Exposing the VMFS LUNS to a VCB Proxy

[fhrivers]

I'm trying to set up VCB on a Win2K3 host and I'm going through the VCB setup steps. However, I'm at the part where it says to "expose the VMFS LUNS" to the proxy machine and I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean that I have to mount the LUNS on my W2K3 server? That won't be possible since the server I'm using only has one NIC and my iSCSI luns are in a different VLAN. Or is it talking about something much more simple. I'm using a Dell MD300i. What do I need to do here?

[AntonVZhbankov]

For iSCSI storage you should:

1) allow access from VCB host to VMFS LUNs

2) mount LUNS to VCB host

Install another adapter for iSCSI VLAN.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[fhrivers]

Looks like this would be easier on a virtual machine.

[marcelo_soares]

One of the main targets for VCB backups is the SAN based copy. You are quite right: you should present the LUNs to the Windows proxy to let vcbmounter open it and taking the VMDKs or the files from the VMs - the Windows will not recognize it, and you have to be careful doing this operation in order to not change anything (formatting, assigning drive letters, nothing) on this LUN. With your setup you will need to install a MS iSCSI initiator on the proxy machine - if you had a secondary GBit nic...

Anyways, you can do network based backups. vcbmounter have an option named "-m <san/nbd>". Use the "nbd" and then the LUN where the VM is residing will not be looked for. Obviously the backup will run way more slowly than SAN based one, but you will have it running.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Technical Support Engineer

Linux Server Senior Administrator

[AntonVZhbankov]

You can implement VCB proxy in VM if you use iSCSI, yes.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[JoJoGabor]

If you do decide you want to run VCB Backups in SAN-based mode, be sure to run the following commands on your VCB proxy BEFORE exposing the LUns to this box:

diskpart:

automount disable

automount scrub

THis will prevent Windows automatically writing a signature to disk and destroying the VMFS filesystem. You may also want to warn people not to use disk manager to scan for new disks

[fhrivers]

I disabled automount.

[fhrivers]

What's the easiest way to make a one-time backup of my VMs without going through this whole process?

[AntonVZhbankov]

Easiest way is to use vcbmounter with nbd mode, it will use service console connection of each ESX server instaed of direct SAN connection. Yes, it is slower in general, it loads service console, but does not require VCB configuration and SAN connection.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[fhrivers]

I'm using ESXi which doesn't have a SC. Does that make any difference?

[JoJoGabor]

No, the backup traffic will still come through the management network

[AntonVZhbankov]

Actually ESXi still has a kind of service console, but very small comparing to ESX's almost full RHEL.

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[fhrivers]

NBD mode sounds more desirable.

[AntonVZhbankov]

If you consider any comment as helpful, please award points

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru