BE2012 and Backup/Restore of VMs mechanics and requirements (case study)

[Support_API]

Hello,

We need some help/clarification about BE 2012 backup/restore of VMs

Let say we have 4 LUNs of 2To each:

1) LUN 1 has one 600 Go VHDs (Total 600 - 1400 Free)
2) LUN 2 has one 1200 Go VHDs (Total 1200 - 800 Free)
3) LUN 3 has 2x 200 Go VHDs (Total 400 - 1600 Free)
4) LUN 4 has 7x 200 Go VHDs (Total 1400 - 600 Free)

From my readings, I understood that when backuping VMs with GRT, BE mount the VHDs to do some GRT's work before the actual VHD backup.
I als understood that for restoriing, we need available space on the BE server tou mount any VHD we want to restore from.
 

Bu for backuping, do I have to understand that :

1) is possible because there is enough place to mount the 600go's VHDs
2) is not possible because there is not enough place to mount the 1200go's VHDs
3) is possible because there is enough place to mount any 200 Go's VHDs
4) is possible because there is enough place to mount any 200 Go's VHDs, each one after each one

Or is BE smart enough to use any available space to mount any VHDs (that is, for example, mounting the LUN 2's VHDs on the LUN 1's free space)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Support  @ API (czi)

 

[CraigV]

Hi,

The default staging area is C:\Temp. In your worst-case restore scenario, you'd need 1400GB of free space (minimum!!!) to restore that VM or any file/folder from it.

Best practice is to move this to a drive/LUN with enough disk space to host this. BE will not automatically find the VMFS volume with enough free space to do the restore. If you can do so in terms of budget, it would be best to add in additional drives and assign a large LUN to your media server, move your GRT temporary staging folder to this, and use it for restores.

Thanks!

[Support_API]

Hello,

Thank you for answering, but, actually, the questions were about the space and mechanisms of the backup process, not the restore process.

My uncertitude were coming from this article :

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/backup-exec-2012-hyper-v-vmware-application-grt-demystified

quote :

If the target is tape, the VHDs that are mounted are the VHDs that reside in the snapshot on the Hyper-V host.
 

At the very first and quick read, I thought "ho, does it mean that we need another 600Go on the hyper-v Host to mount a 600 Go VHD." ??

But reading it again, it seems clear that it is the VHD's snapshot which is mounted.. thus requiring 0 additional space for that step.. I missed the snapshot's part of the sentence ^^

Anyway may I ask you to confirm me that indeed, no additional free space are required on the hyper-v host for the backup process ? (except the usual 20% free space per volume)

Thank you again !

[VJware · Accepted solution]

That's right. No additional space is required for the "backup" process on the Hyper-V host.