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  1. Home
  3. NetBackup™ Replication Director Solutions Guide
  5. Using Virtual Machines with Replication Director
  7. About virtual machines and Replication Director
NetBackup™ Replication Director Solutions Guide

About virtual machines and Replication Director

Replication Director for NetBackup for VMware includes the following features for protecting the virtual machine snapshots and replicated copies:

  • Creates an instantaneous hardware snapshot of virtual machines.

  • Backs up the virtual machines from the snapshots at primary locations and from replicated snapshots at remote locations.

  • Supports browsing of virtual machine snapshots.

  • Restores a virtual machine from its vmdk files that are in a snapshot.

  • Restores the individual files from the vmdk files in a snapshot.

  • Supports the storage lifecycle policies.

Table: Examples of virtual machine protection with Replication Director describes the scenarios for virtual machine protection with Replication Director.

Table: Examples of virtual machine protection with Replication Director

Operation

Description and notes

Make array-based snapshots of virtual machines on NFS datastores

Configure a storage lifecycle policy (SLP) and a backup policy to create array snapshots of virtual machines. The snapshots remain on the array or filer (NetBackup storage server) and are not backed up to a NetBackup media server storage unit. This type of backup is the foundation for the other Replication Director operations.

Note the following:

  • The snapshots are created on NFS datastores only.

  • The virtual machine or its individual files can be restored directly from the snapshots on the storage server. The snapshots can also be replicated to other locations.

  • For faster browsing of files to restore, include the Index From Snapshot option in the SLP. This option catalogs the metadata of the virtual machine.

Back up quiesced virtual machines from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) that is on an NFS datastore

Configure an SLP and a backup policy to make a backup image from the virtual machine snapshot. NetBackup backs up only the virtual machines that were quiesced before the snapshot occurred.

The backup image is written to a NetBackup storage unit. The image is retained according to the policy's retention period.

Note:

The Application consistent snapshot option in the policy must be enabled (under Options > Snapshot Client Options).

Restore a virtual machine from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) that is on an NFS datastore

Use the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface to restore the virtual machine.

Supported restore destinations are the original (NFS) datastore or an alternate datastore (NFS or non-NFS).

Restore individual files from a snapshot (or snapshot replica) that is on an NFS datastore

Use the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface to restore the files.

Note the following:

  • To restore files from a replica of the snapshot, the replica must exist in the same NetBackup domain as the snapshot.

  • To restore files to the original virtual machine, a NetBackup client must be installed on the original virtual machine.

  • As an alternative, you can use an alternate client to restore to a shared UNC location. You must manually copy the files back to the original location.

    See the topic on restoring individual files in the NetBackup for VMware Guide.

  • To restore multiple directories that have named streams, the Windows NetBackup client on the destination virtual machine must be at 7.6 or later.

For setting up Replication Director for virtual machines, the initial steps are the same as Replication Director for physical computers as follows:

  • Verify that your backup environment contains the necessary hardware and software to configure and run Replication Director. Make sure you can successfully back up a physical computer with Replication Director.

    Note:

    NDMP is not required for Replication Director and virtual machines.

  • Install or upgrade NetBackup.

  • Configure the following:

    • The disk array storage of the OpenStorage partner.

    • The NetBackup storage server.

    • The disk pool(s).

    • The NetBackup storage lifecycle policy (SLP).

      Create a new operation in the SLP for each task that the SLP is to perform. For example, create a snapshot operation to perform the snapshot and a replication operation to copy the snapshot.

    • The NetBackup Client Service.

      See Configuring the NetBackup Client Service.

    More information is available on all the procedures for configuring a NetBackup environment that uses Replication Director:

    See Configuration overview: NetApp 7-Mode with Replication Director.

The following table lists the additional steps that are required for Replication Director and virtual machines.

Table: Replication Director for virtual machines: Configuration tasks overview

Step

Description

Reference topic

1

Configure the virtual machine NFS datastores on the OpenStorage storage server. Replication Director makes the snapshots on these NFS datastores.

See the NetBackup for VMware Guide.

2

Add the VMware backup host to your NetBackup configuration.

See the topic on adding the VMware backup host to NetBackup, in the NetBackup for VMware Guide.

3

Configure NetBackup access credentials for the VMware vCenter server or ESX server.

See the topic on adding NetBackup credentials for VMware, in the NetBackup for VMware Guide.

4

Configure a NetBackup policy (VMware policy type) to perform the operations that are specified in the SLP.

See Configure a policy for virtual machines to use Replication Director.

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