Re: [Bacula-users] Slow backup from VMWare

I take it you want to know about our home brew solution. We wrote a couple of 
Perl Scripts. One gets the host that a VM is on, one gets the paths that belong 
to the VM (in our case we have VM disks on different datastores for the same 
VM) and we have a script that disables DRS for the VM being backed up.

The nasty part is that we have to have a client entry for each VM times the 
number of hosts. We also have to have a fileset for each VM even though the 
script dynamically generates the fileset. We have two hosts so a job for a VM 
is scheduled for both hosts. If the VM is not on the host then the script 
returns an error and the job is failed. If the VM is on the host, then a 
snapshot is generated, DRS for the VM is disabled so that the VM is not 
migrated during the back up. The files are sent to tape, DRS is restored to the 
previous setting and the backup snapshot is destroyed.

I thought about having cron run the jobs, but I couldn't find a way the modify 
the client in a job.

If you are interested in the actual scripts and configs, let me know. Someone 
may be able to improve on them.

Robert

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bacula-users-bounces AT lists.sourceforge DOT net [mailto:bacula-users-
> bounces AT lists.sourceforge DOT net] On Behalf Of Regis A. Despres
> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2008 2:11 PM
> To: bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
> Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Slow backup from VMWare
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I would really interrested in how you get all this working =]
> Btw, yes it use Virtual Center (backup proxy) HD space but for my point of
> vue and as Hard I/O on ESX is not really "improved" for, I do not use more
> than 50Gig per OS.
> More important space is allocated in shared Vmdk on SAN that take
> snapshots and goes directly on Tape(another one w/another backup solution
> =/)
> So, i never see more than 100Gig in the same time on the Virtual Center
> (backup proxy)
> About the "SCSI reservations", i didn't diagnose any of this (by lake of
> knoledge), but the NAS we use for tests (FreeNAS actualy) is connected in
> Gig through NFS, and works (for your purposes) like a charm.
> 
> 
> --
> Regis A. Despres
> 
> Robert LeBlanc a écrit :
> |
> | We tried Consolidated Backup and it's a pain in the neck. You have to
> copy the whole machine to the Windows machine (1 TB VM = 1 TB of storage
> on the Windows machine) before backup up to tape. It also created a ton of
> SCSI reservations and took down our test SAN twice.
> |
> | We have since opted to putting Bacula client on our ESX host and a
> series of scripts to determine which host a VM is on. Our VMs are backed
> up straight to tape and they stay running with snapshots. I finished up
> the scripting yesterday so we will see how it works on Sunday.
> |
> | > -----Original Message-----
> | > From: bacula-users-bounces AT lists.sourceforge DOT net 
> [mailto:bacula-users-
> | > bounces AT lists.sourceforge DOT net] On Behalf Of Regis A. Despres
> | > Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 4:44 AM
> | > To: bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
> | > Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Slow backup from VMWare
> | >
> | >
> | > Hi,
> | >
> | > In case we're still talkin' about ESX, there's a wonderful stuff
> called
> | > VCB (vmware consolidated backup) from VMWare.
> | > that can make live snapshot (no VM reboot)
> | > then can make those snapshots available on the Virtual Center.
> | > It results a kind of really useful "backup proxy" w/ less I/O and
> better
> | > "calibrated" network load.
> | > As i mostly use FreeBSD guests, i only backup full hosts. But it might
> be
> | > done diferently w/vmtools (according to the docs).
> | > Of course freely available from vmware ressources =]
> | >
> | > Regards,
> | >
> | >
> | > --
> | > Regis A. Despres
> | >
> | >
> | >
> | >
> | > Gregory Orange a écrit :
> | > |
> | > | I guess we cheat - we pause the VM for the duration of the backup,
> and
> | > | simply back up the host. This results in a complete system backup of
> the
> | > | VM, and we get full speed backup of a few large files each night. We
> can
> | > | do this happily because none of our VMs are very large - 10GB at
> most -
> | > | so not too much tape space is used. Our large data set (~3TB) is not
> | > | virtualised.
> | > | When the host is upgraded, or the VMs are moved somewhere other than
> | > | that SLES9 box[1], we'll have a newer version of LVM such that we
> can
> | > | pause the VM, create an LVM snapshot, resume the VM, perform a raw
> | > | backup of the snapshot, then delete the snapshot. Much less downtime
> for
> | > | the VM.
> | > |
> | > | [1] For some reason, we can't currently delete LVM snapshots without
> a
> | > | lot of work including host reboots. This would require huge disk
> space
> | > | wastage or unacceptable reboots!
> | > |
> | > | Brian Debelius wrote:
> | > | > I've never achieved more then about 10MBs from Server running
> under
> | > SUSE
> | > | > 9.  I am moving things to ESX right now.  I have not benchmarked
> the
> | > | > raid yet, but a single disk was around 45MBs
> | > | >
> | > | > Keith Sudbury wrote:
> | > | >> Hi Everyone,
> | > | >>
> | > | >> I have a CentOS box running a LTO-3 SCSI drive and I am currently
> | > | >> getting abour 7 / 8 MB/s from a Windows 2003SBS machine running
> on
> | > the
> | > | >> CentOS box. This is the only VM on the box and the server has no
> | > load.
> | > | >>
> | > | >> The box is a new Dell server of reasonable spec and has the
> Vmware is
> | > | >> running in "bridged" mode for networking, the drive are SATA and
> | > | >> confisured in a RAID5 (with a real hw card). I'm not expecting a
> | > rocket
> | > | >> but 7mb/s ???
> | > | >>
> | > | >> I am wondering if any of you have experianced any thing simular?
> | > | >>
> | > | >>
> | > | >> Many Thanks
> | > | >>
> | > | >>
> | > | >
> | > | >
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> | > |
> | > | --
> | > |     - ---- -----
> | > |       Gregory Orange             Phone: +61 8 9387 7955
> | > |      System Administator            Fax: +61 8 9387 6686
> | > |     RPS MetOcean
> http://www.rpsmetocean.com.au
> | > |    System Administrators Guild of Australia  http://www.sage-
> au.org.au
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