Hi,



They do support it; in a lot of cases, they recommend it. Particularly
when
using DDBoost.

I like it for when you want to replicate the backup server to a DR site;
it
makes restoring NetWorker much faster in that case, although it also
typically means that your backup server is mostly dedicated to managing
backups, and not moving IO.



Your concerns are on-point though.

--I'm actually less concerned about an individual ESXi server, so long as
the VMware configuration includes HA so the networker server restarts on
another node; that's actually a benefit over a traditional configuration.

--CPU is definitely something that has to be planned for.

--Storage is a different concern-although a lot of folks have their
NetWorker databases on their primary arrays, so it may not be as different
from a physical server configuration as it would appear at first glance.



IMHO,  the concern about "if my VMware environment blows up, and I can't
access my backup server at all" is the key one. Particularly since RTO for
a primary site that has some damage is generally more stringent than if a
full DR is called.



Reference link:https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-9738.



Dave



*From:* Stanley R. Horwitz [mailto:stan AT temple DOT edu]
*Sent:* Wednesday, June 19, 2013 4:27 PM
*To:* EMC NetWorker discussion; <dave2 AT CAMBRIDGECOMPUTER DOT COM> <
dave2 AT CAMBRIDGECOMPUTER DOT COM>
*Subject:* Re: [Networker] networker server as VM



Dave,



Does EMC support deploying NetWorker in a virtual server environment? With
the heavy network bandwidth that backups typically require, as well as
high
processor load, I couldn't imagine virtualizing a backup server in any
environment where there are more than just a few backup clients. It also
seems to me that hosting a virtualized backup server in the same VMware
complex that is being backed up amounts to putting all of one's eggs in a
single basket. What happens if the ESX server that host's the NetWorker
server crashes, or its storage crashes?



On Jun 19, 2013, at 2:10 PM, <dave2 AT CAMBRIDGECOMPUTER DOT COM> wrote:



Hi,

I was wondering what folks experience was with having their NetWorker
server configured as a VM?


I'm specifically thinking about the need to have a local device for
indexes
and bootstraps. How have you dealt with that in an all tape (or FC-only
VTL) environment?