Netbackup & Virtual machine

[Anthony_Monier]

Hi,

I've got few question about netbackup and virtual machine.

First, can someone explain me the difference between saving a system and saving a virtual machine ? If an application is install on the system, will the application be restore from a system backup ? 

How long does it take to restore a VM ?

Thanks a lot for your answer.

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

I am guessing by "saving" you mean "backing up"

The difference in NetBackup comes when you use the vSphere API which allows you to back up VMWare snapshots directly over fibre (or ethernet) to a VMWare Backup Host (usually your backup Media Server)

This produces very fast backups as NetBackup asks vCenter to take a snapshot of the server which is then seen directly over the fibre by the Media Server and backed up.

As this is in effect large vmdk file(s) it makes for a fast backup

Many Operating Systems also granulise this so that as well as the VMDKs it allows for individual file restores.

In the latest version of NetBackup you can also take Exchange, SQL and SharePoint backups during this process

Restore times of an entire VMWare machine are also very fast as they can also pass the vmdk's over the SAN

Normal backups run against the file system of a server and pass the data, effectively file at a time over the network so will obviously be slower in general

This is a very vague description and there is a lot more to NetBackup than just this but hopefully gives you an idea

The NetBackup VMWare guide can be downloaded here for full information:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5162

Hope this helps