SAN-based Snapshots - VMware VVols vs. Veeam/Nimble Integration

[jlass]

We plan on purchasing a Nimble SAN in the near future. We haven't solidified our choice, yet, but our intent is to move to a VMware VVol configuration when we implement the Nimble.

As I understand it, with VVols in place VM snapshot operations are offloaded to the SAN. Veeam appears to provide similar offloading capabilities with their Nimble storage integration, but that integration requires Enterprise Plus licensing. We are currently licensed for Enterprise.

I am trying to determine if the upgrade to Veeam Enterprise Plus is necessary if we implement VVols. If VVols can offload to the SAN and provide similar backup performance to the Veeam Nimble integration, at first glance on the Editions Comparison page for Veeam products I fail to see enough advantages to justify the upgrade.

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

For your scenario, I don't see a requirement to upgrade to Enterprise Plus. The Enterprise Plus "backup from storage snapshots" is for normal LUNs.

Best regards,
Hannes

[jlass]

My thought was the same. With VVols, we gain the performance of SAN-based snapshots without the extra cost.

Thanks, much.

[HannesK]

I would not bet on that... but if you do some tests, we would be happy to hear that

[Gostev]

As I understand it, with VVols in place VM snapshot operations are offloaded to the SAN. Veeam appears to provide similar offloading capabilities with their Nimble storage integration

Please note that this offloading is a very small part of our Nimble snapshots integration.

The biggest value of the integration comes from actual storage snapshots management, enabling you to create/keep/use them as additional [much more frequent] restore points, or for Veeam DataLabs features like on-demand sandbox, etc. And, there's even more goodness if you're planning on using replication to a secondary Nimble array, for example the ability to perform backup from storage snapshots on a secondary array, not to put any load on the primary array.

VVols obviously provide no such capabilities, thus effectively preventing you from using all those advanced enterprise storage features you have paid for. So please, give it another thought - because many customers are heavily using frequent primary storage snapshots as a first line of ransomware defense these days.

[dustinn3]

Gostev,

I'm getting ready to migrate my primary site from UCS\Nimble to DHCI and was considering VVOL's, but with the current limitations I'm rethinking that. When researching VVOL's I came across this post and your second paragraph caught my attention.

And, there's even more goodness if you're planning on using replication to a secondary Nimble array, for example the ability to perform backup from storage snapshots on a secondary array, not to put any load on the primary array.

We currently have Nimble's replicating between sites and Data Domain's in both sites that are replicating some volumes, but we are performing our backup copies via copy jobs. Ideally, I'd like to do my primary backups at HQ from my primary Nimble to my Primary Data Domain and then do my secondary backups from my secondary array at DR to my Data Domain in DR to reduce the amount of data trans versing my WAN. Is that a possibility?

[HannesK]

yes you can. just add a second backup job with backup from secondary storage.

[dustinn3]

From what I recall though it will still process the job from my backup server sending the data back and forth across the WAN creating even more traffic. If I put a proxy in DR will that keep all the data traffic in DR?

[foggy]

Hi Dustin, yes, if you configure proxies properly, backup traffic will stay local at the DR site.

[dustinn3]

Awesome, I'll give that a shot.

Thanks,