BACKUPS: vRanger - How do I access backups on a VMFS LUN from a VC/2003 to backup to tape?

[ChrisatVM]

Hi All,

Firstly, Thanks for your time!

I have 2x ESX hosts - 2x FC HBA, FC SAN DS3400, 2x FC Switch, 1 VC server with vRanger Pro(latest) 1FC HBA

2 LUNS - 1 PROD, 1 BACKUPS. (12x300GB 15k SAS.)

I backup my VMs using vRanger Pro (latest) to the BACKUP LUN using LAN FREE strategy.

Now that I have backed them up I would like to access them from my VC/2003 server with a SCSI tape library attached and start off-siting them.

I am aware that I dont want my VC/2003 server accessing the PROD LUN as the polling and accidental wiping of data is a possibility

I have been reading and googleing and reading some more and I am having trouble filling in the gaps of where I am going wrong or what the best strategy for my situation is?!

I am also having issues masking the PROD LUN from the VC/2003 Server at the SP level... I think its a limitation in the management software and needs to be done at the cli

How does VCB fit into this equation? with the "1-2 punch" strategy Do i need a separate server? can it be virtual?

I do not have the resources to have another physical server to the mix

Thanks in advance

[RParker]

Share out the target backup datastore to NFS. Then pull the backups (which are simply archive-zip files at this point) with your Veritas tape backup (or whatever you use). You can backup the data files to tape that way.

Best way is to setup a Linux client for the purposes of NFS. It can still occupy the space on the SAN, but it shares out the LUN as NFS target, and use your vRanger server to send the files to the target, then grab them with the backup agent.

[ChrisatVM]

Im sorry if I sound like im a newbie, because I am.

How do I share out the FC LUN datastore to NFS

Do you mean setup a linux client physical/virtual

[Texiwill]

Hello,

I do exactly as you describe. You can do this several ways.

1) Use vRanger backup over the network to a local place on your VC Server and then have the tape backup that location.

2) Use vRanger w/VCB to either backup using nbd (network) to a local place on your VC Server and then have the tape backup that location.

3) Connect the iSCSI/SAN Luns to the VC Server using appropriate hardware and using vRanger w/VCB backup using 'san' method to a local place on your VC Server

If you are using VCB plugins for vRanger then read http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_vm_backup.pdf

In essence you need to get the backup to the VC Server and then from there to tape. And that means you need 'space' to put the backups on the VC server, that space can be local, or remote, but it must exist.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Kahonu84]

Aloha - For what it's worth, this is what I've been doing for over a year with no issues.

My VCenter server (physical) also has Ranger running on it. I have a 500gb LUN attached to that server that stores the Ranger backups. Backup Exec then backs up that LUN..

Bill

[RParker]

> Do you mean setup a linux client physical/virtual

Yes. Pretend you are trying to backup 1 machine to tape. You install an agent inside that machine, correct? OK.

Now let's suppose you have 20 machines on the network, and they all need to be archived to tape. Each one has an agent. In this case your backup software that has access to the machines AND tape drive will backup the data, right? So instead of putting an agent inside each machine, you mark one of those machines as the "backup target". The other 9 machines (in this case) copy their data to that 1 machine with the agent, so your tape client backup software can move these files to tape.

Same thing on the network. You setup a LUN (apparently for JUST backup purposes). So you setup a VM to take up ALL the space on that LUN, thus you have 1 VM occupying the LUN. Now that VM is Redhat, Suse, whatever you prefer as Linux client, and install NFS server.

Now you setup vRanger to send ALL the VM backups for ALL your VM's to that machine via NFS (you could make it a Windows machine also, but that's a MS license and linux is free, which is why I suggested it) and that VM becomes a repository for your vRanger backups.

Now all you need is an agent inside that VM for your backup server to talk to. That's the ONLY machine you need, then you designate a folder inside that VM which is where your vRanger backups reside, and that becomes your backup data, your backup tape software backups up that 1 VM.

If it's a linux machine with NFS, that's what I mean by sharing it out as NFS.

Does that clear things up?