When it comes down to Data Storage Management, NetApp simply stands out in terms of feature rich solutions like the NetApp ONTAP 9 series. Certainly there are big benefits also when integrating with Data Protection solutions like Veeam Backup & Replication. The purpose of this article is to cover the Veeam NetApp ONTAP integration. This helps customer managing storage for the virtual environments from a single Veeam console.
The Veeam NetApp ONTAP integration leverages the NetApp APIs from a storage side and the VMware APIs when talking to the vCenter and vSphere Hosts. No agents need to installed anywhere in the Hosts or any virtual machine. There are several advantages about managing virtual infrastructure primary storage directly from Veeam. To mention just a few these include:
- Ability to orchestrate the primary storage directly from the Veeam console
- No extra components required. Everything works via APIs from pertinent vendors
- Backup from Storage Snapshots or from replicated volumes through SnapMirror and SnapVault
- Manage NetApp storage snapshots (existing, new and even created by 3rd party)
- Granular restore of VMs and Data directly from NetApp storage snapshots
- Leverage snapshots for testing, patching, upgrades and a lot more use cases
These are only a few examples which will be covered in the next part of article series in greater detail. The purpose of this article is to show the steps for running the Veeam NetApp ONTAP integration setup. As per usual with Veeam products everything is wizard driven and very straight forward. The idea is to add the primary NetApp ONTAP storage for the Production site. Similar steps follow the setup for an additional NetApp ONTAP storage running in a DR site. Whilst NetAPP SnapMirror defines the relationship between the storage arrays and volumes in the pertinent locations, Veeam leverages such relationship and orchestrate the volumes, backups and restore of production workloads. First step is to add the Production Site storage.
Configure Veeam NetApp ONTAP integration
From the Veeam Backup console > Storage Infrastructure > Add Storage the wizard to start the setup for Veeam NetApp ONTAP integration. Next step is to choose the NetApp option and then select the desired system.
Next step is to select the solution used as primary storage for the production environment. It supports the NetApp ONTAP Simulator. A great addition for homelab testing.
At this point the first step is to provide the FDQN or IP address for the NetApp Management cluster.
When configuring IP networks within the ONCommand Manager it is also possible to browse different ONTAP nodes parts of the same cluster. This step is optional.
A good DNS name resolution is helping just by adding a chosen name for the NetApp ONTAP cluster.
Next is to provide the credentials to access the NetApp ONTAP cluster. As of Veeam Backup v10 it is also possible to provide NetApp SVM (NetApp Storage Virtual Machine) instead of full cluster access. This way it helps to reduce access only to intended resources rather the entire cluster.
If the connection is successful it shows a message about a new certificate to review and validate. During the NetApp ONTAP installation it creates a self-signed certificate.
At this point it is possible to restrict which storage protocols should be used to scan the NetApp volumes. Interestingly enough Veeam also provides the option to specify which volumes to include during the scan. All by default. It is important to note the selected Veeam Backup Proxy should be allowed to “see” at least with read access volumes where the VMs are sitting.
A final screen for reviewing main info before committing the configuration.
At this point Veeam Backup will register the new storage in its database and perform the first scan for volumes and content like VMs.
A few seconds later and new NetApp ONTAP storage is added to the Veeam console. From here the option to start browsing the structure down to the volumes and snapshots.
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