Welcome to Avamar 7.4 Technical Differences: Virtualization Enhancements.

Transcription

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2 This course covers details on Avamar 7.4 virtualization enhancements. This includes added support to VMware image backups, file level restores with VMware virtual machines, backups of virtual machines running applications, and Hyper-V enhancements. 2

3 This module focuses on newly supported VMware features and environments, and on the new dynamic policy feature. 3

4 This lesson covers support for new VMware environments and features. 4

5 Avamar 7.4 supports backups and restores of virtual machines in vsphere 6.5 environments. This includes support for vcenter 6.5, ESXi 6.5, the newer VMFS 6.81 file system, virtual hardware version 13, and the vcenter Appliance running on the new Photon platform. The new support is possible due to Avamar image proxy servers using the new Virtual Disk Development Kit, or VDDK, version 6.5. If older image proxies are used, they will not have the new level of support. 5

6 Because VDDK 6.5 is used on the Avamar image proxy, only the versions supported by that VDDK are supported. This includes vsphere and ESXi versions 6.5, 6.0, and 5.5. Note, that version 5.1 and earlier are no longer supported. Also, encrypted VMDKs are not supported with vsphere 6.5. The Avamar plug-in for vsphere web client still works in vsphere 6.5, but it falls back to using the Adobe Flash based plug-in rather than the HTML5 version. 6

7 Avamar 7.4 also adds support for VMware Virtual Volumes, or VVOL, version 2.0. Backups and restores will work whether the image proxy or the backup client virtual machines are using VVOL for storage. 7

8 This lesson covers Avamar s integration with VMware vrealize Log Insight. 8

9 VMware vrealize Log Insight is a log collection appliance that collects logs from VMware applications as well as other 3 rd party applications. The user friendly interface uses Googlelike search functionality. This combination allows many Enterprise level customers to service multiple vcenters, VMs, and ESX hosts. With Avamar 7.4, Log Insight appliances can collect and organize logs from Avamar s VMware image proxies. This allows administrators to easily view logging information from across their virtual enterprise, including from Avamar image proxies. 9

10 This high level architecture shows how the Log Insight feature works. The Avamar 7.4 image proxies contain log forwarding agents (LFA). The Log Central Reporting Service, or LCRS, runs on the Avamar utility node. The LFA and LCRS processes talk using a REST API over the same port as existing Image Proxy services. The LFAs initiate the connection and push compressed and encrypted log content to the reporting service. The log reporting service communicates with the Log Insight REST API to send the logs to the Log Insight server. 10

11 When the LFAs will upload the data to the reporting service. The reporting service will temporarily save and process them, before forwarding the data to the Log Insight server. 11

12 An RPM for the LFA is needed to install the LFA agent. Install the RPM onto the proxy virtual machine using the command shown. The reporting service is modeled after other proven management services and it is implemented in Spring/Java. The reporting service runs on the Avamar utility node. Files can be found in the /usr/local/avamar-tomcat/webapps/logreportmanager. Not all the customer has SSMS installed on all the SQL servers, therefore SSMS plugin registration is optional. 12

13 In terms of configuration, the user will need to configure the LFA by running the proxy setup script. This will prompt the user to setup a reporting service IP address. Lastly, the user will need to enable the Avamar VMware log forwarding agent cron job. For the reporting service, users will need to run the lcrs.ini program as well as configuring the Log Insight server information. After the agent is installed, users can test the agent by running the proxylfa d command. 13

14 Compatibility for this feature is straightforward. It is the same as Avamar 7.4 for VC/ESXi. Currently the Log Insight version is

15 For best practices, make sure the Avamar has at least 3GB of free root space. Otherwise, the user will need to edit the upload.maxdisksize configurable parameter. Also, verify that the upload.forward and forward.delete parameters are set to true. 15

16 Here are some of the common problems associated with this feature. On the slide, please take a moment read connection errors, upload, and forward log failures. 16

17 The log format for the LFA as well as the reporting service can be found here. If there are any problems with this service, verify that the logs are being formatted correctly to the receiver. 17

