Based on the EMC Avamar Data Protection software the VMware VDP install and configuration process is very similar to what we have seen already with the deployment of the EMC Data Domain Virtual Edition article. VMware VDP already uses it’s own storage and can also benefit from connecting to EMC Data Domain for increased scalability. VMware VDP offers not just the Guest Level Backup (at VM level) but also applications backup and granular file restores along with encryption and de-duplication.
For this article I will be using VMware 6.1.3 and it is offered with a prepackaged OVA that requires a minimum of 4 CPUs and 4 GB of RAM. The purpose of this article is to provide a simple walkthrough from initial installation steps to running backup and restores testing different scenarios. Different topics will be covered in different articles. Ideally a single place where to find samples of common scenarios. For a start these are the topics I would like to cover:
- VMware VDP pre-installation steps
- VMware VDP appliance configuration settings
- VMware VDP general settings overview
- VMware VDP configure Backup
- VMware VDP configure Restore
- VMware VDP connect Data Domain
- VMware VDP best practices
- VMware VDP troubleshooting common issues
and possibly more depending on resources in my home lab. So at this point I’m ready to start with this introductory post about  VMware VDP 6.
The VMware VDP install of the virtual appliance is very simple as per screenshots below. Let’s start by locating the OVA package.
In this case I’m using the latest version at the time of writing which is 6.1.3 for the VMware VDP install.
Let’s accept the license.
Here we can define the name of the Virtual Appliance and the container in our infrastructure which will include our appliance.
We can now specify the location where the VMware VDP install appliance we be deployed. One thing to keep in mind (other than deploying for testing purposes) is the location where the appliance will be installed with obvious reflection on overall performances but also the storage that will be dedicated to the appliance for keeping the backups.
As we’ll see in the next post it is possible to configure different options depending on needs and available resources. Last but not least before proceeding is a good idea to consult the user manual to understand the space requirements.. So to get an idea here it is an excerpt from the official documentation.
In this instance I will choose the 0.5 TB. This installation can be expanded on a later stage when required.
We can now select which Virtual Network the appliance will be associated to.
If we have the network details I would recommend to set them now. Also before proceeding it would be handy to check DNS entries for vCenter and VMware VDP install appliance have been created and that FQDN name resolution works both ways.
And finally a quick summary before committing the settings in this wizard. In my case I choose not to power on the appliance as I wanted to change the vCPU allocation to better match my physical host thus reducing the overhead without decreasing performances.
And as expected the task pane will show the current operations. It’s a 5 GB OVF file so it’s time to sit down and enjoy a quick coffee!
Next article will cover the initial VMware VDP setup.
Add Comment