Does VCB Proxy Server need a dedicated Volume?

[jaikrit]

Hi,

Does VCB Proxy Server need a dedicated Volume or LUN for backing up the snapshots or can those snapshots be accomodated in the source VMFS volume iteself?

Jaikrit Negi

(VCP,BCFP,SCSA)

[Lightbulb]

VCB uses a staging area (BACKUPROOT) where Full VM snapshots are processed by third party backup software. The staging area can be local storage or reside on a SAN volume, but not on the VMFS volumes of the hosts.

At least that is my understanding.

[jaikrit]

Hi,

Thanks for your response and same is my understanding too. I had some different views from other sources who quoted that same source VMFS volume can be used for VCB backup snapshots and just need to ensure free space in those VMFS volumes.

Well, thanks for responding.I am still looking if someone can just summarize the pre-requirements for VCB based backups.

Jaikrit Negi

(VCP,BCFP,SCSA)

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[Erik_Zandboer · Accepted solution]

Hi,

To clarify - When you are using VCB, the first thing that is done is creating a snapshot of the VM. This snapshot will by default be created where the VM is (so on VMFS).

After that (in case of a full-image backup), the VCB proxy will copy the entire virtual disk (*-flat.vmdk) to storage which resides on the VCB proxy. Then a 3rd party tool can scoop these files out (to tape, VTL etc).

So yes, the snapshot is created on VMFS. The virtual disk itself though gets temporarily stored on a disk connected to the VCB proxy (whereever you put the mountpoint). So remember that your VCB proxy must have at least enough free disk space to facilitate your largest virtual disk to backup!

When using a file level mount, the excessive diskspace on the proxy is not needed; then you really have a "view" into the virtual disk.

Writes to the virtual disk are stored temporarily in the snapshot file on VMFS. After the VCB backup, you (or the 3rd party backup software) unmounts the mount, and the snapshot is removed. Take care, VCB has a tendancy to "forget" removing the snapshot sometimes!

[dellboy]

So don't forget - if you plan on running multiple Full Image Virtual Machine backups using VCB (as opposed to File Level) you will need enough local storage on the VCB proxy to temporarily store the number of VMs you are backing up at once.

I recommend running some performance tests, to find the optimal number of VMs you can back up at once in your environment.