18 More information on VMware vrealize Log Insight can be found on VMware s website. 18

19 This lesson covers Avamar 7.4 s new Dynamic Policy feature for VMware clients. 19

20 Backing up VMware virtual environments can be challenging due to the large numbers of virtual machine clients. Virtual machines are often created and deleted leading to an ever changing environment. Previous versions of Avamar used container clients that allowed all virtual machines underneath a container, such as a folder, vapp, or host, to be dynamically added and backed up as clients. But container clients are restrictive. Virtual machines could only be grouped based on the organization of the VMware environment. If an administrator wanted to add selected VMs across multiple containers, they were unable to do so. Only individual containers could be added as clients. Administrators would often need to structure the VMware environment around their backup policies. 20

21 Avamar 7.4 introduces Rules. Rules allow the administrator to filter virtual machines based on various attributes such as the Virtual Machine Name, tag, vapp, and more. Rules can be applied across the entire virtual environment, so virtual machines can be organized towards the VMware administrator s needs rather than the backup administrator s. This offers much more flexibility than container clients. Once rules are created, they can be used in two ways: to dynamically activate VMs to the Avamar server and to dynamically include them into backup groups. As an example, you could make a rule that matches all web server VMs, activate them into their own Avamar domain, and add them to their own backup group. Any new VMs that match the rule would automatically be activated and backed up. 21

22 To create Rules, use the new Manage Rules dialog under the Tools menu. As with other policy items, Rules can be added into any level within the Avamar domain hierarchy in order to control access to that rule. A rule can be configured to match against the VM name, VM Folder Name, its Parent vapp name, Resource Pool name, the datacenter it belongs to, its data store, the data store cluster, or a VM tag. You also have a variety of operators to choose from, including regular expressions that can be used for even greater flexibility. Note that VM tags are a new feature of vcloud SDK 6.0, so environments prior to that will not be able to use it. When multiple predicates are used, the rule can either match all or any of the predicates. 22

23 One of the ways in which rules can be used is for Auto Discovery. While adding a new vcenter to Avamar, or while editing the vcenter client, you may configure auto discovery. Here, you select rules that will be used to filter out virtual machines, and map each rule to a domain. Auto Discovery automatically and dynamically activates virtual machine clients to the Avamar server, instead of requiring the user to add them one by one. When Auto Discovery runs, it performs a full scan of the VMware environment. The rule associated with it is used to match VMs within the VMware environment. Then, any VMs matching the rule are activated into a domain specified by the user. Avamar will resynchronize with the vcenter every twelve hours to see if there have been any changes. The rule engine will then run and discover if any new virtual machines have been added that match the defined rules. The rule engine also runs on certain event in vcenter, such as the addition of a new client. Any matched VMs are automatically added to the proper domain. Any removed VMs are automatically marked as no longer addressable through vcenter, but their backups remain on the Avamar system. This way, the VM clients on the Avamar server are dynamically updated. You may also trigger the resynchronization process manually by right-clicking the vcenter domain and selecting Sync with vcenter. 23

24 When using Auto Discovery, each rule is mapped to a domain underneath the vcenter domain. Any VM that matches the rule will be activated under the specified domain. This helps automatically organize virtual machines in the Avamar domain system. When mapping a rule to a domain, you can use a pre-existing one or, if the domain does not exist, it will be automatically created. However, you can only map to a domain underneath the vcenter domain. An example of this is where each VM has a tag specifying the department it belongs to. Rules could be created to match each department and Auto Discovery can then be configured to activate each VM to a domain for its department. 24

25 Auto discovery parameters can be tuned through the mcserver.xml file. As mentioned previously, the Avamar server performs a full scan of the vcenter to find new VMs every 12 hours, but this can be changed with the auto_resync_vc_interval_minutes entry. If the auto discovery fails, for example due to a bad connection, it will retry every 300 seconds for a total of 3 times. These values can also be changed with the auto_discovery_retry_interval and auto_discovery_retry_times entries. 25

26 The second way that you can use rules is to create Dynamic Backup Groups. This type of group allows VMs to be dynamically included into a backup group based on a rule. Any VMs that match the rule will automatically be included in the backup group. The rule engine reevaluates all the VM clients for inclusion every time the backup group runs, so any new VMs will automatically be added to the group. This means that new VMs can automatically be added to groups that suit their needs. For example, a dynamic backup group could use a rule to automatically include any VMs with sql in their name and back them up using a dataset specifically for SQL virtual machines. It is important to note that virtual machines must already be activated as Avamar clients in order for them to be included in a backup group. Dynamic Backup groups will not discover VMs on their own. However, the same rule used for the Dynamic Backup Group will typically be used for Auto Discover as well. Using both Auto Discover and Dynamic Backup Groups in tandem will automatically discover and back up new virtual machines. 26

