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Veritas Netbackup instant access 8.1.2

jjimenez2
Level 5

Hi Veritas,

We bought a netbackup appliance and will implement the instant access for VM's.

I would like to ask the below :

1. Is this feature only for VMware?

2. Do I need plugin to vsphere vmware then i can use the instant access? What need to setup first? 

3. Is it possble that initiate backup, the snapshot will write/consume space to nbu appliance not to datastore of the vm?

Note: We have new netbackup appliance 3.1.2 running as media and I already upgrade the master to 8.1.2.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Q1) They want to save space to datastore and restore the vmdk to other site once we are done on testing on prod site but if i use agent based approach it will not backup the vmdk right? only the VM files will backup so it will not restore the wholle VM?

A1) Yes, agent (inside the guest) based backups do not backup VMDK directly.  If you want to backup as VM (i.e. whole or incremental (VMDK) then you do not necessarily need an agent inside the guest VM.  But if you want to restore one file directly to the VM then it is usually a lot easier to restore if the VM contains a pre-configured agent.

Also, alternatively, you could still use NetBackup BMR to perform a kind of V2V restore / recovery (just like P2V) of the guest OS to re-create a new VM - but this is just a little bit more involved than a straightforward whole VM restore directly back into ESX VMware.

A common mistake that VMware admins make is to overfill their datastore LUNs.  Here's a fact of life:  if you want VMware based backups of VM then you are very likely going to have to leave space for snapshots.  That's just the way it works.  You are in for heaps pf pain if you try to do anything different.  Anyone that insists on doing it differently is, quite frankly, in the wrong job.  Top tip:  always, and I do mean *always* leave 10% to 15% spare in your datastore LUNs.

.

Q2) Customer wants to use the appliance as backup host (Appliance) for VMware so the backup more faster but I read some blogs about Appliance 5240 H is also supported ISCSI. VMware supported the ISCSI protocol for NAS to be another datastore but I dont have any idea if appliance can be like NAS.

A2) In general the appliance is not a NAS (for SMB and NFS) and certainly cannot be configured as a NAS for iSCSI.  Remember, a typical iSCSI storage array (e.g. a NetApp) is an iSCSI "target".  An ESX host in an iSCSI network is an "iSCSI initiator".  Likewise, a NetBackup Appliance in an iSCSI network is an "iSCSI initiator".  Think of the NetBackup Appliance not as an iSCSI NAS, but instead think of a NetBackup Appliance as a specilaised host (just like ESX Host) that is capable of accessing the same storage LUNs as the ESX host.  Do you see how ESX host and NetBackup Appliance are very similar, they are both "hosts", they are both servers.

.

Q3) Just read this:

https://vox.veritas.com/t5/NetBackup-Appliance/VMware-backup-over-SAN-Appliance-to-ESX-zoning/td-p/7...

A3) This VOX forum post discusses zoning for SAN over FC.  Remember, SAN over FC requires "zoning" which is a way of configuring point-to-point communication between a "SAN initiator" (which is usually a server) and a "SAN target" (which is usually a storage array).

So, FC SAN uses "zoning" between initiator and target - and iSCSI SAN uses "initiators and targets" in the actual iSCSI config - i.e. each achieves the same goal of establishing a special private understanding between initiators (usually servers) and targets (usually storage arrays).

.

Q4) and also this
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/122285129-130445102-0/v62458939-130445102

A4) This is a link to the NetBackup Appliance iSCSI Guide, page re transport modes.  Yes, the transport name is "san" for both iSCSI and FC based backups.

Remember FC is a SAN protocol.  Also, remember that iSCSI is a SAN protocol.  They are both "SAN" protocols - but implemented differently, typically over different types of swicthes and cables, but even these distinctions are blurred these days.

.

HTH

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

Hi 

1. Yes - only available for VMware at present (not sure about roadmap to extend this to Hyper-V)

2. No plug-in required, access is via the new WebUI

3. Not possible. It is possible to have VMware create the snapshot on a different datastore than the VM being sanspped, but this is a VMWare function (nothing to do with NetBackup). What's the use case for this functionality besides saving space on the datastore(s) the VM resides on?

Hi David,

They want to save space to datastore and restore the vmdk to other site once we are done on testing on prod site but if i use agent based approach it will not backup the vmdk right? only the VM files will backup so it will not restore the wholle VM?

Customer wants to use the appliance as backup host (Appliance) for VMware so the backup more faster but I read some blogs about Appliance 5240 H is also supported ISCSI. VMware supported the ISCSI protocol for NAS to be another datastore but I dont have any idea if appliance can be like NAS.

