vRanger 7.8 - Installation/Upgrade Guide

Optimizing your network for backups

vRanger pushes much data through the network quickly. While this performance is good for minimizing your backup window, if not configured properly it can degrade your production network.

An important best practice is to separate the backup traffic from the production network by configuring a dedicated backup network.

 

NOTE: This approach requires that each VMware® ESXi™ host and the vRanger machine have two NICs installed.

1	Using the first (primary) network interface card (NIC), connect the vRanger server, the vRanger VAs, the VMware® vCenter™ Server, and Management Network of each ESXi server host to the production network.

2	Create a virtual switch, connecting it to a dedicated physical NIC on each ESXi host.

This setup becomes the dedicated backup network.

3	On the vRanger server, each VA, and each repository, configure a second virtual NIC.

4	Connect this second NIC to the dedicated backup network.

Using NIC teaming

NIC teaming is a feature of VMware® Infrastructure that allows you to connect a single virtual switch to multiple physical Ethernet adapters. To utilize NIC teaming, two or more network adapters must be up-linked to a virtual switch. The main advantage of NIC teaming is increased network capacity for the virtual switch hosting the team.

When bonding NICs into a team, it is important to use NICs from the same vendor as different NIC vendors achieve bonding differently. When using teamed NICs with vRanger, it is critical that the NICs are teamed for performance rather than load balancing. vRanger backups are streamed as a continuous file — changing NICs during a data stream causes backup errors.

 

NOTE: For more information on NIC teaming, see VMware KB article 1004088.

Installing the vRanger database

vRanger utilizes a SQL Server® database to store application and task configuration data. The database can be either the embedded SQL Server Express instance — the default — or a SQL Server database running on your own SQL Server or SQL Server Express instance.

Database options

The database deployment occurs during the initial installation of vRanger. The default installs a SQL Server® Express database on the vRanger server. You can also install vRanger using a separate SQL Server instance. If you intend to use your own SQL Server instance and want to use the vRanger cataloging feature, the SQL Server instance must be installed on the vRanger server. For more information, see Installing the databases.

•	Default: By default, the Installation Wizard uses the selection to install vRanger with the embedded SQL Server® 2014 SP3 Express database. The SQL Server Express database can only be installed on the vRanger server.

 

NOTE: While the embedded SQL Server Express database is free and simple to install, there is a size limit of 10 GB per database.

•	External SQL Server Instance: The Installation Wizard guides you through configuring vRanger with an external SQL Server® database. There is also an option in the Install Wizard to configure the database connection manually, but the guided approach is recommended.

 

IMPORTANT: For a list of supported SQL Server database versions, see System requirements and compatibility.

Installing the databases

When installing vRanger, consider the database selection carefully as migrating from a SQL Server® Express installation to an external SQL Server database carries a risk of corrupting application data.

If you do not intend to use cataloging, to provide the most flexibility, Quest recommends that you install vRanger using an external SQL Server database server. This step allows you to relocate the vRanger installation simply by installing the application in another location, and pointing the Install Wizard to the existing database.

Sizing the catalog database

The vRanger catalog process collects and records metadata and path information for files updated since the last backup and catalog entry. Depending on the number of VMs protected, and the number of files in each VM, the catalog database may grow rapidly.

Actual database growth varies depending on the Guest OS and the number of files changed between backups, but the following information can be used as an approximate guide.

•	With default filtering, the full catalog of a generic Windows Server® 2008 VM is approximately 500 files, or approximately 0.2 MB.

 

NOTE: Many Windows® files are not cataloged due to filtering; for more information about catalog filtering, see the Quest vRanger User’s Guide. An amount of data equal to a standard Windows Server® 2008 installation results in a larger catalog footprint.

•	Incremental and differential backups only catalog changed files, making the catalog record for these backups considerably smaller. Using incremental or differential backups, or both, allows you to store catalog data for many more savepoints than if you used only full backups.