Netbackup SQL VMWare VADP Backups

[Nick_Morris]

Hiya,

Just a couple of questions with regard to using the VADP backups with VMWare and the SQL option.

• Which ports does it require for backup when using ASC part of the backup? Is just 1556 to master & media servers sufficient or will it need any extra ones? We have an extra secure client and getting all port requirements is a must to save hassle further down the line.
• What are peoples experiencing with using this method to backup SQL? Does it only work well for smaller, less busy SQL servers? Or is it tried and tested for even the busiest SQL servers that are VMs? I know in the slightly distant past i had issues with standard VMWare quiescing of VMs, but I'm not sure if the Symantec VSS agent has overcome that. This is my first venture into the application protection side of VADP backups.

I have a load of DBAs in the company who are paranoid to the extreme with quiescing VM SQL servers when their disks are not set to independent in vCenter. They think their world will end if i do it and it will all come crashing down and just need to reassure them it's not the case (i hope!). So i just want a bit of ammunition and real world experiences people may have so i can try and persuade them it's the way forward. It's not something i have personally had the experience of using myself yet, but it looks like a good way forward. They currently are stuck in the 20th century doing SQL maintenance plan backups to disk and i want to bring them forward to the 21st century way of doing things.

Cheers,

Nick

[RamNagalla · Accepted solution]

1556 port from Master & Media to SQL VM would be fine.. netbackup needs to be configured in VM as we configure for Physical server.

Symantec VSS needs to be installed.

local admin should have the access on the SQL DB or , the the account( mostly service accout) that have the access on the SQL DB should be use to run the netbackup client servics, netbackup network servies, and Netbackup lececy services.

From my personal expirence..

we are using this only for the VMs that are having the 2 TB or less provisioinal space.. VMs having the more than 2 TB are beigng configured as agent method.

with this it is working fine.. so issues so far...

this is to avoide some Snapshot issue... that we have in Vcetner 5.1 may be once our Vcenter moved to 5.5 we may start palnning to use this for VMs having more than 2 TB.

[Nick_Morris]

Thanks for the response RamNagalla. I've noticed the other requirements in the SQL agent doc and will be made sure they are implemented at the same time to ensure it works. This will be a DB that starts small, but will eventually be the main SQL consolidated DB platform, so getting it working well is definitely a priority. The agent or VMWare method will be implemented, but it just depends which works best. Needless to say there will be testing :)

Another question the DBAs have brought up is to do with log shipping. As i understand it ticking the truncate logs will definitely break the log shipping. Will leaving this option unticked still break it? I've had no experience with log shipping before, but just understand the basic concept of it. Is there a tried and tested method to do this? The guide seemed a bit vague on how to back up a DB in this configuration. All it seems to say is backup/restore needs to be performed on the primary and not much more.

Cheers,

Nick