Dell EMC Avamar 18.1 for VMware Cloud on AWS

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information about Dell EMC Avamar 18.1 support for VMware Cloud on AWS. With Dell EMC Avamar 18.1, you can administrate backup, replication and restore operations in VMware Cloud on AWS environments.

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 Dell EMC Avamar.

Resolution

Target use cases

Use cases that are supported on VMware Cloud on AWS

Dell EMC Avamar 18.1 and later releases provide you with the ability to perform virtual machine protection and recovery by using the Dell EMC Avamar VMware Protection solution. Refer to the Dell EMC Avamar for VMware user guide for all the supported usecases for image based virtual machine protection.

Use cases that are not supported on VMware Cloud on AWS

Some of the VMware features and permissions are not granted within the VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) environment. Therefore, some dependent Dell EMC Avamar features will be limited or not operating. Depending on VMware update releases for VMware Cloud on AWS, the situation may change and the features listed below may become available to be qualified and supported by Dell EMC.

Dell EMC Avamar VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on AWS does not currently support the following operations:

• Proxy Deployment Manager for deployment of proxies
• Instant access recovery of an image-level backup.
• Emergency restore (image-level restore directly to an ESXi host, bypassing the vCenter).
• Image-level backups and restores using NBD or NBDSSL transport mode.
• Advanced policy based data protection for MS-SQL using Avamar.
• Application aware image backups for MS-SQL and MS-Exchange
• Image backup and restore when the datacenter is under a folder
• Exclusion of pagefile or user defined files from Windows image backup
• Proxy appliance configured with dual-stack or IPv6-only is not supported
• VMware tag based rule selection criteria for dynamic policy
• Use of the Enterprise Backup and Recovery plugin for vSphere  

Solution Architecture

Dell EMC Avamar VMware Protection for VMware Cloud on AWS

This solution allows image based (via VADP) data protection for the workloads running in VMware Cloud on AWS.
Dell EMC Avamar VMware Protection solution in VMware Cloud on AWS requires the following virtual appliances:

• Dell EMC Avamar Server 18.1 or later, running as a Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE)
• Data Domain Virtual Edition (DDVE) version 3.1 or later
• Avamar proxy appliance version 18.1 or later

 
To perform data protection and disaster recovery tasks in VMware Cloud on AWS, consider the following recommendations and requirements on the backup infrastructure deployment:

• Avamar Server: it is recommended to deploy Dell EMC Avamar server in VMware Cloud on AWS environment as a virtual appliance (AVE).
• Avamar Image Proxy: it is recommended to deploy the proxy appliance in VMware Cloud on AWS environment. Deploy at least one image proxy per each SDDC cluster in the VMware Cloud on AWS.
• Data Domain Virtual Edition: it is recommended to have your backups stored outside of the VMware Cloud on AWS environment, for example, on the Amazon AWS VPC. This type of deployment allows for efficient data transfer over the fast ENI connection used by VMware to communicate with Amazon AWS.

It is also recommended to replicate your backups to another Data Domain running either in the same AWS geographical location or in a different AWS geographical location. This type of deployment allows backup copies to be stored for longer retention, leveraging the AWS network for transferring data at lower latency and cost when compared to the public Internet.

The Dell EMC Avamar for VMware user guide provides details on how to set up and configure the Avamar solution for VMware Cloud on AWS.
 
VMware Cloud on AWS Network configuration

Domain Name System (DNS) resolution is critical for Dell EMC Avamar deployment and configuration. All infrastructure components should be resolvable through a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). This is especially important for the Dell EMC Avamar Server, Dell EMC Avamar image proxy and Data Domain appliance. Resolvable means that components are accessible through both forward (A) and reverse (PTR) look-ups. Review the following prerequisites prior to configuring Dell EMC Avamar in a VMware Cloud on AWS. Also, ensure that you plan your firewall according to these prerequisites.

VMware Cloud on AWS web portal console
 

In the “VMware Cloud on AWS” web portal console please ensure the following:

• By default, there is no external access to the vCenter Server system in your SDDC (Software Defined Data Center). You can open access to your vCenter Server system by configuring a firewall rule. Set the firewall rule in the compute gateway of VMware Cloud on AWS to enable communication to the vCenter public IP address from the desired logical network of your SDDC. The Dell EMC Avamar server will not allow you to add the vCenter Server if this firewall rule is not configured in the SDDC.
• The default compute gateway firewall rules prevent all virtual machine traffic from reaching the internet. To allow your Dell EMC Avamar Server virtual machine to connect to the internet, you need to create a compute gateway firewall rule to allow outbound traffic on the logical network that your Dell EMC Avamar Server virtual machine is connected to.
• Configure DNS to allow machines in your SDDC to resolve fully-qualified domain names (FQDNs) to IP addresses belonging to the internet. The Dell EMC Avamar Server will not allow you to add the vCenter Server using the server's public FQDN or IP address if the DNS server is not configured in your SDDC.
• It is recommended that you deploy the Data Domain system as a virtual appliance in the Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) of your choice. During the SDDC creation, ensure that you connect your SDDC to an AWS account, and select a VPC and subnet within that account.
• The Data Domain system running in your Amazon VPC must be connected to your VMware SDDC by way of the VMware Cloud Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs), allowing your SDDC and services in the AWS VPC and subnet in your AWS account to  communicate without needing to route traffic through the internet gateway. Detailed steps on configuring ENI are provided by VMware at https://vmc.vmware.com/console/aws-link.
• Ensure that you configure the inbound and outbound firewall rules of your compute gateway for Data Domain connectivity if DDVE is running in your Amazon VPC.
• If using NSX-T then you need to configure the DNS to resolve to internal IP address of the vCenter (Go to your SDDC Management – Settings – vCenter FQDN and select the Private vCenter IP address) so that you can directly access the management network over the built-in firewall. TCP port 443 of the vCenter (inbound and outbound) needs to be opened in both the management gateway and the compute gateway of the edge firewall. In case of file level restore functionality, then you also need to allow access to TCP port 443 of the ESXi (inbound and outbound) in both the management gateway and the compute gateway of the edge firewall.

 

Amazon AWS web portal

In the “Amazon AWS” web portal, note the following requirements:

• Configure the inbound and outbound firewall rules of your Amazon VPC security group to provide connectivity between the VMware SDDC compute gateway and Data Domain connectivity if Data Domain is running in your Amazon VPC.
• If replicating from one Data Domain system to another, ensure that you configure the inbound rule for the security group in AWS to allow all traffic from the respective private IPs of Data Domain Virtual Editions running in your Amazon VPC.
• If you have more than one Data Domain running in AWS to perform replication, then ensure that both Data Domain systems can ping each other using the FQDNs.

 

vCenter Server inventory
 

In the vCenter server inventory of your SDDC, note the following requirements:

• An internal DNS name lookup server must be running inside the vCenter inventory. This will be referenced by all the workloads running in the VMware SDDC.
• The internal DNS server must have Forwarders enabled to access the internet. This is required in order to resolve the vCenter Server's public FQDN if the SDDC is using NSX-v.

 

Interoperability with VMware Cloud on AWS product features

VMware Cloud on AWS has certain restrictions when it comes to workloads and resource pools. For proper operation, you can select the specific areas marked as “Workload” or “Compute”. Avoid using the non-accessible areas, for example:

• vsanDatastore datastore
• Management VMs folder in VMs and Templates view
• Mgmt-ResourcePool resource pool in Hosts and Clusters view

Support Information

Configuration best practices:

1. When deploying or configuring the Dell EMC Avamar server or Image proxy, please ensure that correct DNS server IP pointing to the internal DNS server running in the vCenter inventory is specified.
2. When accessing the AUI (HTML5 Avamar Administration console) using vCenter authentication, note the following requirement:

Specify the following parameter in the aui.properties file kept in the below path on the Avamar server:

/usr/local/avamar/var/aui/server_data/prefs/
vmc.vcenters=vcenter-name

Notes:
- vCenter name has to match as it appears in Avamar Administrator
- This setting is mandatory for any vCenters running in VMware cloud on AWS, if not set then login to the AUI will fail when using the vCenter Auth.

3. Ensure that both forward and reverse lookup entries in the internal DNS server are in place for all the required components such as Dell EMC Avamar server, Dell EMC Avamar Image proxy, DDVE appliance etc.
4. Add the vCenter Server to the Dell EMC Avamar server using either the public FQDN of the vCenter Server or the public IP address of the vCenter server. It is recommended to use FQDN. In case of NSX-T, you will need to add using the public FQDN which will internally resolve to the private IP of the vCenter Server.
5. While adding the vCenter Server to the Dell EMC Avamar server, specify the login credentials for the [email protected] user.  

Configuring vCenter-to-Avamar authentication for VMware Cloud on AWS

The most secure method for configuring vCenter-to-Avamar authentication is to add vCenter authentication certificates to the Avamar MCS keystore. You must do this for each vCenter you intend to protect.

Steps to import the authentication certificates for VMware Cloud on AWS:

1. Download any root certificate from entrust website:  https://www.entrustdatacard.com/pages/root-certificates-download.
2. Place the root certificate in the Avamar server and follow the instructions as per documented section Adding vCenter authentication certificates to the MCS keystore in the Dell EMC Avamar for VMware user guide.
3. Proceed to add the vCenter to the Avamar server as per the documented steps.

Troubleshooting

For VMware Protection using Avamar Proxy, refer to the Troubleshooting appendix in Dell EMC Avamar for VMware user guide.
 

Log collection

For VMware Protection using Avamar Proxy, all relevant logs are placed in the below locations:

• Avamar Server: /space/avamar/var/mc/server_log/
• Avamar Proxy: /usr/local/avamarclient/var/

Additional Information

Documentation available at https://support.emc.com/products/759_Avamar-Server/Documentation/ provides additional and detailed information on setup and configuration for all of the solution components.