Backup Central

Are any of y’all doing backups of your vmware guests (windows) using the vmware api within Netbackup? If so, what do you think of it as opposed to installing the client on the guest itself? I’ve read some of the documentation and I’m confused as to whether or not I need to use the api for file level restores or the vcb stuff for it? And last, how many guests are you backing up and how many windows media servers do you use for this?

Emailed our NBU reps to get a meeting with them, but also wanted some “real world” advice as well. Also, thanks to those of you that responded to my email about Exchange 2010. It’s working like a champ now.

Howard


Howard Graylin | System Administrator III | C Spire Wireless
6019747719 office

Cellular South is now C Spire Wireless
Please note that my new email address is hgraylin < at > cspire.com

Hi Howard, i just did some testing recently too using the network (instead of SAN). it was fairly easy to set up once the correct permissions were set in vCenter. Our esx hosts are connected with 10GB and the vm guests are at 1GB, so the backups using the API was much faster. i was able to restore full vmdks from the backup and found that the nb client is required if you want to restore files back to the original vm guest. our paint point is the config requirements to get this done to each vm guest. for example, you need to enable change block tracking on each vm, change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits, and making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a symantec article on this).

Hello. Just a couple of clarifications....

you need to enable change block tracking on each vm

[G]: NetBackup automatically enables Changed Block Tracking when the "Block Level Incremental Backup" checkbox is selected on the policy. This is done for every VM that is defined in this policy. No need to manually enable this on every VM.

change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits

[G]: This is only required on the Windows VMware Backup Host(s). This attribute does not need to be set for every VM being protected.

making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a symantec article on this).

[G]: Not sure what this is referring to.

Hope this helps!

-George Winter
Symantec Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of X_S
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:23 AM
To: VERITAS-BU < at > MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN.EDU
Subject: [Veritas-bu] vmware api backups

Hi Howard, i just did some testing recently too using the network (instead of SAN). it was fairly easy to set up once the correct permissions were set in vCenter. Our esx hosts are connected with 10GB and the vm guests are at 1GB, so the backups using the API was much faster. i was able to restore full vmdks from the backup and found that the nb client is required if you want to restore files back to the original vm guest. our paint point is the config requirements to get this done to each vm guest. for example, you need to enable change block tracking on each vm, change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits, and making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a symantec article on this).

+----------------------------------------------------------------------
|This was sent by xspak1 < at > yahoo.com via Backup Central.
|Forward SPAM to abuse < at > backupcentral.com.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

I think the "enable changed block tracking" may refer to upgrading your
VMs from virtual hardware version 4 to 7 to take advantage of CBT on
vSphere 4. This may be a concern for environments migrating from 3.x.

-Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of George
Winter
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 3:28 PM
To: VERITAS-BU < at > MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN.EDU
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] vmware api backups

Hello. Just a couple of clarifications....

you need to enable change block tracking on each vm

[G]: NetBackup automatically enables Changed Block Tracking when the
"Block Level Incremental Backup" checkbox is selected on the policy.
This is done for every VM that is defined in this policy. No need to
manually enable this on every VM.

change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits

[G]: This is only required on the Windows VMware Backup Host(s). This
attribute does not need to be set for every VM being protected.

making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a
symantec article on this).

[G]: Not sure what this is referring to.

Hope this helps!

-George Winter
Symantec Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of X_S
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:23 AM
To: VERITAS-BU < at > MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN.EDU
Subject: [Veritas-bu] vmware api backups

Hi Howard, i just did some testing recently too using the network
(instead of SAN). it was fairly easy to set up once the correct
permissions were set in vCenter. Our esx hosts are connected with 10GB
and the vm guests are at 1GB, so the backups using the API was much
faster. i was able to restore full vmdks from the backup and found that
the nb client is required if you want to restore files back to the
original vm guest. our paint point is the config requirements to get
this done to each vm guest. for example, you need to enable change
block tracking on each vm, change backups using time stamps instead of
archive bits, and making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008
servers (theres a symantec article on this).

+----------------------------------------------------------------------
|This was sent by xspak1 < at > yahoo.com via Backup Central.
|Forward SPAM to abuse < at > backupcentral.com.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

If you are doing any MSCS clusters you will have to use client based backups for them.
For Windows guests, you can do file level vStorage restores from vmware API proxy backups. It is a flash backup so if it is a large VM, restoring just 1 file might take a little bit longer than a traditional backup. If you have any Linux guests, I think you will need NBU 7.1 to do file level restores and I imagine there are some restrictions on filesystems and LVM config.

You will probably need a combination of both. Agent based backups for databases and exchange and systems where you are particularly interested in consistent backups with incremental backups (EG: AD).



On 10/31/2011 10:48 AM, Howard Graylin wrote: Are any of y’all doing backups of your vmware guests (windows) using the vmware api within Netbackup? If so, what do you think of it as opposed to installing the client on the guest itself? I’ve read some of the documentation and I’m confused as to whether or not I need to use the api for file level restores or the vcb stuff for it? And last, how many guests are you backing up and how many windows media servers do you use for this?

Emailed our NBU reps to get a meeting with them, but also wanted some “real world” advice as well. Also, thanks to those of you that responded to my email about Exchange 2010. It’s working like a champ now.

Howard


Howard Graylin | System Administrator III | C Spire Wireless
6019747719 office

Cellular South is now C Spire Wireless
Please note that my new email address is hgraylin < at > cspire.com ([email]hgraylin < at > cspire.com[/email])


_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu ([email]Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu[/email])
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

-----Original Message-----
From: George Winter [mailto:george_winter < at > symantec.com]
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 2:28 PM
To: VERITAS-BU < at > MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN.EDU
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] vmware api backups

Hello. Just a couple of clarifications....

you need to enable change block tracking on each vm

[G]: NetBackup automatically enables Changed Block Tracking when the "Block Level Incremental Backup" checkbox is selected on the policy. This is done for every VM that is defined in this policy. No need to manually enable this on every VM.

change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits

[G]: This is only required on the Windows VMware Backup Host(s). This attribute does not need to be set for every VM being protected.
[jro] Baolin says this isn't necessary anymore, and he and Dave both say that has been true for a couple of releases.

making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a symantec article on this).

[G]: Not sure what this is referring to.
[jro] There is a technote that someone sent me. I couldn't find the value they say to change, or any explanation of what it does.

Hope this helps!

-George Winter
Symantec Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of X_S
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:23 AM
To: VERITAS-BU < at > MAILMAN.ENG.AUBURN.EDU
Subject: [Veritas-bu] vmware api backups

Hi Howard, i just did some testing recently too using the network (instead of SAN). it was fairly easy to set up once the correct permissions were set in vCenter. Our esx hosts are connected with 10GB and the vm guests are at 1GB, so the backups using the API was much faster. i was able to restore full vmdks from the backup and found that the nb client is required if you want to restore files back to the original vm guest. our paint point is the config requirements to get this done to each vm guest. for example, you need to enable change block tracking on each vm, change backups using time stamps instead of archive bits, and making the UUID based quiescing for windows 2008 servers (theres a symantec article on this).

+----------------------------------------------------------------------
|This was sent by xspak1 < at > yahoo.com via Backup Central.
|Forward SPAM to abuse < at > backupcentral.com.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu < at > mailman.eng.auburn.edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu