While virtualization is clearly the evolution of physical server environment, many users still have trouble adapting to this new found model. Since Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware are the two major virtualization platforms, here is a ‘Not to do’ guide which lists most common mistakes witnessed in Hyper-V environment.
Although virtualization saves more on hardware and maintenance costs, getting started with the basics is utmost important to avoid complexities involved in configuring Hyper-V backups.
Importance of agentless backups:
In a virtual environment, VM backups can be triggered in two ways:
- Host level backup– That backs up VHD copies of virtual machines for restore purposes.
- VM level backup– Traditional way of backing up file and folder level backups of virtual machines.
In a physical server environment, installing agents on individual machines for backup will not make much of a difference and works fine, though it consumes a part of machines resource. But in a virtual environment, a single host machine is responsible for handling multiple VMs and installing individual agents for VMs utilise high resource.
Vembu BDR suite offers agentless backup for backing up virtual environments, that triggers VM backups without need of an client installation and backups are handled via server.
Configuring Hyper-V environment to support backups:
While host level backups reduce resource utilization and complexities involved in VM backups, there are certain pre-configuration requirements essentially to be checked; which includes:
- Verifying installation of Hyper-V integration services and enabling backup integration service on all VMs.
- Verify Volume Shadowcopy Service (VSS) enabled in all storage volumes used by VMs and ensure that each storage volume points itself as storage location for shadow copies.
Verifying support for Older OSes:
Older operating systems such as Windows XP and Windows server 2000 do not have integrated Hyper-V VSS writer service. Thus enabling host level agentless backups is not possible for these operating systems. Verifying these settings and checking alter possibilities such as agent installed backups is a must.
Verify support for Clustered shared volumes (CSV):
Clustered shared volume feature help in building Hyper-V failover cluster, which provides zero downtime for businesses. Cluster shared volumes (CSV) is introduced along with the release of Microsoft Windows server 2008 R2, for Hyper-V.
Evolve with evolving backup technologies:
Backup at its initial stages is defined as making file and folder copies of machines in an all new location. In case of a disaster, these files and folders are restored once operating system is installed with the new hardware setup.
But the times are changed and with the introduction of block level backup operation, backing up and reconstruction of entire server machine is possible.
So upgrading to advancements in the backup industry is a must for businesses to ensure their security measures are up-to-date.
Go questions? Email us at vembu-support@vembu.com for answers.
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