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Backup for VMware: What's the right one?
"What's the right backup solution?" is probably the most painful question that exists in the storage world. With over 100 solutions on Gartner and over 1000 solutions world-wide, it's no wonder IT professionals all over get fed up with this discussion.
What I am interested in hearing is success/failure stories of existing datacenters that use virtualization and have a backup requirement.
The issue with our environment is that we are running over 700 virtual machines on over 40 ESX servers and taking up over 15TB of storage. How do we back this all up?
The answer is not simple. These questions need answered:
Do I need file-level backup or just image level or both?
Do I need daily level backups and what is my retention period?
How do I de-dup? Source? Target?
For my environemtn, image-level backup is sufficent, but file-level would be nice. I only need a one-year retention on the VMs, and a 1 month granularity is fine. I would prefer to de-dup at the source to save on network utilization, but de-dup at the target will suffice.
Now it's your turn, how would you backup an environment such as this?
Discussion started by john.gallucci , on 24 October 06:33 PM
Replies
ewan leith,
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Is there a particular reason you've not looked at Veeam Backup 4?
It does a combined file+image level backup, target de-dup so no need for a separate DataDomain or Falconstor de-dup storage device you can just use cheap bulk storage, works with the vStorage Backup APIs, etc.
It's a pretty impressive solution, though it does have the limitation of only supporting virtual environments, unlike Avamar, TSM + Backup Exec type solutions.
It does a combined file+image level backup, target de-dup so no need for a separate DataDomain or Falconstor de-dup storage device you can just use cheap bulk storage, works with the vStorage Backup APIs, etc.
It's a pretty impressive solution, though it does have the limitation of only supporting virtual environments, unlike Avamar, TSM + Backup Exec type solutions.
john.gallucci,
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Ok I figured I would reply with possible solutions that I am considering:
-EMC Avamar:
PROS: De-duplicates at the source, and all backups are full backups so no need to a complex backup schedule. The newest version 5.0 will support vSphere integraiton and uses the vStorage API. Unlimited node licenses and also advanced plugins for SQL, Exhcnage, and others.
CONS: Price. EMC can be pricey. The price you pay is per TB data stored after de-dup and also for certified hardware. Requires certified hardware which means you cannot by a cheap NAS device to store target data.
-VMware Data Recovery:
PROS: Free with Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Integrates as a plugin and virtual appliance directly into vSphere meaning no additional hardware required (other than target storage)
CONS: Only supports VMware vSphere 4.0 environments. Each appliance is limited to 100 virtual machines and 2 TBs of storage meaning more appliances to manage/configure
-vRanger by Vizioncore with DataDomain
PROS: Separate storage and software components allows for a more selective solution. vRanger has to-date the best VMware integration solution for ESX. VCB is not required and data is backed-up directly to target. The DataDomain system offers de-duplication on target data
CONS: Again, price per GB. vRanger is fairly inexpensive when compared to the rest, but DataDomain can be pricey and keep in mind if you have a lot of change data with your VMs, you will still need a lot of de-duplicated storage.
Other software packages I have looked at are NetBackup and Backup Exec by Symantec, and Tivoli Storage Manager, but these systems are complex and won't integrate as easily into a VMware environment.
I have about 2 more weeks left before I need to make a purchasing decision so I will keep everyone updated.
-EMC Avamar:
PROS: De-duplicates at the source, and all backups are full backups so no need to a complex backup schedule. The newest version 5.0 will support vSphere integraiton and uses the vStorage API. Unlimited node licenses and also advanced plugins for SQL, Exhcnage, and others.
CONS: Price. EMC can be pricey. The price you pay is per TB data stored after de-dup and also for certified hardware. Requires certified hardware which means you cannot by a cheap NAS device to store target data.
-VMware Data Recovery:
PROS: Free with Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Integrates as a plugin and virtual appliance directly into vSphere meaning no additional hardware required (other than target storage)
CONS: Only supports VMware vSphere 4.0 environments. Each appliance is limited to 100 virtual machines and 2 TBs of storage meaning more appliances to manage/configure
-vRanger by Vizioncore with DataDomain
PROS: Separate storage and software components allows for a more selective solution. vRanger has to-date the best VMware integration solution for ESX. VCB is not required and data is backed-up directly to target. The DataDomain system offers de-duplication on target data
CONS: Again, price per GB. vRanger is fairly inexpensive when compared to the rest, but DataDomain can be pricey and keep in mind if you have a lot of change data with your VMs, you will still need a lot of de-duplicated storage.
Other software packages I have looked at are NetBackup and Backup Exec by Symantec, and Tivoli Storage Manager, but these systems are complex and won't integrate as easily into a VMware environment.
I have about 2 more weeks left before I need to make a purchasing decision so I will keep everyone updated.
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