Just read this https://vox.veritas.com/t5/NetBackup-Appliance/VMware-backup-over-SAN-Appliance-to-ESX-zoning/td-p/7...

and also this

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/122285129-130445102-0/v62458939-130445102

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Q1) They want to save space to datastore and restore the vmdk to other site once we are done on testing on prod site but if i use agent based approach it will not backup the vmdk right? only the VM files will backup so it will not restore the wholle VM?

A1) Yes, agent (inside the guest) based backups do not backup VMDK directly.  If you want to backup as VM (i.e. whole or incremental (VMDK) then you do not necessarily need an agent inside the guest VM.  But if you want to restore one file directly to the VM then it is usually a lot easier to restore if the VM contains a pre-configured agent.

Also, alternatively, you could still use NetBackup BMR to perform a kind of V2V restore / recovery (just like P2V) of the guest OS to re-create a new VM - but this is just a little bit more involved than a straightforward whole VM restore directly back into ESX VMware.

A common mistake that VMware admins make is to overfill their datastore LUNs.  Here's a fact of life:  if you want VMware based backups of VM then you are very likely going to have to leave space for snapshots.  That's just the way it works.  You are in for heaps pf pain if you try to do anything different.  Anyone that insists on doing it differently is, quite frankly, in the wrong job.  Top tip:  always, and I do mean *always* leave 10% to 15% spare in your datastore LUNs.

.

Q2) Customer wants to use the appliance as backup host (Appliance) for VMware so the backup more faster but I read some blogs about Appliance 5240 H is also supported ISCSI. VMware supported the ISCSI protocol for NAS to be another datastore but I dont have any idea if appliance can be like NAS.

A2) In general the appliance is not a NAS (for SMB and NFS) and certainly cannot be configured as a NAS for iSCSI.  Remember, a typical iSCSI storage array (e.g. a NetApp) is an iSCSI "target".  An ESX host in an iSCSI network is an "iSCSI initiator".  Likewise, a NetBackup Appliance in an iSCSI network is an "iSCSI initiator".  Think of the NetBackup Appliance not as an iSCSI NAS, but instead think of a NetBackup Appliance as a specilaised host (just like ESX Host) that is capable of accessing the same storage LUNs as the ESX host.  Do you see how ESX host and NetBackup Appliance are very similar, they are both "hosts", they are both servers.

.

Q3) Just read this:

https://vox.veritas.com/t5/NetBackup-Appliance/VMware-backup-over-SAN-Appliance-to-ESX-zoning/td-p/7...

A3) This VOX forum post discusses zoning for SAN over FC.  Remember, SAN over FC requires "zoning" which is a way of configuring point-to-point communication between a "SAN initiator" (which is usually a server) and a "SAN target" (which is usually a storage array).

So, FC SAN uses "zoning" between initiator and target - and iSCSI SAN uses "initiators and targets" in the actual iSCSI config - i.e. each achieves the same goal of establishing a special private understanding between initiators (usually servers) and targets (usually storage arrays).

.

Q4) and also this
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/122285129-130445102-0/v62458939-130445102

A4) This is a link to the NetBackup Appliance iSCSI Guide, page re transport modes.  Yes, the transport name is "san" for both iSCSI and FC based backups.

Remember FC is a SAN protocol.  Also, remember that iSCSI is a SAN protocol.  They are both "SAN" protocols - but implemented differently, typically over different types of swicthes and cables, but even these distinctions are blurred these days.

.

HTH

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

To add to @sdo good reply here's some additional detail.

1. The NetApp iSCSI will present the storage for comsumers to use. The ESXi host is one such host that cvomsume the storage and uses it for datastore. The NetBackup appliance is another host that can consume the storage in its function as a backup host to allow it to read the VMware datastores (and thus reduce the load placed on the ESXi infrastructure - as it reads directly from the NetApp). The NetBackup appliance CANNOT provide storage via iSCSI for other systems to consume. Before you ask, it is possible for an appliance to provide a NFS share, but this is only for the purpose of providing a backup target (Co-Pilot, UNiversal share), it is not supported for this to be used as a VMware datastore.

2. If you have space issues on our VMware datastores, have a read of this KB from VMware on how to configure the snapshots delta files to reside in a different location https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1002929 But as @sdo says, it is poor practice to be in this situation.

Hi David and Sdo,

Noted on this. Just want to ask another one question just incase the customer proceed to BMR V2V.
Is this the the admin guide right?
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/26437400-131642833-0/v81674014-131642833

sdo
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Certified

Hi - the topic is actually known as "NetBackup BMR conversion", and if you google those three words you get a good selection of links, but here's one anyway :

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/26437400-127352289-0/v100385447-127352289

N.B:  Not all BMR clients are supported.