3par and Periodic Backups

[crazycommando]

We have moved our Storage over to 3par and successfully using the San snapshot integration. Very happy with the results. Using version 8 HF1.

Now that's done, I'm interested in revisiting the backup frequency. Before with our large number of backup jobs they were scheduled to run once a day at different times and now that VMware snapshots are less of a concern, I would like to move to periodic backups.

Does anyone have any recommendations, experiences anyone would mind sharing.
e.g
-For the regular daily backups, change to periodically say every 2 hours & adjust the retention period so it matches the our previous 30 days.
-I'm new to 3par but understand we can compliment our backup routine with 3par scheduled snapshots that we can access from Veeam
-Risks, although the VMware snapshot gets removed as soon as its created, when things go sideways you end up with loads of VMware snapshots on top of each other. Anything Veeam can do to mitigate this scenario?
-Any other tips much appreciated.

Many thanks.

[dellock6]

Fine configurations are up to your desired/required RTO and RPO, but one suggestion we usually explain to BfSS users is the possibility to run storage snapshots during the day: so crash consistent, thus depending on the application running in the VMs, you choose which VMs can be protected in this way. Then, once a day, a proper backup running Veeam and saving VMs outside of 3Par.
In this way, during production hours you have zero impact on backup activities, and if anything happens to a VM you can use VESS to restore directly from 3Par snapshots.
The second layer of protection is made with Veeam backups.

After testing out this one, you can then verify the impact on production workload, and decide to increase both the frequency of local snasphts, and the one of Veeam backups.

[larry]

Please post what you end up doing and results as well as thoughts which others could use. I am looking at 3par or netapp and want to switch from daily to every two hours for most VMs. Some VMs we want a RPO of 30 minutes which is the driver for the upgrade. We are a 8 to 5 shop. Without hardware testing my plan is to have 3par snapshots be the backup during the day and Veeam at night, I plan to use the pair ( Veeam, 3par) every 30 minutes for the couple of VMs to replicate offsite. I can't use much WAN bandwidth during the day but can use it all at night.

[emachabert]

We do deliver a lot of those setup (3par/Veeam), it is just an awesome solution.

We do what Luca told about:
- snapshot during working hours (up to every 15 min at one location)
- backup from snapshot at night

We even have some customer using the HP Vmware plugin do the snaps during the day (thus leveraging vmware tools quiescence).
Some are also using replication from the snap to a DR site running lowcost arrays (P2000 or MSA2040)

And if you were wondering if it is also working when using a PeerPersistence configuration (two arrays in synchronuous replication with automatic failover), then Yes, it is working

[crazycommando]

Hi guys. I'm new to 3Par and wondering if you could share with me how you setup the scheduled snapshots or a handy resource.

THanks

[emachabert]

You can use :
- the cli
- the console (IMC)
- the recover manager plugin for VMWare
- the brand new web interface (SSMC 2.0). Check it out if you don't have it installed, it's free

Just look at the user guide or the cli reference. It is pretty simple to setup.