emc networker 7.5 for vmware · vmware consolidated backup helps to perform backups from a vcb...

EMC NetWorker 7.5 for VMware Applied Technology

Abstract

This white paper provides a detailed review of protecting a VMware hosted virtual machine with EMC® NetWorker®. This white paper is intended for customers that are not using the NetWorker deduplication node in conjunction with EMC Avamar® to back up virtual environments.

March 2009

EMC NetWorker 7.5 for VMware A Detailed Review 2

Copyright © 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

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All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Part Number h6230


Table of Contents Executive summary ....................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4

Audience ............................................................................................................................4 Terminology ........................................................................................................................4

Technology overview.................................................................................................... 5 Guest-based backup............................................................................................................5 Proxy-based backup............................................................................................................5

NetWorker client installed inside a virtual machine ............................................. 6 Advantages of guest-based backup ......................................................................................6 Disadvantages of guest-based backup..................................................................................6 Installation ..........................................................................................................................6 Configuration.......................................................................................................................6 Recovery ............................................................................................................................7 Hints, tips, and best practices ...............................................................................................7 Recommendations for NetWorker installed in virtual machine .................................................7

NetWorker integrated with VMware Consolidated Backup................................. 8 Advantages to proxy-based backup ......................................................................................8 Disadvantages to proxy-based backup..................................................................................9 VMware Consolidated Backup software and hardware requirements ......................................9 Installation ..........................................................................................................................9 Configuration.....................................................................................................................10

Create a NetWorker client resource for a virtual client ......................................................10 Configuring the NetWorker Integration Module for VCB backup ............................................11

Auto-discovery of VMware virtual environments ................................................13 Enabling auto-discovery of VMware environments ...............................................................13

Recovery of virtual machines to the VMware ESX Server ................................15 Recovering a backed-up virtual machine image to proxy host...............................................15 Restoring the file/image to the VMware ESX Server.............................................................16

FULLVM restores ...........................................................................................................16 Single file restores .........................................................................................................16

Performing a file-based recovery on the guest VMware virtual machine ................................17 Performing a file-based recovery using directed recovery .................................................17

Hints, tips, and best practices ..................................................................................18

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................19 Comparative overview .......................................................................................................19

References.....................................................................................................................19


Executive summary VMware software is used by large and small enterprises to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IT operations. VMware software is being implemented in data centers of every size. In response to this , EMC® NetWorker® has engineered data protection solutions designed for VMware environments. This paper provides a detailed review for protecting virtual machines.

Introduction This white paper provides hints, tips and best practices for designing backup solutions for VMware environments using EMC NetWorker. It also specifies ways to protect virtual machines using guest-based backup and proxy -based backup in a VMware infrastructure using NetWorker release 7.5.

Audience This white paper is intended for NetWorker users, system administrators, and IT technologists who are deploying NetWorker software to backup their VMware environment.

Terminology Backup proxy

System designated as the off-host backup system. At a minimum, the backup proxy needs to have the VCB Framework software and the NetWorker client installed.

Converter server

VMware product for P2V and V2V conversions. It is also used for recovering the virtual machines.

DRS

An acronym for Distributed Resource Scheduler.

Guest OS

The operating system that runs on a virtual machine.

HA

An acronym for high availability.

VCB

See VMware Consolidated Backup Framework .

Virtual machine

Software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, allowing the end user to install and operate software on an abstract machine.

VM

An acronym for virtual machine.

VMDK

A designation specific to the files that comprise a VMware virtual machine. 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 service created by VMware, designed to offload backup processing from the ESX Server.


VMware tools

Installed inside each virtual machine, VMware tools enhance virtual machine performance and add additional backup-related functionality.

Technology overview Two backup paradigms for VMware environments are discussed in this document:

Guest-based backup Guest-based backup involves installing a NetWorker client in each virtual machine. This backup methodology is popular because implementation is essentially the same as with physical machine backups. Installation, backup, and recovery all follow well-established workflows that are familiar to administrators and staff already using NetWorker. Furthermore, no additional hardware or configuration requirements need to be met. The primary disadvantage to this method of backup is that backup activity on one virtual machine may impact the performance of every virtual machine hosted on the ESX Server. The guest-based backup process is described in the section “NetWorker client installed inside a virtual machine” on page 6.

