VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup)
Protecting the VMware environment has its own unique set of data protection challenges. There are basically three ways to protect VMware: the guest OS method, the console backup method and the VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) method. The guest OS method treats each virtual machine as a standalone server and backups take place as usual as if the virtual is physical server. The second practice is the console backup practice, in which virtualisation administrators back up the VMware ESX Server with no regard of the underlying virtual machines in the ESX environment. (There is a “free” product, ESXi, but it has no console, and requires add-ons to manage.)
VCB Backup requires VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and initially SAN attached disk (iSCSI or Fibre Chanel) but now supports VMFS with local, JBOD, iSCSI and Fibre-Channel-attached disk, network file system (NFS) and virtual compatibility mode raw device mapping (RDM). The only mode not currently supported is physical compatibility mode RDM, together with a dedicated Windows Server 2003 acts as the backup proxy. You then install the VCB software on the Windows Server and provide access to the same SAN Logical Unit Number (LUN) used for the VMware Virtual Disk Files.
The Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) is specifically related to the VMware Consolidated Backup framework and is designed and built to communicate directly with VMware ESX and VirtualCenter.VCB was originally introduced in 2006 as nothing more than a collection of interfaces and utilities that backup vendors could exploit. Since then VCB itself and backup vendor support has expanded considerably. The many different code levels for both VCB and backup applications have caused considerable confusion around what environments are supported and what VCB is today.
It is best to think of VCB as a backup framework with a collection of VMware utilities that facilitates backups. Today VCB utilises standard backup products together with snapshot capabilities. It uses command line interface (CLI) capabilities in VMware to take a VM snapshot of Windows-based VMs to offload a copy of the data for the backup product which Backup Exec then mounts and backs up.
Effectively, VCB provides a centralised backup facility that enables you to use Backup Exec to protect system, application, and user data in your virtual machines while reducing the load on virtualised servers. This allows you to backup your virtual machines without disrupting users and applications. So, VCB provides a way to do server-free and LAN-free backup and VM snapshots can be NFS mounted for quicker recovery and GRT as well as centrally manage backups to simplify management of IT resources.
Cool so far?
If you are not using VCB you do not need the BE 12.5 AVVI. Most organisations not using VCB are likely to be using ESXi. Although ESXi is free, there is no service console anymore. So you can’t use local agents on your ESXi host. Everything needs to be able to communicate with the VI API or any other remote connect method to gather information – not so cool.
So, the bottom line is AVVI is only needed when there is a VCB framework around the Virtual infrastructure.
VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) family includes: VMware ESX, VirtualCenter, VCB, VMware Converter & VMotion. Backup Exec 12.5′s Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) can leverage all of these components of VMware VI3 to automatically discover, protect, and recover virtual machines and their data. All Guest virtual machines (VM’s) hosted by V3I, including Windows and Linux virtual machines, can be protected using Backup Exec’s AVVI integrated support of VCB.
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6 Responses to “VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup)”
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So how does Backup Exec AVVI compare with Veeam backup and replication software for VMware??
I normally have quite some difficulty in selling AVVI when I get competition from somebody trying to position Veeam…
Veeam are specifically targeted at the virtualisation backup market, and do not integrate with or support other environments. Some organisations find these solutions appealing in so far as they are relatively easy to license, install, configure and administer, compared with more broad line solutions, which may offer more-robust features, but at a higher level of complexity and cost. SMBs, or larger enterprises seeking specific solutions for server-virtualised environments, may consider Veeam (or others).
The challenges include the possible compromises in depth and breadth of the solution, the potential for limited scalability, and perhaps questionable vendor viability (many changes on the horizon for products and companies – PlateSpin, was acquired by Novell and Vizioncore, was acquired by Coinvestor Quest Software).
But VCB + AVVI isn’t application aware is it? If you just use this snapshot methodology how will it cope with restoring a) AD b) Exchange c) SQL d) Sharepoint etc
Thanks Gareth,
Also, Is Symantec lining up something to complement vSphere 4?? Since VCB under vSphere 4 now offers granular recovery for files and folders as well as incremental and differential backups, where does that leave AVVI?? The only selling point would be probably the normal agents for Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint and AD…
So, it is if it’s a VSS aware Microsoft application and you are OK with all or nothing restore (probably for DR purposes) – what that will do is back up the application as part of a machine backup. Organisations needing Granular Restore of application/database data need to run a backup against the application in the VM e.g. to restore an invidual email, you would have to run a information store backup against the Exchange VM – either way, you need the application agent too.
vSphere support for 12.5 is imminent as a hot fix – the next release of BE will have full support.
But the downside is that by using vSphere you are de-centralising your backup, since vSphere has no physical system backup capabilities. It also lacks SAN-based backup or recovery, ability to scale beyond 100 VMs, application GRT, any tape support and has no backward compatibility.