White Paper

The Fastest ‘Hot’ Backups for

VMware® Infrastructure 3
Using VMware Consolidated Backup
with vRanger Pro
 Summary

Backup and recovery is easy, reliable, fast and affordable with vRanger Pro and VCB. In
this paper we have covered the challenges of backing up in a virtualized environment
and outlined a combined solution that is designed for and addresses the needs of the
virtualization community. Leveraging vRanger Pro, administrators can accomplish full
image and differential backups as well as full image and file-level restores. The combined
solution of vRanger Pro with VCB enables administrators to achieve the fastest possible
backups with no overhead on the virtual machine, the ESX Server host or the network.
The result is a faster backup process with easier management and full confidence in the
process to achieve the goals for a cost-effective and reliable disaster recovery solution.


Introduction

Virtualization brings enterprises many new ways to deploy and manage application
architectures. VMware has enabled these enterprises to take management and
virtualization to the next level with their latest release of VMware Infrastructure 3.
However, just as in the physical world, protecting data and applications is as, if not
more, important. Virtualization allows for higher utilization of physical servers. One
physical “box” can potentially host hundreds of virtual machines with their associated
applications and data. Therefore, having a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy
is critical for a virtualized environment. VMware recognized this need, and backups can
be more easily managed in VMware Infrastructure 3 with a new feature called VMware
Consolidated Backup (VCB). The focus of this paper will be on leveraging VCB with
vRanger Pro to successfully create a comprehensive and cost-effective backup and
recover strategy.

Challenges in Creating Virtual Environment

Backup & Recovery Strategies

Virtual machines are encapsulated as a file on a host ESX Server and can be backed-
up as a single full entity for restorability purposes. Backup strategies designed for the
physical world focus on backing up data and cannot take advantage of this aspect of
virtual machines. If a company emulates their “physical world” backup strategy and
installs backup agents inside the guest virtual machine or on the ESX Server host, they
would need to restore the host OS, applications, configuration settings, etc. first and
then restore the backup data files themselves when in recovery mode.

Some additional challenges also exist with backup methods that rely simply on using
agents inside the guest or in the ESX Server host. They include:

1. May not restore entire image of the virtual machine.

2. Heavy overhead on the host ESX Server with either the Service Console or the
virtual machines themselves
3. Heavy network overhead
4. Limited backup windows
5. Need to heavily manage scheduling of backups
6. High cost of disaster recovery


 Many companies initially use virtualization for test and development, and subsequently
for production environments, where it is assumed that backups are effectively performed
by leveraging existing physical platform backup solutions — typically agent software.
On a virtual machine, this software is often placed inside the guest OS where it will
consume additional resources on the host ESX Server, guest OS and network to run
the backup job. Those backups will also need to be scheduled appropriately. If they
run for extended periods and generate large amounts of network overhead, problems
can ensue. It is also not practical to run full backup images on a daily basis, especially
on more static virtual machines. In addition, another advantage of virtual machines is
that they can easily be moved to different hosts with tools such as VMotion, so backup
applications must be able to “follow” a virtual machine through the infrastructure and
continue to execute within a particular backup window. Maintenance updates of those
backup applications must also be carefully planned out to avoid inconsistent data, poor
performance or catastrophic results on the ESX Server. When deploying a backup and
recovery process, it is best to use solutions that are designed to take advantage of all the
benefits that virtualization offers.

Backup & Recovery Solution Designed For

Virtualized Environments

VCB and vRanger Pro are designed specifically for virtualization backup needs.

Backups are most efficiently managed when there are no resources used on the host
ESX Server, virtual machines or the network. VCB was designed to allow backup
solutions such as vRanger Pro to provide a complete and cost effective backup and
recovery solution. VCB removes the backup process from the host ESX Server
altogether by leveraging a proxy server to execute the backup functions performed by
vRanger Pro. This combined solution addresses the challenges outlined previously.

1. The entire virtual machine/or individual files can be restored

VCB was designed a. A backup image is stored and accessible for restore needs
to allow backup b. vRanger Pro will restore either individual files or the
solutions such as full virtual machine image.
vRanger Pro to
2. Overhead on the host ESX Server with either the Service Console or the
provide a complete
virtual machines themselves is eliminated.
and cost effective
a. VCB snapshots the virtual machine and offers it to a secondary (proxy)
backup and recovery server for backup purposes which offloads the overhead from the host.
solution. b. vRanger Pro can then perform the backup of the .vmdk.

3. Network overhead is eliminated

a. VCB leverages SAN architecture including fibre attached storage.
b. vRanger Pro will launch the VCB process and execute the
backup using the fibre channel, not the LAN/WAN.