Proxy-based backup Proxy-based backup takes advantage of the VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) technology introduced with VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3. VCB-based technology offloads backup processing from the ESX Server to a separate backup proxy server. The primary disadvantage to this method of backup is that configuration is more complex and requires additional hardware, such as staging location, and additional infrastructure. This process is described in the section “NetWorker integrated with VMware Consolidated Backup” on page 8.


NetWorker client installed inside a virtual machine In spite of the virtualization technologies involved, virtual machines are complete operating system installations hosted on virtualized hardware. These installations can be protected using the same basic techniques as their physical counterparts, such as running a NetWorker client inside the virtual machine. Standard operating system compatibility issues apply. This method of backup is also called “guest-based backup.”

Backing up a virtual machine using guest-based backup is essentially the same as backing up a physical machine.

Advantages of guest-based backup • This is a simple and familiar implementation. Traditionally, most physical machine backups have been

performed this way, which makes the transition to virtual machine backups using this technology a straight-forward task.

• Single file backup and recovery are supported.

• All backed up data is referenced in the NetWorker server and client file index to the originating virtual machine.

• Restoring individual files directly to the virtual machine is supported.

• Incremental backups are easily configured.

• Database and application backups are supported. Configuration is as simple as installing and configuring the appropriate NetWorker database or application module.

• Advanced VMware features and configurations like Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) and VMotion do not have any impact on the performance of NetWorker.

Disadvantages of guest-based backup • FullVM backup and restores are not possible.

• The backup processing load on one virtual machine will negatively impact system resources available to all virtual machines hosted on the same physical ESX Server

• Resource-intensive backups often place a heavy load on shared network and CPU resources.

• Client software installed on each virtual machine needs to be maintained and updated.

• The virtual machine must be powered on for backup processing to occur.

Installation From an installation perspective, guest-based backup is straightforward. A NetWorker client is simply installed inside the virtual machine. The installation procedure for a virtual machine is essentially the same as it would be if the operating system were hosted on a physical machine.

Configuration For standard file backups, the client configuration for the virtual machine is the same configuration procedure as for a physical machine.


Recovery One advantage of this configuration is that recovery is simple. This process is exactly the same as if the recovery were occurring to a physical machine.

Hints, tips, and best practices This backup configuration is a guest-based style of backup. Accordingly, backup activities on a single virtual machine can create a significant amount of load on the parent ESX Server and, therefore, indirectly impact every other virtual machine that is also hosted on the ESX Server. Backup policies should be defined to limit the number of simultaneous backup jobs that are running on each physical ESX Server.

NetWorker includes technology that can be used to minimize or eliminate full backups. If only incremental backups are performed, only the data that has changed since the previous backup is backed up to the NetWorker storage node, which significantly decreases the I/O and the amount of network traffic associated with backups.

This backup technique lends itself very well for database and application backups. Configuring a database or application backup in a virtual machine is essentially the same as configuring the same database and application backup on a physical machine. This technique can simplify and enhance database and application backups, often providing incremental capabilities and recovery directly to the virtual machine.

Recommendations for NetWorker installed in virtual machine • Have more CPU reservation and shares for the virtual machine hosting the NetWorker server.

• Have more memory reservation for the virtual machine hosting the NetWorker storage node.

• Set a high restart priority for the virtual machine hosting the NetWorker server and storage node.

• Connect the NetWorker server, NetWorker clients, and NetWorker storage nodes to the same virtual switch.


NetWorker integrated with VMware Consolidated Backup NetWorker for VMware provides an alternate client backup technology for virtual machines in conjunction with VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) technology from VMware.

VMware Consolidated Backup helps to perform backups from a VCB backup proxy server. The proxy server, which can be a physical or virtual machine, uses the VMware snapshot technique, a point-in-time copy of the virtual machine. VCB can be used with a single ESX Server or with a VirtualCenter Management server.

Figure 1 Architectural overview of NetWorker software configured in VMware virtual infrastructure for VCB backup

Advantages to proxy-based backup • Offloads backup processes to a VCB proxy server.

