design question tape backup

[Legio]

Hello,

We have our server environment spread over 2 datacenters in one subnet.

This is the setup:
Datacenter 1:
- VMWare esx
- physical windows server with tape device embedded (currently no direct san access)
- local SAN attached to the esx via brocade san switches

Datacenter 2:
- physical management server (acting as Veeam server) - with direct san access
- NAS attached to the network
- VMWare esx
- local SAN attached to the esx via brocade san switches

The current setup is backup to NAS (cifs):
- in datacenter 2 direct san access is used
- in datacenter 1 transport mode is Network

We want to use the tape device in datacenter 1 to be able to offload backups to tape.

Question : what is the traffic flow when backing up VM's from the esx in datacenter 1 to tape? Should I configure the physical server in datacenter 1 as a backup proxy and a tape server? I want to prevent that backups from the esx in datacenter 1 go through the Veeam server in datacenter 2 to go back to the tape server in datacenter 1. This traffic should be 'supervised' by the Veeam server in datacenter 2 but the backup traffic should stay local in datacenter 1.

Thanks for you help

ps I searched on google but I didn't really found an answer to this question.

[Shestakov]

Hello Legio and welcome to the forums,

what is the traffic flow when backing up VM's from the esx in datacenter 1 to tape?

There is no backup direct tape backup, since the backup-to-tape job is design as the secondary job to copy existing backup files to tape media.

Should I configure the physical server in datacenter 1 as a backup proxy and a tape server?

Not a good idea to use the server located in different site as a proxy, because all uncompressed traffic will go from site 1 to site 2 and then back to the backup repository in site 1.
I would leverage Hot-Add transport mode instead, granting some (dedicated) VM the proxy role.

I want to prevent that backups from the esx in datacenter 1 go through the Veeam server in datacenter 2 to go back to the tape server in datacenter 1.

True. Do you have any local disk-repository on site 1?
Thanks!