Symantec Netbackup integration with SharePoint- backup design queries

[madhu_gopalakri]

Hi,

My setup contains 2 nos of SP 2010 FE and 2 nos of application Servers which are running on VMware virtual machines. SQL DB for SP is running on 2 nos of physical servers configured with Microsoft Failover cluster. 

Currently SP virtual machines are integrated with netbackup and also the SQL databases for database backup.

My understanding is that virtual machine backup can be used for SP granular recovery if we enable it.

My query is;

1. Can I leverage on Virtual Machine backup for my sharepoint setup mentioned above.
2. Is there is any requirement that all the SP Servers including SQL database should run Virtual machine if we want to use VMware for sharepoint backup?

My setup details are;

OS: Windows 2008 R2

DB: SQL 2008 R2 EE

VMware: ESXi 5.1

SP: SP 2010

Netbackup: 7.5.0.6

[Will_Restore]

I was hoping someone had experience with this as we recently upgraded to 7.5 and are considering VM backups in lieu of Windows agent (Exchange, SharePoint, SQL)

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

As i understand it the VMware method for backing up Sharepoint is that it is for standalone systems - where Sharepoint, SQL etc is all on one server.

I have the feeling from an earlier thread that someone did do it with more but all would need to be VM's and all run at the same time for things to be consistent - not sure exactly how a recoevry would work in that case though as some would backup as sharepoint and some as SQL and not "linked" in NetBackup

I believe that you cannot do this on a dispersed system

SQL VM backups are fine and even Exchange ones will just backup the active databases on each VM - but just not SharePoint

I will search the threads to double check

[Mark_Solutions]

Ah - it was an Exchange DAG environment i was thinking about - the solution here outlines how they got it to work:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/configuring-grt-based-exchange-backup-using-vmware-ba...

Dont think if it was split between physical and virtual it would work - you would have to have SQL agent policies for SQL and time them perfectly for when Sharepoint was being backed up

If you do test it please post the results

[Marianne]

PreviousVMware/Sharepoint dicussions:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/vmware-sharepoint-hybrid-backups

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exchange-sql-active-directory-vmware

[Will_Restore]

The rule is that each server must be a standalone server - so not clustered SQL, nor a spread out Exchange system or SharePoint Farm - just all-in-one servers

not what I was hoping to hear

oh well, we stay with the app agents

[madhu_gopalakri]

Thnxs.... it's clear now