• Eliminates the need for a backup window by using VMware virtual machine snapshot technology.

• Supports file-level backups for virtual machines running Microsoft Windows guest operating system.

• Supports image-level backups for virtual machines running any guest operating system supported by VMware.

• Minimizes impact of backups on both the target virtual machine and other virtual machines hosted on the same ESX Server.

• Eliminates the need to install NetWorker software on the virtual machine.

• Provides LAN-free backup because the VCB server can be connected to the SAN through a Fibre Channel adapter.

• Eliminates the impact of advanced VMware features and configurations like Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) and VMotion on the performance of NetWorker.


Disadvantages to proxy-based backup • Incremental backup of VM images is not possible.

• File-level recovery from image-level backup of non-Windows operating systems is not possible.

• File-level recovery from image-level backup of Windows operating systems and FULLVM backup of guest operating systems requires a staging area on the VCB backup proxy machine.

VMware Consolidated Backup software and hardware requirements • One or more VCB proxy systems running Microsoft Windows 2003 Service Pack 1. The VCB proxy

server needs to be connected to the VirtualCenter server managing the ESX Server cluster, or to the ESX Server system. To connect to a Fibre Channel SAN, the VCB proxy requires a Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA).

• The VCB framework, NetWorker software , and the NetWorker VCB Integration Module need to be installed on the VCB proxy server.

• The VCB proxy needs to have access to SAN LUNs.

Figure 2 VMware Consolidated Backup components

Installation The following installation steps are required to protect virtual machines using NetWorker with VCB:

1. On the backup proxy, install the supported version of the VMware Consolidated Backup Framework. Refer to:

§ Setting up a VCB proxy at: http://pubs.vmware.com/vi3i_i35/backup/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=backup&file=vm_bug_vcb.4.9.html

§ Understanding VMware Consolidated Backup at: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf

2. Install the NetWorker client and/or storage node on the VCB pro xy server.


3. Install the NetWorker integration module on the VCB proxy server. This can be found on the NetWorker Software Downloads page on http://powerlink.emc.com at the following location:

Home > Support > Software Downloads and Licensing > Downloads J-O > NetWorker

Configuration NetWorker clients can be configured for virtual machines to perform backups with VCB. To configure the NetWorker software to back up a full virtual machine using VCB, the following configuration must be performed on the VCB proxy host:

• Create a NetWorker client resource for each virtual client that will be protected with NetWorker.

• Configure the NetWorker integration module.

Create a NetWorker client resource for a virtual client

1. Log onto the NetWorker Management Console.

2. Select the Enterprise icon.

3. In the left-hand pane, select the appropriate NetWorker server.

4. In the right-hand pane, right-click the NetWorker entry for this server, and select Launch Application from the context menu.

This will launch the NetWorker Administration application.

5. Select the Configuration icon.

6. In the left-hand pane, right-click Clients and select Client Backup Configuration>New.

This will open the Client Backup Configuration Wizard.

7. Enter the name of the client and select the Virtual Client checkbox. Click Next.


8. Enter the hostname of the primary/initial physical machine hosting the virtual client, and select VCB backup. Click Next .

9. Select the name of the VCB proxy host.

The VCB proxy host must have an existing NetWorker Client resource.

10. Select the backup level and click Next .

11. For the Remote access field, enter the following:

user=system, host=VCB proxy host For example, if the VCB proxy hostname is proxy_host_1, enter the following:

user=system, host=proxy_host_1

12. Complete the Client Configuration Wizard as you would for a normal client.

You can also configure virtual clients from the Virtualization node, which provides a hierarchical display of your virtual environment after auto-discovery has been performed. If a virtual machine displayed in Virtualization node is unprotected, this is indicated by the lack of a Client icon for that virtual machine. You can create a new NetWorker client for that virtual machine by right-clicking on the virtual machine and selecting Client Backup Configuration>New to open the Client Configuration Wizard. For more information about auto-discovery, see “Auto-discovery of VMware virtual environments” on page 13.

