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Backup solution for direct attached LUN?

D

Delemon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
Messages
220
So I just started working at this new place. They have a MS/VMware (5.5)/Nimble environment. Before I arrived, they were having some DB and email issues that led them to move the Exchange DB, and some SQL databases, onto direct attached LUNs rather than being housed inside a vmdk.

We use Veeam (Enterprise) to back up the VMDKs, but my understanding is that leaves the data on the direct attached LUN out in the cold.

Anyone here experience a similar situation and come up with a cost effective solution to catch those outliers?
 
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I have the same issue but in my case I am using Veeam 8 and NetApp. I thought with the NetApp integration with Veeam, that I would now be able to backup those LUNs, but apparently not. Veeam can still only backup VMDK files.

I am considering moving the files to VMDK, but would be curious of another decent solution. We also have R1Soft CDP backup, but it is horrible.
 
Are you using physical compatibility RDMs? Physical RDMs don't support snapshots but if you switch them to virtual mode and not enable independent disk option then you can use veeam to backup them up as snapshots can be created.
 
I am using iSCSI mounted LUNs inside the guest OS and I am guessing that is what the OP has too.
 
I have setups like this and use a typical client based backup utility. Veeam now offers a free endpoint backup utility. It plugs directly into a repository. You just can't manage the backup jobs from the Veeam server (yet).

Other options are things like SAN snapshots but that's not really a backup unless you move it to a different location.
 
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I am pretty sure Veeam doesn't backup RDMs and not to mention aren't they basically extinct with very few use cases? Moving to VMDK is the logical move.
 
Veeam backups up RDMs in virtual compatibility mode. As long as you can snapshot it, it can back it up. They are exactly the same as you are doing with iscsi targets right from the vm. you are presenting iscsi storage directly to the vm and when you assign an RDM you do the same, You take your storage and assign it directly to the vm.
Ideally you would want to move to vmdks to take out RDMs and iscsi targets and based on previous tests and studies there is barely any performance hits.

another thing with RDMs is that you use infrastructure of your esx hosts to move the data as oppose to your vm network traffic traveling over your vm guest network.

if you use FC then RDM traffic travels over your HBAs or if you use iscsi based RDMs then it moves over your dedicated nics.
 
Yes, we are using iSCSI mounted LUNs in the guest OS as KapsZ28 is. I'll take a look at RDM setup and see if we can test something that'll get backed up.

Still looking for other solutions as well, as I like options!
 
That article is from 2011 for version 5. Maybe RDM is still supported, but what is really the point? It would make more sense to switch to VMDK. Michael Webster has a great book about properly virtualizing SQL.
 
KapsZ28 said:
That article is from 2011 for version 5. Maybe RDM is still supported, but what is really the point? It would make more sense to switch to VMDK. Michael Webster has a great book about properly virtualizing SQL.
Click to expand...

That is correct. With latest releases vmdk is on par with direct access so there is no point but people still use RDMs. We use it a lot because of old design. It works fine.

I was just saying that if you want to use veeam and backup vms from it you can use vmdks or RDMs instead of iscsi from the guest os. thats all :)
 
The main reason I asked is that on the Nimble, there are performance profiles based on the workload... SQL DB, SQL logs, exchange db, etc... Its easy enough to get everything inside a VMDK, but in that case, the usage profiles aren't quite optimized in the same way. The RDM sounds like it might still allow me to leverage the Nimble profiles while still using Veeam backups. I'll keep looking!
 
Delemon said:
The main reason I asked is that on the Nimble, there are performance profiles based on the workload... SQL DB, SQL logs, exchange db, etc... Its easy enough to get everything inside a VMDK, but in that case, the usage profiles aren't quite optimized in the same way. The RDM sounds like it might still allow me to leverage the Nimble profiles while still using Veeam backups. I'll keep looking!
Click to expand...

Good luck!

Interestingly enough, I am going to an event this Thursday for Nimble and Veeam. My main reason for going is to see Jurassic World at 8:00 PM. :D
 
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