vRanger 7.8 - Integration Guide for DR Series Disk Backup Appliance

Minimum hardware requirements

The minimum hardware requirements to run vRanger can vary widely based on several factors. Therefore, you should not do a large-scale implementation without first completing a scoping and sizing exercise.

vRanger: physical machine

The following describes the hardware recommendations for the vRanger physical machine:

 

Table 1. Requirements for a installing vRanger on a physical machine

CPU	Any combination equaling four cores of CPUs are recommended. Example one quad-core CPU; two dual-core CPUs.
RAM	4 GB RAM is required.
Storage	At least 4 GB free hard disk space on the vRanger machine.
HBA	For LAN-free, Quest recommends that you use two HBAs — one for read operations and one for writing.

vRanger: virtual machine (VM)

The following describes the hardware recommendations for using vRanger in a VM:

 

Table 2. Requirements for a installing vRanger on a virtual machine

CPU	Four vCPUs.
RAM	4 GB RAM is recommended.
Storage	At least 4 GB free hard disk space on the vRanger machine.

Requirements for physical backup and restore

When backing up from and restoring to a physical server, vRanger uses a client run on that server to perform backup and restore operations. To process the backup workload effectively, the physical server must meet the following requirements:

 

Table 3. Requirements for physical backup and restore

CPU	Any combination equaling four cores of CPUs are recommended. Example one quad-core CPU; two dual-core CPUs.
RAM	2 GB RAM is required.

Additional requirement for repository replication

If you set up repository replication, increase the Task Timeout setting beyond the default 24 hours for the initial synchronization. If the initial synchronization involves the transfer of many terabytes of data, you might need to increase the task timeout to over a hundred hours.

1	On the Main toolbar, click Tools > Options.

2	Under the My Jobs node, click Configuration.

3	In the Timeout section, change the Task Timeout field to 100 or more, depending on the size of the environment.

After the initial synchronization of the repositories is finished, you can update this field to an appropriate number.

4

Click OK.

Supported operating systems for installation

The following operating systems are supported for installation of vRanger.

 

Table 4. Supported operating systems

Operating system	Service pack level	Bit level
Windows Server 2008 R212	SP1 or later	x64
Windows Server 2012b	All service packs	x64
Windows Server 2012 R2b3	All service packs	x64
Windows Server 2016b	All service packs	x64
Windows Server 2019b	All service packs	x64

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1

Windows 2008 R2 SP1 requires Windows Management Framework 3.0. Refer to Known Issue VR-177 in the vRanger Release Notes for more information.

2

The Windows Storage Server edition is not supported as an installation platform for vRanger.

3

Before installing vRanger on Windows Server 2012 R2, the updates listed in Additional required software must be installed.

Additional required software

In addition to a supported version of Windows® and a supported VMware® Infrastructure, you may need some additional software components, depending on your configuration.

•	Microsoft® .NET Framework: vRanger requires the .NET Framework 4.5. The vRanger installer installs it if not detected.

•	SQL Server: [Optional] vRanger utilizes two SQL Server® databases for application functionality. vRanger can install a local version of SQL Express 2014 SP3 or you can choose to install the vRanger databases on your own SQL instance.

•	Windows PowerShell 3 or above.If you are installing vRanger on Windows 2008 R2 SP1, you will need to install Windows PowerShell 3 or above before installing vRanger

•	vRanger virtual appliance (VA): The vRanger VA is a small, pre-packaged Linux® distribution that serves as a platform for vRanger operations away from the vRanger server. vRanger uses the VA for the following functions:

▪	Replication to and from VMware® ESXi™ hosts.

▪	File-level restore (FLR) from Linux machines.

▪	Optionally for backups and restores.

•	Updates for Windows Server 2012 R2: Before installing vRanger on Windows Server 2012 R2, ensure that the Windows updates listed below are installed:

▪

KB2939087

▪

KB2975061

▪

KB2919355

▪

KB2999226

Installing vRanger

The installation of vRanger has several options. Unless you have a valid reason not to, accept the defaults wherever possible. The installation follows this sequence:

1	Launch the installer, and accept the vRanger license.

The install process does not continue until the license is accepted.

2	Enter the credentials under which the vRanger services should run.

The credentials used need to have local administrator privileges on the vRanger machine.

3	Choose an installation directory.

4	Select the vRanger database.

You may choose to install vRanger with a new instance of SQL Server® Express or on an existing SQL Server.

5	Configure the runtime credentials for the vRanger Database.

6	[Optional] Install the vRanger Catalog Service.

The installation completes.

For more information, see the Quest vRanger Installation/Upgrade Guide.

Configuring vRanger

vRanger requires some basic configuration before data protection can begin. The bulk of this configuration is driven by the Startup Wizard which starts the first time the application is opened. For more information, see the Quest vRanger Installation/Upgrade Guide.

The following lists the primary configurations you need to make.

•	Add source servers: Before you can begin backups, you must add one or more source objects to the vRanger inventory. Source objects can include VMware® vCenter™ or ESXi™ hosts, Hyper-V® clusters or hosts, or physical machines.

•	Add vRanger virtual appliances (VAs): vRanger VAs allow you to distribute the backup workload and gain direct access to target VM’s storage for improved performance.

 

IMPORTANT: To be able to run in Deduplication Mode, the vRanger VA should be configured with four vCPUs and 2 GB of RAM. This configuration lets you run four backup jobs per VA.

•	Add repositories: Repositories are where vRanger stores the savepoints created by each backup job. For the purposes of this integration, a Quest Rapid Data Access (RDA) repository should be used.