Nuts and bolts in NetBackup for VMware: What is new in NetBackup 7.6?
It had been a while since I added something new to this series on Nuts and Bolts in NetBackup for VMware. The dawn of NetBackup 7.6 is here. It is one of the biggest releases in NetBackup for VMware vSphere and vCloud. This release prepares for your journey to Software Defined Data Center. Are you ready? Fasten your seat belts! First and foremost, let us put some perspective on the adoption of virtualization in data centers. Symantec and VMware have been guiding you in reaping the benefits of virtualization. It is happening in three phases. You are likely to be in one of the three phases in this exciting journey. IT Production: In this phase, you are looking save on capital expenses through server consolidation for general-purpose workloads. The key advantage here is to pool and abstract hardware resources for optimal utilization. NetBackup prepared you for this phase since NetBackup 6.5 in 2007, the very first official release of NetBackup with VMware specific features. VMworld judges awarded NetBackup with Best of VMworld in Data Protection and Business Continuity category. NetBackup was the first product to ever get this recognition. NetBackup is still the only product that has won or became the finalist in that category the most number of times. Business Production: This phase is about virtualizing business critical applications and reducing operational expenses. Automation is the mantra at this stage. NetBackup prepared you for this phase since NetBackup 7.1/NetBackup 5220 release in 2011-12. Symantec V-Ray, VMware Intelligent Policies, SAN based offhost backups and integrated VMware Ready backup appliances mitigated the operational costs of virtualized workloads through simplification and automation. NetBackup 5220 and Symantec V-Ray got the attention from both VMworld and Microsoft TechEd judges bagging several awards. Software Defined Data Centers: This is the nirvana for virtualization where compute, network and storage is virtualized and managed as a service model. This phase is all about agility and efficiency for data centers. Now NetBackup 7.6 is preparing you for SDDC in 2013-14. So how exactly is NetBackup 7.6 preparing for this third phase in virtualization so as to reach software defined data centers? Let me give you an overview here. You are zero miles away from these features once you enter the 7.6 freeway to Software Defined Data Center NetBackup Accelerator for VMware workloads: Super fast backups for workloads in VMware vSphere and vCloud are here! NetBackup Accelerator for VMware combines three key technologies to deliver fast and resource efficient backups for virtual machines and applications. NetBackup Replication Director for VMware workloads: Storage array level snapshots and replicas can meet high RPO/RTO required for business critical workloads. However the lack of content awareness limits their use cases. NetBackup Replication Director for VMware vSphere and vCloud workloads enables you to make use of storage level snapshots and replicas without losing end-to-end content visibility, granular recoverability and data life cycle manageability. NetBackup Instant Recovery for VMware: This capability enables you to bring up enterprise grade virtual machines and workloads right from the backup storage even before restoring data back to production storage. NetBackup for VMware vCloud: NetBackup 7.6 brings unmatched support for VMware vCloud Suite, starting with end-to-end support for vCloud Director based environments. As you guys know, vCloud Director is the current foundation for building an SDDC for VMware customers. You get to protect the “DNA” of such SDDCs through NetBackup 7.6. Almost all features in NetBackup for VMware vSphere now seamlessly work for vCloud Director based environments. NetBackup Blue Sky Recovery: NetBackup now automates the migration and disaster recovery of physical machines into virtual machines in VMware vSphere and vCloud environments from the backups. NetBackup Auto Image Replication works in conjunction with this capability to take systems anytime to remote locations or to the cloud. This feature is designed to accelerate your journey to virtualization. Well, this is just an overview. We will get into the nuts and bolts of each of these features in upcoming blogs in this series. The first one in this series is already live. Here is the blog on technical deep dive into NetBackup Accelerator for VMware. Got a question NetBackup 7.6 for VMware features? Ask me using the comments section below. I shall answer them directly or through subsequent blogs. We have a lot to talk about in NetBackup 7.6! Related blogs: Eliminating CBT penalty with NetBackup Accelerator Earlier blogs in Nuts and bolts series