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egroeg
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Full Name: George Kenny
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Veeam backup over FC Switch & SAN

Post by egroeg »

Hi all.

We have a vmware/veeam environment which has recently been upgraded from iSCSI through to Fibre Channel.

The veeam server is a vm, so it used to have an iSCSI mapping to the SAN to allow read-only access to the LUNs in order to perform the SAN Based backup job.

They've now upgraded to Fibre Channel and done away with their iSCSI infrastructure. How do you recommend Veeam now backs up the VMS. Should we change the backup method to network based back and how much of a performance decreace could this have / is there any way to give the Veeam server direct read only access to the FC SAN via the switches?

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egroeg
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Re: Veeam backup over FC Switch & SAN

Post by egroeg »

Thinking out loud about this - we'll need a dedicated FC HBA presumably . . . This will / can prevent the veeam VM from VMotion, but this isnt the end of the world.

However, if I were to use iSCSI software initiator at the Veeam VM level to contact the luns on the SAN as read-only - would this cause the SAN to complain (having the LUN being accessed by both FC and iSCSI protocols?)
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Veeam backup over FC Switch & SAN

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Hi George,

If you have a virtual backup server, then vStorage API direct SAN mode (Fiber Channel) cannot be used to perform backups. See our sticky F.A.Q. topic for more details.

I would recommend either switching to a physical backup server because HBA adapters can only be plugged into a physical box, or you may want to try Virtual Appliance mode instead. In this case all the traffic will go through ESX(i) storage stack (built-in iSCSI initiator), which should result in similar performance rates as you had with Direct SAN mode via iSCSI.

Thanks.
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