The vCloud Director Data Protection Extension (vCD DPE) provides backup, restore and replication functionality for operations in the cloud, and consists of two types of administrator roles with different levels of functionality:
- Backup Administrator (Cloud Administrator)
- A Backup Administrator can manage backup, restore, and replication operations for the cloud, and also add, configure and manage data protection policies. The backup administrator role is performed by a vCloud Director Administrator who has access rights to the cloud organizations, Organization (Org) virtual datacenters (VDCs), and virtual machines (VMs) and virtual appliances (vApps) that need to be backed up or restored.
- Organization Administrator (Tenant Administrator)
- An Organization Administrator can perform VM and vApp backups and restores at the Org level by using the vCloud Director tenant portal UI or the vCD DPE UI, and also manage existing data protection policies. This role supports the creation of Organizations to contain various resources, such as VDCs, and resources allocated to the organization through reservations and other means. Service Providers may use the Organization structure to map to a tenant so they can lease cloud resources to the tenant. In that case, the Organization Administrator is essentially the tenant administrator.
The vCD DPE allows the vCD Backup Administrator to configure and manage backup appliances through which you map cloud resources to an Avamar backup store (including Avamar with Data Domain). A backup appliance provides a representation layer to the Avamar server, enabling vCloud backup and recovery operations. Backup capacities on Avamar and connected Data Domain systems are exposed as backup stores.
The vCD Backup Administrator can then use backup repositories to associate specific Org VDCs to a backup appliance. Backup repositories are logical entities that map a backup store on a backup appliance with an Org VDC. An Org VDC can map to multiple backup repositories; however, only one repository can be made “active” for backups. Non- active repositories are in restore-only mode. This logical construct also enables advanced restore use cases that use filters to look up backups for protected vApps that are deleted or are from another cloud.
After VM or vApp backups have been created and replicated, the administrator (vCD Backup Administrator or vCD Tenant Administrator) can browse and restore the backups of vApps and individual VMs to their original location or to a new location.
Deploy the vCD DPE
Regarding what a Cloud Service Provider need to do in order to stand up the vCD DPE environment, please take a look at my previous blog here.
Add a backup appliance
A backup appliance represents an Avamar server.
The backup appliance maps a physical or virtual Avamar server to your cloud resources through a backup gateway server. It also associates one or more vCenter instances from your cloud to Avamar so that you can perform backup, restore, and replication operations. Before you can configure the vCD DPE to perform backups, the vCD Cloud Administrator must add a backup appliance through the vCD DPE UI.
First login to vCD DPE UI plug-in, in my case, https://vcpui.corp.local/vcp-ui-server/vcp-ui/
Type the vCD Cloud Administrator credentials and organization (“system”). The vCD Tenant Administrator cannot perform this task.
From the main menu, select Configure > Backup Appliances.
In the Backup Appliances pane, click Add.
The Add Backup Appliance dialog box opens.
Type a name and a description for the backup appliance.
Type the URL of the backup gateway server that is associated with the Avamar server.
For example, https://vcpbg.corp.local:8443
Type the Avamar Management Console administrator’s user name and password.
Leave the Enabled option checked if you want the backup appliance to be available for performing backups and restores.
Click Next.
The vCD DPE tries to verify the connection by logging in to the backup gateway server. When the verification completes, the vCD DPE displays the vCenters that are connected to vCloud Director.
To register a vCenter, click “Register Now” next to that vCenter. The vCenter Registration dialog box opens.
In the vCenter Registration dialog box, type the vCenter’s user name and password, and then click Register.
Click Finish.
The vCD DPE displays the vCenter in the vCenters pane.
You can check from login into Avamar Server (AVE) GUI, you can see there’s a new backup gateway added automatically under “clients” item.
Configure organizations and repositories
To configure a cloud organization, register the organization with the vCD DPE. Registering an organization enables you to associate any of its Org VDCs with a backup appliance and to assign backup policies to it.
After you have registered an organization, you can add a backup repository to it. A repository associates a backup store with the Org VDCs and is required for performing backups and restores. You can add multiple backup repositories to the Org VDCs. However, only one backup repository per Org VDC can be active for backups at a time.
