DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD EMC VSPEX December 2014
Copyright 2013-2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in USA. Published December, 2014 EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. EMC², EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to EMC Online Support (https://support.emc.com). EMC Corporation Hopkinton, Massachusetts 01748-9103 1-508-435-1000 In North America 1-866-464-7381 www.emc.com 2 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 5 Purpose of this guide... 6 Business value...6 Scope...7 Essential reading...7 Chapter 2 Solution Overview and Sizing 9 Solution components and terminology... 10 Solution architecture...11 Private Cloud overview... 13 EMC Data Protection solutions overview... 13 EMC Avamar deduplication backup software and system... 14 EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system...14 vsphere Data Protection Advanced... 15 EMC Data Protection solution sizing... 16 Chapter 3 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere 17 Avamar backup strategies overview...18 Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview... 18 VDP Advanced backup strategies overview...18 Configuring VMware backups by using VDP Advanced...19 Chapter 4 Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere 21 Data Protection verification methodology... 22 Recovery steps for Avamar... 22 Recovery steps for VDP Advanced...23 Chapter 5 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for Microsoft Hyper-V 25 Avamar backup strategies overview...26 Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview... 26 Chapter 6 Solution Verification Methodologies for Microsoft Hyper-V 27 Data Protection verification methodology... 28 Recovery Steps for Avamar... 28 Chapter 7 Reference Documentation 29 Documentation... 30 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide 3
CONTENTS 4 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 1 Introduction Purpose of this guide... 6 Business value...6 Scope...7 Essential reading...7 Introduction 5
Introduction Purpose of this guide This Solution Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Data Protection solutions for VSPEX Private Cloud Proven Infrastructures. EMC VSPEX for Private Cloud solution: Provides customers with a validated solution capable of hosting a virtualization solution at a consistent performance level. Enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy and protect a Private Cloud on a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure. Runs on VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization software. Leverages the highly available EMC VNX family and software-defined ScaleIO solutions, which powers the storage layer. Leverages EMC Data Protection products, including: EMC Avamar, EMC Data Domain, and VMware vsphere Data Protection Advanced (VDP Advanced). Business value Private Cloud continues the server virtualization consolidation efforts started over a decade ago. IT administrators who support server virtualization efforts face challenges in maintaining the highest possible levels of performance and application efficiency. At the same time, most administrators struggle to keep up with relentless file and application data growth while working to overcome diminishing budgets. Most IT departments experience major challenges when administering, auditing, protecting, and managing Private Cloud environments for a modern, geographically diverse work force. Many businesses try to address these challenges by adding physical servers and inefficient direct attached storage, which further compounds the problem. Additionally, as the virtual environment grows, server consolidation can result in overlapping backup windows and a heavy impact on hardware resources, which can bring backups to a crawl. This can stall virtualization projects or put data at risk because data is not properly backed up, which makes recovery uncertain. EMC has joined forces with industry leading providers of IT infrastructure to create a complete virtualization solution that accelerates the deployment of your Private Cloud. VSPEX enables customers to accelerate their IT transformation with faster deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk. Validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select technology that leverages existing IT infrastructure solutions, while eliminating planning and configuration burdens. VSPEX provides infrastructure solutions for customers who are looking to simplify their environment while at the same time gaining flexibility at each layer of the stack. EMC Data Protection solutions - EMC Avamar, EMC Data Domain, and VMware vsphere Data Protection Advanced (VDP Advanced) - deliver the protection and confidence needed to accelerate your VSPEX deployment. EMC recommends VDP Advanced for up to 125 virtual machine VMware-based VSPEX deployments. Powered by Avamar technology, VDP Advanced delivers fast and efficient image-level and file-level backups, recovery, and replication. VDP Advanced now sends backup data to EMC Data Domain systems, for additional scalability and reliability. 