vRanger 7.8 - User Guide

VMware backup transport options

When configuring a backup job, vRanger automatically chooses the fastest option available, but you can also override this selection by configuring a custom transport selection. vRanger chooses from the following transport options, based on your configuration.

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HotAdd

•	SAN backups

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LAN

HotAdd

vRanger includes support for the VMware® HotAdd disk transport functionality, which permits LAN-free backups from a VM.

vRanger can use HotAdd for two backup methods:

•	VA-based HotAdd: Mounts the source VM’s disk to the vRanger virtual appliance (VA) deployed on the source host or cluster. This method lets vRanger have direct access to the VM data through the VMware I/O stack rather than the network.

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Machine based HotAdd: If vRanger is installed in a VM, this method mounts the source VM’s disk to the vRanger VM. This method lets vRanger have direct access to the VM data through the VMware I/O stack rather than the network. With this method, the backup processing activity occurs on the vRanger server.

To use vRanger with HotAdd, the VM — either the vRanger VA or the vRanger VM — must be able to access the target VM’s datastores. In addition, all hosts to which the vRanger VM or VA could be vMotioned using VMware vSphere® vMotion® must be able to see the storage for all VMs that vRanger is configured to back up.

 

NOTE: When using HotAdd, plan on one concurrent backup per CPU core. To calculate the maximum number of concurrent backup tasks per proxy server, simply identify the number of CPU cores on that server — that is the maximum number of concurrent backups. For example, a Dual-Socket, Quad-Core system can perform up to eight concurrent backup jobs.

Configuring vRanger for HotAdd

When using HotAdd, make sure to disable Automount on the vRanger machine. This step prevents Windows® on the vRanger VM from assigning a drive letter to the target VMDK.

To disable Automount:

1	Click Start > Run, and enter diskpart.

2	Run the automount disable command to disable automatic drive letter assignment.

3	Run the automount scrub command to clean any registry entries pertaining to previously mounted volumes.

HotAdd limitations

The use of HotAdd for backups is subject to the following limitations:

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VMFS Block Size: To use HotAdd, the VMFS containing the source VM and the VMFS containing the vRanger VM must use the same block size. For example, if you back up a virtual disk on a datastore with 1 MB blocks, the proxy must also be on a datastore with 1 MB blocks. For more information, see the VMware® VDDK 1.2.1 Release Notes at http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/VDDK-1.2.1-Relnotes.html#knownissues.

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HotAdd and the vRanger VM: You cannot use HotAdd to back up the vRanger VM. This issue might result in the vRanger volume being removed from the VM along with the source VMDK. For more information, see the VMware VDDK 1.2.1 Release Notes at http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/VDDK-1.2.1-Relnotes.html#knownissues.

•	IDE disks are not supported.

•	Mixed mode clusters are not supported for HotAdd. For example, a VM on a VMware® ESXi™ 6.0 host cannot HotAdd a disk from an ESXi 5.1 host.

SAN backups

To perform SAN backups, vRanger must be installed on a physical system attached to your fibre or iSCSI network. In addition, the volumes containing the servers to protect must also be properly zoned and mapped to the vRanger proxy server.

Configuring vRanger for SAN backups

With vRanger installed on a physical proxy server, the following configurations must be made:

•	Disable automount on the vRanger machine:

Click Start > Run, and then enter diskpart.

Run the automount disable command to disable automatic drive letter assignment.

•	Verify that the SAN policy is set to Online All by typing san and hitting Enter.

If it is not, set it to online all by typing san policy=onlineAll.

•	Run the automount scrub command to clean any registry entries pertaining to previously mounted volumes.

•	On your storage device, zone your LUNs so that the vRanger HBA or iSCSI initiator can see and read them.

•	Only one proxy should see a set of LUNs at one time. For backups only, The proxy server should only have read-only access to the LUNs. To perform LAN-free restores, ensure that the vRanger server has Read + Write access to any zoned LUNs to which you want to restore.

LAN

If no LAN-free option is available, backups can be processed over the network. LAN backups are supported in all configurations and require no additional set-up to work, but are generally the slowest option. Network backups can be processed one of two ways, depending on the source host configuration.

•	VA-based LAN: Transfers the source VM’s data from the source disk to the vRanger virtual appliance (VA) over the network. With this method, the backup processing activity occurs on the VA.

