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Netbackup/VMware Integration

Drive1
Level 3

Hi Guys,

 

I am hoping someone can help me understand what can be offered with a Netbackup solution for a VMware environment. If we assume the following:

- VMware cluster of 10 nodes in a cluster consisting of the latest version of ESXi

- A VCSA Appliance managing the above cluster of 10 ESXi nodes. The VCSA is virtualised and also hosted on the cluster in the above point

- Approx 200 Virtual Machines running on the cluster of 10 ESXi nodes managed by the mentioned VCSA

- We can purchase whatever is needed in terms of Netbackup to offer a Backup and Restore solution

 

So, my questions primarily revolve around the VCSA Appliance:

 

- How critical is the VCSA in this solution for backing up and restoring the 200 VMs in this environment?

- What happens if the VCSA is down? Does this mean all 200 VMs will not backup or be restorable until the VCSA is back?

- How will I backup the VCSA given its an appliance?

- What happens if my VCSA becomes corrupted (or someone just deletes it!)? Is it possible to restore the VCSA from the last clean successfull backup directly back to one of the 10 ESXi hosts in the cluster (even though there is no vCenter anymore)? Obviously during this restore there is no vCenter available, as thats what has failed and needs recovery....

 

Any direction would be much appreciated.

11 REPLIES 11

sdo
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RiaanBadenhorst
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- How critical is the VCSA in this solution for backing up and restoring the 200 VMs in this environment? It is used each time a backup occurs

- What happens if the VCSA is down? Does this mean all 200 VMs will not backup or be restorable until the VCSA is back? - No backups (unless you configure backup via individual ESX as a workaround)

- How will I backup the VCSA given its an appliance? - You can backup the VCSA as a vm but you should consult vmware on how best to protect the database inside the VCSA

- What happens if my VCSA becomes corrupted (or someone just deletes it!)? Is it possible to restore the VCSA from the last clean successfull backup directly back to one of the 10 ESXi hosts in the cluster (even though there is no vCenter anymore)? Obviously during this restore there is no vCenter available, as thats what has failed and needs recovery.... - Yes you can perform restores directly to a ESX.

Riaan

What an excellent answer... I'm not sure I have any follow up questions...

Hi Riaan

Just a follow up question... Do the answers you have provided change if we do LAN based backups compared to direct connectivity of Netbackup to the SAN/Storage being used by the VMware environment?

I'm not sure if this is a very clear question...

sdo
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@RiaanBadenhorst's answer remains the same irrespective of transport methord (SAN vs. NBD), as shown in @RamNagalla nice post/decument here:

https://vox.veritas.com/t5/Downloads/VADP-overview-and-different-scenarios-for-VMware-backup/ta-p/81...

 

RiaanBadenhorst
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As @sdo pointed out, it doesn't matter. 1st step is to connect to Vcenter to get the details of where a VM is. 2nd step is the transfer, which can happen over lan/san

Yep... I think I have got it around my head that the first step is connect to vCenter Appliance (VCSA) and then second step is the transport.

Whats causing me a problem is the specific case of the VCSA failing and I need to restore it...In this case the first step is not possible as there is no vCenter to connect to anymore... So I guess I need to know that if this first step is no longer available am I forced into using a specific transfer method (LAN/SAN)... Or can both still restore the VCSA for me directly to an ESXi host?

sdo
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Yes, in the event of loss of VCSA, then a restore directly to a VMFS datastore accessible by an ESXi host can be achieved by either SAN or NBD transport (assuming connectivity exists) by directing/pushing the restore to the name of the ESXi host - which in NetBackup terminology in the GUI is called/named an "ESXi Restore Host".

You guys are too helpful... Thank you for your efforts and patience...

I think its straight in my head now...

Really appreciate the help.

sdo
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No worries.

Did you take a look at @RamNagalla's nice post/document here:

https://vox.veritas.com/t5/Downloads/VADP-overview-and-different-scenarios-for-VMware-backup/ta-p/81...

...which shows in diagrams how:

- a SAN transport restore of a VM really does write directly from NetBackup Media Server via SAN to the VMFS storage, and then tells the VM controller host (be it VCSA, or an ESXi host) about the new/restored VM.

- an NBD transport restore of a VM sends the VM from the NetBackup Media Server over the LAN to an ESXi host which does the writes to VMFS storage, and then tells the VM controller host (be it VCSA, or an ESXi host) about the new/restored VM.

Not yet.. But I will do for sure in the coming weeks... Thanks for the great guidance