6 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Introduction Figure 1 EMC Data Protection solutions Scope This Design and Implementation Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Data Protection solutions for VSPEX Private Cloud environments by using the following configurations. VDP Advanced and Data Domain DD2200 systems to protect Private Clouds that run on VMware vsphere (up to 125 virtual machines). You can also use VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft Applications to protect Microsoft applications. EMC Avamar to protect Private Clouds that run on VMware vsphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain systems to protect Private Clouds that run on VMware vsphere with greater than 125 VMs. EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain to protect Private Clouds that run on Microsoft Hyper-V. Essential reading EMC recommends that you read the following documents, available on the EMC.com website. Solution overviews Review the following VSPEX Solution overview documents: Solutions Overview: EMC VSPEX Private Cloud with ScaleIO Solutions Overview: EMC VSPEX Private Cloud VSPEX Proven Infrastructure Review the following VSPEX Proven Infrastructure documents: EMC VSPEX Private Cloud - Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 125 Virtual Machines EMC VSPEX Private Cloud - Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines EMC VSPEX Private Cloud VMware vsphere 5.5 for up to 125 Virtual Machines EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vsphere 5.5 for up to 1,000 Virtual Machines Scope 7
Introduction Proven Infrastructure Guide: EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: VMware vsphere and EMC ScaleIO Proven Infrastructure Guide: EMC VSPEX Private Cloud: Microsoft Hyper-V and EMC ScaleIO 8 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 2 Solution Overview and Sizing This chapter provides an overview of VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Private Cloud, the EMC Data Protection products used in this solution, and critical guidance about backup and recovery solution sizing. Solution components and terminology... 10 Solution architecture...11 Private Cloud overview... 13 EMC Data Protection solutions overview... 13 Solution Overview and Sizing 9
Solution Overview and Sizing Solution components and terminology This section provides a summary of components and terminology used in a vsphere and Hyper-V environment. VMware vsphere components and terminology This section summarizes the components and terminology used in a VMware vsphere environment. Table 1 VMware vsphere terminology Component Host OS Virtual Machine vapp ( virtual Application) vcenter Datastore Proxy host Image-based backup File level recovery (FLR) Guest-based backup Change Block Tracking (CBT) Description The physical host where you install the VMware vsphere software. VMware vsphere enables the Host OS or hypervisor to create, manage, and allocate hardware resources to Virtual Machines. Virtual hardware that supports a self-contained implementation of an operating system (Guest OS) and application software on a Host OS. Many virtual machines can exist independently on one Host OS. Collection of preconfigured virtual machines that enable you to combine applications and operating systems into a single Virtual LAN (VLAN). For example, a vapp can contain an Active Directory host, a SharePoint farm, a SQL Server host, and an appropriately sized virtual EMC Backup and Recovery appliance. VMware vsphere allows you to configure the start order of each virtual machine in a vapp. When you back up a vapp, the backup application will back up all virtual machines within the vapp. Server that provides central management for multiple vsphere servers, virtual machines, and underlying virtualization technologies, such as change block tracking (CBT) and Proxy hosts. You can create the vcenter server on a physical or virtual machine. Logical containers, analogous to file systems that vsphere manages. The datastore stores the files that make up each virtual machine. Avamar virtual machine that backup operations use to handle backup processing overhead and offload resource usage from the virtual machine targets. A backup operation that uses snapshot technology to create a point-in-time copy for a backup, which contains a complete copy of the Guest OS, application, and data files for a virtual machine. You can use an Image-based backup to perform disaster recoveries of a virtual machine. Ability to recover specific files and folders from an Image-based backup. A traditional backup of the virtual machine that uses a backup application, which you install on the virtual machine to back up the Guest OS, application, and data files. A method to identify disk sectors that have been altered between two periods of time. CBT shortens backup windows by only presenting new data blocks to Avamar/VDP. Avamar and VDP identify and only back up segments that have changed within the new blocks. 