Commvault Complete Data Protection on VMware Cloud 1.20
Article ID: 323669
Updated On:
Products
VMware Cloud on AWS
VMware Cloud on Dell EMC
Issue/Introduction
Purpose
This article provides information about the support of Commvault Complete Complete Data Protection on VMware Cloud that covers VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware Cloud on Dell EMC.
Disclaimer: The partner solution referenced in this article is a solution that is developed and supported by a partner. Use of this product is also governed by the end user license agreement of the partner. You must obtain from the partner the application, support, and licensing for using this product. For more information, see:
VMware Cloud on AWS: https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=93413.htm
VMware Cloud on Dell/EMC:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
This article provides information about the support of Commvault Complete Complete Data Protection on VMware Cloud that covers VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware Cloud on Dell EMC.
Disclaimer: The partner solution referenced in this article is a solution that is developed and supported by a partner. Use of this product is also governed by the end user license agreement of the partner. You must obtain from the partner the application, support, and licensing for using this product. For more information, see:
VMware Cloud on AWS: https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=93413.htm
VMware Cloud on Dell/EMC:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
Resolution
Resolution
Here is a summary of target use cases, solution architecture, solution components, and support information.
Data Protection for Virtual Machines running within VMware Cloud on AWS using resources within VMware Cloud on AWS or resources on AWS are fully supported
Replication of Virtual Machines from On-Prem VMware vSphere environments to VMware Cloud on AWS
Migration or Recovery of VMware vSphere VMs into VMware Cloud on AWS environments
Use cases that are not supported on VMware Cloud on AWS
Replication of Virtual Machines from VMware vSphere on-premise to VMware Cloud on AWS using VMware VAIO
Live Mount and Live Recovery features of Commvault Complete Backup and Recovery which rely on the ability to present external storage to VMC on AWS
Solution Architecture
Commvault Complete Data Protection can run in many configurations when used with VMware Cloud on AWS. For a customer without an existing backup infrastructure, the Commvault infrastructure can be completely deployed within VMware Cloud on AWS while utilizing storage resources, via ENI, located within AWS. Each of the systems below refer to the software component of the Commvault ecosystem. These components can run together on a single system or can be separated to run on independent hosts, depending on the customer requirements.
A Commvault Commserve is required which is the core of the Commvault deployment. This runs on a Windows server which hosts the Commvault management interface and configuration and management database. The Commserve is not responsible data movement to or from clients.
The MediaAgent component is the data mover within the Commvault ecosystem. It is responsible for managing client backup and restore data being written to or from backup media. In many cases, when using Amazon storage tiers, clients can be configured to send index and metadata information to the MediaAgent while sending the data portion of their backup operations directly to the cloud storage target.
Finally, the Virtual Server Agent is the software component that interfaces with VMware Cloud on AWS to discover, manage, protect, and restore virtual machines configured for protection within a user environment.
The MediaAgent and Virtual Server Agent components can be scaled to support customer workloads as needed. All documentation regarding recommended system sizing can be found at the following link:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=93413.htm
Solution Components
Commvault Complete Data Protection is deployed from a single bootstrapper download used to deploy the Commserve. All other software components are deployed, configured, and managed through the Commserve once deployed.
VMware Cloud on AWS Network configuration
[Provide information on firewall rules, NAT rules, VPN, ENI setup]
[Provide screenshots from VMware Cloud on AWS console as needed]
Features of the Backup Solution
Interoperability with VMware Cloud on AWS Features
Commvault Complete Data Protection directly interacts with the vSphere/vSAN subsystems to detect, classify, protect, and restore virtual machines configured by the user which require data protection.
The interaction with VMware Cloud on AWS interoperability is documented here:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
VMware Cloud on AWS does not provide low level access to the ESXi hosts underlying vSphere which limits the ability to use Live Sync IO (which requires VAIO) to provide replication from on-premises vSphere environments into VMware Cloud on AWS. Additionally, Live Mount and Live Recovery features are not available as Commvault does not have access to present storage from Commvault Data Movers to VMware Cloud on AWS as datastores to allow for the quick boot/recovery of VMs from backup media.
Commvault makes no distinction between VMware vSphere on premise vs VMware Cloud on AWS vs VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. The underlying integration remains the same and the feature set is virtually identical across all platforms.
Datacenter:
In most environments for datacenter use cases, the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC will be paired with a secondary platform to provide backup infrastructure. In the Commvault case, this could be any compute and storage platform but for the purposes of this discussion, we will presume that the customer deployed a Commvault HyperScale grid alongside the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform.
The CommServe and MediaAgents will run on the Commvault HyperScale grid and all backup proxies will be deployed running hot-add mode within the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform. The number of backup proxies will depend entirely on the volume of data to be protected. Sizing information can be found here:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
ROBO:
For the ROBO environment, it is far less likely that the customer will have the space/budget for a secondary platform to run the Commvault infrastructure. In this case, all infrastructure (Commserve, MediaAgents, and backup proxies) will run on the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform and storage must be allocated to support the storage requirements dictated by the customer data protection requirements.
All sizing requirements can be found at the following link and infrastructure requirements will be dictated by customer data protection volume:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/1644_commcell_sizing.html
Clearly document network, bandwidth, local storage requirements for backup, restore and replication for Datacenter and ROBO use cases
Support Information
For more information on Commvault Complete Backup and Recovery, see https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=documentation.htm
Here is a summary of target use cases, solution architecture, solution components, and support information.
VMware Cloud on AWS
Use cases that are supported on VMware Cloud on AWSData Protection for Virtual Machines running within VMware Cloud on AWS using resources within VMware Cloud on AWS or resources on AWS are fully supported
Replication of Virtual Machines from On-Prem VMware vSphere environments to VMware Cloud on AWS
Migration or Recovery of VMware vSphere VMs into VMware Cloud on AWS environments
Use cases that are not supported on VMware Cloud on AWS
Replication of Virtual Machines from VMware vSphere on-premise to VMware Cloud on AWS using VMware VAIO
Live Mount and Live Recovery features of Commvault Complete Backup and Recovery which rely on the ability to present external storage to VMC on AWS
Solution Architecture
Commvault Complete Data Protection can run in many configurations when used with VMware Cloud on AWS. For a customer without an existing backup infrastructure, the Commvault infrastructure can be completely deployed within VMware Cloud on AWS while utilizing storage resources, via ENI, located within AWS. Each of the systems below refer to the software component of the Commvault ecosystem. These components can run together on a single system or can be separated to run on independent hosts, depending on the customer requirements.
A Commvault Commserve is required which is the core of the Commvault deployment. This runs on a Windows server which hosts the Commvault management interface and configuration and management database. The Commserve is not responsible data movement to or from clients.
The MediaAgent component is the data mover within the Commvault ecosystem. It is responsible for managing client backup and restore data being written to or from backup media. In many cases, when using Amazon storage tiers, clients can be configured to send index and metadata information to the MediaAgent while sending the data portion of their backup operations directly to the cloud storage target.
Finally, the Virtual Server Agent is the software component that interfaces with VMware Cloud on AWS to discover, manage, protect, and restore virtual machines configured for protection within a user environment.
The MediaAgent and Virtual Server Agent components can be scaled to support customer workloads as needed. All documentation regarding recommended system sizing can be found at the following link:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=93413.htm
Solution Components
Commvault Complete Data Protection is deployed from a single bootstrapper download used to deploy the Commserve. All other software components are deployed, configured, and managed through the Commserve once deployed.
VMware Cloud on AWS Network configuration
[Provide information on firewall rules, NAT rules, VPN, ENI setup]
[Provide screenshots from VMware Cloud on AWS console as needed]
Features of the Backup Solution
| Questions | Choose from the list (all that apply) Provide free text when there is no list |
| What backup repositories are supported? | AWS S3; AWS EC2; AWS cross-region; on-premises; any cloud storage currently listed as part of our compatibility matrix: http://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11_sp19/article?p=9236.htm |
| How is backup data transmitted to the repository? | ENI (preferred), DX (supported), Public Internet (supported) |
| Describe the implementation of the Datamover component | A single data mover (MediaAgent) is required but multiple are supported to scale the solution to meet the needs of the customer |
| Datamover Scale | If the data mover (MediaAgent) is running as an EC2 instance and networking rules have been configured to allow access, a single MediaAgent can manage data movement for multiple SDDC clusters. Multiple MediaAgents can be logically grouped together within Commvault Complete Backup and Recovery to support higher scale and meet customer RPO/RTO needs. |
| In large SDDCs (>500 VMs, >nTBs), your solution may scale data movers. How do you scale? | Commvault GridStor is a load balancing and failover technology built into the core of the product. MediaAgents and Storage can be added to a backup plan at any time to scale data protection operations at any time without reconfiguring clients. |
| How are additional data movers provisioned? | Customer controlled; but can be completely scripted using our publicly available API |
| Describe additional functionalities of image-based backups | File based recovery; Application/Databases consistent backup (Microsoft SQL, Exchange, Active Directory, SharePoint; Oracle on Windows and Linux, and many more) Additional details can be found: http://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11_sp19/article?p=14333.htm |
| Describe if in-guest backup options are available | Any and all supported agents can be installed in-guest to further support customer requirements as needed. |
| Describe security features | encryption in-rest encryption in transit FIPS-140-2 among other security/industry certifications noted here: https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/110316_certifications_and_compliance.html Full Role Based Access security with granular role assignment linked directly to LDAP/Active Directory with support for multiple two factor authentication options |
