vRanger 7.8.1 - User Guide

Including hard disks of physical machines or VMs

Including hard disks of physical machines or VMs

The Hard Disk Inclusion page follows the Virtual Machine Exclusion page. If you selected a single VM or are backing up physical servers, you see only the Hard Disk Inclusion page.

The Machine Hard Disk Inclusion page creates a rule for vRanger to use when determining which disks to back up.

When you create a backup job for one server, the rule tells vRanger which disks to back up for that server. When you create a job for multiple servers, however, the rule determines which disks are backed up for every server.

When protecting a VM, the Current Virtual Machines pane lists the servers included in the backup job, based on your selections in the Excluding VMs procedure. The Include Hard Disks pane represents the maximum number of disks configured for any server in the job. For example, if you have a backup job with multiple single-disk servers and one server with six disks, the Include Hard Disks column shows six entries. Selecting “Hard Disk 1” through “Hard Disk 6” tells vRanger to back up every disk for each server.

If, in the preceding example, the six-disk server receives an extra disk, that disk is not going to be backed up, because only six disks are included in the rule. To allow for future growth, the Show all disk possibilities option lets you select all potential disks; selecting this option ensures that any disk added to a server in the future is included in the backup job.

To include hard disks of physical or VMs:

1	In the Included Hard Disks pane, select the disks that vRanger should include in the rule it applies to each server.

When including hard disks for VMs, the selection is not server-specific. It is global for all VM servers in this backup job. When including hard disks for physical machines, you can clear selected disks for the backup group. However, you cannot clear Disk 1 for the group.

2	[Optional] If you want to allow for additional disks in the future, select Show all disk possibilities, and select additional disks.

3	Click Next.

Selecting a repository

Selecting a repository

On the Repository Selection page of the wizard, you can select the repository to which the job should send the backup data. You can also add a repository from this page. For more information, see Adding a repository.

vRanger supports the following repository options for storing backup archives:

NOTE: Any storage device or appliance that supports CIFS or NFSv3 is expected to be compatible with vRanger.

•	Windows Share (CIFS)

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NFS

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NetVault SmartDisk (NVSD): The Quest disk-based data-deduplication option which reduces storage costs with byte-level, variable-block-based software deduplication. For more information on NetVault SmartDisk, see http://quest.com/products/netvault-smartdisk/ or the Quest vRanger Integration Guide for Quest NetVault SmartDisk.

•	EMC Data Domain Boost (DDB): Integrating EMC Data Domain Boost (DD Boost) with vRanger is achieved by adding a Data Domain appliance running DD Boost to vRanger as a repository. Backups written to that repository are deduplicated according to your configuration.

For more information on EMC Data Domain Boost, see the Quest vRanger Integration Guide for EMC Data Domain Boost (DD Boost) or http://www.emc.com/data-protection/data-domain/data-domain-boost.htm.

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Quest Rapid Data Access (RDA): Provided by the Quest DR Series appliances — purpose-built, disk backup appliances that use Quest deduplication technology to improve backup and recovery processes. For more information on Quest DR Series appliances, see http://quest.com/products/dr-series-disk-backup-appliances/ or the Quest vRanger Integration Guide for Quest DR Series Disk Backup Appliance.

 

NOTE: Quest RDA and EMC DDB repositories support repository replication. Only one repository can be configured per backup job. For more information on configuring repository replication, see Managing repository replication.

To select a repository:

1	In the Repositories pane, select the repository you want to use for this backup job.

If you want to add a repository, see Adding a repository for more information.

 

NOTE: When using Quest RDA or EMC DD Boost repositories, you may configure the repository to replicate savepoints to another like device. For more information, see Managing repository replication.

2	Click Next.

Selecting a backup data transport method for VMware machines

Selecting a backup data transport method for VMware machines

In vRanger, the transport determines how backup data is sent, and where the backup processing activity occurs; for more information, see VMware backup transport options. When configuring a backup job for a VMware® VM, the Backup Wizard, by default, uses the Automatic Transport Selection option to select the best transport method at run-time automatically; you can also configure the transport manually by using the Using Custom transport selection option.

 

NOTE: The Transport Selection page is not available when backing up a physical machine or Hyper-V® virtual server. Because only one transport method is available for Hyper-V and physical servers, the Transport Selection page of the Backup Wizard does not display.

To select a backup data transport method for VMware machines, complete one of the following procedures:

•	Using Automatic transport selection

•	Using Custom transport selection

Using Automatic transport selection

Using Automatic transport selection

The Backup Wizard includes an Automatic transport selection option, which lets vRanger select the best available method for your configuration. When determining the best transport, vRanger uses two key criteria:

•	Whether virtual appliances (VAs) are deployed.

•	Where vRanger is installed.

The logic used to select a transport differs slightly based on whether vRanger is installed on a VM or on a physical server. For more information about the order in which vRanger checks for transport availability, see Transport selection order: VM backup.

To use the Automatic Transport selection:

1	On the Transport Selection page, select Automatic transport selection.

The selected transport method appears at the bottom of the page.

 

IMPORTANT: Each time the job runs, vRanger detects your configuration and selects the best transport method available at run-time. That method might not always be what is shown on the page during the job setup.

vRanger verifies whether any VAs are configured on the source host. If the host belongs to a cluster, and no host VA is found, vRanger searches for shared VAs on the cluster as well.

If no VA is detected, click Configure Virtual Appliance to add a VA to vRanger. For more information about configuring the VA, see Understanding the vRanger virtual appliance (VA).

2	Click Next.