Netbackup Appliance VMWare configuration / Zoning
Hi All,
I'm just looking for some clarification on configuring VMWare backups using the agent.
My master is running 7.6.1.1 as are our 5230 Appliances and vSphere is 5.5 so support is not an issue.
I've set aside two ports on each appliance for vmware backups so I know where I want to zone to on that end but what else do I zone to ?
Do I need to zone in the ESX servers or just the WWN's of the storage arrays ?
The VMWare admin guide states the following but isn't very clear.
"To use the SAN transport type, set up the datastore on Fibre Channel or iSCSI. In this configuration, the VMware backup host must be
able to access the datastore over the SAN."
The ESX boxes are already san connected.
We tested the agent a few years ago to VTL with a Windows Off-Host server and found it to be slower than just sending it across the LAN but need and want to test it again especially with the 5230's now bedded in.
Thanks in advance.
Do I need to zone in the ESX servers or just the WWN's of the storage arrays ?
You only need to zone the storage arrays to the Appliance so it can access the luns (as the ESX does).
You should use single initiator zoning - this is best practice.
Think of the appliance as an ESXi server, in that it reads (backs-up) and writes (restores) - so I/O is essentially the same as an ESXi host.
So, zoning would be like:
$ alicreate AL_APPLIANCE1_HBA1_PORT1, "nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn" $ alicreate AL_ESX1_HBA1_PORT1, "nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn" $ alicreate AL_STORAGE1_FE1_PORT1, "nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn" $ zonecreate ZN_APPLIANCE1_HBA1_PORT1, "AL_APPLIANCE1_HBA1_PORT1; AL_STORAGE1_FE1_PORT1" $ zonecreate ZN_ESX1_HBA1_PORT1, "AL_ESX1_HBA1_PORT1; AL_STORAGE1_FE1_PORT1" $ cfgadd CFG_FAB_A, "ZN_APPLIANCE1_HBA1_PORT1; ZN_ESX1_HBA1_PORT1" $ cfgsave $ cfgenable CFG_FAB_A
And if you present a VMFS data store LUN to both server WWPNs, i.e. of APPLIANCE1 and ESX1, then both the appliance and the ESX host will see the same LUN with the same LUN number (i.e. avoid using LUN masking - to make your life easier) - and you should be good to go.
Do you see how you need a minimum of three aliases - one for each node, and one for the storage array. In practice you'll have many many more - for multi-pathing, and fabric resiliency?
Post back if you'd like a larger more comprehensive multi-path'd multi-fabric zoning example.
HTH.