From the main menu, select Configure > Organizations.
Log in to the vCD DPE UI plug-in.
From the main menu, select Configure > Organizations.
The Organizations pane lists the organizations from vCloud Director.
Select an organization from the Organizations list.
The organization’s name, ID, and registration status appear in the right pane. If you have not registered the organization with the vCD DPE, the Registerbutton is active.
Click Register.
When registration completes, a green check mark appears. If required, configure the ad hoc backup quota and retention time from the Ad Hoc Backup Settings area and click Update to apply changes.
In the Organizations pane, under the organization that you have registered, select the Org VDC to which you want to add a repository.
In the right pane, click Add in the Repositories tab.
The Add Repository for Org _VDC_name Organization VDC dialog box opens.
Type a name and a description for the repository. You can use any name and description that you want.
Leave the Enabled option selected if you want this repository to be available for backup and recovery.
Adjust the Total Bytes Allowed and Bytes Allowed Per Day settings if needed. These settings are for notification purposes only. If the repository reaches a set limit, the vCD DPE creates a “limit reached” notification.
Under Select Backup Store, select a backup store that is listed under one of the backup appliances, and click Add.
Create Policy Templates
A backup policy template is a combination of a backup schedule, a retention period, and an option set. Backup policies are created using policy templates and control when vApps back up, how long to keep the backups, and which, if any, options to invoke during the backup process.
To create a backup policy template, the vCD Cloud Administrator must first create at least one schedule, one retention period, and one option set. Then the vCD Cloud Administrator creates a catalog to which backup policy templates are added.
Backup policies allow you to control backup schedules and retention periods. To create a backup policy, the vCD Cloud Administrator must first create policy templates and organize them into catalogs. The vCD Cloud Administrator can then apply the policy to Org VDCs and to vApps.
From the main menu, select Configure > Policy Templates, and click Add. You can specify the name and the retention policy settings here.
A backup retention period determines how long the vCD DPE keeps backups before deleting them. A retention period can be a fixed calendar date or an elapsed time period. You can create as many backup retention periods as you need.
Select an option under Retention Policy Settings, or select Enable Adaptive Retention:
- Retention policy settings apply to all of the backups that use the policy.
- Adaptive retention settings let you select how long to keep backups based on whether they are daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly backups.
Also we can add a backup schedule policy here.
A backup schedule defines a repeating time period determining when and how often the vCD DPE attempts a backup. Backup schedules are tied to specific time zones. You can create as many backup schedules as you need.
Under Repeat This Schedule, select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or On Demand, and configure the options accordingly.
A catalog holds a collection of backup policy templates. A backup policy template is a combination of a backup schedule, a backup retention, and a backup option set. The vCD DPE uses these templates when creating backup policies for Org VDCs. When you create a catalog, you can create and add as many backup policy templates to the catalog as needed.
Type a name and a description for the backup policy template.
Select a Schedule, a Retention, and an Options template.
If you want to create a schedule, retention, or options template, you can click Create next to the respective list, and then click Add to open the dialog box in which to configure the new template.
Click Create in the New Template dialog box.
Create a backup policy for an Org VDC
From the main menu, select Configure > Organizations.
In the Organizations pane, click an organization to expand the list of VDCs.
Select the Org VDC to which you want to apply a backup policy.
Select the Policies tab. The Policies panel opens in the center pane. Click Add.
The Add policy dialog box opens. Select a policy template from the list.
The dialog box displays the template details, name, and description. Modify the policy name and description, and then click Add.
You can also modify the policy’s backup quota settings here.
Perform an ad hoc backup
You can enable or disable ad hoc backup capability per Org VDC which means Cloud Administrator or Tenant Administrator can back up one or more vApps at any time by performing an ad hoc backup.
Backup in the vCD DPE UI
- Log in to the vCD DPE UI plug-in:
- Type the vCD Cloud Administrator or vCD Tenant Administrator credentials and organization.
- From the main menu, select Backup.
- In the Organizations pane, click an organization to expand the list of VDCs.
