VM Backup methodologies Oren Wolf, TSM Product Manager 11 Mar 2011
Analyst Predictions More than 90% of users deploying virtual machines are doing so specifically to reduce x86 server space and energy costs. VM densities are increasing on physical servers, 1:15 today By 2012, most x86 server workloads will be running in a VM. Roughly 80% of the virtual machines today are utilizing traditional in-guest backup or host backups. How do you manage data protection and recovery in your virtual servers? Sources Gartner, IDC, ESG
Traditional in-guest backup and recovery model Install a backup agent in the guest OS, just like a physical server Run and manage backups just like in a physical server environment Downside: deploying, managing, maintaining backup agent sprawl Downside: can put a serious drain on processor, memory, I/O resources From running multiple backups at once; file system scans during incremental backups; etc. VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines Backup Tiered Storage
Traditional in-guest backup using TSM and TSM FastBack A large percentage of users are still following this approach Heterogeneous support for Hypervisors: Vmware, KVM, LPARs, Solaris Containers, HP npartitions, etc. Guest Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, zlinux, z/os, Solaris, more TSM Fastback is a very good fit for this approach (on supported platforms) Block-level incremental forever backup, in the background Very low overhead and minimal impact on production application performance Pros Better granularity in recovery Application awareness during backup Better recovery for applications Business as usual, use existing management methodologies Cons Multiple agents http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&context=ssgsg7&uid=swg21239546&loc=en_us&cs=utf- 8&lang=en#VMware%20ESX%20Guest No VMware integration Management challenges Possible resource constraints
Host Based TSM agent running on the hypervisor Install the b/a agent on the hypervisor OS, manage the virtual guests as if they were a single physical machine. Supported for VMware (older versions). A more robust backup solution when compared to traditional agent backup. Downside: Questionable application integration Downside: Supports only full virtual disk backups Downside: VMware is deprecating this option and it is not available on ESXi. VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines Backup Tiered Storage http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21394300 4
Proxy based Available only for VMware VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) Snapshots of the VMs are taken by the Hypervisor and sent to a Proxy, which is then backed up by the Backup Downside: requires more hardware (storage) Downside: multi-step recovery through the Proxy VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines VCB API Backup Proxy
Using VCB with Tivoli Storage Manager Supported only on VMware This approach tries to combine the benefits of the traditional and host based approaches Provides an API to talk to the console and move the data through the proxy server Pros LAN Free backup Backup is off-loaded to the proxy server Flexibility supports both file level and image level backup. Utilizes VMware API Cons Questionable application integration (VMware triggers VSS for Windows guests) VCB requires an additional data hop Recovery might be challenging (depending on the type of backup used) http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21394300
The new approach: VMware vstorage APIs for Data Protection Data is accessed directly from the VM storage and passed directly to the backup server (single hop, data is not stored on the vstorage ) Change Block Tracking allows incremental backups (with periodic fulls) without forcing a scan of the guest OS file system VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines vstorage API (VADP) Backup vstorage
The new approach: VMware vstorage APIs for Data Protection Data is accessed directly from the VM storage and passed directly to the backup server (single hop, data is not stored on the vstorage ) Change Block Tracking allows incremental backups (with periodic fulls) without forcing a scan of the guest OS file system The vstorage can be a virtual machine no additional HW needed VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines Backup
Hardware Based triggering hardware based snapshots. The triggering agent can reside in multiple locations, the host or a proxy server. VMware ESX / ESXi Hypervisor Virtual Machines vstorage API (VADP) Backup vstorage 9
Hardware Based triggering hardware based snapshots. This approach is viable for VMware and requires a level of integration and coordination between different components: 1. Underlying disk subsystem 2. Hypervisor (VMware) 3. Applications within the guest OS We will introduce support for hardware based backups for VMware in the next major release of FlashCopy Manager. Pros Very quick and efficient HW snapshots No resource consumption on the guest or host Data can be moved to TSM Cons HW snapshot will include all the virtual disks that reside on the same LUN Hard to coordinate the HW Snapshot with the application consistency Recovering the LUN will recover all of the virtual disks on the same LUN 10
So, what do we have to offer? 11
TSM for Virtual Environments what s available today (Q1/2011) Platform Solution TSM Fastback FCM VMWare 3.0 In-guest, Console, VCB In-guest x VMWare 3.5 In-Guest, Console, VCB In-guest x VMware 4.x Other (Hyperv, KVM, z, Solaris etc.) In-Guest, Console, VCB, vstorage API, TSM for Virtual Environments In-guest X 2011 In-Guest, Host-based x x 12
TSM b/a client support for vstorage API* Utilize VMware vstorage API for Data Protection for image-level backup and recovery File level backup through Proxy server, File level recovery through b/a client (Windows only) Full image backup through Proxy server (using vstorage), Full image restore through the Proxy server New vstorage API support File level backups (1Q 2010) Full image backups (4Q 2010) TSM b/a client Running on Windows proxy* Tivoli Storage Manager Storage Pool vstorage APIs for Data Protection provides the capability to read and write directly from/to the ESX storage; no intermediate storage needed. *Proxy server can be a physical or virtual machine *TSM b/a client already supports multiple ways of protecting VM environments, including in guest (TSM or Fastback), Console and VCB 13
TSM for Virtual Environment VMware integration New TDP Support multiple recovery options from image backup and vstorage API change block tracking (CBT) New TSM for * (additional component) enhancing the b/a client (Windows only) support to include - CBT allowing incremental backups (with periodic fulls) - File/Volume/Disk/Full VM restores from an image backup (multiple OSs are supported) Backup
Introducing Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments v6.2 Utilizes VMware s vstorage APIs for Data Protection, including blocklevel incremental backups based on VMware s Change Block Tracking Offloads the backup workload from virtual machines and production ESX hosts to vstorage backup servers Provides flexible recovery options file, volume or image from a single-pass backup Near-instant restore of Windows and Linux disk volumes Data is made available immediately while it is copied in the background Simplifies day-to-day administration with the centralized Tivoli Storage Manager console TSM for VE is supported on TSM v5.5 and above Automated discovery of new VMs; automatically applies backup policies product is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. The information on the new product is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.
Advanced capabilities, flexible recovery options Near-Instant File and Volume Recovery (Windows) 1. User launches the restore UI from vstorage backup server, a guest VM or any other machine. TSM 2. User accesses the data on TSM disk storage pool and mounts it locally (no data is restored). 3. User performs VM file restore or near-instant volume restore
Advanced capabilities, flexible recovery options Near-Instant File and Volume Recovery (Windows and other OS) 1. User launches the restore UI from vstorage backup server, a guest VM or any other machine. TSM 2. Administrator access the data on TSM disk storage pool and exposes it using an iscsi target interface. 3. User/Administrator maps the mounted volume back to the guest (or any other machine) and performs the restore
Advanced capabilities, flexible recovery options Full Virtual Machine Recovery (any supported Guest OS) 1. Administrator launches the restore UI or CLI from within the vstorage (or any other machine) and initiates a full VM restore TSM 2. TSM will transfer the data back to the ESX host