Backup the host system using system agent file backups with the virtual machine’s data excluded. Backup the virtual machines directly using the appropriate system agent on the VM.
This approach to protecting a Xen environment protects the host system and the virtual machines in separate backups. File backups (that exclude the virtual machine data) are performed on the host system. The file backup will capture the virtual machine’s configuration files, but not the data.
A system agent is used on the virtual machine to perform bare metal (if supported) and file backups. The virtual machine is registered to the system as any other client. Unitrends’ Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Agents can be used to protect SQL and Exchange databases running on a virtual machine.
Under this scenario, recovering a full host system would mean reloading the host operating system and then restoring the last master and last incremental backups of the host system.
Virtual machines are recovered by booting the VM from a bare metal restore ISO image, which allows a full recovery of the VM operating system (if supported). When the VM is back online, a full restore of the last master and last incremental backups recover the VM data files. If there is no bare metal backup of the virtual machine, the VM will need to be rebuilt manually before data can be restored from file backups.
The Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange agents allow recovery of a SQL or Exchange database to the original virtual machine or to another client on the domain.
Scenario 1 – Advantages of protecting Xen host only:
• Takes advantage of the performance benefits of concurrent backups
• Selected files can be recovered to the virtual machines
• Virtual machines running Windows 2003 as an operating system can be restored to dissimilar systems using bare metal backups (i.e. move a VM to a dedicated server)
• Microsoft SQL and Exchange databases can be recovered to the original VM or to another client on the domain
• Virtual machine data stored externally to the host system (i.e. SAN) will be protected
Restore virtual machine data to alternate clients and locations. File-level backups taken on an OES on Linux system using a TSA based backup agent can only be restored to an OES on Linux system. File-level backups taken on a NetWare system using a TSA based backup- agent can only be restored to a NetWare or OES on Linux system.
Scenario 1 – Disadvantages of protecting Xen host only:
• More backups can mean more complexity
• The possibility of capturing virtual machine data twice (if exclusions are not configured correctly) taking more licensed capacity than necessary
• A greater number of backups to restore when performing a full host system recovery that includes the virtual machines
Scenario 1 – Considerations for protecting Xen host only:
• To prevent redundant backups, exclude the virtual machine data files from the host system’s file backups.
• Hot bare metal is not supported for OES or OES 2 on SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.
• Bare metal of Xen guest operating system can be performed only if VT/AMD-V is supported by the host server’s CPU and this support is enabled in BIOS.