Backup Exec 2012- VDI Solution

[Mazhar6520]

Dear All,

Can you please advice and suggest what is the best practice or solution to Backup VDI? Is Symantec system recovery is the best option or should i go with Backup Exec for VDI?

Is there any standard article which we can follow for backing up VDI solution -Huawei fusion?

Thanks in advance

[pkh]

There is no particular backup procedure for using BE with VDI.  You would probably backup the entire server which hosts the VDI

[CraigV]

Hi,

To backup the user data you'd either use normal RAWS, or something like Symantec DLO. RAWS if the user data is being redirected from a file server; DLO if the VDI solution means the users get persistent (the same) VMs for their desktops.

Thanks!

[Mazhar6520]

So this means I need to purchase agent for vmware along with raws? What about if we use system recovery instead of backup exec in this scenario? Thanks

[Mazhar6520]

Hi Craig, The solution is for one of our customer and is confused whether to go with backup exec or use system recovery for virtual machines with bare metal. What is the best practices for VDI solutions. Is there any standard procedure for VDI backup and restore? Why do we need RAWS I think they should get agent for Vmware ? What exactly do we mean by VDI solution? Thanks

[Colin_Weaver]

VDI (Sometimes called VMware Horizon or VMWare View) is not directly supported by Backup Exec against the VMware agent - as far as I know this is a vStorage Backup API snapshot limitation and not a limitation in Backup Exec itself.

If I am correct whatever backup product you use has to be run inside each VDI VM and not against the host server.

Probably better to make your end users store critical data on a network server and have some mechanism to protect the user profiels and then give the user a  new VDI VM if anythingbreaks their existign one.

[Mazhar6520]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for explaning.

So i just need to purchase agent for windows only due to the limittions with taking backup for VDI servers.And If we use System recovery 2013 ,the limitations for virtual servers to bare matel will still be there right?

What is the best position to offer for VDI then Backup Exec 2012 or System Recovery 2013?

Should we also use DLO for backing user profiles?

Basically the end user has Huawei Fusion Sphere which i belive is compatible with backup exec but as you said its better to store end user data on network server and using RAWS take the backup.. What about the user profiles then interms os backig up? 

You mentioned to give user a new VDI VM, i cannot get this point? Is it the new agent for VM you are taking about?

I am sorry but i do not know anything about VDI solutions specially when taking backup. If you have any KB article than can give us more information about taking backup, please share it.

Thanks

[Colin_Weaver]

Never heard of the Huawai product as such I doubt it is officially supported by BE

DLO is not intended to be a disaster recovery product it is only really intended to backup locally saved user created data (word documents, PST files etc) 

SSR is a DR product (see VDI provisioning comment below however) which also protects user data. 

BTW both SSR and DLO have their own connect forums and to be honest I am not sure how they woudl operate in a VDI setup.

What I was trying to say about give the user a new VM, one of the points of VDI is the ability to provision a new workstation environment to end users quickly which is used for new users or to quickly get an existing user back up and running. As such you should not need a DR product for the workstations. Sorry but you need to go to the vendor of the VDI product to find out how it should be used and they will probably have recommendations on how to back it up. 

If you are trying to protect the virtual host operating system and not the guest workstations then I don't think any of the products you are considering is suitable.