Configuring new VEEAM Backup Server for direct SAN access

[bakerte]

I am evaluating Veeam for our backup and replication of our VMWare 3.5 farm. We are going to replace another vendor's product. I have shared storage on the ESX3.5 farm via EMC CX4-480 FC SAN disk. All ESX servers see the same LUN's, approximately 13 different LUN's attached to the farm. They run from 250 GB to 1 TB. I have a new server with Veeam Backup & FastSCP v4.0 that I would like to configure for SAN Direct backup. I have a 2 TB LUN on the backup server. How do I configure the backup server to communicate with the SAN LUN's on my VM ESX Farm for SAN backup? All is attached by FC via Brocade switch. Thanks

Terry

[Gostev]

Hopefully real FC SAN administrators will come to help with this (because I am not one - I never touched FC SAN before)
I do know we have EMC CX users for sure!!

But here is my understanding:
1. Open command prompt on Veeam Backup server as adminstrator, and type "diskpart" and then "automount disable".
2. If you did not do this yet, plug-in FC HBA into Veeam Backup server and install the latest drivers. Not sure if any client side settings needed for HBA to point to the storage. In case of iSCSI storage, you need to enter iSCSI target IP in the initiator settings.
3. If EMC CX has this functionality, allow read access to your VMFS LUNs for Veeam Backup server in the SAN configuration (optional).
4. If you do everything correctly, your VMFS LUNs should appear in Windows Disk Management snap-in. Don't initialize them!
5. That's it - Veeam Backup&Replication will now be able to work in the direct SAN access mode.

UPDATE: Veeam Backup & Replication 5.0 or later disables automount automatically for you during setup, so do not worry about doing this manually. Just make sure Veeam Backup is installed before you start connecting your backup server into the SAN fabric.

[bakerte]

I will try this and see where I go from this. Thanks.

[jgremillion]

Good job Gustov!. .. Also when you go into Navisphere and select LUNs to add to your storage group you'll need to change the drop down box to allow to select from all LUNS, not available LUNs.

[bakerte]

Got it configured. Had to go into the Navisphere config site to add the test LUN of the ESX servers to be seen by the Veeam backup server. Once I ran the diskpart command and it showed up in the disk management group online but not given a drive letter, I ran a test and got about 100MB/sec through put over SAN only. Very happy. Is this the fastest that can be gotten out of SAN-SAN backup? Better than Veritas of Network Backup though. Thanks for the help.

[Gostev]

Yes, looks pretty typical speed for initial pass on FC4 SAN, just double check to make sure that CPU on Veeam Backup server is not a bottleneck (when the job is running). Incremental runs will be faster and much faster (up to 10x) once you upgrade to ESX4.

[romanos]

Hello,
I am evaulating Veeam BR 4.1 and I have problems with SAN mode configuration. I have configured VCB proxy server with functional production backup (FC SAN). I have installed BR 4.1 and during replication job via SAN I get this error message:
Unable to establish direct connection to the shared storage (SAN).
Please ensure that:
- HBA is properly installed in the Veeam Backup server computer, or software iSCSI initiator is configured correctly.
- SAN volume can be seen by operating system in the Windows Disk Management snap-in on the Veeam Backup server.
- Read access is allowed for the Veeam Backup server computer on the corresponding LUN (refer to your SAN documentation).

This is not true. I seed all LUNs and use them for VCB backup. Could you help me with this issue?

How SAN access work during replication? I copy data from LUN via FC but on target ESX server are data send via backup server network?

Thank you, Roman.

[Gostev]

UPDATE: VCB components do not support VMFS5.

Roman, please install VCB framework on your Veeam Backup server. It has special diagnostic tool included, called vcbSanDbg.exe. Please run this tool and investigate its output to see if this tool is able to see any LUNs containing VMFS signatures.

If according to log the tool could not find any SAN volumes at all, or volumes are there but do not contain VMFS signatures, then you will want to open support call with your SAN vendor to help you configure SAN access correctly.

