Backup Solution for new ESXi 5.5 Cluster.

[WonderVM]

All,

We have built a new Cluster on ESXi 5.5 with 2 DL380 G8 servers (hosts) and a HP Storevirtual 4330 connected via  iSCSI for SAN storage. All iSCSI have 4 NICs attached to a iSCSI 1GB Switch.

The HP Storevirtual 4330 has 7TB of space but will have 1-1.5 TB of VMs and Data on it. 2x16 core Xeon processors and 256gb RAM in each host.

There are 10 server VMs (2008 R2) on the cluster.

I also have a DL360 G8 with 5TB of space on it and a FC HP 1/8 autoloader (I need to make weekly and monthly tapes for compliance requirements).

I have 4 extra nics in this to connect to the iscsi san if thats an advantage.

All my previous backups were full backups to tape but will need to be different.

Just wondering what is the best solution for me in relation to

What type of backups are best (snapshot in storevirtual, VDP, or software (Backup Exec and VEEAM are my options)

Where should I store the data from backups (SAN or space on win2008 backup server)

What type of backup gives less impact on performance of SAN, Hosts or VMs while running.

Is de-duplication a help in managing space, if yes what way should it be configured.

[ch1ta · Accepted solution]

If you're using StoreVirtual as the underlying storage, then, definitely take a look at Veeam that integrates deeply with the said device, allowing you to use SAN snapshots during backup process. This, in its turn, dramatically improves RPOs and reduces impact of backup activities on the production environment.

Apart from it, you can install VB&R on the above mentioned physical server and connect tape device it. Such deployment would allow you to archive backup data to tape mediums on whatever basis you want to, using special tape jobs.

Cheers.

[WonderVM]

That's what I did.

Using VEEAM on physical backup server connected to storage switch.

Storage snapshot makes the VEEAM VM backups work really well..

Needs fine tuning but getting 100mb/s processing rate but have to look at source util as its 80-90%.

Thanks for the advice.

[ch1ta]

Be aware that bottleneck stats just give the info about amount of time that every backup component is busy. In other words, the bottleneck is always present (in every setup). As long as, you're ok with the backup performance, you shouldn't bother about bottleneck statistics that much.

Probably, this sticky FAQ will shed some light on bottleneck analysis.

Cheers.