VCB in a Virtual Machine and other product enhancements
March 27th, 2008 | 
Author: When I was linking to RTFM Education from my post Combining multiple VMware .lic files is a thing of the past I noticed Mike wrote a quick post about discovering the new LAN based backup features of VCB. I had to get my own copy of the VMware Consolidated Backup Improvements in Version 3.5 .pdf and understand the new LAN-based backup feature. In short, the requirement for a storage area network, and therefore the installation of VCB on a physical server with HBA(s) has been removed. Installing VCB on a Windows 2003 virtual machine is now possible. Maybe not recommended for larger environments, but possible and a achievable design for smaller infrastructures.
The .pdf also reveals that there are several other new features of VCB that were previously restrictions of the older versions.
“Version 3.5 of VMware Infrastructure introduces new features that make VMware Consolidated Backup more flexible, robust, and user-friendly. Consolidated Backup now supports more types of storage, including iSCSI SAN and NAS. In addition, the new version of Consolidated Backup can back up virtual machines stored on VMFS-based local storage on the ESX Server host.”
In a virtual infrastructure where VMs are running on local ESX, iSCSI or NAS storage VCB can be configured on a virtual machine because these newly supported data stores are accessible to the VM. iSCSI initiators can be installed in the VM’s operating system, NAS is reachable over the network, and a VM can see the local storage of the host it is running on.
“You can use a proxy server running in a virtual machine to backup virtual machines stored on iSCSI SAN, NAS, or local storage, provided the virtual machine has access to the storage device. You cannot use a proxy server running in a virtual machine to protect virtual machines stored on a Fibre Channel SAN. When your proxy server is running in a virtual machine, you can store your backups on secondary NAS storage or on iSCSI storage. You can also store backups on the proxy server’s VMDK or RDM storage. It is not currently possible to connect a tape drive to the virtual machine.”
The .pdf also points out some other usability enhancements that are worth noting:
“VMware Infrastructure 3 version 3.5 brings many other improvements to Consolidated Back, providing better usability and broadening the range of supported configurations. Some of the changes are:
- Optional prompt for passwords if you want to perform interactive backup jobs.
- Support for custom scripts Consolidated Backup can run if a backup fails. This allows cleanup and better notifications in case of backup job failure.
- Graceful exit when a backup job is interrupted. Consolidated Backup now cleans up the snapshots and temporary files on the proxy when you interrupt the backup process.
- Support for installing the Consolidated Backup proxy and VirtualCenter Management Server on the same host.
- Support for storage array WWNs, so device mapping need not be exactly the same on ESX Server hosts and the backup proxy.”
Installing the VCB proxy and the VC Management server on the same host makes me a little uncomfortable. I need some strong convincing before I recommend doing that, but the fact that VMware will support it is interesting. It’s not clear to me if the supported config is for a single physical host, or if the intent is with both VCB and VC running as a VMs on an ESX host. Like installing VC in a VM by itself, there could be some performance issues if a design with both VCB and VC on the same host was not properly thought through.
I wonder what the vRanger and esXpress product teams think about the new LAN-based backup features of VCB?
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Posted in dr, esx, feature comparison, vcb, vi3, vmetc.com | 
Tags: backup, consolidated backup, esx, feature comparison, SAN, vcb, virtualcenter, vmetc.com, vmware, windows
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