Backup Exec 12.5 (SP2) + SAN backups

[childs999]

Hi there

I was hoping for a bit of assistance.

Our backup server has been upgraded recently and I'm trying to figure out the best (most efficient) way of backing up our VM's.

1X ESX host (VI) - NOT running virtual center.

1X backup server (Backup exec 12.5 SP2 - running on server 2003 standard )

The backup exec server has VCB installed and it is configured as a proxy server.

At the moment the backup server is not plugged into the SAN (say uses iSCSI).

Backups work, but due to large volume (I think we have 1TB of data) I am not able to backup all VM's due to disk space issues on the proxy server.

Is there a way to backup over the network (IE directly from SAN->Tape)? How would I go about setting this up? I assume this would also be much faster than backing up to the proxy server, and then from the proxy server to tape?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[java_cat33]

Hi - You can't backup directly to tape. You'll need to present some SAN disk to the backup server, or alternatively attach some local storage to it. The only method I'm aware of that will backup your VM's from SAN to tape is a guest level backup (not using VCB) - just like you backup a normal physical server using Backup Exec as an example.

All the backup products I'm aware of that are supported by VMware require a "holding tank" for the backed up VM''s - this holding tank is the storage on the backup server. Then you can backup the files in the holding tank (the backed-up VM's) to tape as a separate process.

[AndreTheGiant]

Is there a way to backup over the network (IE directly from SAN->Tape)? How would I go about setting this up?

VCB require a stage area to copy the vmdk disk.

But (only for Windows guest) it can also work at filelevel mode, in this case it simple mount the vmdk (without copy it on the local stage area) so you can directly copy your file.

After the backup you have to "umont" the vmdk files.

See on VCB documentation, or on BE integration scripts (browse-start and browse-end script).

Andre

[childs999]

OK I'm starting to get a better understanding now.

With regards to backing up VM's - what's the best method?

At the moment we backup to disk (and tape) - full backups daily - average about 350 GB (these are file-level backups - not backing up the whole VM )

I know it is possible to backup using GRT (does that enable file-level restores?) - would I be better off backing up all VMDK files (as opposed to doing file-level backups) onto disk (as it's about 800GB of data) or having a split-backup strategy (continue with file-level backups and also backup the VM'S to a NAS (gigabit)?)

Sorry if I sound confused!