Introduction to

VMware vSphere ®
Data Protection ™

T e c h n i c a l W HI T E P A P E R
Revised 5/14/2013
 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Additional benefits with vSphere Data Protection Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Architectural Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Deployment and Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Restore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Long-Term Backup Data Retention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Avoiding Backup Data Corruption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Introduction
VMware vSphere® Data Protection™ is a backup and recovery solution for VMware® virtual machines. It is fully
integrated with VMware vCenter Server™ and VMware vSphere Web Client, providing disk-based backup of
virtual machines. vSphere Data Protection is available in two versions:
• VMware vSphere Data Protection, included with VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit and higher.
• VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced™, with increased backup data capacity (up to 8TB) and agents for
Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server. These agents facilitate application-consistent backups
and more granular backup and restore capabilities. vSphere Data Protection Advanced is included with the
VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite™ Enterprise Edition and Enterprise Plus Edition Acceleration
Kits. It can also be purchased separately.

Benefits
• Fast, efficient backup and recovery for vSphere virtual machines
• Significantly reduced backup data disk space requirements, with a patented, variable-length deduplication
technology across all backup jobs
• Use of vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection and Changed Block Tracking (CBT) to reduce load on the
vSphere host infrastructure and minimize backup window requirements
• Full virtual machine restore—or “image-level” restore—and File Level Restore (FLR), without the need for an
agent to be installed in every virtual machine
• Simplified deployment and configuration using a virtual appliance form factor
• Administration through vSphere Web Client
• Appliance and data protection via a checkpoint-and-rollback mechanism
• Easy restoration of Microsoft Windows and Linux files with the Web-based vSphere Data Protection
Restore Client

Additional benefits with vSphere Data Protection Advanced

• Mission-critical Exchange Server and SQL Server workload protection with agents designed specifically for
these applications
• Dynamic addition of backup data capacity as requirements grow
• In-place upgrade of vSphere Data Protection to vSphere Data Protection Advanced
This paper presents an overview of the architecture, deployment, configuration and management of
vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced. Throughout the remainder of this document,
vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced will be referred to collectively as
vSphere Data Protection. Features exclusive to one version or the other will be called out explicitly.

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Architectural Overview
vSphere Data Protection requires VMware vCenter Server 5.1 or higher. vCenter Server can be the traditional
Windows implementation or the Linux-based VMware vCenter™ Server Appliance™.
vSphere Data Protection supports backing up virtual machines on vSphere versions 4.1 and later. Web browsers
must be enabled with Adobe Flash Player to access vSphere Web Client and vSphere Data Protection
functionality. See vSphere documentation for a list of Web browsers currently supported with
vSphere Web Client.
vSphere Data Protection is deployed as a prebuilt, Linux-based virtual appliance. It supports backing up as many
as 100 virtual machines per appliance. vSphere Data Protection Advanced supports a maximum of 400 virtual
machines per appliance. vCenter Server supports as many as 10 vSphere Data Protection appliances.

vCenter vSphere Data

Server Protection

Virtual Virtual
VM VM VM Appliance Appliance

VMware vSphere

vSphere Web
Client

Deduplication Store
(.vmdk files)

Figure 1. vSphere Data Protection Components

A vSphere Data Protection appliance is deployed by default with four processors. Figure 2 outlines the default
storage and memory configurations. The actual amount of (thick-provisioned) storage consumed by an
appliance is greater than the capacity shown in the “Deduplicated Backup Data Storage Capacity” column.
This additional storage capacity is required for items such as the appliance guest operating system (OS), the
vSphere Data Protection application, and integrity checks. Thin-provisioned storage can be utilized when
deploying a vSphere Data Protection appliance. A user who plans to utilize thin provisioning for their
vSphere Data Protection deployment should review the section titled “Impact of Selecting Thin or Thick
Provisioned Disks” in the vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide.

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

D e d u p l i c at e d B ac k u p M e mo r y
Data S to r ag e Capac i t y

vSphere Data Protection .5TB 4GB

vSphere Data Protection 1TB 4GB

vSphere Data Protection 2TB 4GB

vSphere Data Protection 2TB 6GB

Advanced

Figure 2. vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced Storage and Memory Configurations

Prior to deploying vSphere Data Protection, users should plan adequately to help ensure proper sizing because
extra storage capacity cannot be added after the appliance has been deployed. In contrast, vSphere Data
Protection Advanced enables dynamic provisioning of additional capacity (up to 8TB total).
When determining storage capacity requirements, several items should be considered, such as number of
protected virtual machines, amount of data being backed up, retention periods, and data change rates.

