VCB Proxy Hardware Recommendations

[v10king]

Hi Everyone,

I am going to be implementing VCB at my site soon and am in the initial stages of the POC. I am sizing the VCB Proxy servers and was wondering what most people are using as far as CPU, Memory, OS on the VCB proxy. Everything I have read says it depends but I am still looking for what people are doing out there. I have 50 hosts and 800 VM's that need to be backed up. VM's have an average of 50-300GB of data on them.

I was looking at running a DL585 with 2 - Dual port HBA's and 2 GIG-E connections. I have up to 20GB of memory I can run although I was initally planning on running Windows 2003 standard so only would need 4GB of memory. Is anyone running their VCB proxy with Windows 2003 Enterprise edition? Or how about 64bit version of Windows OS for their backup proxies? Thanks for any advice.

Paul

[dconvery · Accepted solution]

Paul -

Welcome to the forums!

I will assume that you have already read and understand the VM Backup Guide. The DL585 is a great choice. Win2k3 is fine with 4GB RAM. Use 32 bit if you are running a 32 bit backup program and use 64bit if you are using a 64 bit backup program. I know the 64bit version of NetBackup did NOT work with VCB as of a few months ago, only the 32 bit did, so you will need to test your app.

You may want to use three dual port HBAs. Don't worry aboutredundancy, worry about performance. Your bottleneck will actually be the Windows OS and the way cmd.exe handles file copies. You will getabout 1GB per minute throughput on a FullVM copy to the holding tank, so you need multiple processes over multiple dedicated paths. I attached a diagram from the presentation I did on VCB at VMworld. I have heard that some backup software actually performs better over the network using traditional agents.

Dave

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If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.

Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine

[v10king]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the response. I was beginning to think I posted in the wrong forum. Great information as far as backup rates and what to expect. I have read every guide and best practice I can find. I am in the intial stages and am just doing as much research as I can so I Can make this right from the get go.

We are running Netbackup 6.5.2 so I hope that backup software is faster or at least as fast as the current network based agents we are running.

Once last question for you. I know that the VM gets put ino a snapshot mode when its being backed up. Question is does that snapshot .vmdk for VCB work the same as a standard snapshot in that it gets placed on the drive the .vmdk for the OS drive resides? What about for data luns (D: Drives) is there something similar done? Is that snap written to the OS drive in that case or the data drive? Reason I ask is our LUNS are quite used, we have some room on the OS LUNS but most of our DATA LUNS are fully utilized. I havent had a chance to POC it out yet and I am sure these questions will be aswered then but I am looking for any other input.

Thanks again,

Paul

[v10king]

Hi Dave, one last thing to add. Were you the guy in that VMWORLD 2007 presentation? That was awesome!!! That has been the best piece of info that I have seen yet. Your a funny guy

[dconvery]

Paul -

VCB does leverage snapshots for backup. It puts the VM into a snapshot and backs up the VMDK or file system in a quiesced state. You can create a bp_start_notify_POLICYNAME.bat script to call vcbSnapshot and vcbExport to do a selective backup. Check out this post for the details ->http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/jturver

You can also check this out -> http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1133 it centers around NBU 6.0, but presents the concept of using start and end scripts instead of the 6.5.x GUI. Also check out this one (I didn't write it) -> http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1125

I did the preso at VMWorld 2008, not 2007. You are probably thinking of Dan Anderson - he is in VMware PSO. I "borrowed" some of his original material for my session in 2008.

Dave

************************

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.

Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine