symantec netbackup 76 blueprints irv

Symantec NetBackup Blueprints

Symantec NetBackup Blueprints Blueprint for VMware Instant Recovery (IRV)

Symantec Backup and Recovery Technical Services

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Notice

This NetBackup Blueprint presentation includes example diagrams that contain objects that represent applications and platforms from other companies such as Microsoft and VMware. These diagrams may or may not match or resemble actual implementations found in end user environments. Any likeness or similarity to actual end user environments is completely by coincidence.

The goal of the diagrams included in this blueprint presentation is not to recommend specific ways in which to implement applications and platforms from other companies such as Microsoft and VMware; the purpose of these diagrams is to illustrate NetBackup best practices only.

For guidelines and best practices on installing and configuring applications and platforms from other companies, please refer to best practice documentation and other resources provided by those companies.

Symantec NetBackup Blueprints Preface/disclaimer

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Symantec NetBackup Blueprints How to use ?

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These Blueprints are designed to show customer challenges and how NetBackup solves those.

• Each Blueprint consists of:

– Pain Points: Explain the current challenges a customer faces.

– Whiteboards & Example Diagrams: Describe the implementation of NetBackup solution.

– Best Practices: Present NetBackup best practices to avoid common pitfalls

• Use these Blueprints to present the NetBackup best practice implementation example

Pain Points

Symantec NetBackup Blueprints 4


NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Today’s Challenges

• Restoring virtual machines in a VMware environment during a disaster recovery may take days or weeks to complete.

- VMDK files need to be read from the Netbackup managed backup image

and restored to a VMware datastore over the network/SAN. (Both are

considerably slower than IRV)

- More downtime, poor RTO.

• No option to power on virtual machines directly from a backup image resident on backup storage

• Limited options to test applications resident on virtual machines without having to restore the virtual machine first

• Limited options for DR testing without impacting production or requiring additional storage


NetBackup Advantages



NetBackup Blueprints: IRV NetBackup Solution

• The Instant Recovery for VMware feature provides an option for quick recovery of virtual machines in a VMware environment

• Virtual machine recovery takes minutes rather than days to complete which helps meet better RTOs

• Enables powering on of a virtual machine directly from a backup image resident on NetBackup disk storage after which VM is 100% available

• After power-on, Storage vMotion can be used to transfer VM disks to ESXi storage without disruption of service

• Provides an option for non disruptive DR testing, application and patch testing without additional investment in storage and single file restore from a VM with any supported OS



NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Restore Performance Example


Restore time in Seconds


NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Notes

• Enables access to the data on the virtual machine – BEFORE the restore of the VM is performed

• Uses standard NetBackup VMware backup images with no modifications to backup environment, hardware or the VMware environment

• Can use FULL backup image resident on NetBackup disk storage such as Basic disk, AdvancedDisk, PDDO, MSDP, and NetBackup appliances including Accelerator INCREMENTAL image (on MSDP or PDDO)

Note: The feature is not supported with third party OST storage devices



NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Example Uses

• Access and restore individual files and folders from any type of OS and then delete the virtual machine.

• Test a patch on a restored virtual machine before you apply the patch to production systems.

• Troubleshoot a virtual machine or host, such as when the production ESXi host is down. You can start the virtual machine from its backup and use it until the production system is back online.

• Permanently recover the virtual machine by means of Storage vMotion.

• Verify the backup image.

• Copy a vmdk file and then delete the virtual machine.

• Verify an application Symantec NetBackup Blueprints 10


NetBackup Blueprints: IRV NetBackup Prerequisites


• This feature requires NetBackup 7.6 on master, media and VM backup or proxy host and restore proxy host

• Included as a part of NetBackup Enterprise Client License and doesn’t need a separate license.

• NetBackup 7.5 and later VMware backup images are supported. • Backup images must have been created using the VMware policy • A Windows-based proxy host (or restore host) is required. The

proxy host can be implemented in a virtual machine. • NFS Client services must be enabled on the restore host or VM

proxy host. • The Services for Network File System (NFS) must be installed on

the Windows media server and restore host. • NetBackup media server platform must support Granular Recovery

Technology (GRT).


NetBackup Blueprints: IRV VMware Prerequisites

• vSphere 5.0 (or later) is required.

– The vCenter servers and the ESXi hosts must be running vSphere 5.0 (or later).

– The version of vSphere 5.0 in use must support Storage vMotion.

• vSphere 4.X is not supported by this feature.

• VMware made significant changes and performance improvements to the Storage vMotion process in vSphere 5.

• Data storage on the ESXi Datastore can be any storage supported by VMware’s Storage vMotion feature

• The NFS Client service must be enabled on the ESXi host.



NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Limitations

• Snapshot-only backups are not supported.

• Does not support a virtual machine that had disks that were excluded from the backup. The policy Virtual disk selection option must have been set to include all disks.