Deployment and Configuration

vSphere Data Protection is deployed using vSphere Web Client or VMware vSphere Client™ from a prepackaged
Open Virtualization Archive (.ova) file. The .ova files are labeled to easily identify the amount of backup data
storage capacity deployed with the appliance.
After the appliance has been deployed and powered on, a Web browser is used to access the vSphere Data
Protection configuration user interface (UI) and perform the initial configuration. The first time a user connects
to the configuration UI, it will be running in “install mode.” With the “install mode” wizard, items such as IP
address, host name, DNS, time zone and vCenter Server connection information are configured. Upon successful
completion of the “install mode” wizard, the appliance will reboot. This reboot can take 30 minutes or longer to
complete as the appliance finishes initial configuration.
After initial configuration, the vSphere Data Protection configuration UI runs in “maintenance mode.” In this
mode, the vSphere Data Protection configuration UI is utilized to perform functions such as starting and
stopping services in the appliance, collecting logs, and rolling back the appliance to a previous valid
configuration state, which will be discussed later in this document.

Administration
vSphere Web Client is used to create and maintain backup jobs and to perform virtual machine and application
restores, reporting and configuration.

Backup
Creating and editing a backup job is accomplished using the Backup tab of the vSphere Data Protection UI in
vSphere Web Client. Individual virtual machines can be selected for backup. It is also possible to select specific
virtual machine disks (.vmdk files) for backup. For example, an administrator might want to put the OS, page file
or swap partition, applications and data on separate virtual machine disks. If the requirement is only to protect
the data, the administrator can select only the virtual machine disk containing the data, which minimizes backup
capacity consumption.

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Selecting an individual virtual machine disk in a backup job is not currently supported in vSphere Data
Protection Advanced.
Containers of virtual machines such as datacenters, clusters and resource pools can also be selected for backup.
When a virtual machine is added to the protected container, it is automatically backed up. Likewise, when a
virtual machine is removed from the container, it is no longer included in the backup job. Previous restore points
are preserved until expired by the retention policy.
Backup jobs can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly. Each job starts at its scheduled time and runs once on
the day it is scheduled.
Setting specific start times for each backup job in vSphere Data Protection Advanced is not currently supported.
Backup jobs in vSphere Data Protection Advanced are initiated at any time during the backup window.
The retention policy can be defined in a few ways. Examples include retention for 60 days or until a specific date.
A custom retention policy can also be defined.
After a backup job has been created, it can be edited or deleted. It is also possible to clone a backup job. Cloning
can be useful if, for example, the backup administrator wants to easily duplicate an existing custom retention
policy for a new set of virtual machines. The administrator can clone the existing backup job and simply edit the
selected virtual machines in the new backup job.
The initial backup of a virtual machine can take a significant amount of time as all data blocks that make up that
virtual machine are backed up. Subsequent backups take less time because vSphere Data Protection utilizes CBT
in vSphere.
vSphere Data Protection Advanced adds the ability to protect and restore Exchange Server and SQL Server. An
application-specific agent is installed in the guest OS of a virtual machine. vSphere Data Protection Advanced
leverages this agent to back up and restore Exchange Server or SQL Server application databases. Using this
agent enables application-consistent backups and provides support for other options such as full, differential or
incremental backups; multistream backup; and log truncation.

Figure 3. Application Backup Job Options in vSphere Data Protection Advanced

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Restore
Restoring an entire virtual machine is performed using the Restore tab in the vSphere Data Protection UI. The
administrator can browse the list of protected virtual machines and select one or more restore points. Individual
virtual machine disks can also be selected for restore. Restoring a virtual machine does not require connectivity
to vCenter Server. This is especially beneficial for protecting vCenter Server—assuming it is running in a virtual
machine—with vSphere Data Protection.
vSphere Data Protection Advanced does not currently support selecting individual virtual machine disks for
restore. Connectivity to vCenter Server is required for vSphere Data Protection Advanced.
vSphere Data Protection offers fast and efficient recovery by leveraging CBT. When restoring an entire virtual
machine, the workloads of both a full image restore and a restore leveraging CBT are evaluated. vSphere Data
Protection intelligently determines which method will result in the fastest virtual machine recovery time. In some
cases, the change rate since the last backup is very high, so the overhead of a CBT analysis operation would be
more costly than that for a full image restore.
To prevent overwriting an existing virtual machine, a new virtual machine name and destination datastore can
be specified. Choosing a restore location other than the original will result in a full image restore. There also are
options to power on the virtual machine and reconnect its NIC after the restore has been completed. This is
useful for verifying that existing backups can be restored successfully.
With vSphere Data Protection, it is also possible to restore individual files and folders/directories within a virtual
machine. An FLR is performed using a Web-based tool called vSphere Data Protection Restore Client. The
process enables end users to conduct restores on their own, without the assistance of an administrator, by
selecting a restore point and browsing the file system as it looked at the time that backup was done. They locate
the item(s) to be recovered, select a destination for the restored items and start the recovery. The progress of
the restore job can be monitored in vSphere Data Protection Restore Client.

