Which phase/part of the backup of the VM's are you unable to resolve?

For starters..

Can you query your Vmware infrastructure from within NetBackup.? Performed while creating a VMware type backup policy.? (If not ..this is down to valid credentials provided within Netbackup configuration.)

The Windows Server acting as the VMware backup host could act as the Media Server also.

Any status / error codes or logs seen?

Thanks Stuart for the reply..

As in screen shot diagram I want to perform SAN backups because everything is connected through FC and I am not sure what SAN commands I need to run on my Netbackup master Server (Solaris) machine and on the windows machine (media server) to configure them so that backups of VMs can happen through SAN. 

Regards,

Raj

See if this article helps: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/netbackup-vmware-backup-over-san

The article will help you with the W2008 backup host configuration. It will be best if the backup host is also a media server to ensure direct SAN backup to tape.

The manual will help with configuration on the master server: http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5605

Go through chapter 1 for Introduction
Chapter 2: Required tasks
Chapter 3: Notes and prerequisites
Chapter 4: Configure NetBackup access to VMware (this is done on the Master server)
Chapter 5: Configure NetBackup policies for VMware (also done on the Master)
....etc....

for assigning those Data Stores to Backup host, we strictly rely on zoning , we do not want those LUNs to be initialized , or mounted

Below are the steps that we need to follow

Run Following syntax from Backup Host . Run CMD with administrative privileges

·         Diskpart automount disabled

o    Disabling automount would prevent Windows from automatically mounting any new basic volumes that are added to the system.

·         Diskpart automount scrub

o    Scrub would Removes volume mount point directories and registry settings for volumes that are no longer in the system. This prevents volumes that were previously in the system from being automatically mounted and given their former volume mount point(s) when they are added back to the system.

Above syntax must be executed prior to zoning is done. Also make note that above service are by default enabled in Windows 2k8 family, and they are restored back to default state after patch is applied. So we need to disabled them manually

·         Disable Virtual Disk Service

o    After zoning is done and LUNs are visible in Disk management as Basic Online with Healthy status , Disable Virtual Disk Service from Services console. This would prevent this LUNs being visible to others accessing Backup host

Hope above clears your doubts

Jack,

I created the initiator group on filer and did zoning part on the SAN switch and the vmbackup server is able to see the LUNs and I've created the datastore for the ESX hosts.Till here everything is fine.

I've created the policies for vmware backup and the transport mode to SAN.After I initiate the backups they are failing whereas if I change the transport mode to nbd backups are happening successfully. However the speed is like 9mbps..even though everything is connected through SAN. My assumption is that the backups are not happening over SAN. So how this could be resolved.

Regards,

Raj

Marianne,

That post did not help me much in our environment..I believe I am missing something on my netbackup server to see the SAN..

Regards,

Raj

Jack,

Here is the complete picture..

1) Created two initiator groups one with ( windows backup host + ESX host 1) and other with (Windows backup host + ESX host 2 )

2) Created LUN A and LUN B on Netfiler and presented them to windows backup host which serves as datastore for ESX1 and  ESX2 host each.

3) Created zone on SAN switch with the following aliases..

Netbackup host

Filer

ESX1

ESX2

Tape Library

Windows backup host

4) Netbackup host, Filer, ESX1 & 2 ,Tape, Windows backup host are connected through FC.

5) After performing the above steps when I fire backups I dont see backups on SAN.

I am not sure about "Did you created new STU after zoning is completed?"

Please let me know if I am missing anything.

Cheers,

Raj

Alright everything seems good and as expected, just few more clarification

deploy NBU media server role on backup host provide enterprise client, SSo and library tape drive licenses

After zoning was completed. Does Windows backup host recognizes New tape hardware

Do you see Medium Changer and tape drives which are zoned, if yes

Then Open CMD with admin privileges and run following syntax NBU install path /volmgr/bin/scan

Does it shows Medium changer and tape drives

If yes then open NBU Admin console on master and configure Storage Device

Let wizard discover drives and changer on backup host and let it configure STU for you

Configure VMware based policya and specifiy newely created STU as target

Just an update in NBU activity monitor , job details it does not specify transport medium as SAN in case of SAN media server..It would show as LAN but you can confirm by network utilization which would be minimal compare to regular LAN based backups as only catalog info would be travelled through LAN.

Let us know how it goes

Jack,

windows backup host is able to see the luns and i am able to fire the backups which are successfull however I see the speed as 9- 25mbps which is too slow over the FC. So i am not sure where i am going wrong as I am expecting atleast 70-100mbps speed.

Regards,

Raj

Can you confirm what is specified under snapshot properties. Is transport type selected as SAN only or is it anything else

Backup would only go through SAN if Backup host has access to Datastore LUNs, otherwise it would fall back to LAN transport

Also do you see any other activitiy on SAN port.

Hi Raj

Can you check if this helps in improving your speed (be careful with tuning)

Just to reconfirm are below process followed as you have windows backup host (after  zoning datastore luns to backuphost).

for assigning those Data Stores to Backup host, we strictly rely on zoning , we do not want those LUNs to be initialized , or mounted

Below are the steps that we need to follow

Run Following syntax from Backup Host . Run CMD with administrative privileges

·         Diskpart automount disabled

o    Disabling automount would prevent Windows from automatically mounting any new basic volumes that are added to the system.

·         Diskpart automount scrub

o    Scrub would Removes volume mount point directories and registry settings for volumes that are no longer in the system. This prevents volumes that were previously in the system from being automatically mounted and given their former volume mount point(s) when they are added back to the system.

Above syntax must be executed prior to zoning is done. Also make note that above service are by default enabled in Windows 2k8 family, and they are restored back to default state after patch is applied. So we need to disabled them manually

·         Disable Virtual Disk Service

o    After zoning is done and LUNs are visible in Disk management as Basic Online with Healthy status , Disable Virtual Disk Service from Services console. This would prevent this LUNs being visible to others accessing Backup host

hope thsi helps

Jack,

I've selected the Transport mode as SAN and fired the backups however they were failing. So I've selected the check box for nbd and backups were happening.. But not sure why it's falling back to LAN even though everything connected through FC.

Regards,

Raj

Jack,

My Netbackup master server is unix (Solaris Operating System) and windows machine (2008 R2 ) is a proxy server just to get the ESX hosts to get backedup.. 

So do you want me to execute the below on windows?

Below are the steps that we need to follow

Run Following syntax from Backup Host . Run CMD with administrative privileges

·         Diskpart automount disabled

o    Disabling automount would prevent Windows from automatically mounting any new basic volumes that are added to the system.

·         Diskpart automount scrub

Regards,

Raj