10 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Solution Overview and Sizing Microsoft Hyper-V components and terminology The section summarizes the components and terminology used in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. Table 2 Hyper-V terminology Component VHDs Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) Parent Partition Child Partition Proxy architecture Description Virtual Hard Disks or virtual machines. A shared disk that each node in the cluster can access for read and write operations. Runs the hypervisor layer. Responsible for the creation and management of child partitions. Runs an isolated OS with allocated CPU and memory resources. Hyper-V does not use explicitly created VHD proxies. Each VHD dedicates resources for proxy usage. Solution architecture The following figures illustrate the architecture that characterize a VSPEX Private Cloud. Figure 2 Solution architecture that includes VSPEX Private Cloud and ScaleIO Solution architecture 11
Solution Overview and Sizing This example includes the following components: Many VMs reside on a VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V cluster. For VMware vsphere, many vapps and folders (that contain a number of VMs) may also reside on a cluster. For Microsoft, the Hyper-V hypervisor has one parent partition and a number of children partitions that reside on a cluster. ScaleIO, in a configuration that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure solution, provides the back-end storage functionality. Datastores that contain the boot code data for the image: VMware vsphere stores the data in a virtual machine data file (VMDK) format. Avamar can recover the entire VM or perform a FLR. Microsoft Hyper-V stores the data in a VHD format. Avamar can recover the entire VHD or perform an FLR. iscsi native disks that store the vmdk and vhd files in RDM format. EMC Data Protection systems that have been validated as part of a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure and provides the backup and recovery functionality. Figure 3 Solution architecture that includes VSPEX Private Cloud and VNX This example includes the following components: Many VMs reside on a VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V cluster. For VMware vsphere, many vapps and folders (that contain a number of VMs) may also reside on a cluster. For Microsoft, the Hyper-V hypervisor has one parent partition and a number of children partitions that reside on a cluster. An EMC VNX series that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure solution provides the back-end storage functionality. 12 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Solution Overview and Sizing Private Cloud overview Datastores that contain the boot code data for the image: VMware vsphere stores the data in a virtual machine data file (VMDK) format. Avamar can recover the entire VM or perform an FLR. Microsoft Hyper-V stores the data in a VHD format. Avamar can recover the entire VHD or perform an FLR. iscsi native disks that store the vmdk and vhd files in RDM format. EMC Data Protection systems that have been validated as part of a VSPEX Proven Infrastructure and provides the backup and recovery functionality. Essential reading provides more information. Private Cloud presents a new, unified approach to enabling end users to compute and collaborate in a virtualized environment by using VMs individually or within a vapp. A typical vapp might contain an Active Directory VM, a VM that contains a Microsoft or Oracle application and a virtualized EMC EMC Data Protection grid or appliance. When you add VMs to a vapp you can configure Avamar to back up the VMs within the vapp as a single entity. With a Private Cloud configuration, you can: Implement customized VMware VM, vapps, or Microsoft VHDs that meet the needs of an enterprise to consolidate and accelerate the environment by using virtualization. Enable IT staff and the enterprise to offer a full catalog of applications and services that the end user requires. Protect the Private Cloud environment by leveraging the backup and recovery resources assigned to the environment. A Private Cloud Organization includes several critical components and concepts: Virtual machine/virtual hard disk. Proxy host for the virtual machine. A Private Cloud uses a Proxy host to offload the backup resource burden from the VM/VHD host. A Private Cloud selects a Proxy host from a pool of Proxy hosts. Changed Block Tracking (CBT) to provide the means to back up only the blocks of data that have changed within that VM. The Microsoft VSS API uses a similar mechanism. CBT reduces the backup window drastically. These components are the basis for data protection functionality and scalability in either a VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environment. EMC Data Protection solutions overview This section provides data protection options, recommended EMC Data Protection configurations and guidance for a VSPEX Private Clouds solution. Optimized for virtualized application environments, EMC Data Protection solutions: Deliver the confidence and efficiency to accelerate a VSPEX Private Cloud Deployment deployment. Use software that is proven to reduce backup times by 90% and improve recovery times by 30x for worry-free protection. Use EMC Protection Storage to add another layer of reliability by providing end-to-end verification and self-healing, which ensures successful recoveries. Private Cloud overview 13
