Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

[Pages:23]WHITE PAPER: DATA PROTECTION

Backing Up VMware? with Veritas NetBackupTM

George Winter | January 2009

White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

Contents

1.0 EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 INTENDED AUDIENCE......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 GLOSSARY ....................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES .................................................................................................................. 4

2.0 BACKUP PARADIGMS ? LOCAL AND OFF-HOST ........................................................................ 4 3.0 COMPARISON OF BACKUP METHODS ......................................................................................... 4

3.1 NETBACKUP CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE VMWARE SERVICE CONSOLE................................................... 5 3.2 NETBACKUP CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE EACH VIRTUAL MACHINE ......................................................... 7 3.3 PUREDISK CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE EACH VIRTUAL MACHINE ............................................................ 8 3.4 NETBACKUP FOR VMWARE ? INTEGRATED WITH VMWARE CONSOLIDATED BACKUP (VCB) ................ 10 4.0 IMPLEMENTATION, DEPLOYMENT AND BEST PRACTICES .................................................... 11 4.1 CONFIGURATION 1 ? NETBACKUP CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE THE VMWARE SERVICE CONSOLE........... 11

4.1.1 Installation Procedure............................................................................................................ 11 4.1.2 Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 11 4.1.3 Configuring a NBU Policy ...................................................................................................... 12 4.1.4 Restoration procedure ........................................................................................................... 12 4.1.5 Hints, Tips and Best Practices .............................................................................................. 12 4.2 CONFIGURATION 2 ? NETBACKUP CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE EACH VIRTUAL MACHINE ........................ 12 4.2.1 Installation Procedure............................................................................................................ 12 4.2.2 Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 13 4.2.3 Configuring a NBU Policy ...................................................................................................... 13 4.2.4 Restoration procedure ........................................................................................................... 13 4.3 CONFIGURATION 3 ? PUREDISK CLIENT INSTALLED INSIDE EACH VIRTUAL MACHINE ........................... 14 4.3.1 Installation Procedure............................................................................................................ 14 4.3.2 Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 14 4.3.3 Configuring a PureDisk Policy............................................................................................... 14 4.3.4 Restoration procedure ........................................................................................................... 14 4.3.5 Hints, Tips and Best Practices .............................................................................................. 14 4.4 CONFIGURATION 4 ? NETBACKUP FOR VMWARE, INTEGRATED WITH VCB ......................................... 14 4.4.1 Installation Procedure............................................................................................................ 14 4.4.2 Configuration ......................................................................................................................... 15 4.4.3 Configuring a NBU Policy ...................................................................................................... 15 4.4.4 Restoration procedure ........................................................................................................... 16 4.4.5 Hints, Tips and Best Practices .............................................................................................. 17 5.0 VMWARE BACKUP PROXY SIZING .............................................................................................. 18 6.0 NETBACKUP 6.5.2 VCB INCREMENTAL BACKUP TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED ..................... 20

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

1.0 Executive overview

VMware? virtual infrastructure software is used by enterprises large and small to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IT operations. Considered by Gartner to be a mega-trend, VMware is making its way into data centers of every size. Recognizing this trend, NetBackupTM has engineered innovative, award-winning data protection solutions designed specifically for VMware environments. This paper discusses best practices for designing solutions for and protecting VMware virtual machines. As beneficial as virtual machine (VM) technology is, it also introduces new data protection questions and challenges. For example: Is it best to protect the virtual machine by backing it up via a NetBackup or PureDiskTM client? Is a NetBackup client inside the Service Console the answer? What about VMware Consolidated Backup? The advantages and disadvantages of these three backup configurations are discussed in detail in this document.

1.1 Intended audience

As there are many ways of using VMware technology, there are just as many methods available for protecting this innovative technology. System administrators and IT technologists can use this paper to determine one of three recommended solutions for protecting VMs. Each of these technologies has relative advantages and disadvantages.

