<\/p>\n
You should also be aware that the following disks are NOT supported by VDP:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Independent<\/li>\n
- RDM Independent \u2013 Virtual Compatibility Mode<\/li>\n
- RDM Physical Compatibility Mode<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
The instructions for deploying the VDP appliance are below:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Make sure that you have a valid IP Address and Computer Name assigned for the VDP appliance.\u00a0 A DNS entry should also be created for the VDP appliance to allow for correct operation.<\/li>\n
- Download the VDP appliance from the VMware website.\u00a0 The standard version that should be utilised is currently v5.5.5<\/li>\n
- Once the appliance has been successfully downloaded, you are now ready to deploy this out.<\/li>\n
- The deployment of the VDP appliance MUST be performed in the vSphere Web Client as the functionality is only available in this.<\/li>\n
- The vCenter user account MUST explicitly be added as administrator to the vCenter root node for VDP to function correctly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"vdp1\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- Log into the vSphere Web Client and browse to the host or cluster where you wish to deploy the appliance.<\/li>\n
- Right mouse click on the host or cluster and then select \u2018All vCenter Actions\u2019 and then \u2018Deploy OVF Template\u2019<\/li>\n
- Browse for the file that you downloaded earlier<\/li>\n
- Click \u2018Next\u2019 to step through the deployment wizard<\/li>\n
- You are asked to review the details of the appliance being deployed, click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- Click the \u2018Accept\u2019 button to accept the license agreements and then click \u2018Next\u2019<\/li>\n
- Enter the name for the appliance, this should be the FQDN of the appliance, this is required by the appliance and should not be changed afterwards.<\/li>\n
- You should also select the cluster and folder to deploy this appliance to, then click \u2018Next\u2019<\/li>\n
- Select the disk where the appliance should be deployed to and change the virtual disk format to \u2018Thin Provision\u2019, click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- Select the relevant network to place the appliance on, then click \u2018Next\u2019 to progress onto customising the template<\/li>\n
- Enter the default gateway, DNS servers, IP Address and Netmask for the appliance, then click \u2018Next\u2019<\/li>\n
- Review the configuration settings, tick the \u2018Power on after deployment\u2019 box and then click \u2018Finish\u2019 to begin the deployment process.<\/li>\n
- Once the appliance is deployed, it will automatically power up and finish its initial configuration<\/li>\n
- Click on the new appliance within the vSphere Web Client, then click \u2018Launch Console\u2019<\/li>\n
- You will now be presented with the console screen for the appliance<\/li>\n
- Follow the instructions on screen to finish the configuration of the appliance<\/li>\n
- The username for the web interface will be root with a password of:\u00a0 changeme<\/li>\n
- Step through the Wizard accepting or modifying the configurations accordingly, changing the password as required, please note that the password MUST contain nine characters<\/li>\n
- If you require the 4TB or 8TB VDPA options, then you will be required to purchase a license from VMware.\u00a0 No license is required for VDP<\/li>\n
- Once you have completed the wizard and the additional storage has been added to the environment, the appliance may then reboot and once this is completed, you should see the vSphere Data Protection entry appear in the \u2018Home\u2019 page of the vSphere Web Client.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b>Configure Backup<\/b><\/p>\n
With the VDP appliance deployed, it is now time to go through and configure the required backups.<\/p>\n
- \n
- From within the vSphere Web Client, click the \u2018vSphere Data Protection\u2019 link.\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/li>\n![\"vdp2\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp2.jpg\")
<\/a>You will now be asked to select the VDP appliance to connect to, it should automatically populate with the appliance that has just been installed but if it doesn\u2019t, select it from the drop down box and then click \u2018Connect\u2019<\/li>\n- After a short time the VDP interface will appear<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"vdp3\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp3-300x146.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
- \n
- The first thing to do, is to click the \u2018Backup\u2019 tab at the top of the screen.\u00a0 You may receive a warning to say that there are no backup jobs configured.<\/li>\n
- Click the \u2018Backup job actions\u2019 link at the top of the screen and then click \u2018New\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"vdp4\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- In most cases you would want to select the \u2018Full Image\u2019 option for backups to take a full image of the virtual machine.\u00a0 Alternatively you can back up just individual disks using the second option.<\/li>\n
- Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- From the next screen select the virtual machines that you wish to have backed up in the job by ticking the box next to the virtual machine (you may need to expand the infrastructure to see the virtual machines)<\/li>\n
- You are now requested to complete the days and times that you would like the backup to occur.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 once you have chosen your settings.<\/li>\n
- The next screen allows you to define the \u2018Retention Policy\u2019, adjust this according to you requirements and then click \u2018Next\u2019<\/li>\n
- Enter a name for the Job \u2013 this is required and must be unique.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- You will now be presented with a summary of the job, click \u2018Finish\u2019 to allow the job to be created.\u00a0 This may take several minutes to complete.<\/li>\n
- You will receive a confirmation message once the job is created.<\/li>\n
- As Replication can only replicate fully completed backup jobs, you should select the newly created backup job and then click \u2018Backup Now\u2019 and then \u2018Backup all sources\u2019 to initiate a backup using the job that has just been created.\u00a0 The backup will now run.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
You can now go ahead and configure the replication tasks, although you should not run the replication task until the backup is completed.\u00a0 You can see the progress of the backup task by looking in the \u2018Tasks\u2019 view from the left pane of the window.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/b>Configure Replication to Avamar Grid<\/b><\/p>\n
The Replication capability needs to be configured by the UK Server Team, as the details for the Avamar Grid need to be inputted during the job configuration.\u00a0 The UK Server Team will need to know what the retention should be for the virtual machines in the Avamar Grid.<\/p>\n