Solution Overview and Sizing Deliver big savings. With industry-leading deduplication, you can reduce: Backup storage by 10-30x. Backup management time by 81%. WAN bandwidth by 99% for efficient DR. Deliver a payback period as low as 7 months. With EMC Data Protection solutions, you can simply and efficiently scale backup and recovery configurations as your environment grows. EMC Avamar deduplication backup software and system EMC Avamar provides fast, efficient backup and recovery through a complete software and hardware solution. Equipped with integrated variable-length deduplication technology, Avamar facilitates fast, daily full backups for physical environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, network-attached storage (NAS) servers, desktops/ laptops, and virtualized environments. EMC Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) is a single-node server that runs as a VM in a VMware ESX/ESXi 4.1 or ESXi 5.0/5.1/5.5 environment. Note VMware ESX/ESXi 5.5 requires AVE 7.0 SP1 or later. AVE provides the following features: Integrates the latest version of the Avamar software with SUSE Linux. Runs autonomously as a target for all Avamar client backups and performs replication to a physical Avamar system or another AVE. The Avamar plug-in supports backup and recovery operations of single VMs, vapps, and VHDs. You can backup and recover a single VM or multiple VMs that form a virtual application hosting instance. While FLR is the most frequent use case and most granular form of recovery, you can recover the entire VM to address a registry corruption or to recover an inaccessible VM. The Backup and VMware administrator can include one or both recovery types in the data protection strategy. EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems continue to revolutionize disk backup, archiving, and disaster recovery with high-speed, inline deduplication for backup and archive workloads. EMC recommends that you use Data Domain systems as a backup target for Avamar in the following configurations: VSPEX Private Cloud solutions with VMware vsphere. VSPEX Private Cloud solutions For Microsoft Hyper-V, for 300 VMs or greater. You can use Data Domain devices as the backup target for Avamar. Install the Avamar client and plug-ins in the same way as when you use an Avamar device as the backup target. If you use a Data Domain system as the backup target for Avamar, then after the Data Domain system has been discovered within the Avamar Manager software application, specify the backup target by selecting the appropriate box in the Avamar data set definition interface. 14 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Solution Overview and Sizing vsphere Data Protection Advanced For VMware-based VSPEX solutions that run 125 VMs or less, customers can choose VDP Advanced. VDP Advanced enables you to use up to 10 VDP Advanced systems in each vcenter instance. A VDP Advanced virtual appliance: Provides up to 8 TB of capacity. Supports up to 400 concurrent VM backups. Operates independently from other VDP Advanced virtual appliances within the vcenter server instance. Individual deduplication of each VM occurs in a VDP Advanced virtual appliance. To take advantage of global deduplication, implement Data Domain Protection Storage Architecture. Provides high efficiency. VDP Advanced uses an industry-leading and patented variable length deduplication algorithm that minimizes storage and bandwidth consumption. The use of CBT reduces backup and recovery times, which minimizes the cost of application downtime. Provides resiliency. VDP Advanced provides agentless, image-level backups to disk and guest-level, application-consistent protection for Microsoft Exchange (including granular Exchange mailbox recovery), SQL Server, and SharePoint. Network efficient, encrypted backup data replication enables you to back up data offsite, which ensures business continuity and compliance. Provides simplicity. VDP Advanced provides full integration with vcenter Server and end-to-end management by using the vsphere Web Client provides: Familiar user interface, which makes the product easy to use and manage. Flexible and simplified schedules, which reduce operational overhead for vsphere administrators. With VDP Advanced, you will benefit from fast, efficient image-level and file-level backup, recovery, and replication combined with reliable, scalable, and efficient storage protection. Built-in data replication The vsphere Replication feature