Backing up Servers from different VLANs

[mtav]

Hello,

i wanted to ask whats the best approach to backup VMs that are in different VLANs.

The Backup Server itself is in its own "Backup VLAN", running Version 13.

The VMs are distributed across different VLANs, currently about 15 - 20 but probably more in the future.

Whats the best way to allow the Backup Server to be able to do Application Aware processing of the VMs in the other VLANs?

- Should the Backup Server simply be allowed in the Firewall to access the VMs in all the VLANs or
- Should there be a Guest Interacton Proxy in each VLAN or

Kind regards

[vnikiforov]

Hello,

Neither is strictly needed. The guest interaction proxy needs either a LAN or a VIX connection to the guest, and one of them is sufficient. VIX works through VMware Tools via the ESXi host, so application-aware processing does not require any firewall openings into the VM VLANs. The credential requirements for VIX are described in KB1788 - Windows guests might need built-in Administrator account or UAC adjustments.

If you prefer network access for performance reasons, you still don't need a proxy per VLAN: add one or two guest interaction proxies (Windows or Linux whatever works for your workloads) and allow only those through the firewall to the VM networks as listed in Used Ports. This way the backup server itself stays isolated in its VLAN.