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SLCSam
Contributor
Contributor

VCB backing up ISCSI on ISCSI host

Hi All,

I hope this question doesn't seem stupid, but any help is much appreciated. I have a WSS 2008 that is hosting iscsi disks for two ESX hosts, and I need to start using vcb to backup the vms on those hosts. I am in a pretty restricted environment, meaning I can't add any new servers etc to do this. So, my solution is to install vcb on my wss 2008 and backup the vm's there. Is there a way I can get vcb to connect directly to the local machine iscsi and backup the vm images that way? Everytime I try to run vcbmounter without the -m nbd option then it fails, and I don't want to use up my network bandwith for backups if it's not necessary.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks

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VMmatty
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Having never used WSS for iSCSI I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that it doesn't work because you're running it on the same server. Using the -m ndb option copies it over the regular network.

You could also try installing VCB inside a virtual machine and using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator inside the guest to connect to the VMFS partition for backups. If you have your iSCSI traffic properly isolated this could still give you what you're looking for without having to perform the backups over the LAN.

Matt | http://www.thelowercasew.com | @mattliebowitz
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SLCSam
Contributor
Contributor

That sounds like a good idea Vmmatty.

If I created a vm, then used the intiator ot connect to the iscsi drives, do you know of any other special privileges/command line codes I would need to make vcbmounter connect via iscsi?

Thanks

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VMmatty
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

The requirements for running VCB inside the virtual machine are the same as if they were physical. You'll need to present the VMFS volume to the virtual machine (via the software initiator inside the guest) so that VCB can access it directly. Then you'll need to either create custom scripts using vcbmounter or use a third party tool like Veeam Backup or vRanger to perform the actual backups.

It should be pretty easy for you to test this. Just make sure you don't accidentally try to format the VMFS partition as NTFS when you present it to the Windows host. Smiley Happy

Matt | http://www.thelowercasew.com | @mattliebowitz
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dconvery
Champion
Champion

Check out my VCB Proven Practice Guide on VI:OPS. I t will show you how to set this up for backups and recovery. -> http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1392

Dave Convery, VCDX

VMware vExpert 2009

http://www.dailyhypervisor.com

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

Dave Convery, VCDX-DCV #20 ** http://www.tech-tap.com ** http://twitter.com/dconvery ** "Careful. We don't want to learn from this." -Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
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