27 To create a Dynamic Group, simply create a backup group within the vcenter domain and, when selecting clients, enable automatic member selection by rule and select a rule. Any VMs that are currently registered will show and the ones that match the rule will show that they are part of the group. You may also override an individual VM s membership in the group if some need to be added or removed. 27

28 There are a few best practices to keep in mind when using Dynamic Policies. It is best to use vcenter version 6.0 or above, since it introduces support for virtual machine tags. Tags are the easiest and most flexible way to use Dynamic Policies so it is best to use an environment that supports them. Avoid changing tags frequently since the changes will not propagate to Avamar Dynamic policies until the next full scan, which occurs every 12 hours. This could result in a VM not being included in a backup group. If needed, you may resynchronize with the vcenter to capture recent changes. Use a fully qualified domain name when adding the vcenter client to Avamar. Avoid overriding client selection in a dynamic group. It is best to create a rule that will include or exclude the desired clients. Lastly, create rules carefully. Avoid creating multiple rules that match the same VM since this can cause confusing results. During automatic discovery, the VM will be registered according to the first rule listed and placed into its domain, which may not be what you were expecting. Also, be careful that rules do not match VMs that are not meant to be backed up, such as image proxies or AVE s. 28

29 Auto Discovery will produce events to the Event Monitor. Shown here is a successful Auto discovery full scan process. Notice the other events showing that clients were added and group memberships were updated. These events were caused by the Auto Discovery process as well. 29

30 This module covered newly supported VMware features and environments, and on the new dynamic policy feature. 30

31 This module focuses on various enhancements to file level recoveries from VMware Image backups. It will cover performance enhancements, scalability improvements, and the ability to restore Windows ACLs. 31

32 This lesson covers Avamar 7.4 s enhanced File Level Restore method. 32

33 Previously, performing file level restore of a VMware Image backup was not recommended if restoring a large amount of files. The reason for this was because the file level restore process was not efficient and would take a long time, especially for many files. With the old method, the image proxy appliance would mount the virtual machine VMDK file from the Avamar server to gain access to its files. Then, for each individual file that was to be restored, the proxy would log into the vcenter server to receive an authentication token. It would then request to send a file to the ESXi server and receive an upload ID and URL. Only then could it upload the file to the ESXi, which would then send the file to the target virtual machine. This process was slow since it had to repeat for every file. Invoking the vsphere API in order to authenticate and transfer the file introduces a delay. Also, every file is transported in two hops, first to the ESXi, and then to the VM. Repeating this process for a large number of files is time consuming. 33

34 The new File Level Restore method is much more efficient. It only authenticates with the vcenter server once per job, eliminating the need to log in repeatedly for each file. Also, the files are transferred directly to the virtual machine, instead of hops. As before, the proxy server mounts the virtual machine s VMDK file from the Avamar server, gaining access to the individual files. As before, the proxy then authenticates with the vcenter server and requests to send a file to the target virtual machine. However, instead of sending the files one by one, the proxy server generates a file download script which lists all the files that need to be recovered. Only this download script is transferred to the target virtual machine through the vcenter API. The proxy runs lighttpd (pronounced lighty ), a light-weight open source HTTPS server. It presents the files that need to be restored through HTTPS. The target virtual machine then runs the download script. The download script uses wget, an open source file downloading program, to connect to the proxy server and download all the files on the list. When finished, the download script is deleted. Since only the download script is pushed onto the target virtual machine through the vcenter API, there is only one log-in required for the entire job. Also files are downloaded directly to the target virtual machines and all at once, without multiple log-ins. 34

35 As you might imagine, presenting the virtual machine s files over HTTPS for download does introduce some security challenges. The proxy needs to make sure that only the target virtual machine can download its files, and other requests for those files are denied. This is accomplished through the use of HTTP tokens. Whenever a file level restore request is made, the proxy server will generate an encrypted token string using a unique restore session ID, the target virtual machines IP address, and a salt value to prevent decryption. The target client must use this token in order to download the files from the proxy. By using the target servers IP and a unique restore session ID, downloads are restricted to only that IP address for only that session. Furthermore, each file that needs to be restored is mapped to a unique randomly generated UUID. In order to access the file, the target server must provide the UUID, not the file name. These UUIDs are included in the download script that has only been sent to the proper target virtual machine. 35