- \n
- To create a replication job, go into the \u2018vSphere Data Protection\u2019 section of the vSphere Web Client and then click the \u2018Replication\u2019 tab.\u00a0 You may receive a message to say that there are no replication jobs found.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Click \u2018Replication job actions\u2019 and then \u2018New\u2019 to create a new replication job
\n![\"vdp5\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp5.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- The replication job will check to see what virtual machines are being backed up and will allow you to select \u2018All clients\u2019 automatically or to individually select the virtual machines.\u00a0 Unless you need different replication jobs, I would advise using the \u2018All Clients\u2019 option as this should pick up new machines added to backups without reconfiguring the job.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- You are now asked to select the backup types that should be replicated offsite\u2026 if you have only performed Daily backups then you may only want to replicate Daily backups.\u00a0 I would advise leaving the \u2018User Initiated\u2019 option ticked to pick up the ad-hoc backups.<\/li>\n
- Under the \u2018Maximum backups to replicate per client\u2019, you can limit the number of backups that should be replicated for each of the virtual machines \u2013 this can be handy for avoiding replicating lots of previous backups.\u00a0 For the initial configuration, I would advise configuring this as 2 or 3 backups.<\/li>\n
- You also have an option to restrict the replications based on date, adjust this if required.<\/li>\n
- Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- You should enter the computer name of the Avamar Grid (using FQDN), the username and password. \u00a0I would suggest using the MCUser account.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue<\/li>\n
- You are now asked to provide a time for the replication to occur, please note that you should make sure that the backups are completing before the replication begins as the replication will only replicate completed backup jobs. \u00a0Select the time as normal and then click \u2018Next\u2019<\/li>\n
- On the Retention screen you can identify whether you wish to use the same retention policy that is applied to the backup job or adjust the retention period.\u00a0 I would advise to keep the same retention period as the backup jobs.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 to continue.<\/li>\n
- Finally enter a name for the job, again this is required and must be unique.\u00a0 Click \u2018Next\u2019 to move onto the confirmation page and then click \u2018Finish\u2019 to create the replication job.<\/li>\n
- The initial replication is likely to take longer as there is more data to replicate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/b>Virtual Machine & File Restoration using Local Backup<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the key things to be able to do with a backup, is to perform a restoration of files or the full virtual machine.\u00a0 The following instructions will describe the task of performing a file or virtual machine restore.<\/p>\n
Disk or Virtual Machine Restore<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- Go into the \u2018vSphere Data Protection\u2019 link in the \u2018vSphere Web Client\u2019<\/li>\n
- Click the \u2018Restore\u2019 tab<\/li>\n
- You may need to click the \u2018Refresh\u2019 button to show the latest information about backups.<\/li>\n
- You should now see a list of virtual machines that can be restored.<\/li>\n
- Click the virtual machine to be restored, this will then move down to a list of the backups for that client.\u00a0 Tick the box if you wish to restore the whole virtual machine or click on the date area to step down a level again.<\/li>\n
- The next level down allows you to restore a single drive by ticking the box next to the drive.<\/li>\n
- Click the \u2018Restore\u2019 item at the top of the screen to begin the restoration wizard.<\/li>\n
- Step through the restore wizard to restore the virtual machine or disks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
File Level Restore<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- To perform a file level restore, you need to log onto a virtual machine that is in a VDP backup job and has already been backed up.\u00a0 The virtual machine will also need to have up-to-date VMTools to be able to log into the interface to perform the restore.<\/li>\n
- Once you have logged onto the virtual machine, you need to go into a web browser.<\/li>\n
- You should browse to the servername or ip address of your VDP appliance using the following design:
\nhttps:\/\/servername or ip address<\/i>:8543\/flr<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nYou will now be presented with a log on screen similar to below:
\n![\"vdp6\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp6-300x195.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- At this point you should log onto the client using local administrator credentials for the virtual machine that you are currently logged onto\u2026 usually this will be the administrator account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You are now presented with the available restore points that can be mounted to perform a file level restore:
\n![\"vdp7\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp7-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- Select a restore point and then click \u2018Mount\u2019, once mounted click the \u2018Close\u2019 button<\/li>\n
- The main file level restore window is now displayed allowing you to browse disks and folders in the left pane and files and folders in the right hand pane.
\n![\"vdp8\"](\"http:\/\/virtualworlduk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/vdp8-300x87.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n- \n
- Place ticks next to the files or folders that you wish to restore and then click the \u2018Restore selected files\u2019 button at the bottom of the screen.<\/li>\n
- You will now be asked to decide on the destination for the restored files, you may wish to restore them to a \u2018Restore\u2019 folder prior to moving them into the correct location again.\u00a0 Select the destination and then click \u2018Restore\u2019<\/li>\n
- Confirm the restore operation and then you can monitor the restore process by clicking the \u2018Monitor Restores\u2019 button at the top of the screen:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- At this point you should log onto the client using local administrator credentials for the virtual machine that you are currently logged onto\u2026 usually this will be the administrator account.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- To create a replication job, go into the \u2018vSphere Data Protection\u2019 section of the vSphere Web Client and then click the \u2018Replication\u2019 tab.\u00a0 You may receive a message to say that there are no replication jobs found.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- From within the vSphere Web Client, click the \u2018vSphere Data Protection\u2019 link.\u00a0