Isolate traffic

[pwheeler]

If I want to isolate all backup traffic to a specific SAN switch, would I need to have each ESX host have a connection into that switch and then add each host individually as a backup target in Veeam?

What if I add a vCenter server? If I don’t have each host with its own connection to the SAN switch, what is the path the data takes to get to the local drive of the Veeam server?

I’m assuming it’s something like this?

SAN <-> SAN Switch <-> Veaam Server <-> SAN Switch <-> vCenter Server <-> General Network Switch <-> Target ESXi host

Whereas I want something like this...

SAN <-> SAN Switch <-> Veaam Server <-> SAN Switch <-> Target ESXi host

[Gostev]

If I want to isolate all backup traffic to a specific SAN switch, would I need to have each ESX host have a connection into that switch and then add each host individually as a backup target in Veeam? What if I add a vCenter server?
Veeam does not talk with ESXi or vCenter server over SAN fabric... it talks to storage directly (and only to storage)

If I don’t have each host with its own connection to the SAN switch, what is the path the data takes to get to the local drive of the Veeam server?

Depends on which job processing mode are you using for these hosts (virtual appliance mode, or network mode).

Virtual Appliance mode (aka HotAdd)
SAN <-> SAN Switch <-> ESXi storage stack <-> Veaam Server VM <-> Local drive

Network mode
SAN <-> SAN Switch <-> ESXi network stack <-> LAN <-> Veaam Server <-> Local drive