| Describe network bandwidth/utilization control features | Backup agents can be configured to support bandwidth limitations between client and MediaAgent Limitations on concurrent operations/threads/streams can be placed to minimize load, where needed, on the virtualization infrastructure |
| Describe design of deduplication/compression features | Deduplication and Compression can be enabled at the source (the virtual server agent for VM based protection) or at the data mover layer depending on customer need and requirement. Data Mover hosts house a deduplication database which checks in hashes of data blocks which have been processed by the client to determine uniqueness. Only unique blocks are transferred to the Data Mover from the client. The deduplication database is only required during data protection operations. All data written to disk is self-describing and is restored without needing to refer to the deduplication database. More information can be found here: https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/12401_optimize_storage_space_using_deduplication.html |
| Describe added-value services/features not listed above | |
For a 1TB VM Full backup/Full restore, describe
| |
| Hybrid centralized management: Describe how on-premises and VMC backups can be managed. Do you support single management console? | The Commvault Commserve is designed to support multiple environments within a single deployment, CommCell, and interface. On premise servers, virtualization platforms, and agents can be managed via a single interface and VMC (along with all data movers and backup proxies) can simply be additional hosts/systems within the CommCell. |
Hybrid restore/migration mode: Describe how a VM can be restored from on-premises backup to VMC or from VMC to on-premises | |
| For example, let’s say that you have a hybrid configuration. On-premise with local backup, in VMC with cloud backup. What happens if an on-premise VM is migrated to VMC? Will the backup solution automatically update the location of the repository or will the VM still be backed up on premise? | Commvault is able to backup and restore virtual machines from VMware vSphere to a host of destinations including VMware Cloud on AWS or directly to AWS. Since Commvault is not actively managing the production workload, it is unaffected by restores of that workload in alternate locations, whether they are on premise or in the cloud. If the user has defined VMware Cloud on AWS as a known system and has defined auto-discovery rules, Commvault will begin protecting the recovered VM within VMware Cloud on AWS following the restore. |
| Scale: a. What are your supported maximums (# of VMs, # of TBs) both in number, and/or in simultaneous backup streams? b. Given your SLA, then what is the max bandwidth between VMC and repository? | We do not have a published maximum with respect to MediaAgents or backup proxies. As the customer environment scales and the backup proxies scale with it, those workloads will be incorporated. Any given system will have maximum scale recommendations, but these are not enforced limits. The SLA is defined by the customer not Commvault. |
Interoperability with VMware Cloud on AWS Features
Commvault Complete Data Protection directly interacts with the vSphere/vSAN subsystems to detect, classify, protect, and restore virtual machines configured by the user which require data protection.
The interaction with VMware Cloud on AWS interoperability is documented here:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
VMware Cloud on AWS does not provide low level access to the ESXi hosts underlying vSphere which limits the ability to use Live Sync IO (which requires VAIO) to provide replication from on-premises vSphere environments into VMware Cloud on AWS. Additionally, Live Mount and Live Recovery features are not available as Commvault does not have access to present storage from Commvault Data Movers to VMware Cloud on AWS as datastores to allow for the quick boot/recovery of VMs from backup media.
VMware Cloud on Dell EMC
Solution ArchitectureCommvault makes no distinction between VMware vSphere on premise vs VMware Cloud on AWS vs VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. The underlying integration remains the same and the feature set is virtually identical across all platforms.
Datacenter:
In most environments for datacenter use cases, the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC will be paired with a secondary platform to provide backup infrastructure. In the Commvault case, this could be any compute and storage platform but for the purposes of this discussion, we will presume that the customer deployed a Commvault HyperScale grid alongside the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform.
The CommServe and MediaAgents will run on the Commvault HyperScale grid and all backup proxies will be deployed running hot-add mode within the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform. The number of backup proxies will depend entirely on the volume of data to be protected. Sizing information can be found here:
https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=126043.htm
ROBO:
For the ROBO environment, it is far less likely that the customer will have the space/budget for a secondary platform to run the Commvault infrastructure. In this case, all infrastructure (Commserve, MediaAgents, and backup proxies) will run on the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC platform and storage must be allocated to support the storage requirements dictated by the customer data protection requirements.
All sizing requirements can be found at the following link and infrastructure requirements will be dictated by customer data protection volume:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/expert/1644_commcell_sizing.html
Clearly document network, bandwidth, local storage requirements for backup, restore and replication for Datacenter and ROBO use cases
Support Information
- All Commvault product documentation can be found here:
- Commvault Support can be found here:
- https://ma.commvault.com/Support
- 1-877-780-3077 (24x7 availability)
- Sample problematic scenarios and how to address them
- Link to the most common troubleshooting items can be found here:
For more information on Commvault Complete Backup and Recovery, see https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11/article?p=documentation.htm
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