Configuring the NetWorker Integration Module for VCB backup Follow these steps to configure the NetWorker Integration Module for VCB backup:

1. Run install.bat file, which is part of VCB integration module, and follow the procedure.

Note: Verify that config.js was copied from C:\Program Files\VMware\VCB Framework\legato to C:\Program Files\VMware\VCB Framework\config folder. You may have to copy it manually.


Modify C:\Program Files\VMware\VCB Framework\config\config.js as outlined below:

2. Enter the fully qualified domain name or IP address of the computer hosting the VMs. Preferably this would be the fully qualified domain name of the VirtualCenter server or ESX Server. The fully qualified domain name should either be included in DNS, or in the proxy server’s HOSTS file.

3. Enter the username and password to log in to the VirtualCenter server or ESX Server to perform this operation.

4. Create the BACKUPROOT mount point directory, specified in the config.js file, on the proxy host machine.

Note: The VCB proxy server must be able to fully resolve the hostname of, and have network access to, the virtual machines that will be backed up and the VirtualCenter server or ESX Server that it will be accessing. It may be necessary to modify the virtual machine’s firewall for this to occur.


Auto-discovery of VMware virtual environments The NetWorker software provides automatic discovery of VMware environments and notification of changes to those environments through the Virtualization node. The Virtualization node also provides both a graphical map and tabular view of VMware environments as shown below.

Figure 3 Virtualization node

Enabling auto-discovery of VMware environments To enable auto-discovery of VMware environments:

1. In the NetWorker Console, from the Administration window, click Configuration.

2. In the expanded left pane, select Virtualization .

3. In the right pane, click Enable Auto-Discovery.

4. In the Auto-Discovery dialog box:

a. In the Hostname field, enter the virtual hostname or IP address for the VirtualCenter web service.

b. In the Username and Password fields, enter the credentials required to log in to the VirtualCenter host.


c. Select Enabled.

d. For the Start at attribute, select the time that the NetWorker server should automatically perform auto-discovery.

e. For the Run every attribute, select the interval between auto-discoveries.

Increments can be in either minutes or hours, with a maximum of one day.

5. To test your auto-discovery configuration or to run auto-discovery immediately after completing configuration, click the Run Autodiscovery button.

6. Click OK when finished.

See the EMC NetWorker Release 7.5 Administration Guide for further details.


Recovery of virtual machines to the VMware ESX Server Recovery of virtual machine images or files requires recovering the backed-up virtual machine image from the NetWorker software to the proxy host before restoring the image to the ESX Server.

Recovering a backed-up virtual machine image to proxy host

1. Launch the NetWorker User application from the Start menu.

2. Click Save Set Recover from the Operation main menu.

3. Select the virtual machine client from the Source client window to recover the FULLVM image.

4. In the Save Sets window, select the FULLVM save set.


5. Click Recover Options to recover the FULLVM images to the staging location.

6. Browse to the C:\Restore folder. Click OK to accept new location. The FULLVM image of the selected virtual machine client will be recovered to the specified path.

Restoring the file/image to the VMware ESX Server

FULLVM restores The VMware Converter can be used to restore the FULLVM virtual machine image recovered from the NetWorker software to the ESX Server.

Single file restores The mountVM utility is used to mount vmdk files to the staging location. After mounting the vmdk files, the user can browse the mounted vmdk virtual disk, exactly like browsing the local disk. For example:

Figure 4 Using mountVM to mount VMware VMDK files


At this point, the user can browse the files and directories on the mounted volume and copy files and directories to the local system. The following is an example of the dir command on a mounted C: drive:

Figure 5 Browsing mounted virtual disk

Performing a file-based recovery on the guest VMware virtual machine File-based recovery on the VMware virtual machine requires that the NetWorker client be installed on the virtual machine. To perform a file-based recovery on the guest VMware virtual machine:

1. Launch the NetWorker User.

2. Select the VMware client as the source client.

3. Select the save VMware client as the target client.

4. Select a destination folder.

5. Select files for recovery and perform the recovery.

Performing a file-based recovery using directed recovery File-based recovery using directed recovery requires that the NetWorker client software be installed on the host performing directed recovery and on the target machine.

1. Launch the NetWorker User program on the host performing directed recovery.

2. Select the VM client as the source client.

3. Select the target client.

4. Select a destination folder.

5. Select files for recovery and perform the recovery.


Hints, tips, and best practices • Create a vcbuser for backup and restore of the virtual machine.