 4. Backups are less restricted to backup window constraints
a. Because VCB makes the snapshot available on a proxy server, fewer
resources are consumed on the host or network, allowing backups to be
done without concern for a specified resource window.
b. vRanger Pro will compress files to execute backups with increased
speed while also managing resources for the backup windows, allowing
backups to be done virtually any time of day.

5. Scheduling of backups is managed through vRanger Pro

a. vRanger Pro integrates with VMware VirtualCenter, enabling hot
backups to be performed any time of day, by host, group, individual virtual
machine or by VirtualCenter attribute, to include new virtual machines
added for scheduling purposes.

6. The cost of implementing an effective disaster recovery strategy is reduced.

a. With vRanger Pro and VCB, agents are no longer needed on every
virtual machine for backup purposes.
b. Identical hardware infrastructure for recovery purposes is not needed, as
vRanger Pro includes the configuration files (.vmx) needed to
rebuild the virtual machine’s underlying hardware and can restore the virtual
machines to dissimilar hardware.

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) Overview

VCB is enabler software that backs up virtual machine contents from a centralized
Microsoft Windows 2003 proxy server rather than directly from the host ESX Server.
VCB minimizes the time needed for a backup, eliminates backup traffic from the LAN,
and limits the need to run backup agents inside the virtual machines to perform file-level
backups of virtual machine data.

VCB will initiate a snapshot of the virtual machine state with the ability to leverage
new capabilities in VMware Tools to quiesce the file system inside the virtual machine,
ensuring that when the snapshot is taken, all pending data changes have been written to
disk so the snapshot contains consistent data. Once the snapshot is taken, the virtual
machine disk file (VMDK) is exported to a separate physical machine — the backup
proxy — where the file can be backed-up as a whole or mounted for use with backup
agents to backup files from inside the virtual machine disk file.


 Figure 1: The VCB Process

The above figure depicts four virtual machines running on a host with SAN storage.
Snapshots can be taken for each virtual machine and then either exported to or
mounted on the VCB proxy server for backup purposes.

The process is outlined as follows:

The VCB proxy server (#1) communicates with VirtualCenter (#2) where a call is made
to initiate a snapshot of a virtual machine (#4) that resides on the ESX Server host (#3)
The virtual machine leverages resources from the host, but resides on the SAN where
the snapshot is actually initiated (#5). The snapshot opens the virtual machine disk file
for export or copy and records changes to be applied to the virtual machine disk file
after the copy or export (#6). The copy or export will be staged on the proxy server
(#7) and then backed up from there (#8) to tape or backup disk (#9) through a data
mover of your choice (manual scripts, automated backup tools, etc.).


 Deploying VCB

The key to the success of a VCB installation is the configuration of the proxy
server. Refer to the VMware Virtual Machine Backup guide, which can be found
at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf for the requirements and
installation of a VCB proxy server.

The most notable items to consider during the deployment of VCB are:
When the installation
of the VCB Framework • The proxy server CANNOT be a virtual machine.
is complete, • VCB cannot be installed on the VirtualCenter Server.
integration with • VCB must be licensed in VirtualCenter.
vRanger Pro should • Windows 2003 Server, SP1 or R2 is required.
be performed for • Network connectivity between the proxy server to VirtualCenter must be
a complete and available. (Hint: once vRanger Pro is installed, it will be very easy to test this
connectivity, as once vRanger Pro is communicating with VirtualCenter, you can
powerful backup
be sure VCB is communicating.)
solution. • The proxy server must have an HBA to connect to the SAN fabric.
• Request that your SAN team zone the proxy server’s HBA WWN to the same
LUN(s) that are zoned for your ESX Servers.
• If multi-path is enabled, you need to collapse the two paths into one for the
proxy server using your SAN client software.
• There is a need for LUN alignment, meaning that the LUN ID presented
to the VCB proxy server MUST match the LUN ID presented to the
ESX Server system.

To download and install the VCB Framework, see http://www.vmware.com/download/

Once the executable has been downloaded, double click on the VMware-vcb executable
to launch it. Run through the installation wizard until the software returns a message of
“Installation Complete.” All detailed steps of the installation process are covered in the
installation guide.

When the installation of the VCB Framework is complete, integration with vRanger
Pro should be performed for a complete and powerful backup solution. Following is a
detailed look at vRanger Pro and how it integrates with VCB.


 vRanger Pro

vRanger Pro is the recognized industry-standard backup and restore solution for
virtualized environments and continues to lead the way in establishing disaster recovery
standards for VMware Infrastructure 3 users. Administrators can schedule regular
backups of either the full image or just the differential, at appropriate intervals — while
the virtual machine is still running. Images can be stored either locally, on the SAN or
sent as compressed files over a WAN to remote locations to support disaster recovery
strategies. vRanger Pro also enables restore of individual files efficiently with an explorer
tree through which users can easily identify and “grab” needed files.

