NetBackup for VMWare - Should the masterserver and vCenter Server be reachable between each other

[ingaramoM]

Hello,

I'm working on implementing the NetBackup fo VMware solution and I have a doubt.

Current configuration is the following:

MasterServer (running HP-UX 11.31 on network 1)

Mediaserver/Backup Host (running on Windows 2008 R2 on both networks -1 and 2)

vCenter Server (running on network 2)

The Mediaserver/Backup Host can reach any of the other two servers.

My question is:
is it neccesary that the Masterserver and the vCenter are reachable between each other? Doesn't the backup Host performs as a bridge between them?

I checked at the manual, and there is nothing on writting asking for that. Just the graphics may suggest they need to be in the same network.

Seems to be a dumb question, but I need to be sure before asking for getting any of these servers accesible from a different network.

Thanks in advance.

[SymTerry · Accepted solution]

Hello,

This is not a very well documented question. I checked with a Backline SME and was told the MasterServer does need to have contact with the vcenter server. Not all communications are done via the backup host. 

Page 85 of the 7.6 Admin guide says:

Note the following requirements for automatic selection of VMware virtual machines:

The NetBackup master server must have network access to the VMware servers that NetBackup has credentials for.

[ingaramoM]

Thank you :D.

That is hte confirmation I was looknig for.

Best Regards.

[Mark_Solutions]

Personally I am surprise at that...

The issue is that you need to add the authentication details into the Admin Console - but you could do that via an Admin Console on the Media Server.

After that only the Media Server (VMware backup Host) communicates with vCenter as far as i was aware

It would also mean running your restores from the Media Server too.

When you look at the troubleshooting section of the admin guide only bprd log relates to the Master - and that is usually for communication with the Media Server and not the vCenter

It would be interesting to test it if you are able to - just put a false hosts file entry on the Master server so that it cannot communicate with vCenter and do all of the config from the Media Server (VMware Backup host) to see if it then works during backup and restore

I dont have a system handy to try it myself i am afraid

[SymTerry]

I totally agree with you on that Mark. It would be an interesting test. Infact untill this post, I to was under the impression that it was not nessary. I asked the backline tech, who is my local VM Subect matter expert, how she had found out about this. She said that it was through trial and error. It was not untill a coworker of mine found that blurb in the Admin guide, I was able to confirm. I actually read right over that part. 

I will be looking into this further.

[StefanosM]

My expirience is that master server does not need to connect with the farm.

I have a customer that has multiple VMware farms. One of them is isolated behind NAT and the master server does not have access to any VMware system (vcenter or ESX).

the solution was to install a media server inside a virtual system and use hotadd as backup method. The media server is at the same network with the farm and has network connectivity with the master server threw static NAT.
 

This installation is working three months now. (7.5.0.6)

Note that we use a media server instead of client software as the client software can not conect threw NAT with a media server. Only media servers can conect with the master threw NAT

We had not test restores as this was not a requirment, but I do not see any problem.

[Andrew_Madsen]

I just tried the test in my lab. Admittedly I had the system set up prior to this test but I put in a phoney IP address for the vCenter server and ran a query based backup. It failed with an error 59. I believe the master server in this instance needs to query the vCenter server for machines that match the query before sending that list to the media server.

To test that I set up a job that had a single VM in it picked from a list of previous backups. I then ran the backup and it was a success. I went further and vmotioned the VM to a different host and it was a success also. From this I would assume that if you ar going to chose the guest manually and not with a query then the master does not need to talk to the vCenter server. Not conclusive but encouraging.