• The success of VCB snapshot creation and deletion can be directly attributed to two things: § The amount of I/O occurring on the virtual machine datastore during snapshot creation.

§ The correct design of the I/O substructure associated with each datastore.

• To avoid snapshot-associated issues, backups should be scheduled during times of relatively low I/O activity on the virtual machine. Reducing the number of simultaneous backups can help with this as well.

• The use of multiple backup proxy servers is supported with the NetWorker software. Depending on the number of virtual machines and ESX Servers, another backup proxy can be added to increase backup throughput capacity.

• Once a VCB snapshot is created, data is transferred from the virtual machine datastore to the backup proxy mount point. The completion speed of the snapshot process can be significantly enhanced if the data path from the datastore to the snapshot mount point is as fast as possible.

• During VCB backups, the backup proxy server performs a significant amount of backup processing. Proper sizing of the backup proxy server can help ensure maximum backup performance of the virtual machine environment. Accurately characterizing the capacity of the backup proxy can be broken down into two main areas:

1. VCB data path: This is the path that the backup data created by VCB will follow during the backup lifecycle. The VCB proxy server accesses snapshot/backup data using the configured network transport mode. The configured network transport mode can be set to:

§ SAN (Storage Area Network): In this mode, data is read directly from a storage device hosting the virtual disk to the VCB proxy server. This requires that the VCB proxy server has access to the storage device.

§ NBD (Network Block Device): In this mode, the VCB proxy server gets the data through the ESX Server. Data is read from the storage device by the ESX Server and then sent over an unencrypted network channel to the VCB proxy server.

§ NBDSSL (Network Block Device with SSL): NBDSSL transport mode is same as NBD except that the data transferred over the network is encrypted. The data transfer in NBDSSL mode can be slower and use more CPU than in the NBD transport mode.

For performance reasons, the SAN network transport mode is recommended over NBD/NBDSSL. The throughput of the data path is an important component when determining backup performance. The actual vmdk backup does not begin until the entire file copy process, from the datastore to the staging area, has been completed. The VCB staging area is only a temporary staging area and is reused as VM backups are processed. For a FULLVM backup, enough space on the staging area is required to dump the complete contents of the virtual machine. For a file mount, the VCB server does not need any additional space.

2. NetWorker data path: Once the vmdk files are copied to the backup proxy, the next step is to back up this data with the NetWorker server. The backup proxy can be a NetWorker server, client or storage node. To maximize backup throughput, the backup proxy should be configured as a storage node so that client data is written directly to a media.

• Overall backup performance of the backup proxy will be defined by the slowest component of the entire backup data path. These components are: § Backup proxy system resources: CPU, internal bus, RAM.

§ VCB snapshot creation time. § Size of the staging area located on the backup proxy.


§ I/O performance of the data path between ESX datastore and backup proxy staging area. § Data path between the backup proxy staging area and the NetWorker storage unit .

Conclusion

Comparative overview Option NetWorker client in virtual

machine NetWorker for VMware VCB Integration

Recommended for Single file and DB backups. Shared storage not available.

LAN free backup DR restores Shared storage environment.

VMDK level backups No Yes Individual file backups Yes Yes for Windows guest OS File level restore Yes Yes for Windows guest OS Impact on virtual Machine

High Low

Impact on ESX Server High Low Backup performance Slower High Additional hardware requirements

No Yes

References • Storage/SAN Compatibility Guide For ESX Server 3.x

A critical component for making sure that the SAN environment is configured with supported equipment; it will help ensure that VCB style backups are as reliable as possible: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_san_guide.pdf

• I/O Compatibility Guide For ESX Server 3.x Provides specific hardware and driver compatibility information for ESX 3.x: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_io_guide.pdf

• SAN Configuration Guide Provides basic configuration information related to Fibre environments: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_30_20_san_cfg.pdf

• Consolidated Backup in VMware Infrastructure 3 An introduction to the VCB technology: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf

• Virtual Machine Backup Guide A VMware created paper that discusses several facets of virtual machine backups including VCB: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_vm_backup.pdf

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