0. Running and Scheduling Backups

1. Key Commvault Terms
Virtual Server Agent (VSA) – Agent installed on Windows server that backs up VMware VM via VADP API.
Vmware vSphere server – Physical host running VMware ESXi virtualization hypervisor
Vmware vCenter– VMware management server

2. Vmware backup Browse & Restore Or Automated Restore
Virtual Machine Pool
Client Dedupe LAN backup
Backup
Agent
Backup
Agent
Backup
Agent
File or App restore
Simpana
Media Agents
Backup Copies
Disk
Cloud
Tape
ESX Server Pool
Data Store Pool
VSA
vStorage VADP SAN backup
Full VM, VMDK or File restore

3. How it works VSA talks to vCenter to trigger backup
VM is quicse and snapshot by Vmware
Backup Data is transferred to VSA then to MA
vCenter
VSA
ESX MA

4. VMware Protection Architecture – SAN Mode
Management Communication
LAN
vCenter server
VSA
Disk Library
ESX Servers
CommVault Win Media Agent
VMware Protection
The core component behind protecting VMware environments are the vStorage APIs for data protection. As of SP4b we have upgraded the VDDK (virtual disk development kit) which is a component of VADP to 5.0 which was released with vSphere 5. VMware also recently released the VDDK 5.0 u1 which contains some fixes to help alleviate some of the issues with residual consolidate helper snapshots.
Some of the key features of VADP are…
Faster Backup and Recovery: Eliminate the impact of backup on production servers – The biggest advantage of VADP is steaming disk level backups. No backup of a backup as in the VCB days.
Multiple backup options: disk level, file level and volume level allowing greater flexibility in protection policies
Fast Incremental Backups: Leverage Change Block Tracking for low impact incremental – No need to scan the entire disk during an incremental backup. The CBT table provides a list of all changed blocks since the last backup.
Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports. (Explain each)
Multiple restore options: Full VM Restore to and Granular File Level Restore from a single pass backup. No restaging on disk required as in the VCB days.
Flexible Deployment Options: Deploy in Virtual Machines for minimal additional servers overhead or on physical servers. Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports.
Embedded Deduplication: Embedded source side deduplication for minimal data transfer at scale for even faster backups lower impact on infrastructure
DataStore LUNs
Physical Win VSA server
SAN transfer mode
Backup should be to Disk Library
Data Transfer over SAN (FC/iSCSI)

5. VMware Protection Architecture – NBD Mode
Data Transfer over Mgmt network
LAN
VSA
vCenter server
Disk Library
ESX Servers
CommVault Win Media Agent
Management Communication
VMware Protection
The core component behind protecting VMware environments are the vStorage APIs for data protection. As of SP4b we have upgraded the VDDK (virtual disk development kit) which is a component of VADP to 5.0 which was released with vSphere 5. VMware also recently released the VDDK 5.0 u1 which contains some fixes to help alleviate some of the issues with residual consolidate helper snapshots.
Some of the key features of VADP are…
Faster Backup and Recovery: Eliminate the impact of backup on production servers – The biggest advantage of VADP is steaming disk level backups. No backup of a backup as in the VCB days.
Multiple backup options: disk level, file level and volume level allowing greater flexibility in protection policies
Fast Incremental Backups: Leverage Change Block Tracking for low impact incremental – No need to scan the entire disk during an incremental backup. The CBT table provides a list of all changed blocks since the last backup.
Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports. (Explain each)
Multiple restore options: Full VM Restore to and Granular File Level Restore from a single pass backup. No restaging on disk required as in the VCB days.
Flexible Deployment Options: Deploy in Virtual Machines for minimal additional servers overhead or on physical servers. Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports.
Embedded Deduplication: Embedded source side deduplication for minimal data transfer at scale for even faster backups lower impact on infrastructure
DataStore LUNs
Physical/Virtual Win VSA server
NBD Transfer Mode
Backup should be to Disk Library
Use for NFS datastores

6. VMware Protection Architecture – HotAdd Mode
Internal Data Transfer
Virtual Machines
LAN VM VM
Virtual Win VSA server
HotAdd Transfer Mode
Backup to internal Disk
Use for full Virtual Env
VSAMA
vCenter server
VMware Protection
The core component behind protecting VMware environments are the vStorage APIs for data protection. As of SP4b we have upgraded the VDDK (virtual disk development kit) which is a component of VADP to 5.0 which was released with vSphere 5. VMware also recently released the VDDK 5.0 u1 which contains some fixes to help alleviate some of the issues with residual consolidate helper snapshots.
Some of the key features of VADP are…
Faster Backup and Recovery: Eliminate the impact of backup on production servers – The biggest advantage of VADP is steaming disk level backups. No backup of a backup as in the VCB days.
Multiple backup options: disk level, file level and volume level allowing greater flexibility in protection policies
Fast Incremental Backups: Leverage Change Block Tracking for low impact incremental – No need to scan the entire disk during an incremental backup. The CBT table provides a list of all changed blocks since the last backup.
Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports. (Explain each)
Multiple restore options: Full VM Restore to and Granular File Level Restore from a single pass backup. No restaging on disk required as in the VCB days.
Flexible Deployment Options: Deploy in Virtual Machines for minimal additional servers overhead or on physical servers. Multiple Deployment Options: Physical / Virtual. SAN, HotAdd and NBD transports.
Embedded Deduplication: Embedded source side deduplication for minimal data transfer at scale for even faster backups lower impact on infrastructure
ESX Servers
Management Communication
DataStore LUNs
Disk Library (VMDK)

7. Reducing Data Transfer – VMware Block Incremental
Incremental VM backup based on VMware Changed Block Tracking (CBT) – File level restore only.
ESX Server Pool
Longer time
Full Backup
Faster time
Incr Backups
Block Level Incremental
Weekends
Incr Backups
Full Backup
Block Level Incremental
Forever

8. Block Level Incremental
VMware Synthetic Full
Synthetic Full Copy is created from last incremental
Important to allow incremental copy to restore full VM
ESX Server Pool
Longer time
Full Backup
Faster time
Incr Backups
Generate Synthetic Full
Block Level Incremental
Synthetic Full Backup
Incr Backups
Block Level Incremental
Forever

9. restore Entire VM, single VMDK or single OS file can be restored
NTFS, FAT32 and Linux ext3 files can be restored
For single-file restore, the backup must be done to a Disk Library first

10. Other details
The VSA is normally installed on the MA so that there is no need for network data transfer between VSA-MA.
Multiple VSAs can be installed and used for the same VMware environment

11. Lab