provides an offline copy of a VM by copying changes in the VMDK for a running VM to a VMDK file at a secondary location. Each copy operation creates a replica of the VM at the secondary location and vsphere Replication supports up to 24 concurrent point-in-time replicas. User-defined Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) determine the frequency of the replication operation. You can set RPOs to occur at intervals between 15 minutes and 24 hours. VDP Advanced provides a built-in replication solution that supports the replication of deduplicated, encrypted backup data to a secondary location. The replication solution in VDP Advanced provides longer retention periods with less aggressive RPOs than vsphere Replication. When you use VDP Advanced replication, you can store replicas at the secondary location for periods in the range of 30 to 60 days and use RPO intervals of 24 hours or higher. VDP Advanced replication supports the following destination types: VDP Advanced EMC Avamar EMC Avamar with Data Domain vsphere Data Protection Advanced 15
Solution Overview and Sizing EMC Data Protection solution sizing The following table represents possible backup and recovery options based on assumptions contained within the Proven Infrastructure Guides for VSPEX Private Clouds. Table 3 Recommended configurations for EMC Data Protection solutions Up to 125 VMs 200 VMs 300 VMs 600 VMs 1000 VMs VSPEX Private Cloud with VMware vsphere VDP Advanced Avamar 7 Data Domain DD2200 Data Domain DD2500 Data Domain DD4200 VSPEX Private Cloud with Microsoft Hyper-V Avamar Business Edition (M1200) Data Domain DD2500 Avamar 7 Data Domain DD4200 Note Sizing can vary significantly depending on initial and day-over-day commonalities, application change rates, and the retention periods that the business requires. For example, based on the assumptions within the Proven Infrastructure Guides for VSPEX Private Clouds, a drastic change in the retention period alone can result in the need to use a higher capacity Data Domain appliance: If a configuration uses a retention period of 30 days for 100 VMs, then use a Data Domain DD2200. If a configuration uses a retention period of 3 years for 1000 VMs, then use a Data Domain DD4200. Note You cannot upgrade a VDP virtual appliance. Ensure that you carefully consider sizing requirements for this solution. The remainder of this document focuses on the design and implementation of the various backup and recovery options. Note Always use the VSPEX sizing tool to provide formal sizing metrics for any environment. 16 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 3 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere This chapter provides an overview of backup strategies when you use Avamar, Avamar with Data Domain, or VDP Advanced with Data Domain to back up a VSPEX Private Cloud environment with VMware vsphere. Avamar backup strategies overview...18 Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview... 18 VDP Advanced backup strategies overview...18 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere 17
Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere Avamar backup strategies overview Avamar 7.0 provides a vsphere Web plug-in to enable data protection for the VMware administrator. The backup strategy for a VMware vsphere environment leverages the following Avamar features: Ability to select a configured Proxy host from a pool of available Proxy hosts. Ability to backup data at the virtual machine, vapp, or the Folder level (several virtual machines within a folder). Ability to use Policies, including datasets. Ability to use certified VMware Ready functionality for image-based recoveries and FLR by using change block tracking API calls. VMware Ready features and functionality pass rigorous tests before becoming certified. Multi vcenter environment The typical enterprise customer may deploy multiple vcenter servers. Avamar supports up to five vcenter servers in this topology. Note Avamar does not support the vsphere web client in a multi-vcenter environment. Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview Avamar 6.0 and later versions support virtual machine backups to a Data Domain system. Using Avamar with Data Domain provides the following advantages: You can deploy more relatively smaller Avamar grids that integrate into a larger Data Domain system that holds most or all virtual machines. You can size the Avamar with Data Domain solution to take advantage of Data Domain performance and scale. VDP Advanced backup strategies overview Use the VMware vsphere Web Client interface to select, schedule, configure, and manage virtual machine backups and recoveries, including FLR. FLR allows local administrators to browse and mount backups for the local machine, then restore individual files. During a backup, VDP Advanced creates a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine, and then automatically deduplicates the backup data. Before you use VDP Advanced, you must install and configure the VDP Appliance. The chapter Installing and Configuring vsphere Data Protection in the vsphere Data Protection Administration Guide provides more information. 18 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere Configuring VMware backups by using VDP Advanced Use the vsphere web client to configure VMware backups, the vsphere client application does not support VDP. Procedure 1. Use a web browser to connect to the VDP vsphere Web Client. https://ip_address_vcenter_server:9443/vsphere-client/ 2. In the Credentials window, specify the vcenter user name and password that provides access to the VDP appliance. 3. In the Welcome to vsphere Data Protection window, select VDP, and then click Connect. The VDP window appears as shown in the following figure. Figure 4 VDP vsphere Web Client 4. On the Backup tab, select Backup Job Actions, and then click New to launch the Backup Job Wizard. The Virtual Machines page displays an inventory tree that contains all the objects and VMs that the vcenter Server manages. Click each rotating triangle to display the tree contents of the object. 5. Enable the check boxes next to the items you want to add to the backup job and then click Next. 6. On the Schedule, Retention Policy and Name windows, select the parameter that you require for the backup. 7. On the Ready to Complete window, review the summary information for the backup job and then click Finish. An information dialog box appears to confirm that the wizard created the backup job successfully. 8. Click OK. The newly created backup job appears on the Backup tab. Configuring VMware backups by using VDP Advanced 19
Private Cloud Backup Considerations for VMware vsphere 20 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 4 Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere This chapter provides guidance and the steps required to validate the backup configuration by performing recovery operations that use the EMC Avamar, Avamar with Data Domain, and VDP Advanced in a VMware vsphere environment. Data Protection verification methodology... 22 Recovery steps for Avamar...22 Recovery steps for VDP Advanced...23 Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere 21
Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere Data Protection verification methodology Verification of the Private Cloud backup configuration and the ability to restore data is fairly straightforward for VMware vsphere. The highest level of recovery enables you to recover an entire virtual machine or vapp. A user can recover data to the location of the data at the time of backup (in-place), or if the user has the required role-based access, to an alternate location (redirected restore). The severity of the disaster to the image determines the type of recovery that you will use. Use an image-level recovery when: Registry corruption occurs on the image that you cannot repair. A virus has attacked the image and you cannot access the image. However, depending on the backup and recovery strategy, you can use a guest-based recovery to: Recover data files, database files, and transaction logs. This includes applicationconsistent images for Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Perform file level recoveries from images. Perform an in-place or a redirected restore. Recovery steps for Avamar The following core Avamar VMware vsphere documents, available from the EMC Online Support website, outline the specific steps for various recoveries. Avamar 7.0 for VMware User Guide EMC Avamar 7.0 Operational Best Practices EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide The following figure provides an example of the recovery options available in the Avamar client for an in-place recovery. 22 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere Figure 5 Restore options available in the Avamar client when you select "Restore everything to its original location" Recovery steps for VDP Advanced With VDP Advanced, an administrator can create an Automatic Backup Verification (ABV) job that performs an actual restore to verify backup data integrity. ABV offers the administrator with the highest level of recovery confidence for virtual machines and applications protected by VDP Advanced. ABV has the following characteristics: Recovers backup data to a temporary virtual machine, also called a Validating Virtual Machine by using following naming convention: VDP_VALIDATING_vm-name -unique number. Recovers backups without creating a network conflict. Conflicts do not occur because ABV disables the NIC during the verification operation. Recovery steps for VDP Advanced 23