Figure 4. vSphere Data Protection Restore Client

vSphere Data Protection Advanced provides the ability to restore Exchange Server and SQL Server application
databases. Figure 5 shows an individual database selected for recovery.

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Figure 5. Individual Database Selected for Recovery in vSphere Data Protection Advanced

Another example is restoration to a recovery database (RDB) in Exchange Server 2010. The Exchange Server
administrator can then recover an individual mailbox or mailbox folder from the RDB.

Figure 6. Exchange Server Restore into a Recovery Database in vSphere Data Protection Advanced

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Reporting
The Reports tab in vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced displays a variety of
information: appliance status, used capacity, backup job and virtual machine backup details, and so on. There
are links to the event console and task console for additional information and for troubleshooting purposes.
The list of virtual machines can be filtered using several criteria; for example, virtual machine name or date of
the most recent backup. The Details section displays specifics about the virtual machine selected in the list of
clients—items such as virtual machine name, guest OS, backup status and date of last successful backup.
In addition to UI reporting capabilities, vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced can be
configured to send email reports scheduled at a specific time, once per day on any or all days of the week.
Similar to the UI, these email messages contain details on the vSphere Data Protection appliance, backup jobs
and the virtual machines that are backed up.

Long-Term Backup Data Retention

vSphere Data Protection is designed primarily for near-term backup and restore, typically measured in weeks or
months. Some organizations require long-term backup data retention for reasons such as company policy and
regulatory requirements. vSphere Data Protection facilitates this by providing the means to quiesce the vSphere
Data Protection virtual appliance and enable replication of backup data to a VMware vCloud® Hybrid Service
(vCHS) provider. Another option is to archive to tape using a third-party solution for offsite storage.
Although vSphere Data Protection Advanced does not currently support the features previously discussed, it is
still possible to retain vSphere Data Protection Advanced backup data using replication or third-party solutions.
For example, a user can shut down the vSphere Data Protection Advanced virtual appliance on a weekly basis
and replicate it or back it up to tape using a third-party solution.

Avoiding Backup Data Corruption

vSphere Data Protection and vSphere Data Protection Advanced contain a checkpoint-and-rollback mechanism.
A checkpoint is a system-wide backup of the vSphere Data Protection appliance that is performed to help
protect the appliance from risks that might cause data corruption, such as an unexpected appliance power-off.
In this case, the appliance would roll back to the last validated checkpoint. Any backup jobs performed after that
checkpoint would be lost, but data corruption—that is, loss of all backup information—likely would be avoided.

Figure 10. vSphere Data Protection Rollback Checkpoints

vSphere Data Protection features detachable backup destination storage. It is possible to detach the backup
data partition—a group of virtual machine disks—from an existing vSphere Data Protection virtual appliance,
deploy a new instance of the appliance, and attach the existing backup data partition to the new appliance.
This can be useful when the vSphere Data Protection OS partition and the backup data partition are deployed to
separate vSphere datastores and an issue arises with the datastore where the OS partition resides.
vSphere Data Protection Advanced does not currently support detachable backup destination storage.

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 Introduction to VMware vSphere Data Protection

Summary
Data protection is a key component of any business continuity plan. VMware vSphere Data Protection provides
an efficient solution for protecting a VMware virtual machine infrastructure. vSphere Data Protection Advanced
adds more capacity and the capability to protect mission-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange Server
and Microsoft SQL Server. Deployment is quick and easy. Administration is performed using a Web-based
graphical user interface integrated with VMware vSphere Web Client. End users can restore files without
requiring assistance from a backup administrator.

About the Author

Jeff Hunter is a senior technical marketing manager with a focus on business continuity solutions. He has been
with VMware for more than six years, prior to which he spent several years assisting with the implementation
and administration of VMware virtual infrastructures at two Fortune 500 companies.

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