the exact error message here but will report back with it (unless someone knows what I'm talking about and knows how to solve it ;)

    RAWS is installed on the VM (currently only one, for testing).

    /lun0

  • lun0's avatar
    lun0
    Level 3
    13 years ago

    ... and it turned out to be a simple credentials problem (user used to log on to vcenter did not have permissions to access the RAWS on the VM - solved by enabling debug logging on the VM).

    Thanks to all who replied.

     

    /lun0

  • Lesta_G's avatar
    Lesta_G
    Level 6
    13 years ago

    I am not familiar with the EQL array GUI as to wether it can present the LUNS to the Media server read only.

    If it can't, with your current solution, it is still possible on the media server to actually delete the volume in computer Management and kill att the VMs

    To eliminate this,  on the media server, in diskpart using the attributes command (and select disk of course) set the disks to readonly. then the delete volume command will error.

    Setting it to read only will mean you can't restore the VM via SAN transport. but personally I would use NBD transport to do that

    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1035096

    FWIW for Windoows 2008 R2

    san policy=Offlineall

    Does not make the disks read only (even though the documentation says it does)