Question & Answer
Question
Answer
Use cases that are supported on VMware Cloud on AWS
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.5 or later provides data protection for virtual machines managed by a VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC and supports these use cases:
- Virtual machine data protection providing backup to a centralized IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vSnap server
- Incremental forever virtual machine backup by using VMware’s Change Block Tracking (CBT) feature to reduce the daily backup workload for only data that are 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 SDDC either to replace a failed machine or as a new virtual machine entity including virtual network (NSX) definitions
- HotAdd transport mode. The VADP proxy needs to have access to the data store being backed up (that is, running on a host that has access to the data store).
Use cases that are not supported on VMware Cloud on AWS
These use cases are not supported by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus when deployed in a VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC
- Use of the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client plug-ins for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
- Ability to instantly access a virtual machine image by accessing data directly from the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus backup storage. Ability to instantly restore a virtual machine by accessing data directly from the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus backup storage and migrating the storage to vSAN storage located in the SDDC by using Storage vMotion
- Recovery of virtual machines outside of the SDDC
- NBD, NBDSSL, and SAN transport modes
Certified Levels
The following levels of VMware Cloud on AWS are certified by IBM:
| IBM Spectrum Protect Plus | VMware Cloud on AWS |
|---|---|
| 10.1.4 | 1.8, 1.9 |
| 10.1.5 | 1.10 |
| 10.1.5 | 1.11 |
| 10.1.6, 10.1.7 | 1.12, 1.13 |
| 10.1.7 | 1.14 |
Solution Architecture
The recommended architecture for protecting virtual machines in a VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC allows a customer to protect virtual machine workloads within the SDDC by providing backup to a centralized vSnap server outside of the SDDC and as shown in the following diagram:
The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components for this solution are:
- IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server, which provides automated, centrally scheduled, policy-managed backup capabilities for virtual machines and other workloads. This server is responsible for moving data from the SDDC data store to the vSnap server for backup and recovery operations. This component is installed in the VMware Cloud on SDDC.
- vSnap backup storage, which consists of disk-based storage organized in storage pools. The storage can be in the customer’s AWS VPC or on-premises. The vSnap server must be located outside of the SDDC.
- VADP proxy that must be located inside the SDDC. This proxy server must be connected to data store in the SDDC. These actions allow the use of HotAdd transport mode for backups.
- Another recommendation is to also have a separate cloud storage to offload the backup data from the vSnap server. This cloud-based offload target must be a certified object storage environment. The cloud storage can be AWS S3, IBM Cloud Object Storage, Azure Blob, or any S3 compatible storage.
Solution Components
The following components are required for data protection of virtual machines in VMware Cloud on AWS:
- IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Server 10.1.5 or later
- IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vSnap Server 10.1.5 or later
- IBM Spectrum Protect Plus VADP Proxy 10.1.5 or later
Detailed information about the solution can be found in the IBM Documentation
Installation and Configuration
Installation and configuration of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server component can be found in Installing IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
Steps to install and configure IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server:
- Review the IBM Documentation article: Installing IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
- Deploy the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus OVA in the SDDC.
- Deploy the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vSnap OVA in AWS or on-premises.
- If you deploy the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vSnap server in AWS, review the deployment guide for Spectrum Protect Plus on AWS: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus on AWS Deployment Guide
- Ensure that there is communication between the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server and the vSnap backup server.
- Start the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface and register the vSnap server as a backup storage disk. This registration sets up the storage pool on the vSnap server.
- Deploy a VADP proxy to back up data from the data stores to the vSnap server. Review the requirements for a VADP proxy: VADP Proxy Requirements
- Go to System Configuration -> VADP Proxy to make edits to the VADP Proxy. For any VADP Proxy that is registered in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, select the ellipsis (…) and select proxy options.
- Confirm that the correct site is being used for the VADP Proxy.
- For “Transport Modes”, only HotAdd should be selected. De-select any other transport mode next to HotAdd.
- Navigate to Manage Protection -> Hypervisors -> VMware. Click the button “Manage vCenter” to expand the list of vCenters. Click the button “Add vCenter”. This button opens a form to register the vCenter.
- Enter the fully qualified domain name of the vCenter server.
- Enter the vCenter username and password.
- Navigate to Job and Operations and confirm that the “Hypervisor Inventory” job completes.
- Go to Manage Protection -> Hypervisors -> VMware and click the vCenter link in the VMware backup section to expand the list of virtual machines.
- Select the virtual machine to be backed up and click the “Select SLA Policy” button. Select the SLA policy for the VM.
- Under the SLA Policy Status section, expand the action menu and click the start option. This action starts the backup of the virtual machine.
- To view the status of the backup job, go to Job and Operations and look for the job under the running jobs tab.
VMware Cloud on AWS Network configuration
Review the information about Required communications ports in the IBM Documentation to configure the appropriate ports between the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components and the VMware Cloud on AWS components.
At minimum you need to create an inbound rule for port 443 as shown in the following VMware on AWS console screen capture:
Interoperability with VMware Cloud on AWS product features
The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus solution provides data protection for virtual machines deployed in SDDC 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 data center) and recovering the virtual machine to an SDDC or vice versa.
Related Information
Was this topic helpful?
Document Information
Modified date:
24 August 2021
UID
ibm11075497