1.2 Glossary

Backup proxy--System designated as the off-host backup system. At a minimum, the backup proxy needs to have the VMware Consolidated Backup framework software installed and at least a NetBackup client installed. Converter Server--Originally designed for P to V and V to P conversions, the latest version provides integration with NetBackup for automatic VM ESX server registration from NetBackup backup images. Guest OS--The operating system that runs on top of a VM. Raw Device Mapping--An optional way to map physical SAN LUNs directly to a VM. Commonly used to enable application clustering and array-based snapshot technology. RDM--See Raw Device Mapping. Sync driver--Flushes OS buffers (Windows? only) before VMware Consolidated Backup snapshots are initiated. The sync driver is installed via VMware Tools. See also VSS Writer. VCB--See VMware Consolidated Backup Framework. Virtual machine--Software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system so that the end user can install and operate software on an abstract machine. Note that the virtual machine designation does not imply any specific operating system version. VM--An acronym for virtual machine. VMDK--A designation specific to the files that comprise a VMware VM. These files are commonly called vmdk files because of the .vmdk extension that VMware adds to these files. VMware Consolidated Backup Framework--An off-host backup API created by VMware. Designed to offload backup processing from the ESX server. VMware Tools--Installed inside each VM. VMware Tools enhances VM performance and adds additional backup-related functionality. VSS Writer--VMware replaced the sync driver with a Volume Shadow Copy Service writer beginning with the ESX 3.5 U2 release.

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

1.3 Additional resources

NetBackup for VMware configuration guide. For more information visit .

Veritas NetBackup 6.5.2 Documentation Updates. Chapter 2 details how to configure and use the NetBackup for VMware feature set. For more information, visit .

Veritas NetBackup 6.5.3 Documentation Updates. Includes detailed information specific to NetBackup for VMware. For more information, visit .

Veritas NetBackup Snapshot Client Configuration. Discusses supported components in a NetBackup for VMware environment. For more information, visit .

VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide. This is a web-based searchable guide that can provide compatibility information for systems, SAN, I/O devices, etc. For more information, visit .

VMware SAN Configuration Guide. For more information, visit .

Understanding VMware Consolidated Backup. An introduction to the VMware Consolidated Backup technology. For more information, visit .

Veritas NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide. Provides significant detail related to NetBackup Media Server (and in-turn the backup proxy). For more information, visit .

2.0 Backup paradigms--Local and off-host

Two backup paradigms for VMware are discussed in this document:

Local backup: These technologies involve installing a NetBackup or PureDisk client inside each VM or on the ESX Service Console. This backup methodology is popular because implementation is essentially the same as with physical machine backups. This process is described in configurations 1, 2, and 3.

Off-host backups: This design takes advantage of the VMware Consolidated Backup technology. Introduced with Virtual Infrastructure 3, this SAN-, NAS-, or iSCSI-based technology off-loads backup processing from the ESX server to a separate backup proxy server. NetBackup 6.5.1 adds Granular File Restore from full VM (vmdk) backups--an award-winning technology only offered by NetBackup. This technology is described in configuration 4.

3.0 Comparison of backup methods

There are a number of ways of protecting VMs. In this paper, we cover four of the most popular ways of protecting VMware. Table 1 provides a high level overview of each of these technologies that can be useful for determining which technology best suits the needs of your specific VMware environment. Table 2 provides guidelines related to performance and hardware requirements.

Recommended For

Simplified disaster recovery (vmdk)

NBU Client in Service Console

NBU Client in Virtual Machine

X

PureDisk Client in Virtual Machine

X

NBU for VMware VCB Integration

Individual file restore

X

(Windows)

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

Recommended For

Backup over LAN

Backup over SAN / iSCSI Individual file search (Windows)

NBU Client in Service Console

NBU Client in Virtual Machine

PureDisk Client in Virtual Machine

X

X

X

X

NBU for VMware VCB Integration

(NetBackup 6.5.2 +)

Incremental backups

X

Table 1: Solution comparison

(NetBackup 6.5.2 + )

NBU Client in

Service Console

ESX server

resource efficiency

NBU Client in Virtual Machine

PureDisk Client in Virtual Machine

NBU for VMware VCB Integration

Backup performance

(speed)

Additional hardware requirements

= Least

= Most

Table 2: Performance comparison

The following sections examine each of the four backup methods described in Table 1 and discuses the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

3.1 NetBackup client installed inside VMware Service Console

Reasonably simple to implement, this could be considered an off-host backup technology in the sense that no NetBackup software is installed inside the VM (Figure 1). However, unlike off-host backup technologies, in this configuration backup impact occurs on the ESX server. Installing the NetBackup client inside the Service Console gives direct access to the files that make up the VMs--the vmdk files. It should be noted that VMware has indicated that at some point the ESX Service Console will no longer be available. This should be a consideration for determining if this backup method should be selected.

