Welcome to Dell Technologies PowerProtect 19.9 - How to Series.
How to use Transparent Snapshot Data Mover with PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9.
Reference Dell Knowledge Article # 192889.
This video was created to demonstrate the use of the protection mechanism
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover introduced in PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9
for data movement during virtual machine protection operations.
The VIB will be automatically installed on the ESXI hosts
when the policy is created with VM assets.
Usually it does not require the manual installation of the VIB,
but will not cause harm.
The VIB management UI can be used to:
Ensure that the VIB is installed in case of any backup failures.
Disable the automatic VIB management in case of an environment
where change control is implemented on ESXI hosts
and customers do not want VIB to be automatically installed on their ESXI hosts.
This video presents the following:
After deploying or upgrading to PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9,
the Transparent Snapshot Data Mover option is available for use.
Examples of the following will present how to:
1. Install the vSphere Installation Bundle.
Note: This will demonstrate the manual steps to install the VIB
for better understanding of the process, but not required
as the VIB is automatically installed by PPMD 19.9 on ESXI hosts.
2. Creation of the Protection Policy to use
TSDM protection of the Virtual Machines.
3. Run the Protection Policy.
When to do this:
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover protection mechanism for Virtual Machines,
has improved features over the previous mechanism VMware Vstorage API
for Data Protection.
Protects virtual machine data using a new optimized data path
to improve overall virtual machine protection performance.
The VM Direct Engine embedded within PowerProtect Data Manager
can handle protection operations of all virtual machines
using TSDM protection mechanism.
No external VM Direct Engine is required.
Near-zero latency impact to the virtual machines or environment during backups.
Improved backup and restore times, lower infrastructure costs,
and simplified management.
Before you begin, have the admin credential for the User Interface
of the PowerProtect Data Manager Console.
Also ensuring the following prior to creating
a Protection Policy in PowerProtect Data Manager.
Any new Virtual Machine Protection Policies
will use Transparent Snapshot Data Mover
as the default protection mechanism instead of
VMware Vstorage API for Data Protection
provided the following conditions are met:
The vCenter/ESXI Server that hosts the virtual machines
is a minimum version of 7.0 U3.
VIB Management is enabled at the vCenter level.
The virtual machine protection policy is a crash-consistent policy
that uses Performance optimization mode with the options
to exclude swap files and enable quiescing disabled.
Demonstration
Steps to installing a VIB on a ESXI host.
First validate hosts software version is 7.0.3.
Expand "Infrastructure".
Asset Sources, vCenter tab and validate under "Version".
Next we will verify the [Bundle Management] is enabled.
Select "Protect Engines".
Select the Transparent Snapshot Data Movers tab.
And ensure the auto vSphere installation Bundle Management is enabled.
Expand the tree.
Then select the host listed status of ready to install.
And click "Install".
Select "OK" if you want to manually install the VIB on the host.
Monitor the install of the VIB from the System Jobs menu.
Validate the VIB install from Protection Engines menu for the host.
Expand "Infrastructure" and select "Protection Engines".
Expand the host tree.
The status will now be "Installed".
Steps to create a TSDM Protection Policy.
Expand "Protection Policies".
Click "Add" button.
Under type, enter the name of the policy.
Example we will use is tsdmpolicy.
Click "Next".
Under Purpose, select "Crash-Consistent".
Click "Next".
For assets, we will be selecting the virtual machine to be added to the policy.
Expand the vCenter list and select the virtual machine.
For this example the client name is vmlinux1.
Then click "Next".
For the Objectives under Target, the storage name and network interface
will have a default which can be changed.
For the scheduled frequency for the backup to run
how long the copies are to be
kept and the timeframe the backup will be allowed to run.
In this example, the backup is every hour, retaining for seven days,
and running from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Click "Save".
Under options, only select the default of "Optimize for Performance".
Otherwise, all other options will revert the backup
to complete in full and use VADP.
Click "Next".
Summary will show the options selected.
Click "Finish".
Expand "Jobs" and select "System Jobs" to monitor the creation of the policy.
In the details of the policy, we see the Data Mover is set as SDM.
From the vCenter we can see the LWD filters applied.
The TSDM Policy creation is now completed.
To test run the example policy now called TSDM policy,
go to "Protection", "Protection Policies",
select the policy "TSDM Policy".
Click "Protect Now".
A menu will open with the following:
Assets Selection, where the assets are defined in the Protection Policy.
Configuration, "Full" will be selected.
The first time a policy runs, a full copy will be taken,
then subsequent copies will be "Synthetic Full" copies.
Summary, all selected will be displayed.
Click "Protect Now", this will start the protection job.
Go to Jobs menu, Protection Jobs, to see the progress of a Protection Policy.
From the vCenter we can see the Lightweight Delta filters
being applied to the Virtual Machine copy.
Continue to monitor the job until completion from the Protection Jobs menu.
From the Details Tab we can see the progress.
To see the Snapshot copies created from the daily Protection Policy job,
go to the Assets menu.
Select the Protected VM.
Click on "View Copies".
This concludes the demonstration to run a TSDM Policy.
Important Notes.
If a virtual machine protection does not complete
using Transparent Snapshot Data Mover, validate the following:
Using a Crash-Consistent Policy.
ESXI host version is 7.0 U3.
VIB has been installed on the host where the Virtual Machine resides.
The default settings of the protection policy are used only:
Optimize for Performance.
If the Virtual Machine Protection Policy was created using VADP,
it will need to be migrated over to use TSDM.
Modifications needed for the number of snapshots
or schedule for protected Virtual Machines.
Edit the related Protection Policies under Objectives:
Primary Backup, Schedules.
Reference the following for more information:
Knowledge based article # 192889.
PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 Administration and User Guide.
Transparent Snapshot Data Mover protection mechanism.
Thank you for watching.