simple Cluster with 2 Storages

[Thomas_KL]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum. I have a simple setup question. I want to set up an VMWare vSphere 5.1 Cluster with 2 host and 2 storages, FC SAN. One storage will be the primary data storage and the other will be the backup. How do I have to setup the Veeam VM to make the backups and be protected in a case when the first primary storages fails? What would be the recommended setup? Can the vCenter and Veeam be together (same system) without compromising on features / security?

This little test cluster of mine will hold about 5 TB of data. The storages are two Nexsan E18 with 18TB each (9x 2TB), FC, directly attached to the two host HBAs.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Thomas,

First of all, since you're using FC SAN, I would strongly recommend using a physical proxy server to retrieve VM data in the most efficient way possible.

As regards Veeam B&R server protection, then please consider using one of the following techniques of protecting Veeam SQL database. If you want to be protected from losing one of the SANs, then you need to target your backup jobs to save your VM backups on the first storage and then use a post backup job script to copy these files to the second SAN.

Finally, If you decide to setup a separate physical proxy to use a direct SAN access processing mode, then placing Veeam B&R on the vCenter Server VM would be ok, otherwise, using separate servers would be a preferred way.

Thank you!

[Thomas_KL]

Hi Vitally,

the Veeam Server should be virtual as well, to maximize virtualization %. And the first SAN would hold all data. What you described, if I understand, that there would be a SAN, a backup SAN and a third copy to SAN. But I only have 2 SANs.

[dellock6]

Hi Thomas, if you want to have the same data on both SAN so the second can be used if the primary fails, your best choice is to create Veeam Replication job for every VM on the primary storage towards the other one. Replica VMs will be registered in vCenter and to ESXi as new VMs, in case of failure of the primary storage you can simply poweron the replica VMs.
Remember you will have an RPO depending on how frequently you run replica jobs.

Vitalyi was telling you that, apart from this, you will also need a backup of those VMs in a separate storage from the production one, backups are more efficient than replicas to store data since you can apply deduplication and compression on it, not on replica.

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, thanks Luca! I was trying to say that storing backup files on both SANs would allow you to be on the safe side when one of the SANs goes down.