• Does not support a virtual machine that has a disk in raw device mapping mode (RDM) or that has a disk in Persistent mode

• Does not support virtual machine templates

• Instant recovery cannot restore a vCloud virtual machine into vCloud. The virtual machine is restored into vSphere

• The ESX/ESXi servers must communicate with media servers using IPv4. IPV6 is not supported for Instant Recovery for VMware in this release.


Whiteboards and Example Diagrams


Whiteboards: VMware Terminology VMware Components


VMware vSphere Client

VMware vCenter Server

Manage

VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM

VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi

Datastore (VMDK files)

Whiteboards: VMware Terminology Storage vMotion


• VMware’s Storage vMotion process is a critical component and is leveraged heavily by the Instant Recovery for VMware feature.

• Storage vMotion migrates active VMDKs from one ESXi Datastore to another.

• Storage VMotion has been significantly improved in the vSphere 5.0 release.



Whiteboards: VMware Terminology Storage vMotion Process Overview


1. A copy of VM and working directory are made on the destination datastore.

2. Storage vMotion enables the “mirror driver” which mirrors I/O to both the source and destination datastores.

3. After the copy is complete, Storage vMotion performs a fast suspend & resume. The destination VM is now the active VM.

4. The old (source) VM is deactivated and the process is complete.

IRV Commands, Restore Process and Jobs Symantec NetBackup Blueprints 18

Whiteboards: IRV tools The nbrestorevm command


• In NetBackup 7.6, Instant Recovery for VMware is supported using the newly introduced command nbrestorevm

– There is no GUI support for this feature in the 7.6 release. GUI based access is planned for a future release.

• Various options of the nbrestorevm command are used to perform user operations related to Instant Recovery of VMware.

• This CLI process has been simplified and only requires the use of few options as shown below

Whiteboards: IRV nbrestorevm command examples


• Initiates Instant Recovery operation by mounting the backup image of the VM as an NFS datastore.

nbrestorevm –vmw –ir_activate –C <Client Name> - temp_location <datastore for writes> • Completes the VM instant recovery job. If no other VM is using

the NFS datastore, the datastore is removed and its resources are released on the media server.

nbrestorevm –ir_done <Instant Recovery Identifier> • Lists details about activated virtual machines including the Instant

Recovery identifier that is assigned to the VM.

nbrestorevm –ir_listvm

Whiteboards: IRV nbrestorevm command examples contd..


• Removes the VM from the ESXi host. If no other VM is using the NFS datastore, the datastore is removed and its resources are released on the media server.

nbrestorevm –ir_deactivate <Instant Recovery Identifier> • Reactivates a restore VM – remounts the NFS datastore and

from this temporary datastore it registers the restored VM on the ESXi host.

nbrestorevm –ir_reactivate <Instant Recovery Identifier> • If more than one VM needs reactivation this option remounts

the NetBackup NFS datastores on the media server and

reactivates the VMs. nbrestorevm –ir_reactivateall –media server <Media Server name> -vmhost <esxiHost>

Whiteboards: IRV Restore to a different location


• nbrestorevm -vmw –C <vm_client> -R <rename_file> -L <progress_log> -vmserver <vm_server> -vmproxy <vm_proxy>

• The file that is designated by -R rename_file_path specifies a different display name or location for the restored virtual machine.

• You must change the virtual machine name or location to avoid conflicts with the current virtual machine in production.

For example, to rename the virtual machine, the rename file can consist of the following entry (ending with a carriage return): change vmname to acme_vm5

• For more information on restores to a different location using IRV please refer: http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO92136

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO92136


Whiteboards: IRV Restoring individual files with IRV


• You can use instant recovery to restore files individually from a virtual machine backup.

• You can restore the virtual machine from its backup image and mount it on a private network (such as a sandbox). This approach avoids the potential for network conflicts with the virtual machine in your production environment.

• Another virtual machine on a public network can be used as an intermediary, to copy the files from the virtual machine on the private network.

• For more information on restoring individual files please refer http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO92095



Whiteboards: IRV Process Flow: Activate VM request


NetBackup NetBackup NetBackup Master Server Proxy Host Media Server

nbrestorevm

bprd

bpdbm

nbdb

nbfs

bpvmutil

nbfsd

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2

3

4

5 6

Whiteboards: IRV Process Flow: Deactivate VM request


NetBackup NetBackup NetBackup Master Server Proxy Host Media Server

nbrestorevm

bprd

bpdbm

nbdb

nbfs

bpvmutil

nbfsd

1

2

4

3 5

Whiteboards: IRV Virtual Machine Restore Steps


1. Run nbrestorevm to access the VM from a VMware backup image and to select a temporary datastore on the ESXi host

nbrestorevm –vmw –ir_activate –C <Client Name> - temp_location <datastore for writes> 2. NetBackup creates a VM on the ESXi host and configures the VM with write access to the temporary datastore on the ESXi host. 3. NetBackup creates a snapshot of the VM. Any new write requests in the VM are written to the temporary datastore. 4. NetBackup starts the VM on the ESXi host. 5. The VMware administrator uses Storage vMotion to copy the VM

from the NetBackup NFS datastore to the temporary datastore. 6. When vMotion is complete, use the nbrestorevm command on the NetBackup media server to unmount the NFS datastore.

