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Version: DPX 4.16

Best Practices for Agentless VMware Backup

Proxy Servers​

  • Locate virtualization proxy servers on the network close to the VMs being protected.
  • Do not use a vCenter node as a virtualization proxy server.
  • For optimum performance, multiple proxy servers are recommended to enable load balancing. However, the number of proxy servers is limited by the number of allowed connections to vSphere and the ESXi server.
  • DPX automatically chooses proxy servers for a backup operation from available proxy servers and load balances among multiple available proxy servers.

Performance​

  • For best performance and reduced load on ESXi servers, back up over a SAN or HotAdd rather than a LAN (NBD). The data transfer method for agentless backups is based on availability – see Backup Architecture: SAN, LAN (NBD), and HotAdd.
Tip.

Try to ensure that the proxy server has SAN or HotAdd access to the target datastore, since NBD backup is much slower. Encrypted VMs are read over HotAdd or NBD regardless of SAN availability.

  • Consider the storage requirements of your storage system based on the number of VMs to protect.
  • Avoid storage migration while Agentless VMware Backup backups are running.

Job Definition​

  • Define Agentless VMware backup jobs at the container level, such as VM folders or resource pools, or select the virtual machines by vCenter tag. Supported VMs added to the container, or tagged with a selected tag, are automatically added to the backup.
  • In a single Agentless backup job, do not combine VMs from more than one vCenter. The VMs from the different vCenters should be backed up using separate backup jobs. That is N servers to 1 job and 1 volume.
  • Use Agentless VMware Backup to protect most VMs. Use the Catalogic DPX Block Data Protection (guest-based protection) to provide application-aware protection for VMs running applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle Databases, see Application-Consistent Protection.
  • If you install the Catalogic DPX Client on a VM to run Block backups, you can set the option to skip that VM during Agentless VMware Backup. See Job Source Options for Agentless VMware Backup.

Maintenance​

  • Enable Backup Verification for jobs that write to vStor. After each run, vStor mounts the backup snapshot and confirms that its data can be read, so corruption is detected early rather than at restore time.
  • Add an automated GuardMode scan on top of Backup Verification to have every verified snapshot checked for signs of ransomware activity. See Backup Verification.
  • When VMs are no longer needed, run the Delete VM/VMDK Wizard to remove the VM and associated mappings, LUNs, temporary datastores, and associated cloned volumes. See Deleting VMs and VMDKs.