Here are some vcbSanDbg.exe output examples:

SAN volumes not present at all:

Code: Select all

[2010-02-19 15:34:45.286 'App' 3908 verbose] Building SCSI Device List...
[2010-02-19 15:34:45.294 'App' 3908 error] Dumping SCSI Device/LUN List.
[2010-02-19 15:34:45.294 'App' 3908 info] **** Begin SCSI Device LIst ****
[2010-02-19 15:34:45.294 'App' 3908 info] **** End SCSI Device LIst ****

SAN volume present, but has no VMFS signature (different or no file system):

Code: Select all

[2009-12-01 14:42:34.152 'App' 1444 info] Lun does not contain any VMFS/LVM signatures.
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.152 'App' 1444 info] Found SCSI Device: NAA:600508b30090cd10a9e0bcad48fa00084d534120564f
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.152 'App' 1444 info] Visible on 1 paths:
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] Device Name: \\?\mpio#disk&ven_hp&prod_msa_volume&rev_7.00#1&7f6ac24&0&3630303530384233303039304344313041394530424341443438464130303038#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}, Bus: 0 Target: 1 Lun: 1

SAN volume present, and VMFS signature recognized:

Code: Select all

[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] Lun contains VMFS/LVM signatures:
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] VMFS LVM signature.
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] ID: LVID:49c0be74-3b449644-12a7-001e0bc51e5c/49c0be72-19764a8d-b5c6-001e0bc51e5c/1 Name: 49c0be72-19764a8d-b5c6-001e0bc5
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] Found SCSI Device: NAA:600508b30090cd10a17eaa57059b00064d534120564f
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] Visible on 1 paths:
[2009-12-01 14:42:34.153 'App' 1444 info] Device Name: \\?\mpio#disk&ven_hp&prod_msa_volume&rev_7.00#1&7f6ac24&0&3630303530384233303039304344313041313745414135373035394230303036#{53f56307-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}, Bus: 0 Target: 1 Lun: 5

If SAN volume with VMFS signature is indeed present, you need to make sure that it is correct LUN (same LUN where VM you are trying to backup actually resides). Otherwise Veeam Backup will still report SAN access issue (as it is unable to find LUN backing the processed VM).

[romanos]

I am already using VCB framework on this server. File and image backup from FC LUNs works without problems.
I can backup VM running on SAN throught this server via VCB and I set the same LUN IDs on ESX hosts and VCB proxy server.

What about data flow with SAN type backup. Veeam B&R reads data throught FC HBA (LAN free backup) but replication to target has been done throught ethernet card?
Same situation is with Virtual Appliance mode? Veeam hotadd backed VMDK and reads data throught ESX storage stack and writes are send throught ethernet card?

Thank you, Roman

[Gostev]

Roman, can you confirm what is the Veeam Backup version/build you are using (from Help | About)? I recall Veeam Backup 4.0 had some issues accessing LUNs in certain scenarios, but it is fixed since version 4.1. If you are running 4.1 or 4.1.1, this should no longer be a problem - everything should work as long as you can do VCB SAN mode backups from command line. Could you please open a support call so that we could investigate this further for you?

What about data flow with SAN type backup. Veeam B&R reads data throught FC HBA (LAN free backup) but replication to target has been done throught ethernet card?

That is correct, unless your backup target is also SAN LUN. Many of our customers choose to backup from one SAN to another and in this scenario backup is 100% LAN free. Data never goes through ethernet card.

Same situation is with Virtual Appliance mode? Veeam hotadd backed VMDK and reads data throught ESX storage stack and writes are send throught ethernet card?

Correct.

[romanos]

I am running 4.1 version. I use vcb framework to backup from fc san from command prompt.
I am testing replication function. I made bad specification in my question. In replication is there possibility to write data to fc lun connected to target esx host?
thanks!

[Gostev]

No, writing directly to VMFS LUN is not possible.

[romanos]

Thanks I thought it too.

How can I create support ticket? I didn't purchase Veeam B&R yet? I am in contact with account manager for our territory. Can I ask him for creation of the ticket. Replication throught our VCB proxy server is MUST BE in my design.

[Vitaliy S.]

Roman,

You can open a support ticket by emailing us to support@veeam.com. We DO provide full support and assistance in resolving issues for evaluation users also. By the way, as vStorage API is a VCB successor for VMware, why don't you try to use this backup mode as soon as your issue is resolved?

Thank you!

[romanos]

I'm using VCB in conjuction with our tape library which is managed by Tivoli.

VCB replacement is possible in future but not know.

