Best Practices for Installing and Configuring the Agent for Virtual Machines

Installing and Configuring the Agent › Best Practices for Installing and Configuring the Agent for Virtual Machines

Best Practices for Installing and Configuring the Agent for Virtual Machines

Consider using the best practices that follow to install the Arcserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines.

Task	VMware Systems	Hyper-V Systems
Required components	Arcserve Backup Install the Arcserve Backup Server components on the system that is designated to function as a primary server or a stand-alone server. Agent for Virtual Machines Install the agent on the system that is designated to function as the backup proxy system. The best practice is to allow the backup server to function as the backup proxy system. However, if you feel that this configuration can impose performance issues on the server, install the agent on a remote system and allow it to function as the backup proxy system. Be aware of the following considerations: When you have to back up virtual machines that reside on ReFS volumes, the backup proxy system should reside on a server that is running Windows Server 2012. This is specific to file mode backups. You can register the agent license on the Arcserve Backup server. The r16.5 release of the agent installs VDDK 5.1. If you want to use the version of VDDK that the agent installs, you do not need to install VDDK. When you perform raw (full VM) backups on VMware Windows VMs, the agent is not required to be installed on the VMs to provide file level restore. File level restore is automatically provided from raw backups. However, the agent is required to be installed when performing a restore. For more information, see Where to Install the Agent. Note: To take advantage of this feature, it is required to upgrade the server and the Agent for Virtual Machines to the Arcserve Backup r16.5 Update 2 release.	Arcserve Backup Install the Arcserve Backup Server components on the system that is designated to function as a primary server or a stand-alone server. Agent for Virtual Machines Install the agent on the Hyper-V host system. Note: You must register the agent license on the Arcserve Backup server.

Task

VMware Systems

Hyper-V Systems

Required components

Arcserve Backup

Install the Arcserve Backup Server components on the system that is designated to function as a primary server or a stand-alone server.

Agent for Virtual Machines

Install the agent on the system that is designated to function as the backup proxy system. The best practice is to allow the backup server to function as the backup proxy system. However, if you feel that this configuration can impose performance issues on the server, install the agent on a remote system and allow it to function as the backup proxy system.

Be aware of the following considerations:

When you have to back up virtual machines that reside on ReFS volumes, the backup proxy system should reside on a server that is running Windows Server 2012. This is specific to file mode backups. You can register the agent license on the Arcserve Backup server.

The r16.5 release of the agent installs VDDK 5.1. If you want to use the version of VDDK that the agent installs, you do not need to install VDDK.

When you perform raw (full VM) backups on VMware Windows VMs, the agent is not required to be installed on the VMs to provide file level restore. File level restore is automatically provided from raw backups. However, the agent is required to be installed when performing a restore. For more information, see Where to Install the Agent.

Note: To take advantage of this feature, it is required to upgrade the server and the Agent for Virtual Machines to the Arcserve Backup r16.5 Update 2 release.

Arcserve Backup

Install the Arcserve Backup Server components on the system that is designated to function as a primary server or a stand-alone server.

Agent for Virtual Machines

Install the agent on the Hyper-V host system.

Note: You must register the agent license on the Arcserve Backup server.

Consider using the best practices that follow to configure the Arcserve Backup Agent for Virtual Machines and to back up data.

Task	VMware Systems	Hyper-V Systems

Configuration	Populate the Arcserve Backup database using ARCserve VMware Configuration Tool on the backup proxy system. For more information, see Populate the Database Using ARCserve VMware Configuration Tool. Deploy the Agent for Virtual Machines using Agent Deployment. For more information, see Deploy the Agent to VMs Using Agent Deployment.	Populate the Arcserve Backup database using ARCserve Hyper-V Configuration Tool on the Hyper-V host system. For more information, see Populate the Database Using ARCserve Hyper-V Configuration Tool. Deploy the Agent for Virtual Machines using Agent Deployment. For more information, see Deploy the Agent to VMs Using Agent Deployment.
Backup mode	Accept the default backup mode, which includes the following options specified: Mixed mode backup Allow file level restore
Backup options--Multistreaming	To ensure that backup jobs complete efficiently, you should use the Multistreaming option and should specify a maximum of four VMs in a backup job. For information about Multistreaming, see the Administration Guide.
Backing up data	Follow the procedure described in Back Up Data.