36 If a very large number of files need to be restored, the job might be split into smaller jobs, each with their own download script. This prevents the download script from getting too large, and better utilizes network bandwidth. Multiple download scripts will be sent to the target VM and they will execute at the same time. Although this does require multiple authentications with the vcenter, it still reduces that number significantly and leads to faster performance. 36

37 The new File Level Restore method is enabled by default with all Avamar 7.4 servers. Both the Avamar server and the image proxy being used must be using 7.4 code for the method to work. The latest version of VMware tools should also be installed on the target virtual machine. Unlike the old FLR method, the target virtual machine must have network access to the proxy server for the new method to work. Without network access, it is unable to download files over HTTPS. 37

38 There are a few cases where the old File Level Restore method may still be used. One is if the option is disabled. You may disable the new method by editing the configuration file on the image proxy server and set the enablewgetrestore item to 0, as shown on the screen. To apply the changes, restart the vmwareflr service with the service vmwareflr restart command. Another reason why the old method may still be used is if ten or fewer files are being restored, or if the total file size is less than or equal to 5 MB. In these cases where there is not much data being restored, it is more efficient to use the old method. The old method is also used if any of the previously mentioned requirements are not met, such as a lack of network connection between the proxy and target virtual machine. 38

39 From the users perspective, the new File Level Restore method does not have any major differences. Users perform file level restores using the same procedures as before. However, there is a drastic improvement in speed. For example, restoring 1,600 files might have previously taken about an hour. Using the new method, this time is reduced to about five minutes. 39

40 Log files for this feature are located on the proxy server that ran the file level restore job, in the file path shown. In the VmwareFlr.log file, search for the phrase ScriptUploadAndExecute to see logs relating to the process. The VSphereWebService.log file will show where the script was uploaded and whether it was successful. 40

41 This lesson covers File Level Restore scalability enhancements. 41

42 When performing a file level restore in previous versions of Avamar, both the number of items that could be browsed in the GUI and the number of items that could be restored at a time was limited to 5,000. This caused any folder with more than that to only show 5,000 items. The reason for this is that during the browse process, the image proxy examines the contents of the VMDK file and sends a list of files to the Management Console Server. However, due to the communication protocol, the message size is limited, so no more than 5,000 items can be sent. Restores were similarly affected. Since the user could only select 5,000 items while browsing, no more that 5,000 items could be restored. This meant that some file level restores of large amounts of files needed to be performed in multiple steps. 42

43 Avamar 7.4 uses a new method to get around the message size limitation. When the MCS sends a browse request to the image proxy, the proxy first retrieves a list of all the items in the requested folder. If the number of items is greater than 5,000, then the proxy sends only the first 5,000 files but sets an incomplete flag in the message. When the MCS receives the message flagged incomplete, it adds the files to its local list and then sends another browse request for the next list of files, starting with the offset. The proxy then sends the next list of files. This process repeats until all the file names from the proxy s list have been transferred. By sending the list of files in segments smaller than 5,000 items, a much larger list of files can be sent for browsing while still keeping the message sizes below the limitation. Also, since more items can be listed, more items can be selected for restore. Both the browse limits and restore limits have been raised. 43

44 With Avamar 7.4, the user can now browse up to 50,000 files. Anything above that limit will be truncated due to an Avamar Administrator User Interface limitation. Also, browsing 50,000 files using the FLR web interface is slow and will sometimes hang. For restores, the new limit is about 20,000 files at once. This is due to the message size limit between the MCS and the proxy, which is a maximum of 5 MB. The message size varies based on the file name and length, but 5 MB is typically large enough for about 20,000 files. The FLR web interface does limit restores to 20,000 files due to a UI limitation. 44

45 Messages from the new scalability enhancements can be found in the mcserver.log.0 file. The top portion of the screen shows the offset of a browse request. In this case, it is zero, meaning that it is the first page being requested. The second example shows that the page_complete value is false, meaning that not all entries were sent, and more are on the way. 45