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

Figure 1: Client in the ESX Service Console This method is easiest to use if the VMs are powered off. In this state, the VMs are static and unchanging. If the VMs are powered on, additional pre-backup processing or scripting is recommended to ensure that the VMs are in a consistent state during backup operations. Implementing this would involve using the ESX server's built-in snapshot functionality. For more information, see section 1.3. The relative advantages and disadvantages of this backup configuration are described as follows: Advantages:

Installation is clear-cut. A NetBackup client can be easily installed on the VMware Service Console. Configuring a NetBackup policy using this technology is as straightforward as any standard client backup policy configuration.

Entire VM restores are simple. Client inside the Service Console provides backup and restore access to the VM (vmdk) files.

The Service Console OS can also be backed up using this method. Back up the entire VM by backing up the vmdk files. Supports LAN and SAN implementations. Disadvantages: Backup processing on one VM impacts the system resources available to all remaining VMs

located on the ESX server. Script creation and maintenance is likely to be required if consistent backups of live VMs is

required. Single (OS level) file restores are not possible directly from the NetBackup interface. However,

single file restores can be performed using VMware created tools such as mountvm.exe. For more information, see the resources listed in section 1.3.

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

Does not support database or application backups. Not supported with ESX 3i (ESXi) implementations.

3.2 NetBackup client installed inside each VM

In spite of the virtualization technologies involved, VMs are complete OS installations hosted on virtualized hardware. These installations can be backed up the using the same basic techniques as their physical counterparts--with a NetBackup client inside the guest OS (Figure 2). Running a NetBackup client inside the VM is supported. Standard OS support rules apply. Backing up a VM in this way is essentially the same as backing up a physical machine.

Figure 2: NetBackup Client in the VM Advantages:

Simple and familiar implementation. Traditionally, most physical machine backups have been performed this way, making the transition to VM backups using this technology a straight-forward task.

Single file backups are supported. All backed up data is correctly referenced in the NetBackup catalog to the originating VM. Restoration directly to the VM is supported. Incremental backups are easily configured. Advanced backup technologies such as synthetic backups are supported.

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White Paper: Data Protection: Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup

Database backups are supported as well. Configuration is as simple as installing and configuring the appropriate database agent.

Disadvantages: Resource intensive backups often place a heavy load on shared network and CPU resources located on each ESX server. Entire VM (at OS level) restores are more complex and time-consuming. Simplified disaster recovery (restoring at the vmdk level) is not available. The backup processing load on one VM will negatively impact system resources available to other VMs hosted on the same physical server. Backup scheduling should take this issue into account. Client software installed inside each VM needs to be maintained and updated. The VM must be powered on for backup processing to occur.

3.3 PureDisk client installed inside each VM

In virtual environments, a traditional streaming backup with a standard client in the VM puts a tremendous strain on the environment because it consumes significant CPU and network bandwidth in the virtual infrastructure. PureDisk addresses these typical challenges by offering a disk-based backup solution that dramatically reduces the size of backups and the network bandwidth required to perform them by using a data deduplication technology at the source (or client) of a backup, which in this case would be within the VM itself. PureDisk identifies redundant sub-file data segments and only sends and stores unique segments on a global basis. As a result, PureDisk eliminates the need to send or store duplicate files, such as OS files and executables, as well as redundant segments of files or databases as they are edited or changed over time. PureDisk also offers centralized web based management of all backups and supports most major operating systems in addition to supporting databases like MS? Exchange and SQL Server?. This architecture essentially provides a solution that closely resembles the backup of physical servers, is simple to configure, and provides the same file level restore capabilities of a traditional backup.

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