NetVault Plug-in for VMware 10.0.5

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Configuring default settings

To configure the default settings for Plug‑in for VMware

Start the Backup Job Wizard, and click Create New next to the Selections list. Open the NetVault Backup Server. Select VMware Plugin, and in the Actions list, click Configure.

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In the Navigation pane, click Change Settings. On the Configuration page, click Server Settings, and then click Plugin Options.

Configure the following settings.

Table 2. Default settings for Plug‑in for VMware

Option

Description

Transport Mode

The Plug‑in for VMware supports the following methods for accessing virtual machine disks:

SAN mode: The SAN transport mode supports virtual machine disks stored on Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN, or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) storage devices. This transport mode requires a physical NetVault Backup Client. The SAN mode allows you to completely offload backups to a physical NetVault Backup Client.

To use this transport mode, select san. Verify that the NetVault Backup Client on which the plug‑in is installed has SAN connectivity to the VMFS LUN. On new plug-in installations, the san transport mode is selected by default.

Best practices when using SAN transport for backup and restore

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For array-based storage, use the SAN transport mode when the plug-in is running on a physical machine.

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During restores, the SAN transport mode offers the best performance on thick disks. On thin disks, NBD and NBDSSL transport modes are faster than the SAN mode.

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During SAN restores, disable CBT on the virtual machine.

SCSI Hot-Add mode: The SCSI Hot-Add mode supports all types of storage devices. To use this transport mode, the NetVault Backup Client must be installed on a virtual machine. The SCSI Hot-Add mode does not require you to expose SAN LUNs to the NetVault Backup Client. This transport mode is not as efficient as the SAN mode, which does not cause any overhead on the ESX Server host, but it is more efficient than the LAN mode.

To use this transport mode, select hotadd.

Requirements for SCSI Hot-Add mode

To use the SCSI Hot-Add mode, the following requirements must be met:

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The NetVault Backup Client must be installed on a virtual machine (that is, a backup proxy).

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The backup proxy virtual machine must reside on the same datacenter as the target virtual machines (the virtual machines that you want to back up).

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The ESXi Server that hosts the backup proxy must have access to the datastores on which the backup proxy and target virtual machines reside.

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The virtual machines must use SCSI controller; the hotadd mode does not support IDE and SATA controllers.

The hotadd mode supports only LSI SCSI controller; it does not support Paravirtual SCSI controllers.

LAN mode: The LAN transport mode supports all types of storage devices. You can use the LAN transport mode if the ESX/ESXi Server uses local storage devices or NAS to store its virtual machine disks. This transport mode does not require a physical NetVault Backup Client; you can use this transport mode if the NetVault Backup Client is installed on a virtual machine.

The LAN mode uses the Network Block Device (NBD) protocol to access virtual disks. The ESX Server host reads data from the storage device, and sends the read data across a network channel to the plug-in.

To use the LAN transport mode, select nbd or nbdssl:

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The nbd transport mode performs unencrypted data transfers and can be used if the ESX/ESXi Server and Plug‑in for VMware reside on a secure isolated network. nbd is faster than nbdssl, and takes fewer resources of the ESX Server and NetVault Backup Client.

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The nbdssl transport mode performs encrypted data transfers and can be used to protect sensitive data.

Auto mode: To automatically select the most suitable transport mode, select Auto.

Fallback Transport Mode

If your setup includes a combination of SAN, NAS, or locally attached SCSI storage for virtual machines, you can configure a fallback transportation mode that is used when the primary transportation mode fails.

Depending on the type of storage your ESX or ESXi Server has access to, select san, hotadd, nbd, or nbdssl. If no alternative is available, select none. On new plug-in installations, the fallback transport mode is set to nbd by default.

Default Inventory View

The Plug-in for VMware provides two View Types to browse the VMware inventory objects on the NetVault Backup Selections page:

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Hosts and Clusters: The Hosts and Clusters view is the default inventory view for the Plug‑in for VMware.

This Hosts and Clusters view provides a hierarchical view of the hosts, clusters, and their child objects. In a cluster setup managed by a vCenter Server, the virtual machines are displayed under the Cluster node. In a standalone ESX Server setup, the virtual machines are displayed under the individual hosts.

The Hosts and Clusters view does not display the folders created on the vCenter Server.

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VMs and Templates: The VMs and Templates view provides a flat view of all virtual machines and templates in the inventory; the virtual machines are grouped by Datacenters and folders.

NOTE: To switch between the two views, select the ESX/ESXi or vCenter Server on the NetVault Backup Selections page, and in the Actions list, click Toggle Inventory View. This option is only available when the server node is open.

Progress Statistics Update Interval

This setting determines the interval at which the plug-in updates progress statistics in the Job Monitor window. The default value for this option is 10 seconds. To change the default interval for progress updates, type or select a new value. The progress interval is specified in number of seconds.

NOTE: Frequent progress updates can have a negative impact on the performance of the plug-in.

Read Block Size

This setting specifies the number of disk sectors to read or write per operation.The default value is 65536 sectors (one sector = 512 bytes; 65536 sectors = 32MiB). Setting a large block size for read and write operations can improve backup performance.

Working Directory

The Working Directory is used for the following purposes:

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To mount virtual machine volumes during the file-level browse and backup operations.

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To store the data temporarily while restoring legacy backup savesets created with Plug‑in for VMware 1.x.

The default path for the Working Directory is <NetVault Backup home>\tmp on Windows and <NetVault Backup home>/tmp on Linux. To change the location, specify the full path. If you specify a path that does not exist, the plug-in automatically creates it on the NetVault Backup Client.

Click OK or Apply to save the settings.

Configuring CBT

The Changed Block Tracking (CBT) feature allows virtual machines to keep track of changed disk sectors. When CBT is enabled on a virtual machine, a “Change ID” is assigned to each disk during the snapshot generation activity. The Change ID identifies the state of a virtual disk at a specific point in time. Subsequent snapshots capture only the blocks that have changed since the last snapshot. CBT offers the following advantages:

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It allows Incremental and Differential image-level backups of virtual machines.

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It often reduces the backup size of Full image-level backups because only the used sectors of a virtual disk are backed up.

CBT is only supported on virtual machines that use virtual hardware 7 or later. CBT is not supported on virtual machines that use Physical compatibility RDM virtual disks, Virtual compatibility RDM (Independent Disks), or Virtual disks attached to a shared virtual SCSI bus.

Enabling CBT on a virtual machine

By default, CBT is disabled on a virtual machine. If you want to perform Incremental or Differential Backups of virtual machines, you must enable CBT for the Full Backup that serves as the base backup for subsequent Incremental and Differential Backups. This section describes the procedure for enabling CBT on individual virtual machines.


	NOTE: You can also use the backup option “Enable Changed Block Tracking for VM” to automatically enable tracking on all virtual machines that are included in a backup job. For more information about this option, see Other backup options for Plug‑in for VMware.