Single VCB Proxy backing up 2 VI3 environments connected to Clariion CX500

[BryanS]

Hi,

I have a configuration question regarding VCB and backing up 2 VI3 environments that each have seperate storage groups on an EMC Clariion CX500. More specifically how to configure Host LUN ids in Navisphere so that VCB Proxy sees the LUNs as the same IDs as the ESX hosts.

The environment:

VI3 Production 01 - Cluster based on IBM x3850 hardware attached to EMC Storage group called sg_VI3Prod01. There are 4 LUNs assigned to the storage group - the ESX hosts see the LUNs as 0,1,2,3

VI3 Production 02 - Cluster based on IBM x366 hardware atttached to EMC Storage group called sg_VI3Prod02. There are 4 LUNs assigned to the storage group - the ESX hosts see the LUNs as 0,1,2,3

VCB Proxy

Our storage team have then set up a third storage group called sg_VI3Backup which they have assigned each of the 8 LUNs that are assigned to the 2 storage groups used by the ESX hosts. The VCB Proxy sees the LUNs as 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 LUNs 0-3 are those assigned to sg_VI3Prod01 and LUNs 4-7 are those assigned to sg_VI3Prod02

Obviously when I try to backup any of the VMs that are hosted by the VI3Prod02 environment it fails with "Error: Failed to open the disk: One LUN could not be opened"

My understanding of VCB having read some of the posts on this is that the VCB proxy needs to see the LUNs as the same ID as the hosts.

My question then is twofold:

1. Is it possible to use one VCB Proxy to backup 2 VI3 environments

2. How do I configure the EMC Clariion CX500 so that the sg_VI3Prod02 presents the LUNs to the second environment as LUN id 4,5,6,7 so that it is the same as VCB Proxy?

Thanks in advance for any guidance on this.

rgds

Bryan

[BryanS]

Update:

I have spoken to an SE at EMC and it is possible to specify Host LUN number when you add a LUN to a storage group.

Once I have configured this I will update if VCB Proxy can successfully backup VM's from both our VI3 environments.

[BryanS]

Update2:

I have done further testing and have been able to configure a single VCB Proxy to backup Virtual Machines from two different Host environments that have separate storage - the key is ensuring that the Host IDs are unique (which I believe is a prerequisite in the current VCB documentation) when configuring storage in Navisphere.

To achieve this, in the example presented in this post I configured each of the storage groups in Navisphere to have unique Host LUN ids as follows

Host Storage Groups

sg_VI3Prod01 - Host IDs 0-99

sg_VI3Prod02 - Host IDs 100-199

VCB Proxy Storage Group

sg_VI3Backup - assign the LUNs to the backup storage group with the same Host IDs that they are given when assigned to the individual host storage groups. For example LUNs 100,101,102,103 from sg_VI3Prod02 were assigned Host IDs as 100,101,102,103 to sg_VI3Backup.

When you are adding the LUN to a storage group you may need to expand the storage group properties window in order to see the "Host ID" column - it appears blank but if you click in the white space alongside the LUN you are adding, a pull down menu will appear that allows you to specify a host ID (values 0-255) that is then presented to the servers in that storage group.

It appears in Navisphere you can only assign/specify a "Host ID" at the time that you are adding a LUN to the storage group - I could not modify it after adding the LUN - the only way I could see that it could be modified was to remove and readd the LUN.

Note: If you do not specify a "Host ID" at the time that you add the LUN to the storage group then it is automatically assigned a value starting from 0 thru to 255. Which is why VCB does not work for the second group of LUNs as the host IDs are not unique if you accept the defaults.

Once I had configured the storage groups as described above - the VCB Proxy could then see the LUNs with the same Host IDs that the ESX hosts see them - which then allows successful VM backups using the vcbMounter command.

Hope this is off some use to others learning VCB and SAN configuration.

rgds

Bryan

[sysplex]

Hi,

I'm in a similar situation where I have got 3 ESX servers having 3x 2TB LUNs(LUN numbers are 8, 9, & 10) visible to all the three ESX Servers in a VMWare Cluester.

The LUN Host Ids for these three LUNs are 0, 1 & 2 and they are in a separate Storage Group on a EMC CX 3-10f box. I'm in need of creating a Windows VCB-Proxy Server which will boot to SAN on the same EMC CX 3-10f box to a 30GB C:\ drive on a different Storage Group(The LUN Host Id for this 30GB LUN is also 0). Will I be in a position to make the 3x 2TB LUNs from the ESX Storage Group be visible to the VCP-Proxy Server? Could you please let me know how exactly this can be done? I'm relatively new to both EMC as well as VMWare.

Any help in this regard is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance