Backing up vmware + data deduplication best practices

[ldias]

Hello,

I'm testing vmware backup feature through san with data deduplication. I have some doubts you guys could help me.

About san zoning:

I've read many topics about it. Some say I have to zone vmware backup host + lun datastore. Others say i have to include ESX hosts (vmware backup host + lun datastore + esx hosts). Still in doubt which is the right one.

It sounds a bit strange to me the needing of vmware backup host seeing all lun datastores. Imagine if I have dozens of esx hosts being backep up.

What if some administrator accidentally format the wrong lun, since it's viewed by operating system. Just let me know your point of view , experience , etc ...

Is that possible to balance backups of virtual machine between more than one vmware backup host. I mean multiple vmware backup host seeing same datastore and each one backing up a differente virtual machine of course ?

Other is about deduplication pool:

Can I have same disk deduplication pool presented to more than one media server ? I mean running multiple backups by different media servers writing to same disk ? Or do I need a single dedup disk for every media server ?

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

If you plan to backup VMs using SAN transport, datastore LUNs must be visible from VMware Backup Hosts. And, of cource, datastore LUNs must be present from ESXs. ESXs does not have to be visible from VMware Backup Hosts, however, there are no problem if all of them in single zone.

I have never tried similtaneous backups in single datastore with multiple VMware Backup Hosts. Please try and give us your feedback if possible.

[Abhishek_Shar1 · Accepted solution]

Hi ldias

You can load balance Vmware backups by using option "Backup Media Server" under Vmware backup host in Vmware tab of policy. Using this you can send VM backups to multiple Vmware backup hosts.

And for Dedup you can present disk to one media server and can use other media servers as load blaancing media servers to write this disk .You can check more on this .

Abhishek