TSM and Full VM backup

[seacliff1]

Is anyone using TSM 6.4+ and their full VM backup ?

How is everyone managing the backup list?

We have close to a thousand VMs with some having specific backup requirements (full vmdk that won't need to be backed up and/or different backup policy). We're looking into deploying TSM full VM backup on all our environment but managing all that manually will be a nightmare, so how is everyone managing this?

We though of using VM tagging with some powerCLI scripting to pull lists of VMs and edit the tsm scheduling. Is there an easier ways of doing things? Would anyone be willing to share what they've done ?

thanks!

Phil

[HawkieMan]

We are using TSM in a very large scale VMware enviroment.

With TSM you have 2 options, either cluster backup where you use vcenter and backup all VMs in a cluster. The second option is the agent backup.

Due to the scale of our virtualized enviroment as well as the amount of hosts as networks, we used both depending on the need. This however resulted in the need for a load of TSM proxies working within the virtualized enviroment, and those where resource hogs.

Managing TSM is a nightmare, and after 5 years with TSM we are doing an enterprise wide tender to find a new solution, as long as it is NOT TSM. We have looked into several other solutions and almost all are better when we evaluate from the standpoint of our own experiences and not from the brochures. So if you are going to deploy TSM i wish you all the luck and hope you have time enough for administrating it. Another thing worth mentioning is that in our large scale enviroment TSM backup is the #1 problem when it comes to VM stability, and its need for constant monitoring of vmware tools on the VMs as well as always having to make sure we do not try to backup appliances with "third party" vmware tools.

[seacliff1]

Thanks for your answer.

We have the luxury to have a dedicated team for backups so managing it won't be that bad!

We are already managing every nodes (physicals & virtuals) using an agent-based backup. We are looking for an easier solution. I didn't know TSM could backup all VMs within a cluster.. We are just starting to use what they call 'TSM Data Protection for VMware' where you get a new options in vcenter (Solutions and Applications > IBM Tivoli Data Protection for VMware) and can manage backups and restore from. We've always managed it manually until now, but since we're looking at deploying this on a bigger scale, automation would be useful That's why we're looking at scripting something to automate everything. IBM actually told us something could be done using VM tagging and some powerCLI scripting.

We've looked at other solutions as well, but we're pretty deep with IBM and most other solutions won't fit our requirements.

[HawkieMan]

Using prefixes in vcenter like tsmon.vmname.blalalala   or tsmoff.vmname.blalala  can be used in powercli and you can trigger TSM backups of those specific VMs using that system. We do use that system for our secondary backup solution and it works quite well.

I will however warn you that TSM backup for vmware is very particular that you have VSS installe din vmware tools, and otherwise you risk TSM "shooting" down your VMs without warning every night.

Our TSM team consisting of 3 people managing 4000 VMs did not find it to be a viable solution, and even though we had it for 5 years, the total managment cost was to high when combined with the issues we experienced. However it might be that it is suitable for your infrastructure, but then have in mind my warnings so you dont have to search for the "unknown" cause of crashes like we had to

[seacliff1]

thanks! I'll make sure to let everyone know that!