46 This lesson covers Avamar s ability to restore Windows ACLs during file level restore. 46

47 Previously, when performing a File Level Restore of a file that originated from a Windows virtual machine image backup, Access Control lists, or ACLs, were not restored. With Avamar 7.4, users have the option to restore ACLs. When a File Level Restore is performed, the proxy server, which is a Linux machine, must mount the Windows NTFS file system from the backup image. Since Windows ACLs do not work on a Linux system, restoring them is not straightforward. The Linux proxy cannot simply restore the ACL along with the file. However, the proxy server can access the Windows ACL information since it appears as a Linux file attribute. In order to restore the ACL, the proxy first reads the ACL information into a temporary file. Then, after the file is restored to the target virtual machine, the proxy copies the temporary ACL file along with an executable, secaudit.exe. Running on the target VM, secaudit.exe applies the ACLs to the restored file. 47

48 To restore ACLs, simply enable the check box under the restore options when performing the file level restore. 48

49 You can see logs from this feature in the VmwareFlr.log file on the image proxy. This log will show secaudit.exe being executed. If there are any errors, you can troubleshoot by copying the temporary ACL information file to the virtual machine client and running secaudit.exe against it manually. The ACL information file is found in the /tmp directory on the image proxy with a long hexadecimal title. secaudit.exe can be found in /usr/local/avamarclient/bin. Running secaudit.exe against the ACL file manually will allow you to see its output along with any errors. 49

50 This module covered various enhancements to file level recoveries from VMware Image backups. 50

51 This module covers other virtualization enhancements such as automatic log truncation, Hyper-V incremental backups, and AVE enhancements. 51

52 This lesson covers Avamar 7.4 ability to truncate database logs in Exchange and SQL virtual machines. 52

53 During a typical backup of a database, it is common for the database logs to be truncated at the time of backup. The contents of the log have been stored on the backup server so they no longer need to be kept on the database server. If log files are not truncated, they will continue to grow and consume storage on the database server. Log truncation is usually triggered by the backup agent when the backup completes. However, if the database is running on a virtual machine and image backups are being used, log truncation does not occur. The virtual machine is simply backed up as an image with no knowledge of the internal database. Since logs are not truncated, they will continue to grow until the disk is full. This makes image backups of database VMs problematic. 53

54 With Avamar 7.4, a VMware image backup is able trigger a log truncation for Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers running as virtual machines. The backup is still an image level backup that captures the entire virtual machine, but if the option is enabled, the log files will be truncated as a part of the backup process. This feature makes image backups of SQL and Exchange virtual machines more feasible for many users. However, keep in mind that even with log truncation, there are some limitations to performing image backups. Restores to a point in time are not possible. Instead restores will be to the point of backup. Also, backup or restore of an individual database is not possible with an image backup. For these abilities, guest backup is required 54

55 Let s take a look at how log truncation works with a Microsoft SQL Server virtual machine. Avamar performs log truncation by uploading and running a temporary app on the SQL virtual machine. When Avamar performs a VMware image backup with the SQL log truncation option, it first confirms that the image was properly backed up. If the backup completed successfully, the image proxy determines whether the SQL virtual machine is running 32-bit or 64-bit OS and uploads the compatible app onto the VM, into one of the directories shown. When the app is executed, it truncates the SQL log files and generates its own log of activities. The proxy server periodically polls the app s log file to see if the app has successfully completed. Once it has, the proxy deletes both the app and its log file from the virtual machine. Finally, the proxy server reports back a completed backup to the Avamar server, or, if the log file was not truncated, a complete with exception. 55

56 The log truncation process on an Exchange virtual machine is slightly different. Instead of using an app to truncate the logs, it takes advantage of a VSS feature that will truncate logs. When an image backup is performed, it uses a special API call, CreateSnapshotEx, to create the VM snapshot. In addition to creating a VM snapshot, this API call also interfaces with VSS inside the Exchange virtual machine. The VSS engine pauses and I/O writes and creates a shadow copy. Once the snapshot backup is completed, VSS will truncate the Exchange log files. However, the Avamar proxy is not directly aware of whether the truncation was successful or not. To check whether the truncation was successful, the image proxy uploads a script to the Exchange VM and executes it. This script checks the status of the log truncation. The proxy checks the script s results and deletes the script. The proxy then reports a complete backup or, if the truncation was not successful, a compete with exceptions. 56

