Consolidated backup

[jarends3]

I'm reading the docs on Consolidated Backup and it seems like you have two choices: Either run the proxy on a system connected to your SAN, or if you do not have a SAN you can do the backups over the network.

It does not mention my scenario, where I have a SAN, but not a dedicated system to put on the SAN. Can we do the LAN method even though my data resides on a fiber chanel SAN?

[depping]

Yeah that's no problem, as long as the VCB Proxy host can access VirtualCenter/ESX over the network. Check the config.js file and change SAN to NBD.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog:

[dmorgan]

I am a tad confused by your question. VCB requires a proxy whether or not you are doing it over fibre to the SAN or over the network. The proxy is what VCB is installed on, and what connects to the VMWare datastore and either copies the files for a fullvm backup, or mounts the vmdk's as read only to your local filesystem. You have to have the VCB proxy no matter what, that proxy is 99.9% of VCB. How that proxy will connect to your VMWare infrastructure is up to you.

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[EnsignA]

The definition of using VCB backups precludes the "over-the-network" scenario. It's design should mean that you do your backups LAN free. The VCB proxy needs to be connected to your SAN, cannot be the VirtualCenter server, and must see all the LUNs that ESX see's. I would dig up a Windows server with a FC card it it and zone it in similar to the way you zone in your ESX servers. I have found that in general a dedicated server for this works out the best, at least in my environment. Your mileage may vary.

[dmorgan]

I agree, we do our backups "LAN Free", however that does not mean that you HAVE to do it this way. With the latest version of VCB you 'CAN' use the network to connect to the SAN from your proxy, if you are not able to Fibre connect your proxy. I agree that this is not typically ideal, but it can be done, and there are definitely those without Fibre HBA's on their proxy server. You can mitigate some of the issues using a LAN scenario by utilizing VLAN's and the like to segment network traffic.

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