Section 6 - Backup and Recover a vSphere Deployment
Benefits of using
VMware Data Protection (VDP)...
... Support for guest-level backups and
restores of Microsoft SQL Servers, Exchange Servers, and Sharepoint Servers.
... Support for advanced storage services
including replication, encryption, deduplication, and compression.
... Direct access to VDP configuration
integrated into the vSphere Client
Objective 6.1 -
Configure and Administer a vSphere Backup/Restore/Replication Solution
A VMware snapshot:
- Represents the state of a virtual machine at the time
it was taken
- Includes the files and memory state of a virtual
machine’s guest operating system
- Includes the settings and configuration of a virtual
machine and its virtual hardware
- Is stored as a set of files in the same directory as
other files that comprise a virtual machine
- Should be taken when testing something with unknown or
potentially harmful effects
- Can take up as much disk space as the virtual machine
itself
Identify VMware
Data Protection (VDP) Requirements - software:
- Minimum requirement is vCenter Server 5.1; vCenter
Server 5.5 or later is recommended
- VDP 6.0 supports the VCA and Windows vCenter Server
- Deploy VDP appliances on shared VMFS5 or later
datastores to avoid block size limitations
- Make sure VMs are running hardware version 7 or later
to support Change Block Tracking (CBT)
- Install VMware Tools on each VM that VDP will backup
- Unsupported VM disk types: Independent, RDM Independent
Virtual Compatibility Mode, RDM Physical
Compatibility Mode
VDP is deployed
based on disk capacity - options:
0.5TB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB
Based on disk/repository sizing the CPU/Memory resources
minimum requirements:
0.5TB, 4 CPU*, 4GB RAM, 873GB Disk Space
1 TB, 4 CPU*, 4GB RAM, 1.6TB Disk Space
2TB, 4 CPU*, 4GB RAM, 3TB Disk Space
4TB, 4 CPU*, 8GB RAM, 6TB Disk Space
6TB, 4 CPU*, 10GB RAM, 9TB Disk Space
8TB, 4 CPU*, 12GB RAM, 12TB Disk Space
*CPU is 2GHz or
better
Explain VMware
Data Protection Sizing Guidelines:
- Up to 400 virtual machines supported per VDP appliance
- Up to 20 VDP appliances supported per vCenter
- Backup daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly
VMware Data
Protection offering in vSphere 6:
- Agentless virtual machine backup
- Integration with EMC Data Domain for additional scale,
efficiency, and reliability
- Agent support for application consistent backup and
restores of Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Sharepoint
- Granular File Level Restores (FLR)
- Deployment of external proxies, enabling as many as 24
parallel backup operations
Note: vDP 6.0
appliance default login is root/changeme
Note: Configure
appliance via https://IP_of_APPLIANCE:8543/vdp-configure
Note: The appliance
is registered with vCenter
vSphere
Replication (VR) Architecture:
- included feature with vSphere
- provides hypervisor-based VM replication
- allows for replicating to unlike storage
- supports both VCA and standard vCenter Server
- bundled components:
-- plug-in for vSphere Web Client
-- Embedded database that stores replication
configuration and management info
-- vSphere Replication server that provides
the core of the VR infrastructure
-- vSphere Replication management server
--- Configures the
vSphere Replication server
--- Enables,
manages, and monitors replications
--- Authenticates
user and checks their permissions to perform vSphere Replication operations
- Topology 1: source site to target site
- Topology 2: single site from one cluster to another
- Topology 3: multiple source sites to a shared remote
target site
Note: vSphere
Replication appears under Home >
vSphere Replication icon in vSphere Web Client
Note: The VAMI
(Virtual Appliance Management Interface) of the vSphere Replication appliance
is https://IP_of_APPLIANCE:5480
Note: By default
the vSphere Replication appliance will use self-signed certs
Note: Configuring
vSphere Replication is simple right-click VM(s) All vSphere Replication Actions > Configure Replication
Image: Topology 1
from source site to target site
Identify vSphere
Replication Compression Methods:
Data compression is supported for vSphere Replication if
the environment meets certain requirements. For full support of end-to-end
compression, both the Source and Target ESXi hosts need to be running ESXi 6.x.
If you have a “mixed” environment of 6.x hosts and earlier, the ability to
compress data will be limited.
Recover a VM using
vSphere Replication:
- This is a manual task
- Prior to attempting recovery, insure the VM at the
source site is powered off
- vSphere Replication > Incoming Replication >
Recover
- Recovery options:
-- Synchronize recent changes
-- Use latest available data
--
(Additionally: Point in time recovery
utilizing VM Snapshots)
Perform Failback
using vSphere Replication: After successful recovery in target (DR) vCenter
site, to perform failback:
- log into target site and configure new replication in
reverse (target site to source site)
- disks on source site are (can be) used as replication
seeds
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