Dedupe HyperV .vhd files without HyperV agent

[Clee]

Here is the background:

• I currently have Backup Exec under maintenance as well as Remote agents for Windows.
• I assume I will eventually get the license to upgrade at no cost to BE 2010 along with Remote Agents for Windows. (still waiting for this to arrive)
• I will purchase the dedupe option.

I would like to do the following:

1. Install the Remote Agent for Windows on my HyperV host server.
2. I will use the built-in VSS/snapshotting capability of Windows (via DiskShadow.exe) to get access to the .vhd files (now "frozen" as snapshots)
3. I want to back up these .vhd files and dedupe them using the dedupe option
4. The snapshot of these .vhd files will be removed once the backup is done

Questions:
1) Can I use the Remote Agent for Windows to do a backup of these frozen .vhd files? (i.e. Not use the HyperV agent)
2) Will it allow me to do client side dedupe on these files if they disappear after the VSS snapshot is removed?

Thanks

Clee

[teiva-boy]

 You will need the Hyper-V agent and the Dedupe license.  The virtual agent, gives you rights to install as many remote agents in that physical host as needed.

The agents installed in the virtual guests will do client side dedupe (also referred to as direct access in the console) to the media server.  While BE2010 media server could do dedupe of the VHD's, it is not in the same magnitude or benefit as client side with the standard remote agent doing the dedupe.  

BE2010 dedupes VMDK's much better than VHD.  Client side dedupe beats all of them.

[Clee]

What if I do not want to use the Hyper-V agent? (Humor me on this)

Since the .vhd file are just big files sitting on the hard drive - and since they will be "static" files not in use due to the VSS snapshot operation, couldn't I just back them up as Windows files using the Windows Remote agent without having a Hyper-V agent?

I assume I would lose things like granular restore, but I'm just interested in backing up the .vhd files that are in a Windows VSS snapshot mount.

Is there a technical or licensing reason I couldn't do that?

Thanks

Clee

[teiva-boy]

 Guess it could work..
Wont hurt to try right?  Let VSS snap those files, point to your dedupe folder and see what happens.

Then you'll want to do a restore of those VHD's and see if you can bring the machine back to life.

[Clee]

After the snapshot is taken of the .vhd files and then they are backed up, the snapshot is removed.

Would this affect client side dedupe? In other words, does client side dedupe require the files to persist? Or does it not care about files on the client side - and the block level hashes are re-calculated and only compared with what is in the dedupe folder?

Thanks