To allow Protector to communicate with VMware and protect its data, a number of prerequisites must be met.
In general, ensure that:
- Protector Client software is installed on all nodes that will act as proxies for source vCenters.
- Port 443 (HTTPS) is open to allow Protector vCenter proxies to use the VDDK and vSphere web API to talk to the vCenter.
- A VMware account is provided, for use by Protector, having the specified VMware user privileges.
- If using tags, VMware Power CLI must be installed on the VMware proxy node. Refer to VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for vCenter Server/PowerCLI version compatibility. You will need to restart the proxy node after completing the installation.
- The physical disks containing VMware datastores are not shared with other applications.
- For application quiescing, where the Protector agent is installed directly on a Windows VM, VMware Tools is also installed on the VM.
For host based data protection and recovery, ensure that:
- Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is enabled on the VM to allow incremental backups. If CBT is not enabled then full backups will be taken instead.
- The same Protector node is used for the VMware proxy and the repository. While not mandatory, this will enable data to be transferred directly from the VMware host to the repository.
- If the proxy (VMware application) node shares access over a SAN to disks used by the VMware datastores, VMware SAN Transport Mode will be used to transfer data directly between the datastores and the VMware proxy/repository.
- The iSCSI HotAdd Transport mode can be used for host based backup and restore of virtual disks. The proxy of the VMware node must be a VM within the same Datacenter and have access to the Datastore for the VMDKs to be backed up or restored.
For block based data protection, ensure that:
- LUN(s) are provisioned with the appropriate size on the source and destination block storage devices. This must include space for performing restore operations.
- Protector Client software is installed on nodes that will act as proxies for the block storage devices:
- where the source VMware datastores are located.
- acting as replication destinations.
- For application quiescing during replication on a Windows VM, VMware Tools is installed on the VM.
- For a VM to be used as a mount target, VMware Tools is installed on the VM and, for auto-discovery, a pre-existing LUN is mounted to the VM. To enable host and OS level mounting of application snapshots, the target VM must also have Protector Client software installed.