Forum Discussion

Didi's avatar
Didi
Level 4
8 years ago

How to create a virtual VMware Backup Host for NetBackup?

Hello everybody,

our company has a NetBackup environment in our Datacenter to backup our virtual infrastructure based on VMware vSphere. As we use NFS shares for our VMware datastore, VMware backups were planned to use NBD transport protocol with the known limitation in speed.

In a first step (before we start to migrate our datastores) I would like to use virtual VMware Backup Hosts to use HOTADD transport instead of NBD.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any step-by-step documentation from Veritas (competitors do have such documentation), how to create such virtual VMware Backup hosts that can read VMDKs directly from datastores via HOTADD, as long as VMs do not use IDE disks.

Here is what I found so far (correct me, if I am wrong) ...

Create a Windows VM (e.g. Windows Server 2012 R2) and install the NetBackup Client (in this case v8.0). For safety reason I would recommend to use the 'automount disable' and 'automount scrub' command in diskpart. Furthermore, I would recommend to disable the DiskManagement Snap-In via gpcedit.msc !

Finally, one has to include this new virtual VMware backup host in the host properties of the NetBackup Master Server and add it to the 'VMware backup hosts' settings.

Is that totally wrong or do I miss something?

Any reply is much appreciated!

 

8
windows server 2012

37 Replies

Sort By
  • Mike_Gavrilov's avatar
    Mike_Gavrilov
    Level 6
    8 years ago

     

     

    In a first step (before we start to migrate our datastores) I would like to use virtual VMware Backup Hosts to use HOTADD transport instead of NBD.

     

    The first question is "Why hot-add?".

    You want your Backup host to be able to read vmdk from NFS datastore. It is ok. But what's next? If you use NetBackup client as a  Backup host it simply reads vmdk from NFS datastore  (via LAN) and passes the same amount of traffic (via LAN) to the media server. It has no difference with LAN transport except some details. If you want to reduce LAN traffic you can use media server installed into a  VM as VMware Backup Hosts but is should use SAN connected disks otherwise you'll pass traffic via LAN again.

    Veritas has nice admin guide for NetBackup + VMware https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000108087 it covers everything. 

    and articles:

    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.v63153325_nbu_vmware_web

    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.v62458957_nbu_vmware_web

    https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000094725

     It requires reading because you're designing a backup solution and must consider many factors.

    • Didi's avatar
      Didi
      Level 4
      8 years ago

      Hello Mike_Gavrilov, first of all thanks for replying so fast.

      The first question is "Why hot-add?".

      According to most documentation or internet articles (also from competitors) I learned, SAN transport with NFS datastores is not possible, so the only option you have, is to use NBD oder HOTADD as transport protocol. Correct me, if I am wrong.

      Why HOTADD instead of NBD? Because NBD is limited to 100MB/s in 1 stream and 220Mb/s in 4 streams, with every stream at 55MB/s at max according to a NetBackup technical article. This is far beyond the theoretical maximum transfer speed of a 10GBit/s LAN interface, because VMware limits the traffic to ensure that managment of the console is still possible. HOTADD transfer should be much faster, as the VMDKs of VMs in SNAPSHOT-mode can be attached to those virtual 'VMware Backup Hosts', which seem to be called 'VMware Access Hosts' now in NetBackup v8.0 according to the Host properties dialog of the Master Server, right? Backup data can be processed through a 10GBit/s LAN-interface without limitations. It is right, that the VMDKs must be read through LAN from the NFS datastore and send through LAN again to the physical media server, where the MSDP pool is located, but the same happens with NBD.

      No doubt that SAN transport would be the best option of all VADP transport protocols.

      This is only 1 of several steps to follow, but in the end I would like to use those 'VMware Access Hosts' and HOTADD transport mode for restore purposes, when e.g. Thin VMDKs must be restored, which is not recommend to be restored via SAN transport. Correct me, if I am wrong!

      I already studied the NetBackup 8.0 Administrator Guide for VMware before I wrote the initial post, but I couldn't find the necessary steps to follow to create a VMware Access Hosts for use in NetBackup, that's why I tried to list the steps in my initial post.

      Maybe you can answer the question here?

      A virtual 'VMware Access Hosts' formerly known as a 'VMware Backup Host' or 'VMware Proxy Server' is no more than a virtual Windows machine with the NetBackup client installed? Or are there any further steps or software installations necessary before I can configure or add this virtual 'VMware Access Host' to the Host Properties configuration of the NetBackup Master Server?

      As SAN transport with VADP is only possible with FC or iSCSI, the necessary steps to migrate from NFS to iSCSI storage will follow, as we would like to backup VMware VMs as fast as possible and NBD is definitely too slow, specially for such a big environment in a Datacenter, where we are talking about several TB of data.

      Best regards.

      • Mike_Gavrilov's avatar
        Mike_Gavrilov
        Level 6
        8 years ago

        Hi Didi,

        Got your point. 10G changes the whole picture.

        HOTADD transfer should be much faster, as the VMDKs of VMs in SNAPSHOT-mode can be attached to those virtual 'VMware Backup Hosts', which seem to be called 'VMware Access Hosts' now in NetBackup v8.0 according to the Host properties dialog of the Master Server, right?

        Yes, this is correct about VMWare Backup host but I have doubts about "much faster". Sure, you can work around vmkernel port limitation with hot-add but can you read VMDKs faster than 220 Mb/s with your productive load? Do you have enough bandwith on media-servers?

        I would use NBD + NetBackup Accelerator (CBT).

        A virtual 'VMware Access Hosts' formerly known as a 'VMware Backup Host' or 'VMware Proxy Server' is no more than a virtual Windows machine with the NetBackup client installed? 

        That's correct but it also can be virtualized Media Server

        https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.v19545588_nbu_vmware_web

        Step-by-step in the end of presentation

         https://vox.veritas.com/qsuop67736/attachments/qsuop67736/Articles-Backup-and-Recovery/715/1/NetBackup%207.6%20Blueprints%20-%20VMware.pdf  starts on page 22

         

        Or are there any further steps or software installations necessary before I can configure or add this virtual 'VMware Access Host' to the Host Properties configuration of the NetBackup Master Server?

        NetBackup installation is enough.