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Twitter: @RickVanover @Veeam

vSphere 5 Changes for Backups and Administration

Rick VanoverMCITP vExpert VCPVeeam Software

Contributor to industry publications

About the Speaker

Agenda

About VMware vSphere 5

Major changes in scale

Virtual machine hardware version 8

Major changes in storage

Storage DRS

VDDK 5

VMFS-5

New version of HA

How backups are impacted with vSphere 5

Why vSphere 5 Changes are Important

Over time our vSphere administration practice needs to change as the technology changes

● ESX 2 / GSX -> VMware Infrastructure 3● VMware Infrastructure 3 -> vSphere 4● vSphere 4 -> vSphere 5

The technology changes impact everything

● Virtual machine characteristics● Storage● Networking● Supported configuration

Impacts backup configuration, performance and design

Leading virtualization platform

About VMware vSphere 5

Robust features: DRS, HA, VMFS, Advanced storage

ESX(i) host(s)

Shared storage resources

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

About VMware vSphere 5

First major series to be ESXi only● Important for anything where host-based agents are required

ESXi – vmkernel

Hardware monitoring agents System management agents

Host processes and 3rd party agents

Major Changes in Scale

Incredible limits for the virtual machine● 32 vCPUs, 1 TB RAM among others

Scaled up hosts● 2 TB RAM, more network interfaces

vSphere 5 Configuration Maximums

● http://vee.am/vSphere5Max ● Authoritative resource

for vSphere configuration parameters

Virtual Machine Hardware Version 8

Updated with vSphere Client or Update Manager New configuration maximums permitted

with new virtual machine hardware Up-to-date configuration is important

for feature-rich backups

New virtual machine format for vSphere 5● Version 4: VMware Infrastructure 3● Version 7: vSphere 4● Version 8: vSphere 5

Major Changes in Storage

Most vSphere 5 major new features are for storage Advancing features for additional performance

ESX(i) host(s)

Storage resources

iSCSI NFS DASFibre

Channel

Not just limited to VMFS

● Storage I/O control for NFS● VAAI offloads for NFS storage

Storage DRS

Technique to pool VMFS volumes logically

Logicaldatastore

VMFS Cluster at 6 TB

6 individual VMFS-5 datastores (6x1 TB, example)

Storage DRS

Core metrics: free space and latency Allows administrator to customize priority for response

VDDK 5 Virtual disk development kit 5 was released with vSphere 5,

updating the previous release from vSphere 4

Use for hot-addof virtual disks

Code-level changes

Many backup products may use hot-add for improved backup performance

● Reads● Writes

VMBackup

VM

ESX(i) host(s)

Storage resources

Traditional explicit VMDK assignment to this VM

During a snapshot,temporary co-mappingof VMDK

VMFS-5

For fibre channel and iSCSI storage protocols VMFS is a clustered file system

● Purpose built for virtual machines● No coordinator node or software mechanism

VMFS-3 is both backward and forward compatible● vSphere 5 can downward format at VMFS-3 (3.54)

Easy to upgrade from VMFS-3 to VMFS-5● Consider new format

Numerous enhancements● 1 MB block size● Sub-block algorithm● Atomic Test and Set (ATS) primitive command

Block size now supports all support file sizes● Important for snapshots

VMware HA Rewritten for vSphere 5

Protects against host failures

New HA architecture: Fault Domain Manager (FDM)

No dependency on DNS

● Still provision DNS in a correct, robust manner

New master / slave node concept

vSphere 5 Clustering technical deepdiveBest book to learn this and other vSphere features

How Backups are Impacted with vSphere 5

Changes in core features, such as VDDK underscorethe importance of full support of vSphere features

Clean configuration is critical to successful backups:

● Storage● Networking● Virtual machine up to date● Supporting infrastructure

Additional vSphere 5 resources

VMware vSphere 5 documentation● http://vee.am/vSphere5 (Short URL for Pubs.VMware.com)

Getting started with vSphere 5 (VMware KB TV)● http://vee.am/KBTV (Short URL for blogs.vmware.com)

vLaunchPad

● http://vlp.vsphere-land.com/● Blogs● Documentation● Podcasts● Storage resources● News resources

What We Covered

About VMware vSphere 5

Major changes in scale

Virtual machine hardware version 8

Major changes in storage

Storage DRS

VDDK 5

VMFS-5

New version of HA

How backups are implicated with vSphere 5

Additional vSphere 5 resources

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