Front cover Acrobat bookmark Protecting the VMware Environment with IBM Spectrum Protect Mikael Lindstrom Julien Sauvanet Pol Vander Eyken Sean Sperry Nathan Best Rennad Murugan Redpaper International Technical Support Organization Protecting the VMware Environment with IBM Spectrum Protect December 2017 REDP-5252-00 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page vii. First Edition (December 2017) This edition applies to Version 8, Release 1.2, of IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments and Version 4, Release 1.6 of IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware family of products. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2017. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Notices . vii Trademarks . viii Preface . ix Authors. ix Now you can become a published author, too . xi Comments welcome. xi Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . xii Chapter 1. Architecture corner . 1 1.1 System context . 2 1.2 Roles and responsibilities . 4 1.3 Solution guidance . 5 1.4 Requirements . 5 1.4.1 Requirements gathering . 6 1.5 Architectural decisions . 7 1.6 Data Protection for VMware features . 10 1.6.1 The features of IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments . 10 1.6.2 Virtual or physical vStorage Backup Server . 11 1.6.3 Protecting in-guest applications . 12 1.6.4 Protecting in-guest applications when there is no Data Protection solution for your application. 12 1.7 Using IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware . 13 1.7.1 What features IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot provides. 13 1.7.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot use cases . 13 1.7.3 Backup technology selection . 14 1.7.4 Benefits of using IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot . 14 1.8 Design consideration scenarios . 14 1.8.1 Use case 1: Small environment . 14 1.8.2 Scenario 2: Large environment. 16 1.8.3 Scenario 3: Shared environment . 17 Chapter 2. Product introduction . 19 2.1 IBM Spectrum Protect solutions that protect VMware vSphere environments . 20 2.1.1 IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client within VMware guest . 20 2.1.2 IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client off-host backup option . 21 2.1.3 IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments . 22 2.1.4 IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware option. 23 2.1.5 IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot For Windows/UNIX . 24 2.2 Data Protection for VMware components . 24 2.2.1 Component overview . 24 2.3 New enhancements . 28 2.4 Hardware and software requirements . 28 Chapter 3. Installation roadmap. 29 3.1 Collecting and consolidating data protection policies . 30 3.2 Deployment planning . 30 3.2.1 VMware infrastructure. 30 3.2.2 Virtual machines . 32 © Copyright IBM Corp. 2017. All rights reserved. iii 3.2.3 vCenter server credentials considerations . 32 3.2.4 Simplified file-level recovery model. 33 3.2.5 IBM Spectrum Protect administrator ID authority levels . 34 3.3 Protecting applications in a virtual environment . 35 3.3.1 SQL data protection . 36 3.3.2 Exchange data protection . 37 3.3.3 Active Directory Data Protection . 38 3.3.4 Unstructured Data Protection . 39 3.4 Communication ports between VMware and IBM Spectrum Protect components . 39 3.5 Enabling the backup strategy . 40 3.5.1 Incremental forever backup strategy. 41 3.6 vStorage Backup Server . 41 3.6.1 Datamover parallelism capabilities . 41 3.6.2 Data transfer and data transport methods . 42 3.6.3 vStorage Backup Server: Virtual versus physical . 43 3.6.4 Physical vStorage Backup Server LUN access considerations . 45 3.6.5 Virtual vStorage Backup Server HotAdd considerations. 46 3.6.6 vStorage Backup Server sizing. 46 3.6.7 When to use multiple datamover agents. 48 3.7 Storage location versus recovery features . 49 3.8 Determining the location to start backup or restore . 50 3.9 Design points . 50 3.9.1 How to handle CTL files (FULL-VM backup control files) . 50 3.9.2 VM full-vm backup on physical tape or virtual tape. 51 3.10 VMware snapshots considerations . 51 3.10.1 Snapshots limitation . 51 3.10.2 VMDK file size and snapshot overhead . 51 3.11 Data Protection for VMware considerations . 52 3.11.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Known Issues and Limitations . 52 3.11.2 Multiple vCenter server support . 52 3.12 Determine the naming convention . 54 3.13 Data Protection for VMware in a shared environment . 54 3.13.1 Backup in a shared environment . 54 3.13.2 Determining what Data Protection for VMware nodes are needed. 55 Chapter 4. Installation and configuration . 59 4.1 Overview of component installation and configuration . 60 4.1.1 IBM Spectrum Protect server configuration . 60 Chapter 5. Virtual machine backup . ..