Solution Verification Methodologies for VMware vsphere Note You cannot perform a ping test on the temporary virtual machine. Removes and deletes the Validating Virtual Machine when the backup ABV job completes. Verifies only the last successful full image backup for any virtual machine. The Recent Task pane and Event log provides a report of verified backups. The vsphere Data Protection Administration Guide provides the detailed ABV steps and prerequisite information. 24 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 5 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for Microsoft Hyper-V This chapter provides an overview of backup strategies when you use Avamar or Avamar with Data Domain to back up a VSPEX Private Cloud environment with Microsoft Hyper-V. Avamar backup strategies overview...26 Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview... 26 Private Cloud Backup Considerations for Microsoft Hyper-V 25
Private Cloud Backup Considerations for Microsoft Hyper-V Avamar backup strategies overview The backup strategy for a Hyper-V environment leverages the following Avamar features. Ability to back up at the VHD or CSV (Image) level. Ability to use proxies to offload backup overhead from production VMs. Ability to use policies, including Avamar datasets. Ability to use the Hyper-V VSS API to quiesce disk writes, ensuring application consistency. The following figure provides an example of the Avamar backup and recovery components in a Microsoft Hyper-V Guest backup environment. Figure 6 Avamar backup and recovery components for Hyper-V Guest backup Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview Avamar 6.0 and later versions support virtual machine backups to a Data Domain device. Using Avamar with Data Domain provides the following advantages: You can deploy more relatively smaller Avamar grids that integrate into larger Data Domain systems, that holds most or all virtual machines. You can size the Avamar with Data Domain solution to take advantage of Data Domain performance and scale. 26 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 6 Solution Verification Methodologies for Microsoft Hyper-V This chapter provides guidance and the steps required to validate the backup configuration by performing recovery operations that use the EMC Avamar and Avamar with Data Domain in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. Data Protection verification methodology... 28 Recovery Steps for Avamar... 28 Solution Verification Methodologies for Microsoft Hyper-V 27
Solution Verification Methodologies for Microsoft Hyper-V Data Protection verification methodology Verification of the Private Cloud backup configuration and the ability to restore data is fairly straightforward for a guest-based backup. However, a Hyper-V image-level recovery from a Clustered Shared Volume (CSV) requires additional steps. With Hyper-V, the highest level of recovery enables you to recover an entire VHD. You can recover the VHD in one of two modes: Application-consistent mode. The recovery operation uses this mode when the VHD is online and VSS is running. Crash-consistent mode. The recovery operation uses this mode when the VHD is: Offline. Not installed as a Guest OS or the Guest OS is not Windows. Does not support VSS. A user can recover data to the location of the data at the time of backup (in-place), or if the user has the required role-based access, to an alternate location (redirected restore). The severity of the disaster to the image determines the type of recovery that you will use. Use an image-level recovery when: Recovery Steps for Avamar Registry corruption occurs on the image that you cannot repair. A virus has attacked the image and you cannot access the image. However, depending on the backup and recovery strategy, you can use a guest-based recovery to: Recover data files, database files, and transaction logs. This includes applicationconsistent images for Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Perform file level recoveries from images. Perform an in-place or a redirected restore. Microsoft Hyper-V supports an application-consistent recovery with either guest or CSV (Image). The following core Avamar VMware vsphere documents, available from the EMC Online Support website outline the specific steps for various recoveries: Avamar 7.0 for VMware User Guide EMC Avamar 7.0 Operational Best Practices EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide 28 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide
CHAPTER 7 Reference Documentation This chapter summarizes the documentation to review for more information about EMC Avamar, VMware vsphere, and Microsoft Hyper-V. Documentation... 30 Reference Documentation 29
Reference Documentation Documentation The following documents provide additional and relevant information. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC representative. Product documentation The following documents provide additional and relevant information: Avamar 7.0 for Hyper-V VSS User Guide EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide EMC Avamar 7.0 for VMware User Guide EMC Avamar 7.0 Operational Best Practices Other documentation The Microsoft website provides documentation on Microsoft Hyper-V: http:// www.microsoft.com The VMware website provides documentation on VMware vsphere and vcenter: http:// www.vmware.com 30 EMC DATA PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR VSPEX PRIVATE CLOUD Design and Implementation Guide