57 Both the SQL and Exchange log truncation require that the Avamar server and the image proxy used for the backup be at version 7.4. For SQL log truncation vsphere version 6.0 or higher is needed, although it is recommended to use 6.5. The ESXi version must be 5.5 or higher. Only SQL server 2008 or higher are supported and it must be running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher. Also, if vcenter 6.0 is being used, the database must be backed up manually the first time by the database administrator or its log truncation will fail. For Exchange, both the vcenter and ESXi versions must be 6.5 in order to interface with VSS on the virtual machine. If they are not at version 6.5, Avamar will fallback to using the normal the legacy vsphere API to take the snapshot and logs will not be truncated. Exchange server 2007 or later is needed and it must be running on Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher. 57

58 To enable log truncation you must set a few advanced options for the Windows VMware Image plug-in. This can be done either when performing an on-demand backup under the More Options dialog, or when creating a dataset. For either SQL or Exchange, you must provide administrative credentials to the guest virtual machine. Then, to configure log truncation for a SQL server, provide credentials for the SQL server as well, either NT or Application Authentication. To enable log truncation, select LOG Truncation as the Post Action Type of SQL. Also, be sure that all virtual disks on the Exchange or SQL VM will be backed up. Log truncation will not perform if only some disks are backed up. If you are backing up an Exchange virtual machine, select LOG Truncation as the Post Action Type of Exchange instead. Any backups using these options will truncate logs. 58

59 It can be very helpful to use Dynamic Policies when performing backups of SQL or Exchange virtual machines. You can configure these to automatically back up SQL or Exchange virtual machines with a dataset that has been configured to truncate the logs. To do so, create a rule that will select SQL or Exchange VMs. For example, you may create a rule that finds VMs with names that contain sql or exchange or even better, VMs with a SQL or Exchange tag. Then, create a dataset that is configured to backup SQL or Exchange VMs with log truncation enabled. Use this dataset in a group that uses the rule to dynamically find the proper VMs. The group will then automatically find the proper VMs and back them up with the proper dataset. 59

60 The log truncation feature requires that you provide the VM s guest login credentials and, in the case of a SQL VM, SQL credentials. These are configured within the dataset which will be used for many virtual machines. For this reason it is recommended to use the same credentials for all Exchange VMs and the same credentials for all SQL VMs. This way, all the SQL VMs can be in the same backup group and use the same dataset. Similarly, all Exchange VMs can use the same backup group and dataset. If the same credentials cannot be used, then separate datasets and groups need to be created for individual virtual machines. You may also need to adjust or override Dynamic Policies to ensure that VMs use the datasets that have the correct credentials. This makes management much more complicated. 60

61 For a SQL virtual machine, you can view the log truncation process and whether or not it succeeded by double clicking the backup in Avamar Administrator s Activity monitor to show its log file. The log file will show how the truncation app was uploaded, executed, and deleted, as well as its results. If the SQL log truncation did not succeed, check to see if VMware Tools is installed and running. Also, confirm that both the VMs Guest OS credentials and SQL server credentials match what was configured for the backup options. Check to see that SQL server is running on the virtual machine, since it needs to be running in order for the log truncation app to succeed. 61

62 For an Exchange virtual machine, the activity log files in the Activity monitor also show the truncation process. Here you can see how the script is placed into the Exchange virtual machine, executed and deleted, along with its result. If log truncation was not performed, a warning is raised. If log truncation did not complete successfully on the Exchange virtual machine, check to see if VMware Tools is installed and running. Also be sure that the proper guest OS credentials were used for the backup. Check to see that the Exchange server is running on the virtual machine, since it needs to be running for log truncation to succeed. 62

63 This lesson covers the SMB Incremental backup support for Microsoft Hyper-V. 63

64 In pre-7.4 releases, only full backups are supported for Hyper-V. The Avamar 7.4 release supports SMB incremental backups and recoveries. Granular Level Recovery from the incremental backups are supported as well. File-level restores from the incremental backups are also supported. File-level recovery is for both SMB, CSV as well as standalone. The prerequisites for using this feature are the following: Hands-on knowledge on 7.3 and above Hyper-V Plug-In knowledge for 7.3 and above Familiarity with Hyper-V Server and File Server Configuration on applicationrelated tasks on Windows Server 2012 and later. 64

65 For SMB, the supported platforms include Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, and 2016 Similar to the Avamar 7.3 release, this release will not support Window Server 2008 R2 and earlier. 65