VirtualCenter, VMotion and DRS Integration

Because vRanger Pro runs outside the guest, it can be integrated with VirtualCenter for
more efficient backup management. In addition, integration with VirtualCenter allows
users to set up folders of virtual machines for backup, which can then be scheduled to
run backups as needed, no matter where the virtual machines are located. Because
vRanger Pro is VMotion aware, it can follow virtual machines to perform regularly
scheduled backups even after the virtual machines have moved. Custom attributes
can also be assigned leveraging VirtualCenter to backup specific groups of virtual
machines on a specified schedule with the options desired. As new virtual machines
are added, the custom attribute will be picked-up and the virtual machine will be
included in the backup process.


 Below is a screen capture of the vRanger Pro GUI depicting the VirtualCenter
integration point. Virtual machines can be selected individually, as a group, or by folders
for backup. The process is covered in a three-step GUI method with plenty of options
for a reliable automated backup job.

vRanger Pro is the

recognized industry-
standard backup
and restore solution
for virtualized
environments.


 vRanger Pro Diagram

Figure 2: vRanger Pro standard deployment

The above diagram depicts a standard backup methodology using the network for
location of your backups. Four virtual machines are running on this ESX Server host
and may have a SAN, local or iSCSI storage model. vRanger Pro is installed centrally as
shown in the diagram (#1) to have connectivity to the entire virtual infrastructure and to
integrate with VirtualCenter (#2) to manage backups based on how the virtual machines
are organized. vRanger Pro and VirtualCenter can be installed on the same server, or
they can reside on separate servers. All backup jobs should be setup within the vRanger
Pro GUI and automated with a scheduling mechanism. A call is made to the ESX Server
host (#3) where the virtual machines (#4) are running to initiate a backup job. Regular
backup jobs are compressed and are sent to a pre-selected backup destination. Virtual
machines can run locally on the ESX Server or on a SAN. In VMware Infrastructure 3,
a snapshot (#5) will be initiated so that a ‘hot’ backup can be run without interruption
to the virtual machine. All changes to the virtual machine disk file will be recorded and
applied when the backup copy is completed. The backup will be compressed on the fly
(in memory) leveraging resources from the proxy server. Ultimately the backup file will
be sent to a backup disk destination of your choice (#6).

Traditionally, companies used agent software to accomplish nightly and incremental

change backups because daily backups of the entire virtual machine were not practical.

10
 Differential Engine

Today, vRanger Pro includes a differential engine to capture only the changes to a virtual
machine at the block level, since the last full backup. This feature allows for more
frequent backups, while decreasing the time it takes to perform a backup and, also
decreasing the amount of disk space required to store the backup images.

If selected, the differential engine is launched automatically as requested when creating

a backup job in the vRanger Pro GUI. The differential can represent either a percentage
of a full image being exceeded as a variable, or can be based on duration of days before
another full image is taken. (All backups taken in the intervals between full-image
backups will be differentials. More information about how vRanger Pro works is outlined
in detail in the User Guide documentation.) The engine will leverage memory pages to
compare the differences that are stored in a database. When a difference is found, it is
included as part of the differential backup. The next section outlines how the differential
engine in vRanger Pro works. It is important to note that differential backups are not
compatible with VCB.
vRanger Pro
offers many
features that
allow it to fully
integrate with
and leverage the
power of VI3.

11
 Differential Diagram

Figure 3: Differential engine and associated components

The above diagram depicts the usage of the differential engine. vRanger Pro (#1) is
installed centrally and communicates with VirtualCenter (#2) to initiate a backup job.
The information for that backup job is sent to the ESX Server host (#3) where the
virtual machines are running (#4). A snapshot (#5) is initiated for a copy of the virtual
machine to begin. A comparative process managed in memory pages (#6) identifies
blocks that have changed by searching a database repository (#7) of the blocks from
the last full image and any previous differential backups performed. When complete, the
differential backup is stored at the destination of choice (#8).

12
Additional Useful Features of vRanger Pro

Reporting
vRanger Pro has an integrated database back end that records IP addresses of the guest,
backup times, compression ratio(s) and the locations of virtual machines on associated
LUNs (for restoring appropriate virtual machines in the case of failure of an entire LUN).
All this information can be queried and reported as run from the database.

