Master server and Media servers as Vitual servers

[Sa1]

Hi...

Need Some inputs related to Netbackup 7:

1. Can we have Master Server and Media Server as virtualized servers. Like Master server running as Linux VM on Vmware ESXi. Are there any concerns about this kind of architecture? What is a best practice?

2. If we have virtual servers with host servers running VMware ESXi and VMs are running with Windows 2008 R2 and Redhat linux 5. Can we take the SAN based backup inside the VMs. For eg. I will have Oracle Database on Linux VM (running on ESXi or Citrix hypervisor) can I take SAN based oracle backup from this linux server?

Regards,

Sachin

[Marianne]

Master server is supported as Virtual machine.

Media server is only supported with disk storage - no tape storage.

See: Statement of Support for NetBackup 7.x in a Virtual Environment ( Virtualization Technologies :(    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

[Anonymous]

Read the following technote for the official supported statement.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

[VirtualED]

Please see the below Virtualization support matrix.

In short you can have a Master and Media that is virtualized.  However you cannot attached them to tape devices, only disk base backup mediums are supported.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

Virtual master server

The NetBackup master server is supported within a virtual machine, under the

limitations described in the “General guidelines for support.”

Refer to the following NetBackup Operating System compatibility document for

a list of supported NetBackup 7.x master server platforms:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH76648

Virtual media server

The NetBackup media server is supported within a virtual machine, under the

limitations described in the “General guidelines for support.”

The following storage units are supported within a virtual machine:

■ Basic Disk

■ AdvancedDisk

■ Media Manager (tape storage units)

For details on the supported virtualization technologies, see Table 2.

■ Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP)

For MSDP requirements, see the NetBackup Deduplication Guide and the

following deduplication tech note:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH77575

■ PureDisk Deduplication Pool (PDDO) including the Symantec NetBackup 5000

Series Appliances.

■ OpenStorage, where the Data Interface is Ethernet.

For details on OpenStorage device compatibility, see the NetBackup 7.x

Hardware Compatibility List:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH76495

[Anonymous]

In addition, considerations

2. You need to be aware of the state of your database as you take a backup. Stop the database and take backup. OR place the tablespaces into backup mode and snapshot/backup that disk. OR output the database to flat files and backup those. You want your database to be in a consistent state if you need to restore any part of it.

OR of course install NBU Client and DB agent as if a physical OS but then relying on network to shove the data out. BUT you really want to utilise your SAN...and not network. :\