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Advice Request - BE2014, running on a VM & dedupe store on VMDK

321-b
Level 4

Hi There,

I'm looking to configure BE2014 on Windows Server 2012 (or 2008R2), on a VM running on vSphere ESXi5.5. (The hypervisor will have to stay on the hardware in question, as it will be also be used for another purpose)

The VM will be running on local storage on that ESXi host, and i'm going to create a seperate VMDK file for the deduplication store (on the same local datastore). On the VMDK file that will host the store, i'm going to create an NTFS volume (GPT), and grow the VMDK file as necessary. This dedupe store will also be shared with an offsite store and optimized duplication configured with the CASO option.

My guess is that most people have experience with BackupExec running on a physical server, with dedupe stores on a NTFS volume on this server or on a DAS or something like that..

Has anyone tried my proposed approach and encountered issues? Can anyone see any potential issues?

Thanks in advance for your assistance

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

I don't think there is any doc stating explicitly (apart from the link posted by CraigV) that installing BE on a VM is supported or not.

Inversely, any doc mentioning the install requirements for BE doesn't state the media server has to be physical either.

 

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12 REPLIES 12

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

...a VMDK will be formatted as NTFS anyways. However, you're going to get limited support as hosting Backup Exec as a VM is strictly not supported.

Read below:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH130609

Also, you can't backup the BE VM as a VM...files and folders only. Don't forget that unless you're duplicating that data to another dedupe folder, if that data store or host and disk dies, your backups are gone.

Thanks!

321-b
Level 4

Hi Craig / All

Thanks for that. I spotted that article in my online searches, and the article states that running BE on a VM and connecting to a tape device is an alternative configuration. However, i can't find anything online that states running BE on a VM (without any external devices) is an alternative configuration. Do you know of anywhere that states this?

Yes, I will be duplicating the data to an offsite dedupe store

Thanks again

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Your configuration is supported but not recommended because dedup is very resource intensive in terms of CPU, disk I/O, RAM, etc.  

Also, since you cannot backup the virtualised media server, how are you going to recover it when it fails?  Duplicating the backups to another dedup folder is of no use.  How are you going to use these duplicate backups to do your recovery?

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

However, you're going to get limited support as hosting Backup Exec as a VM is strictly not supported.

Not true actually. For egs, usage of Hot-Add transport mode does require BE to be installed on a VM.

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Also, since you cannot backup the virtualised media server

The OP can backup the virtualized media server as a physical machine and back it to another storage such as a basic Disk Storage.

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

When his host is gone, his virtualised media server is gone together with the backup.

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

A clarification such as this is better than the blanket statement since it seems to imply a backup of a virtualized media server is not possible. Thanks.

321-b
Level 4

Hi pkh,

Thanks for your input
-I'm not too worried about BE using up most resources on the host, as it's not hosting any mission critical VMs (apart from BE itself!)
-I'm going to back up the BE media server files, databases &  system state via the standard windows agent. This will be a standard B2D Job, with the backup copied offsite to our Second media server (we will have CASO option).
-If i loose my primary media server, i can deploy a VM from template & restore the files. If my dedupe store is lost, i have the other dedupe store offsite to recover the data...if anyone can see a hole in this idea - let me know please)

Hi VJWare,
Thanks for your input also - much appreciated.
So if i call up Symantec, do we know if my solution with BE on a VM would be supported? (remember it doesn't incorporate any external devices).
If i had some problem, (be it with the Media server, or any one of the large amout of remote agents) will i be promptly asked to replicate the problem on a physical server??

Thanks again to all for your input and advice

 

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Running BE on a VM is supported unless one uses external storage devices and which constitutes an alternate configuration (as mentioned in the KB above)

As long its not an alternate configuration, one wouldn't be promptly asked to replicate the problem on a physical server.

321-b
Level 4

Hi VJware
 

Thanks for that. Hopefully i will be able to call support and not have any major difficulty. Is there any official document anywhere online that states that running BE on a VM (without external device) is not an alternate configuration & is supported? (I believe you but i'm wondering did i miss something online in my searches!)

Hi All,

Also, has anyone had any experience with the portion of my solution above where i'm planning to put my dedupe store on an NTFS volume on a VMDK file? (The VMDK file will be on the same local datastore that the VM is in)

 

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

I don't think there is any doc stating explicitly (apart from the link posted by CraigV) that installing BE on a VM is supported or not.

Inversely, any doc mentioning the install requirements for BE doesn't state the media server has to be physical either.

 

321-b
Level 4

Hi VJware

Fair enough, thanks for your advice and prompt responses.

I'd also be interested to hear about anyone's experiences with a dedupe store on a NTFS volume that is sitting on a VMDK file.