Is there a way to replicate VM's that are automatically vMotion'ed between hosts in a cluster?
From what I've seen I need to point out the source VM on a specific host, and I suppose the replication job will be unable to find the VM if it got vMotioned to another host by DRS.
Now, I haven't setup the environment in a cluster, yet. Perhaps Veeam already supports this but I'd like to know before I go ahead and tamper with it.
Great!
Although, problem is that our Veeam server is also our vCenter server. This server sits on both IP-Storage-net (for Veeam) and Management-net (for administration and vCenter connections to the ESX hosts).
So I've tried adding localhost to the Veeam console (instead of individual hosts) to get the functionality addressed in previous post, but it seems that our backup traffic takes the Management-net path instead of the Gigabit IP-Storage-net. The only way around it that I've found, is to add the ESX hosts on the IP-Storage-net IP addresses to the Veeam console. What's your take on that?
I would definitely recommend to use separate VMs for your vCenter Server and Veeam backup. It would allow you to enable Veeam VSS for consitent VM backups/replicas of the vCenter.
Besides, I believe it is expected to have all the traffic flow through the Management-net when you add a localhost to the Veeam console, as it is still the address of the vCenter Server and not the hosts' one, in other words adding your hosts IP addresses directly will force data to use dedicated IP-Storage-net.
So the problem is we're running vCenter and Veeam on the same server? I also failed to mention it is a physical server, not a VM.
Looking at the traffic on this server while a replication is being made, I believe we're reading data through the IP-Storage-net interface, which is all good. But since the destination is the IP address of one of the ESX hosts (as presented by the vCenter server, having added vCenter to console), the destination traffic flows through the Management-net.
I don't see how this will change even if Veeam and vCenter runs on different servers, but I might be wrong.
Thanks!
No, I was referring to the fact that if you happen to backup vCenter Server then I would recommend separating the backup console and vCenter Server. But your current setup is ok, if you need to backup VMs which are vMotioned from one host to another, just add vCenter Server to the backup console.
Provided that you're using vStorage API - Network replication job mode, all the traffic flows through the backup console, meaning that if you have IP-Storage-net presented to the backup server only, that would help to isolate the traffic dataflow.
Thanks for the response.
I realize I need to add vCenter to the backup console, instead of the ESX hosts directly, to handle vMotioned VMs.
We're using VMware vStorage API mode (SAN with failover, reports say it doesn't failover so I assume SAN mode works as intended).
Still seeing a lot of traffic on the Management nic during replication, and I don't see any way around it.
Since our Veeam server is also running vCenter, I can't disable management-net for this server, since this is the network vCenter uses to manage the ESX hosts.
I'm starting to think that having Veeam and vCenter on the same machine isn't very wise. What do you think?
From my past working experience, I wouldn't recommend sharing one VM/physical machine for any mission-critical application, such as vCenter Server/DC/Backup server etc. For example, if we take a look at all-in-one box for a vCenter Server and a Backup server, could you tell me please what is the current load on your machine when you run SAN backup jobs? Is it high, does it influence your vCenter Server performance?
Besides, if you happen to move vCenter Server to a VM, then you should have an ability to backup vCenter itself, but having a Veeam backup server installed on the same machine would prevent you from using VSS for consistent backups of this machine.
If best practises are concerned than I would definitely stick to installing separate machines for both the vCenter Server and the Backup server.
So i added 443 in the firewall and hoocked up the vcentre ser4ver as a server in veeme, then i was able to select the clusert as source and dest for backup/replication jobs,
Laurence, its always better to contact support directly with all technical issues. Your issue is most likely connectivity-related, please check this KB article for possible resolution. Also, this topic could be useful.
