SAN mode verse VM mode with DD/Exagrid any benifits

[stormlight]

Hello, trying to choose between SAN mode and VM mode.

My environment is three esx servers and a data domain box or other dedup appliance. SAN on one network, Dedup on another.

When in San mode. The veeam proxy physical server pulls the data off the san on one network/nic to the veeam physical server and then sends it out another nic/network to the data-domain box.

In vm mode it does the same thing. Pulls the data through the iscsi network via the vstorage api and then sends it to another nic in the VM to go out to the data domain box which is mapped to a dif physical nic on the esx host.

I see no reason why to go with VM mode unless using vstorage api is faster. Actually it just adds overhead to my ESX hosts.

Can someone fill me in on how restores would work in this situation and if one would be better then the other? Also I my thinking is off between to to choices in my environment?

thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Can someone fill me in on how restores would work in this situation and if one would be better then the other? Also I my thinking is off between to to choices in my environment?

The restore process will be the same in SAN and VA mode, all the traffic will be transferred through a network stack of the ESX(i) host.

As to whether go with Virtual Appliance mode or direct SAN access, I would recommend choosing physical server and vStorage API SAN mode. However be aware that SAN mode throughput will heavily depend on the hardware configuration for this physical backup box.

Virtual Appliance mode should give you similar results compared to SAN mode. Please check out our F.A.Q. topic for expected performance rates for these abckup modes.

[stormlight]

Two follow up questions.

1 When choosing the repisitory in Veeam. Since the datadoman box is present in vcenter should iin my backup settings browse the host click through vmfs and choose the datadomain, or should i choose the cifs share that is present to the veeam/windows physical server that I have mapped in windows.

Also does restore change when im using esx not esx i?

thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, the restore to a full blown ESX host will be much faster due to service console presence.

Also I wouldn't recommend writing backup files on VMFS volume, as in case of a disaster (for ex. all hosts go down) you will not be able to access those files from the Veeam box directly, as Windows cannot "understand" VMFS filesystem. That said, CIFS share seems to be a better option to go with.

[Alexey D.]

Also, if you want to know more on how to use DD/Exagrid with Veeam, you may follow this link: Veeam & Deduplication Appliances