66 This slides shows the supported configuration for full and incremental backup with standalone, Scale-Out-File Server, and SMB. The screenshot shows how to configure the Scale-Out-File Server. Basically, the Scale-Out-File Server would be configured on Failover Clustering as one of the roles. At this point, the user will see this Scale-Out-File Server option. The user must select the SMB Share for application where VMs on that particular ASA volume is being hosted. 66

67 The SMB or the Scale-Out-File Server share should be totally isolated from the Hyper-V environment which we are trying to back up. Full and incremental backups on standalone, federated SMB and GLR recovery are supported. 67

68 In this configuration, the user selects Configure a new Federated Cluster Client or SMB or CSV. 68

69 This snapshot shows a summary of all the changes. Administrators can verify that the Avamar server settings and the listed nodes are all correct. This shows a successful configuration of federated SMB. 69

70 On backup and restore tabs, users can see the type as incremental and/or full. In pre-7.4 releases, only full backup for SMB is an option. 70

71 For incremental backup troubleshooting, it is the same as with CSV. There is a promotion logic, split logic, and partial logic. Promotion logic is for the case where a VM fails to retrieve the previous backup information, we can promote it to full. New VMs are also promoted to full. For split logic case, if there are five VMs, out of which two are newly created and three are old, we have a backup. The three will be an incremental backup and the two will be full backup. Since it is new on the next backup, all files require an incremental backup. Partial backup. If there are five or ten VMs out of which two or three VM snapshot fails, the rest of the VMs will be backed up using the partial backup feature. This feature is already present in the SMB and CSV. For recovery snapshots that are not getting merged, there are a few cases which we need to recheck the event logs on the Hyper-V server where the VM is residing. Check the logs for more details. If the post-restore is failing, try checking the event log. Sometimes, if the recovery of the VM recovers the VM on the Hyper-V manager but does not put it onto the failover cluster manager, the user may need to manually add it. Otherwise, the user needs to check the event logs to determine the issue. If snapshot creation fails, the user needs to check the VM configuration. The user needs to verify that the VM is not having any issues and that the integration services are running. 71

72 This lesson covers Avamar Virtual Editions ability to be deployed in KVM environments. 72

73 Kernel-based Virtual Machine, or KVM, is a virtualization infrastructure that has been merged into the Linux kernel. Beginning with version 7.4, AVE can be deployed in a KVM environment. Running AVE on a KVM environment requires new distribution file for the AVE and slightly different deployment procedures. It has currently been verified to run on Ubuntu 16.4 and RHEL 7.2. Both SCSI and Virtio device modes are supported for the AVE servers virtual disks. Before deploying, the KVM environment must have cloud-init and qemu guest agents installed. 73

74 AVE for KVM is distributed as a.qcow2 file. Qcow2 is a file format for KVM disk images, so, unlike the OVA file used in VMware, the virtual machine settings such as memory CPU and disk configurations will be configured manually. To deploy AVE, download the AVE qcow2 file. This file is the disk image for the AVE system disk only. The AVE s data disks must be added manually. The size and amount of data disks depends on the capacity of AVE you are planning to deploy. These figures are listed in the AVE system requirements. Add the correct number of data disks by creating new qcow2 files with the command shown. Once all the virtual disk files have been created, deploy the AVE using the command shown. This will create the virtual machine, configure its memory and CPU settings and attach the virtual drives. Be sure that you use the correct memory and CPU settings as specified by the AVE requirements. Every capacity edition has slightly different requirements. When configuring the disk drive, you may use either SCSI devices, or specify Virtio devices in this command. 74

75 When the AVE virtual machine is powered on, it will always start the networking in DHCP mode. However, you must use static values for networking. Once it has booted up, log into the console and run the avenetconfig command. This will allow you to either make the discovered DHCP values static, or, if DHCP is not enabled, configure the IP address and other networking information. The command will also generate the probe.xml file, which is necessary for the Avamar server. Once networking has been configured, complete the configuration by connecting to the AVE with a web browser and completing the regular AVE configuration steps. 75

76 This module covered automatic log truncation support for MS SQL and Exchange, incremental backup with Hyper-V SMB clusters, and AVE enhancements. 76

77 This course covered details on Avamar 7.4 virtualization enhancements. This included added support to VMware image backups, file level restores with VMware virtual machines, backups of virtual machines running applications, and Hyper-V enhancements. This concludes the training. 77