Review the Prerequisites and Considerations
Verify if you have completed the following prerequisites:
-
Log into the Console.
- Prepare a host-based backup proxy server where you have installed Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows).
- To run functions such as Preflight Check, pre/post commands, or application log purge, update the virtual machine in the node list view of the Arcserve UDP Console with one of the following credentials for the guest virtual machine:
- Built-in administrator user credentials.
- Built-in domain administrator user credentials.
- For other administrator credentials, disable the User Account Control (UAC) on the guest virtual machine.
- To be able to perform a database level restore (for Exchange and SQL Server) or granular level restore (Exchange) after a backup, the following prerequisites must be met:
- The VM must support the application consistent backup. For more information on application consistent backup, see How to Create Application Consistent Snapshots for VMware or How to Create Application Consistent Snapshots for Hyper-V.
- For VMware VM, the VMware Tools snapshot quiescing method must be used in the backup plan.
- For Hyper-V VM, Arcserve UDP needs to automatically deploy a utility into the guest OS of VM to gather the application metadata during a backup. The guest OS of the VM needs to be accessed from either the backup proxy server or Hyper-V host using a network. At the same time, the VM node must be updated with proper administrative credentials in the node list view of Arcserve UDP Console. For some reasons, if the guest OS of the VM cannot be accessed from the backup proxy server and Hyper-V host both, follow these steps to manually install the utility in the guest OS of VM:
- Log into the backup proxy server and navigate to the following folder:
- Locate the executable file VMICService_32.exe or VMICService_64.exe.
- Copy the executable file to any a folder inside the guest OS of the VM. (For a 32-bit OS, copy VMICService_32.exe, otherwise copy VMICService_64.exe).
- Log into the guest OS of the VM and run either VMICService_32.exe -install or VMICService_64.exe -install.
- Install the server component and create Data Stores if you want to store the backup data in the recovery point server.
- Review the prerequisites to back up an Oracle database.
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Review the Compatibility Matrix that provides the supported operating systems, databases, and browsers.
<Arcserve UDP installation path>\Engine\BIN (Example, C:\Program Files\Arcserve\Unified Data Protection\Engine\BIN)
For example, you can create an ISO image by including this executable file and mount it to the DVD device of the VM.
The following prerequisites are for hardware snapshots:
For Hyper-V
- Install a VSS hardware provider on the Hyper-V servers and to support the transportable snapshot install the VSS hardware provider on the backup proxy server. A typical configuration of a VSS hardware provider include:
- Specifying a server that controls the LUN.
- Specifying the disk array credentials to access the disk array.
- For more information on configuring the VSS hardware provider, contact your hardware provider vendor.
- The Hyper-V server and the proxy server must have a similar operating system version.
- If Hyper-V server belong to a cluster, the proxy server should not be part of the Hyper-V cluster.
- uninstall UDP CBT from "Programs and Features" in control panel in Hyper-V host.
For VMware
- Arcserve UDP supports NetApp iSCSI and NetApp NFS LUNs.
- To create a hardware snapshot for VMware, add the storage array to the Console. For more information on adding a storage array, see Add a Storage Array.
- To use the hardware snapshot, Flexclone license is mandatory for NetApp storage arrays running with data ONTAP operating in 7-Mode and Cluster mode.
Considerations for backing up the VM:
- How a volume defragmentation can affect continued backups
- The volume defragmentation by Windows native tool affects the size of the block-level backups because Arcserve UDP continues to incrementally back up all changed blocks. It means that blocks that shifted during the defragmentation are included in the backup, even if no data has changed in the files. As a result, the backup size increases. This behavior is expected.
- How to protect Virtual Machines in Hyper-V 2016 using Windows Resilient Change Tracking
- To protect VM in Hyper-V 2016, we recommend to leverage Windows Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) for incremental backup. Arcserve UDP automatically uses Windows Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) when backing up virtual machine with configuration version 8.0 or higher that runs in Hyper-V 2016 host/cluster. If your Hyper-V is upgraded from previous version, upgrade your VM configuration also using Microsoft documentation. When upgrade is complete for all the virtual machines protected by Arcserve UDP, we recommend to uninstall Arcserve UDP CBT Service from the Hyper-V host.
Considerations for specific network backup:
- Hypervisor, Windows Proxy and RPS must be in the same network.
- If ESXi is added with Hostname to the vCenter, the backup network selection must be default network of ESXi.
- Note: Default network is the network which is resolved by DNS.
- If ESXi is added with IP to the vCenter, the backup network selection should be the same network that ESXi uses to attach to the vCenter.
Scenario # | Has vCenter | What is used to add into vCenter | Could use backup network? | DNS / Hosts file workaround works? |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | No | N/A | Yes | N/A |
2 | Yes | Hostname of ESXi – The Production IP of the hostname is resolved | No | Yes. Update the DNS or the hosts file on the Proxy Server. |
3 | Yes | Hostname of ESXi – The Backup Network IP of the hostname is resolved | Yes | N/A |
4 | Yes | Production IP of ESXi | No | No |
5 | Yes | Backup Network IP of ESXi | Yes | N/A |