VM-Ware Backup

[Marcopolo]

We're converting a few physicals to Virtuals and gathering some pre-installation details. In the first instance we will probably leave the agents on the servers to backup as is for our current setup, but looking whether there is more benefit at purchasing the ESXI SAN VW-Ware plugins for BE2010.

Having read the configuration details, what data is backed up, only the data size of the VM (e.g. 50gb out of 100gb disk) or the whole disk attributed to the VM depending upon the thin or thick provisioning?

Are there any additional cost if we were to go the GRT route which runs in conjuction with the VM-Ware plug-in?

Thanks

[Jaydeep_S]

Backing up GRT with VMware agent is the way to go. This gives you an ability to restore individual items from a single backup of that VM. These individual items also include single emails from exchange or SQL databases, etc. Additioanly, yes physical to virtual conversion being another advantage.

I would rather say, it is better if you read the documentation in the Admin Guide once as it covers everything.

[Marcopolo]

Thanks, and what about what data is backed up, is it just the committed or fully provisioned?

[pkh]

BE will not backup the white spaces in your VMDK's.

[Colin_Weaver]

Both a Traditional Agent backup and a Vmware Agent backup provide the ability to restore individual files, what the VMware agent gives you over and above the traditional agent backup is a backup at VMDK level which makes the recovery process of a whole server (virtual machine) very easy for that single backup operation. A traditional agent backup woudl needs the slightly more complicated IDR/SDR scenario or as a worse case even a manual ionstall of teh operating system before a restore can be performed.

With the VMware backup (depending on your environmant) you may even be able to take advantage backing up via the SAN transport mechanism which removes backup traffic from the LAN and increases the performance.

As PKH has already stated we do not backup the whitepspace within VMDKs whether thick or thin provisioned. If you find a VM that appears to be backing up the white space then the Change Block Tracking records in the VM itself may need a reset (which does involve a couple of reboots of the VM)

GRT (whether for VMware or databases such as  Exchange etc) does requires disk space on the media server. In fact we recommend backups to disk with duplication to tape (if needed) which might be an extra cost consideration if you currently backup to tape.

If you have any database technologies inside your VMs (Exchange, SQL etc) then GRT of these databases does required that you leave the remote agent installed inside the VMs and you will need the relevant database agent licenses (but iof you have these databases you probably already have these licenses)

One final point, the VMware Plug-in is just a management overview interface that adds functionality to the vSphere Client, you don't have to use it and it has no extra cost (you will of course need the VMware "virtual" Agent Licenses but you would need hese anyway.

[Marcopolo]

Thanks both of you, but I'd like clarification of the differences between the standard agent and the VM-Ware agent and or plug in because both replies are not making it clear?

At the moment we use the Exchange Agent we had installed on our physical server installed on the new Exchange VM

What does the VM-Ware 'virtual' agent offer above the Exchange agent?

What does the VM-Ware plug-in offer in addition?

[Jaydeep_S]

Let me try to put this in different words. VMWare agent and Exchange Agent are 2 seperate Agent options used to backup ESX enviornment and Exchange Databases respectively. It does not matter if you have a physical or virtual Exchange Server. You will still need the Exchange Agent to be able to perform a backup of the Exchange databases.

The explaination provided above was incase if you have a Virtual Exchange Server, you can perform a backup using VMWare Agent which allows you to restore the vmdk files for the Server.

Incase of a physical server, you would use an Exchange Agent and perform a backup of the complete Exchange Server including C drive, System State, Shadow Copy components and Exchange Information store to recover the server from a a disaster.

When this Exchange server is virtualized, you would use the VMWare Agent in combination with the Exchange Agent to be able to perform a single pass backup of the vmdk files from ESX. What Backup Exec does in the background is that it will use the Exchange Agent and gather all the Exchange related information and catalog it such that, you can restore individual items like user mailbox or emails from the same backup.

Having, said all this you still would need the Exchange Agent to be able to perform Application level restores of Exchange using VMWare Agent.

[Marcopolo]

Thanks Jaydeep,

I was under the impression there was just a plug-in for vw-ware, which I took for the agent reading around.

Now I know there's an agent we can decide whether to go that route in addition to the Exchange agent.

[Marcopolo]

Btw, how does the licensing work with the virtual agent, per host, vm or other means?

[pkh]

The AVVI licence is per VM host and you are allowed to install RAWS/RALUS on any number of VM's hosted on the licenced host.

If you have applications like Exchange or SQL databases, then you need 1 Agent for Applications and Databases licence for each VM that have these applications/database.

If you have a lot of applications/databases, then you might want to take a look at the V-Ray edition which is licenced per VM core and you have an unlimited number of Agent for Applications and Databases licences.  See the licencing guide and the blog below

2012 Portfolio Licensing Guide

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/whats-included-backup-exec-v-ray-edition