nbrestorevm –ir_done <Instant Recovery Identifier>

Whiteboards: IRV STEP 1: Mount the NetBackup Storage Unit


Backup Proxy

NetBackup Media Server

Disk / Dedupe STU

NBU DS

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VMware ESXi

STEP 1: nbrestorevm –ir_activate causes the NetBackup File System Service (NBFSD) on the media server to mount the disk STU as NFS Datastore.

ESXi Datastores

An Instant Recovery Identifier is assigned to the VM.

Whiteboards: IRV STEP 2: Register the VM in vSphere


Backup Proxy


Disk / Dedupe STU

NBU DS

VMware ESXi

STEP 2: VM to be recovered (located on NetBackup storage) is registered in vSphere.

ESXi Datastores

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Whiteboards: IRV STEP 3: Take snapshot of virtual machine


Redo DS

Backup Proxy


Disk / Dedupe STU

ESXi Datastores

NBU DS

VMware ESXi

STEP 3: NetBackup causes a snapshot of VM to be taken. A re-do log is created in the temporary local Datastore.

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Whiteboards: IRV STEP 4: Power on the virtual machine


Redo DS

Backup Proxy


Disk / Dedupe STU

ESXi Datastores

NBU DS

VMware ESXi

STEP 4: Recovery VM powered on. The VM is 100% available to end users.

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NetBackup Blueprints: IRV Activity monitoring


Once the IRV process is initiated, the vSphere Client and the NetBackup activity monitor display the following details:

vSphere client activity details

NetBackup Activity Monitor

Whiteboards: IRV STEP 5: Recover VM with storage vMotion


Redo DS

Backup Proxy


Disk / Dedupe STU

ESXi Datastores

NBU DS

VMware ESXi

STEP 5: Initiate Storage vMotion. Moves VM data from NetBackup STU to ESXi Datastore.

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Whiteboards: IRV STEP 6: Unmount NetBackup Storage Unit


Redo DS

Backup Proxy


Disk / Dedupe STU

ESXi Datastores

NBU DS

VMware ESXi

STEP 6: After vMotion is successful the NetBackup image can be unmounted using the nbrestorevm –ir_done CLI. Redo logs can be merged later.

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Whiteboards: IRV Activity Monitor Job Types for IRV Operations


Job Type Description

VM Instant Recovery

The parent job for restoring a VM by means of Instant Recovery. This job runs when the nbrestorevm -ir_activate command is executed.

Activate IRV This job type is started when the parent VM Instant Recovery job starts to create the VM on the ESX host.

Stop Instant Recovery

This job type runs when you use nbrestorevm -ir_done to remove the NetBackup NFS datastore and release its resources on the media server.

Deactivate IRV This job runs when you use nbrestorevm -ir_deactivate to deactivate the restored VM from the ESX host.

Reactivate Instant Recovery

This job runs when you use nbrestorevm with the -ir_reactivate option to restart an interrupted virtual machine recovery. If -ir_reactivateall option is used to reactivate multiple VMs, multiple Reactivate Instant Recovery jobs may be initiated.

Best Practices


Whiteboards: IRV Performance recommendations


• Symantec recommends migrating one virtual machine at a time per media server when you use Storage vMotion to migrate a restored virtual machine.

• For disaster recovery testing, Symantec recommends that you restore no more than 3 or 4 virtual machines per media server. The number to restore depends on the I/O load on the media server.

• For large-scale recovery of multiple virtual machines, use the virtual machine restore feature in the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface. Do not use Instant Recovery for VMware.

• For good Storage vMotion performance - with the least impact on the restored VM in the production environment:

– SAN storage for both the ESXi server and the NetBackup media server. – The network connection from the media server to the ESXi server

should provide a minimum speed of 1 gigabit (Gbit) per second.

Whiteboards: IRV Troubleshooting


The main steps performed during Instant Recovery for VMware are:

1. Export a backup image

2. Mount a backup image

3. Activate VM

• If any of these steps fail, the NetBackup “Activate Instant Recovery” job log provides details about the failure and error code on the relevant hosts.

Whiteboards: IRV Top Support Technote


• About Instant Recovery for VMware http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO92050 • NetBackup for VMware: notes and restrictions http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO70878

• NetBackup logging for VMware http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO70893

• How to manually test VMware Instant Recovery NFS connections between media server and ESX host

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO95488 • NetBackup 7.6 for VMware Administrator's Guide

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC6461












Thank You!

Symantec Backup and Recovery Technical Services


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