Rules Engine
A runtime rules engine has been added that allows users to set up the logic,
dependencies and frequencies of backup for optimum results. Users can set maximum
limits on the number of simultaneous virtual machines that can be backed up per farm,
per ESX Server host and per VMFS volume. Scheduling an entire ESX Server farm for
backup can be accomplished by using only a single command according to the backup
order sequence rules set in the GUI.

Full Image and File Level Restore

To complement the efforts of the backup process, vRanger Pro includes a restore
engine in the GUI interface. The restore function can restore a full image backup or
a differential backup. It can also restore individual files to a live virtual machine with
a built-in mounting mechanism. Simply use the vRanger Pro GUI to select the images
— from any full or differential backup — that you would like to restore. You then select
the location to which to restore the images as well as any additional options. If you wish
to only restore a file, you may do so — on the image selection screen and select the
“mount” option to view the files you wish to restore and the virtual machine to which
you wish to restore them.

13
 The screen capture below of vRanger Pro depicts the restore mode with a selection of
the various backup archives, including differential backups.

Compression
To reduce the size (on disk) of a backup image, vRanger Pro includes a compression
engine. This compression engine will provide a compression ratio range of one through
nine to compress the data. This compression engine will also erase all of the “white
space” (allocated but not used disk space) in an image prior to compressing the data to
further reduce the size of the image on disk.

In a standard backup scenario using vRanger Pro without VCB, the

compression will take place where the backup is performed. In most cases, this
will be on the host where the virtual machine resides. With the integrated
approach using VCB, the compression will happen in memory pages on the VCB
proxy server and not on the ESX Server host.

14
Deploying vRanger Pro

vRanger Pro is installed on a central Windows server and requires the .NET framework.
If not leveraging VCB, it is recommended to install vRanger Pro on the same server
as your VirtualCenter installation. If you do not leverage VirtualCenter, you may
install vRanger Pro on any Windows 2003 Server that will connect to your virtualized
environment for backup needs. It is possible to install vRanger Pro inside a virtual
machine, but this is not a preferred location for your deployment.

vRanger Pro software can be downloaded from the following location:

www.vizioncore.com/download.html

For backup architectures leveraging VCB, download both vRanger Pro or later version
and also make certain to download the VCB plug-in. Make use of the Quick Start
Guide and configure vRanger Pro to communicate with VirtualCenter. Note: install the
vcbPlugin after installing the base vRanger Pro software or later version.

Once the above basic installation of vRanger Pro is complete and VirtualCenter
integration has been performed, the following step must also be taken:

Configure DEP under Win2k3 OS as follows:

Navigate to start –> settings –> control panel –> systems and open the advanced tab.
In the Performance region, select Settings and click on the Data Execution Prevention
tab. Click on add, then browse to ~\~\vizioncore\vRanger Pro\plugin\vcb\vcblauncher.
exe. Then click once again on add, then browse to ~\Program Files\VMware\VMware
Consolidated Backup Framework\vcbmounter.exe.

Commit these changes by selecting ‘apply’.

15
 The above screen captures are examples of the properties and options you will
look for when executing on this step of the deployment. When using vRanger Pro,
validation of complete installation will be apparent when in the Options tab. The ‘Enable
Consolidated Backup (VCB)’ option should be available. Installation questions and
support assistance is available by sending an e-mail to: support@vizioncore.com.

16
 The Combined Solution

The most efficient way to perform backups today is done by off loading the backups
from the ESX Server host where the virtual machines are running. After many tests
and scenarios, including large and small virtual machines and multiple virtual machine
backups, the evidence always proves that performing the backups off the host is not
only the fastest method but also the most performance friendly method. Let’s take a
look at the integration point for vRanger Pro and VCB to see the benefits
of the integrated solution.

Integration Point - I/O Intercept

Integration of solutions is not always centered on having one GUI speak to another and
have the solutions launching from one to another. Integration is meant to occur at a
Evidence always technology layer. vRanger Pro not only leverages the vcblauncher.exe to perform the
proves that export of the data from the ESX Server host to the VCB proxy server, it also integrates
performing the at another layer in memory for benefit of the backup process in terms of speed,
backups off the host performance and disk space requirements.
is not only the fastest
method but also the vRanger Pro uses a new engine designed to work with the vcblauncher.exe process.
most performance This new engine is called “I/O Intercept” and will run on the proxy server to intercept
friendly method. the data stream from the VCB export prior to that data arriving on the proxy server
disk. During this intercept process, the data will be compressed in memory and also
redirected to a backup disk location of the administrator’s choice, without using
temporary space on the proxy server. The image on disk is smaller as a result of the
compression and the speed of the backup process is increased a minimum of three-fold
by skipping the need to write the data to the proxy server disk and read it back off to
locate it to backup disk. Additionally the amount of disk space needed for the entire
process is reduced to eliminate the space requirement from the proxy server altogether.

