Netbackup 7 - VMWare and DB Agents

[SYMAJB]

I am planning an ESXi 4.1 cluster with multiple nodes, and intend to use the NBU 7 vStorage API for VMWare backups.

As many of my virtual clients will host SQL / Domino / Oracle databases, do I still need to implement the DB Agent on the VM's hosting these DB's or is ths requirement now no longer neccessary ?

AJ

[Anonymous]

Restoring of a VM client backup via VM snapshot may result in an inconsistent databases.

VMware Tools will try and Quiesce the file system before writing the snapshot backup. This might not always prove reliable with heavy workload apps like those mentioned.

The requirement to have a NBU Client/DB agent on the OS of the VM may still be necessary. You will be forfeiting the transfer of the backup data out onto the LAN however, compared to over SAN for example.

The beauty of VM's are you could clone a VM and attempt a restore from the snapshot taken using just the vstorage API - see if its consistent.

DB agents are an expensive part of the licensing, you could revert to just performing flat file backups within the DBMS as a alternative - depends on your SLA for service restoration of these apps.

A number of things to consider.

[SYMAJB]

I guess it's a 'suck it and see' with a clone of a number of the VM's in question, to see if the App comes up clean.

Ideally, as you mention, I want to keep this on the SAN and avoid transferring it accross the LAN - so the agent option is not the preferred way forward.

AJ.

[Mouse]

then NBU agent for databases is your friend. The issue is not with NBU though, but with VMware tools that are not yet DB-aware.