Feature Request ? / Outsource Storage Connect from VBR

[MatzeB]

Hi all!

I am currently working with a customer to consolidate their backup environment. Currently there are many >50 VBR servers worldwide. In the future, there will be few centralized VBR servers.
At most of the sites we use Netapp Ontap storage and also use storage integration.

The current problem is that in a central deployment the VBR server has to connect to the storage systems. According to the documentation port 80/443 from VBR to Storage Management. Unfortunately, it is not so easy or even desired that the storage access is made by this way. This requires routed storage management networks as well as firewall port permissions. In addition, there are poor connections to some locations, which means that every connection which can be avoided is helpful.

Therefore it would make sense to move the connection to a seperate "storage system connection role", similar to the guest interaction proxy.

Are there any plans in this case? Otherwise I would like to add this as a feature request.


Regards
Matze

[HannesK]

Hello,
the traffic is so small, that it should not be a problem. I also remember customers with low bandwidth and they had no issues.

To answer your question: there are no plans for a "storage interaction proxy".

To be fair: it's the first time ever, that I hear that request. Let's see how many other customers ask for it

Best regards,
Hannes

[MatzeB]

Hi,

thanks for the feedback. From my point of view this is not primary a bandwidth issue but a firewall/network/security issue. You can't assume that you can reach every storage management from the central VBR. It's actually very similar to the Guest Interaction, why is that role there and why doesn't the VBR always do that - because there are potentially many VMs in many networks that you can't access without a lot of firewall rules.
I don't have a lot of customers, but I have a big project where this is a problem for me.

Regards
Matze

[falkob]

+1 !
I like that feature request, because it is not about the traffic, but rather about the ability to manage a huge geographic environment where you have multiple arrays to connect to. Like @MatzeB was saying it is not a bandwith issue but rather an security issue on how you manage access rights to storage arrays.

In my eyes, it would even be sufficient, that the proxies you select during the storage wizard when adding your supported storage system does the actual connect to the storage array.

So, +1 for that feature request because it would be a handy feature