IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments support for VMware Cloud on AWS

Use cases that are supported on VMware Cloud on AWS

IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments 8.1 provides data protection for virtual machines managed by a VMware Cloud on AWS Software-Defined Data Center and supports these use cases:

• Virtual machine data protection providing backup to a centralized IBM Spectrum Protect server
• Incremental forever virtual machine backup using VMware’s Change Block Tracking (CBT) feature to reduce the daily backup workload to only data that has changed since the previous backup operation
• Data compression and data deduplication at the backup source or target
• Automatic discovery of new virtual machine inventory without having to modify existing data protection policies
• Recovery of a virtual machine within a VMware Cloud on AWS Software-Defined Data Center either to replace a failed machine or as a new virtual machine entity including virtual network (NSX) definitions
• Recovery of files and/or directories within supported Microsoft Windows and Linux virtual machines
• Backup and recovery of individual virtual machine disks (VMDK)
• HotAdd transport mode

Use cases that are not supported on VMware Cloud on AWS

These use cases are not supported by IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments when deployed in a VMware Cloud on AWS Software-Defined Data Center

• Use of the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client plugins for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments
• Ability to instantly access a virtual machine image by accessing data directly from the IBM Spectrum Protect server backup storage
• Ability to instantly restore a virtual machine by accessing data directly from the IBM Spectrum Protect server backup storage and migrating the storage to vSAN storage located in the Software-Defined Data Center using Storage vMotion
• Protection of Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Exchange Server applications running within a virtual machine
• Recovery of virtual machines outside of the Software-Defined Data Center
• NBD, NBDSSL, and SAN transport modes

Certified Levels

The following levels of VMware Cloud on AWS have been certified by IBM

Solution Architecture

The recommended architecture for protecting virtual machines in a VMware Cloud on AWS Software-Defined Data Center allows a customer to protect virtual machine workloads within the Software-Defined Data Center by providing backup to a centralized Spectrum Protect backup server outside of the Software-Defined Data Center as shown in the diagram below:

The IBM Spectrum Protect components for this solution are:

• Spectrum Protect backup server which provides automated, centrally scheduled, policy-managed backup capabilities for virtual machines and other workloads. This component is installed in the customer’s AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Spectrum Protect backup storage which can consist of disk-based, cloud-based, or tape-based storage organized into storage containers or storage pools.  For disk- and tape-based storage, the storage would be located in the customer’s AWS VPC; for cloud-based storage the storage can be on-premise or in a certified object storage environment.  For more information about which cloud object storage environments are certified with IBM Spectrum Protect see this IBM Support document.

• Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environment (Data Protection for VMware) data movers which are responsible for moving data between the Software-Defined Data Center datastores and the Spectrum Protect backup storage for backup and recovery operations. This component is installed in the VMware Cloud on AWS Software-Defined Data Center.

Solution Components

The following components are required for data protection of virtual machines in VMware Cloud on AWS:

• IBM Spectrum Protect Server 8.1.8 or higher
• IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments – Data Protection for VMware 8.1.8 or higher

Detailed information about the solution can be found in the IBM Knowledge Center

Installation and Configuration

Installation and configuration of the IBM Spectrum Protect Server component can be found in the IBM Knowledge Center

Steps to install and configure IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments – Data Protection for VMware component.

1. Review the IBM Knowledge Center article: Installing and upgrading Data Protection for VMware
2. Choose a Windows virtual machine in the Software-Defined Data Center to install Data Protection for VMware
3. Execute the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments Data Protection for VMware suite installation wizard and select the “Typical installation” installation type
4. When the installation wizard completes, uncheck the box to launch the configuration wizard.
5. Edit the permissions required for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments to allow the solution to execute in the Software-Defined Data Center
   1. Locate the permissions file on the Windows virtual machine where IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments was installed, the permissions file is located at C:\IBM\SpectrumProtect\webserver\usr\servers\veProfile\tsmVmGUI\TSMRequiredPermissonsList.xml
   2. Open the file TSMRequiredPermissionsList.xml
   3. Remove all of the “<Privilege>…” lines in the section under <vCenter version’”6.*>, leaving only the “<Privilege>Datastore.AllocateSpace” permission as shown:
      
      <vCenter version=”6.*”>
         <Datacenter>
            <Privilege>Datastore.AllocateSpace</Privilege>
         </Datacenter>
      
      Note: it is normal to have to remove 40 – 50 lines with the <Privilege> tag in this step
   4. Save the changes to TSMRequiredPermissionsList.xml and close the file.
6. On the Spectrum Protect server, create a policy domain to manage the virtual machine backups, e.g., domain=VMC_DOMAIN. For more information on creating policy domains refer to the IBM Knowledge Center
7. Launch the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments user interface from the Windows virtual machine where IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments was installed using a web browser and opening https://localhost:9081/TsmVMwareUI
8. Login to the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments user interface
   1. for “vCenter Name” enter the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the vCenter server
   2. Enter the vCenter Username and Password
   3. Ensure that the “Configuration Mode” checkbox is checked.
9. In the Configuration Wizard “vCenter Settings” panel uncheck the “Update registration” checkbox to prevent registering the solution with the vSphere Web Client
10. Finish the additional steps in the Configuration Wizard as outlined  in the IBM Knowledge Center article: Installing and upgrading Data Protection for VMware
11. Locate and modify the local IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments data mover options file
    1. On a Windows platform, the options file is located at:
       C:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient\dsm.<data mover unique>.opt
    2. Add the following line at the end of the file
       testflags VM_NO_VSPHERE_STATUS
    3. Save and close the options file
    4. If you choose to add data movers on a Linux platform, the options file that needs to be modified is dsm.sys
    5. If you enabled File Level Restore in the configuration wizard, add the testflags line above to the Windows mount proxy option file and to the Linux mount proxy section of the dsm.sys file.
12. Verify the configuration by launching a virtual machine backup operation from IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments
    1. Locate the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments data mover executable on the Windows machine where the component was installed. On Windows this executable is:
       C:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient\dsmc.exe
    2. Execute the command to backup a virtual machine
       dsmc backup vm <vmname> -optfile=dsm.<data mover unique>.opt -asnode=<datacenter node>
        

VMware Cloud on AWS Network configuration

Review the information about Required communications ports in the IBM Knowledge Center to configure the appropriate ports between the Spectrum Protect components and the VMware Cloud on AWS components.

At minimum you will need to create an inbound rule for port 443 as shown in the VMware on AWS console screenshot below:

Interoperability with VMware Cloud on AWS product features

The IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments solution provides data protection for virtual machines deployed in Software-Defined Data Center on VMware Cloud on AWS.  It is not intended to provide protection for hybrid solutions such as protecting virtual machines in a traditional data center (or traditional vSphere datacenter) and recovering the virtual machine to a Software-Defined Data Center or visa-versa.