- Select the Org VDC for which you want to perform the ad hoc backup.
- The right pane displays information about the Org VDC, including the list of vApps that it contains.
- Select the check boxes next to the Eligible or Questionable vApps that you want to back up.
- Click Backup.
To monitor progress, return to the main menu and select Monitor > In Progress.
Notes: Cloud Administrator can check the backup progress and status by using AVE UI.
Restore a vApp or a VM to the original Org VDC
You can browse a list of vApp backups that exist in vCloud Director for a specific organization, and select the backup that you want to restore from a backup repository. You can then restore a vApp or a VM to its original location on the Org VDC, or you can restore a vApp to a new location on the original Org VDC.
Log in to the vCD DPE UI plug-in, type the vCD Cloud Administrator or vCD Tenant Administrator credentials and organization.
From the main menu, select Restore.
In the Organizations pane, click an organization to expand the list of VDCs.
Select a VDC from the list.
In the vApp Inventory tab, click the name of the vApp that you want to restore. The Backup Inventory pane displays the backups that exist for that vApp.
In the Backup Inventory pane, click the checkbox next to the backup that you want to restore.
To see details about the backup, click a backup’s date/time identifier.
Click Restore, and select one of the options: Restore New or Restore Original.
- The Restore New option restores a new copy of a vApp on the Org VDC.
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The Restore Original option overwrites the original vApp or VM on the Org VDC.
When you select Restore Original, the “Choose Restore Type” dialog box opens, and you can select vApp or Virtual Machine.
- Restore a vApp to its original location
When you restore a vApp to its original location, the vCD DPE restores VMs that were deleted from the vApp after the last backup. You can also select whether to restore VMs that were added since the last backup.
- Restore a VM to its original location
When you choose to restore a VM, you can select from a list of VMs that are contained in the vApp. You can restore only one VM at a time.
Notes: You need to power off the existing running vApp before performing the restore task.
Notes:
The vCD DPE re-creates these VMs with a new ID during the restore operation.
To restore only those VMs that existed at the time of the backup, select Delete VMs that were not part of this backup from the Virtual Machines pane.
To restore the order in which the VMs were configured to start at the time of the backup, select Restore start order.
The Networks pane opens and displays any network configurations that existed at the time of the backup.
If networks were found, and you want to restore the network configurations, select Restore networks, and then click Next.
The Network Connections pane opens.
If you want the network to connect when the vApp is restored, select Connected.
To monitor progress, return to the main menu and select Monitor > In Progress.
In Monitor tab, vCD DPE UI will show all the tasks’ status.
Cloud Administrator also can check the overall Restore staus by using AVE GUI.
Data Protection in the vCloud Director Tenant Portal UI
The vCloud Director tenant portal UI provides a subset of the Avamar VMware cloud backup and restore functionality that is available in the vCD DPE UI for tasks that are performed by the Organization Administrator role, also known as the tenant administrator. You can view protection policies by tenant, modify policies and monitor policy quotas, and perform virtual machine and vApp backups and recoveries in a single pane of glass GUI, you don’t need to open separate vCD DPE UI to perform related backup and restore tasks.
The vCloud Director tenant portal UI opens on the Virtual Datacenters page, which displays the existing tenants. From the main menu drop down, select Data Protection, as shown in the following illustration.
You can perform an ad hoc backup or restore a vApp or virtual machine to the original Org VDC in the vCloud Director tenant portal UI.
I may come out another blog for this in the future.
Tenant perform Restore using Data Protection Restore Client
Tenant Administrator can also use Cloud Data Protection Restore Client (only if Cloud Provider has provided this additional service for its tenant)
follow through all the rest configuration items to complete the restore task.
Notes:
The most correct and comprehensive installation and configuration procedures of vCD DPE are provided by DellEMC vCD DPE official manual, you need to refer to the official “Dell EMC vCloud Director Data Protection Extension Administration and User Guide”, I’m leveraging version 18.2 for this blog and this is for testing purpose only, for production use purpose, please contact and consult your DellEMC sales representative for detail information.
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