The purpose of using advance transport mode in a backup scenario, is to get high performance while backing up and restoring data. SAN mode is known as the fastest transport method for applications while it is deployed on a SAN-connected ESXi host. It works perfectly and give high performance when applications like Vembu BDR are running on a physical-proxy. In case of a virtual-proxy, Vembu BDR supports “HOTADD” mode for an alternative option of transport. (Want know more about “HOTADD” features Click here).

For best performance when restoring data using SAN Transport mode it is recommended to use a thick disk. When writing data using SAN mode during a restore, the disk size should be a multiple of the underlying VMFS block size, otherwise writes to the last fraction of a disk will fail. For example, if a datastore has 1MB block and the virtual disk is 16.3MB, the last 0.3MB will not get written and will fail with the invalid argument error. Your software must add 0.7MB of zeroes to complete the block. This caveat does not apply to eager-zeroed thick disk.

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Things to keep in mind before adopting SAN transport mode:

  • SAN mode only works when application like Vembu BDR are running in a physical-proxy which have a SAN storage connected with Fiber Channel or iSCSI SAN storage.
  • SAN storage or iSCSI SAN storage should be attached to a proxy-system and the system should be able to have access to the storage.
  • A virtual machine (Guest VM) on a SAN or iSCSI SAN storage in the ESXi server.
  • VMware VDDK config file, VDDK libraries and “TEMP” should be present in their appropriate locations.

Steps to be followed for SAN mode:

  • Need a guest VM (The VM which are needed for backup) in SAN or iSCSI SAN storage.
  • Add the iSCSI storage to physical-proxy under iSCSI initiator by entering the target name and click quick connect and then finally click OK.
  • After that you can verify to see if the storage is attached in the physical-proxy in disk management.
  • Now install the Vembu BDR windows agent in the physical-proxy.
  • After that configure a VMware backup by selecting a VMs which resides in SAN storage.

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows & Linux

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