Maximum VMware machine size for NetBackup VMware backup?

[AdN]

Hi,

Is there a limit on maximum VMware virtual machine disk or VM size when backing it up with Veritas Netbackup 10.1 for VMware using HotAdd method? 

For some VM's (1 TB size or more) we're having issues when NetBackup creates a VM snapshot, does backup and then deletes the VM snapshot. Sometimes deletion of large snapshot causes the VM not to respond. On one VM it caused a snapshot that can't be consolidated anymore.

How are you using NetBackup for VMware? I haven't found VM size limits in the admin guide.

Regards,

Bernd

[llang]

Hi Bernd,

this strongly depends on your underlying storage infrastructure. We are backing up VMs > 10 TB without any issues.
The fact of outstanding consolidation indicates that your SAN is overloaded and the increased latency caused this problem. I would advice to analyse your SAN.

best regards

[AdN]

Thanks. We don't have a SAN, only Netapp AFF A400 (VMDK disks on NFS) and Netapp FAS 2720 for the BasicDisk mounted via NFS on the media server VM.

Transport over NBD is quite slow. Bottleneck is not the storage or the network. I tried once with Hotadd method, where backup was 10x faster than NBD, but after a few days the backup job messed up one VM by not releasing the SCSI devices. So the hotadd method is too shaky for me.

Regards,
Bernd

[sdo]

NetBackup does not impose limits.  The VDDK of VADP is what imposes limits.  A quick search indicates that VMware VDDK in VADP does has different limits depending upon transport.  You need to determine the VDDK/VADP version of your VMware version, and then determine the VDDK version of your NetBackup version - and probably the lesser of the two VDDK version numbers will determine your limits and backup job behaviours.