17
 Figure 4: The combined solution architecture of vRanger Pro and VCB.

This diagram builds on the previous diagram of VCB deployment. As we follow the
process from first step through to the end, we will see a variation at the integration
point beginning with step #6. Once the export has begun from the initiated snapshot
of the virtual machine, vRanger Pro will intercept the data-stream (#7) of the export,
prior to that data arriving at the VCB proxy server (#1) and redirect that data-stream
to bypass the VCB proxy server using an I/O intercept engine. During the redirect and
bypass (#7), vRanger Pro will compress the data using the memory pages and resources
from the vRanger Pro/VCB proxy server (#1) and send the copy to the backup
destination of choice (#8). This redirect and bypass of the data-stream will avoid writing
the data to the VCB proxy server and also eliminate the need for additional disk space
requirements on the VCB proxy server to temporarily house the backup copy, before it
is copied off to a backup disk.

18
 Benefits of the Combined Solution

Speed
The increased speed of backups is measured by the time it takes to perform a
backup. Backup speeds are increased when you remove barriers such as network
time, Service Console resource constraints, competing resource constraints with
other virtual machines, physical resources and resources needed to accomplish
backups simultaneously within a certain window of time. All of these areas can
reflect gains in speed when you off load backups from the ESX Server host to a
secondary “proxy” server. VCB provides the export of the data off the ESX Server
Combining vRanger host and vRanger Pro performs the backup with compression and leverages the
Pro and VCB LAN free nature of the backups as well as the I/O intercept and redirection of the
improves speed and compressed image to the backup disk of choice. As you will see in the diagram below,
performance as well the highest speed backups are performed by combining these two technologies.
as reduces the need
for disk storage.

LAN free snapshot exports from VCB generate a very efficient copy of the virtual
machines to be backed-up. Moreover, vRanger Pro enhances the export process speed
by intercepting the I/O data stream prior to it landing on the proxy server. Above you
see a standard network backup in red, using vRanger Pro without the VCB integration.
The green color depicts a faster method of getting data out of the ESX Server for
backup using VCB. Leveraging the two together is depicted in blue — clearly the fastest
method for backups.

19
 Performance
Performance is increased because you no longer need to leverage Service Console
resources on the host ESX Server to perform a backup of a virtual machine.
Additionally, you no longer need to tap any resource from the host ESX Server itself
or the use of a virtual machine as an appliance. Any resources consumed on the host
ESX Server will directly impact the performance of the backup process as well as the
performance of the virtual machines. Additionally, the VCB launcher process will take
advantage of the SAN architecture and the fibre attached storage to avoid the network
to perform the export of the data from the host.

Disk Space
It is important to note the impact of integration points in technology including resource
savings. As indicated, speed and performance is improved, but just as important is that
the amount of disk space needed for the backup process and the cost of the overall
backup process are both reduced. With vRanger Pro and VCB, the I/O intercept engine
not only performs the compression of the data in memory, but it also redirects the
data stream to the backup disk directly. The compression will erase the “white space”
(unused disk space allocated to the VM) and compress the actual data in the virtual
machine disk file file. While this compressed image (data) is created, vRanger Pro will
redirect it to a predetermined location, thus eliminating the need for it to be written
to the proxy server or requiring it to be read off of the proxy server. This disk savings
alone can have a significant impact on budget and can enable virtualization of additional
applications for disaster recovery purposes.

20
About Vizioncore Inc.

Backup and recovery is easy, reliable, fast and affordable with vRanger Pro and VCB. In
this paper we have covered the challenges of backing up in a virtualized environment
and outlined a combined solution that is designed for and addresses the needs of the
virtualization community. Leveraging vRanger Pro, administrators can accomplish full
image and differential backups as well as full image and file-level restores. The combined
solution of vRanger Pro with VCB enables administrators to achieve the fastest possible
backups with no overhead on the virtual machine, the ESX Server host or the network.
The result is a faster backup process with easier management and full confidence in the
process to achieve the goals for a cost-effective and reliable disaster recovery solution.

21
 Notes

22
Notes

23
Vizioncore Inc.
975 Weiland Rd.
Suite 200
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
www.vizioncore.com

International Phone: +1 847-589-2222

Toll Free U.S. Phone 866-260-2483
Fax Number: 847-279-1868

Printed in USA
FastHotBackupWP#01(08/07)

© Vizioncore Inc. 2007. Vizioncore and all product names are Vizioncore trademarks. All rights reserved.
VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.