What is traffic flow from Datadomain reository to Tape library

[bab@virtualcdc.com]

I have a question about some concepts on veeam :

My environment includes : Veeam Backup server (virtual machine and passthrough a HBA to VM)
Datadomain as repository and using DDBoost
Tape Library .

Would you please say what is the data backup flow when my second destination is Tape ?

I think follow is the flow traffic:
1 - Get backup from vms on the Esxi and traffic will send through HBA card that resides on VEEAM server (or Proxy server) to datadomain
2- When data resided on datadomain as repository now traffic send to HBA card on VEEAM server (or HBA card on Proxy server)
3- Finally traffic will send from HBA card on VEEAM server (or HBA card on Proxy server) to Trape library .

Does it correct ?

[david.domask]

Hi bab@virtualcdc.com,

First, I regrettably must inform that pass-through of tape devices on VMware is unsupported; VMware does not offer support for it, and thus Veeam cannot support it. If you're able to present the Tape Library to the proxy via iscsi, that would be supported as it's network connection instead of pass through. Please see Tom and Rob's posts here for examples of the issues you may face with such a configuration.

You are correct on your understanding of the workflow, though I will note it depends on what server is acting as the Gateway Server for the DataDomain -- based on your description, sounds like the Veeam server itself is gateway, so indeed the traffic will go out from VBR server to the DataDomain, then from the DataDomain back to the VBR server and then out again to the Tape hardware.

Ideally, a physical server for your tape is best here; if you configure the same server as both Gateway Server for the DataDomain and Tape Server, then the data will stay local to the gateway/tape server and transfer via shared memory and avoid taking the "scenic route" to get data on tape.

[bab@virtualcdc.com]

So thanks by the means from passthrough is HBA card that assigns to veeam server not tape library as passthrough .

Just want to make sure my understanding is correct .
Traffic will pass from HBA card that resides on veeam server as proxy (or other server as proxy role with HBA card) and will receive on datadomain
Then traffic send from datadomain to veeam backup server HBA card (proxy server with HBA card)
Finally from veeam backup server HBA card (proxy server with HBA card) will send to tape library .

Is that correct ?

[david.domask]

Hi Bab,

Your understanding is correct, however I am a little confused by your statement here:

>by the means from passthrough is HBA card that assigns to veeam server not tape library as passthrough .

Please confirm if the following statements are correct:

1. VBR server is a VM on Vmware
2. VBR server is also set as the tape server
3. The tape library is connected to the HBA on an ESXi host and this connection is passed to the VBR server

Is that correct? If so, then it is the unsupported configuration I mentioned in my post, but please confirm that I'm understanding correctly.