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Machine-based LAN: If there is no vRanger VA deployed, vRanger transfers the source VM’s data from the source disk to the vRanger server over the network. With this method, the backup processing activity occurs on the vRanger server. For VMware® ESXi™ servers, data is sent by way of the VMware VDDK transport.

 

NOTE: Generally speaking, network backups and restores are slower than LAN-free backups and restores. If your environment supports LAN-free backups, use that option whenever possible.

Transport selection order: VM backup

When backing up VMs or other virtual objects — hosts, clusters, and so on — the vRanger Backup Wizard includes an Automatic option which lets vRanger select the best available method for your configuration. When determining the best transport, vRanger uses two key criteria:

•	Whether VAs are deployed.

•	Where vRanger is installed.

The logic used to select a transport differs slightly based on whether vRanger is installed in a VM or on a physical server. The following topics describe the steps taken to select an automatic transport.

•	vRanger: installed on a VM

•	vRanger: installed on a physical machine

vRanger: installed on a VM

When installed on a VM, vRanger checks the possible transports in the following order, selecting the first option available to ensure the best performance possible.

1	VA on source host: vRanger first checks the source host for a VA. If available, that VA is used.

Is VA-based HotAdd available?: vRanger checks the local VA for HotAdd support. If the host is not properly licensed, or the VA cannot access the storage for the source VM, HotAdd is not available.

 

IMPORTANT: If a VA is configured and HotAdd is not available, a network backup is performed from the VA. No further transport checks are performed.

2	VA on source cluster: If the source host does not have a VA, vRanger determines whether the host is a member of a cluster, If so, vRanger checks for a shared VA on that cluster.

Is VA-based HotAdd available?: vRanger checks the cluster VA for HotAdd support. If the host is not properly licensed, or the VA cannot access the storage for the source VM, HotAdd is not available.

 

IMPORTANT: If a VA is configured and HotAdd is not available, a network backup is performed from the VA. No further transport checks are performed.

3	Machine-based HotAdd: If there is no VA configured, vRanger determines whether HotAdd is available for the vRanger VM. If the vRanger VM is on a host which is not properly licensed, or if the VM cannot access the storage for the source VM, HotAdd is not available.

4	Machine-based LAN: If a VA is not available, and HotAdd is not supported on the vRanger VM, a network backup is performed from the vRanger machine.

vRanger: installed on a physical machine

When installed on a physical machine, vRanger checks the possible transports in the following order, selecting the first option available. The preferred transports are checked first, ensuring the best performance possible.

1	VA on source host: vRanger first checks the source host for a VA. If available, that VA is used.

Is HotAdd available?: vRanger checks the local VA for HotAdd support. If the host is not properly licensed, or the VA cannot access the storage for the source VM, HotAdd is not available.

 

IMPORTANT: If a VA is configured and HotAdd is not available, a network backup is performed from the VA. No further transport checks are performed.

2	VA on source cluster: If the source host does not have a VA, vRanger determines whether the host is a member of a cluster, If so, vRanger checks for a shared VA on that cluster.

Is HotAdd available?: vRanger checks the cluster VA for HotAdd support. If the host is not properly licensed, or the VA cannot access the storage for the source VM, HotAdd is not available.

 

IMPORTANT: If a VA is configured and HotAdd is not available, a network backup is performed from the VA. No further transport checks are performed.

3	Machine-based SAN: If there is no VA configured, vRanger determines whether the vRanger server is configured for SAN backups.

4	Machine-based LAN: If a VA is not available, and SAN backups are not supported on the vRanger server, a network backup is performed from the vRanger machine.

Hyper-V backup transport options

When backing up Hyper-V® VMs, backup activity is processed by the vRanger Hyper-V Agent on the Hyper-V host. Backup data is read by the agent and sent from the source server directly to the repository.

When performing backups of Hyper-V VMs, or backup groups containing Hyper-V VMs, the Transport Selection portion of the Backup Wizard is not shown, as there is only one available option.

Physical backup transport options

vRanger transports describe only how data is read from the source server, not how the data is sent to the repository. When backing up physical servers, the vRanger client reads the data directly from the disk and sends data from the source server to the repository. Depending on how the source server is connected to the repository, this process can result in network backups or LAN-free backups. For backups to be LAN-free, the source server and repository must exist on the same SAN.

When performing backups of physical servers, or backup groups containing physical servers, the Transport Selection portion of the Backup Wizard is not shown, as there is only one available option.