[hursts]

hi,
I have a question regarding Veeam backup server iSCSI configuration (software initiator).

I want to backup a vSphere 4.0U1 cluster through my iSCSI Equallogic SAN using .
I installed Veeam backup 4.1 on a W2K3SP2 server, connected to my iSCSI SAN.
I want to use a vStorage API SAN backup (no VCB installed, I'm full vSphere).

I made the "diskpart disable automount" thing.
In the EQL array, I granted access to the vmfs volumes by the IQN of the Veeam server.

At this point, I'm not sure of what I must do to see safely my volumes on the Veeam Server (it's not possible to have a read only access to the volumes), and the documentation is not really clear about this point.
You understand that I do not want to crash my production vmfs volumes by signing them in Windows !
Can somebody help me on the iSCSI configuration next steps ?

Regards,

SEB

[alien2108]

Hello all!

I just installed Veeam Backup Server and I would like to use the backup over SAN mode. I have my LUN on the backup server (Win2008), but if I try to mount it in Windows Disk Manager I get an option to initialize new disk either with MBR or GUID. I think this is not something I want to do as it might just go and wipe my VMFS SAN disk clean or?

I am using same LUN from all my ESX (Linux) servers without a problem. It's a single VMFS partition.

Am I doing something wrong?

BR

[Gostev]

Alen, you definitely should ot mount your VMFS LUN. Moreover, you should disable automount. See 2nd post in this topic for more information about disabling automount.

[alien2108]

Ups...My mistake...Forgot to configure something on the SAN. I think it is working now as there is no more message about failing back to network.

[Gostev]

Just out of curiosity, what did you forget to configure? This could be useful for future readers.

[alien2108]

I did register LUN on SAN, but forgot to tie Disk to the newly registered link.

I did disable automout. Is this permanent or perishes after reboot?

[Vitaliy S.]

Alen, yes, disable automount is permanent, system reboot doesn't enable it.

[Ritch]

Sebastien Hurst, did you ever get this figured out? I have a similar configuration, and have the same questions. Thanks.

[Spad]

Is there a workable config for SAN connection when Veeam is running in a VM?

[Gostev]

Hello Adam, please elaborate your question, what do you mean by "workable config"?

When Veeam is running in a VM, direct SAN access mode is only possible with iSCSI SAN, and buy leveraging Software iSCSI initiator inside VM. I know about quite a few customers using such deployment.

I would also recommend considering Virtual Appliance processing mode when using virtual Veeam Backup server, this mode requires zero configuration.

[albertwt]

Roman,

You can open a support ticket by emailing us to support@veeam.com. We DO provide full support and assistance in resolving issues for evaluation users also. By the way, as vStorage API is a VCB successor for VMware, why don't you try to use this backup mode as soon as your issue is resolved?

Thank you!

Yes Vitaliy is right, Veeam support staff is very helpful and kind, they help everyone.

Good job Veeam team !

[1-0-1]

Just some quick questions. I am planning on running/testing direct SAN mode with my VEEAM server as a physical server using connected to the virtual enviroment SAN. I will also prepare a disk group directly available for the VEEAM server onto which backups will be stored for tape backup. The plan is then that I will add then the VEEAM server to the ESXi 4.1 LUNs.

1. Is there any danger having a machine access (maybe restrict to read only) to LUNs that are being used by ESXi. Would the additional read not impact performance or cause any other weird issues with the virtual servers on the respective LUNs during a backup session?

2. Will SAN direct backup work in my configuration?

[Vitaliy S.]

1. Is there any danger having a machine access (maybe restrict to read only) to LUNs that are being used by ESXi. Would the additional read not impact performance or cause any other weird issues with the virtual servers on the respective LUNs during a backup session?

The issue might happen when you try to initialize those LUNs as Windows volumes, which is not possible with read-only permissions.

2. Will SAN direct backup work in my configuration?

Yes, if you present all the SAN LUNs according to the instructions described in this topic, then it should work!

[1-0-1]

The issue might happen when you try to initialize those LUNs as Windows volumes, which is not possible with read-only permissions.

Aha - I will have a look around how to enable it. Looked on my AX4-5i quickly could not find anything in that line of read-only mode. Thanks for the help so far.

[NightBird]

As I know, on EMC it's not possible to present a LUN read only to a host.


Boris