What Is Dell Technologies PowerStore – Part 20, Protecting Your vVols with PowerProtect

So far, we have covered the following aspects of Dell Technologies PowerStore:
High Level Overview,   Hardware,   AppsON,  vVols,  File Capabilities,  User Interface ,  Importing external storage, PowerStore local protection works , remote replication , VMware SRM integration , resource balancer , the integration with an upstream Kubernetes and / or RedHat OpenShift & The integration with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, CloudIQ , AppSync , Ansible , the VSI Plugin , vRO Adapter  & VDI

In a previous post (What Is PowerStore – Part 4, vVols)
, we have covered the PowerStore vVols architecture including using the array based snapshots for vVols local protection and copy data management usage.

PowerProtect Data Manager offers efficient data protection capabilities leveraging the latest evolution of Dell EMC trusted protection storage architecture.

With operational simplicity, agility and flexibility at its core, PowerProtect Data Manager enables the protection, management and recovery of data in on-premises, virtualized and cloud deployments.

Streamline data protection directly from applications or Kubernetes containers to Dell EMC protection storage and reduce application resource constraints.

Increase business resiliency with PowerProtect Cyber Recovery capabilities to rapidly recover from cyber incidents.

Modern Services Based Architecture provides easy deployment and upgrades. Rapidly evolve to meet future IT demands.

With the PowerProtect Data Manager software and VM integration, you can manage, protect, and reuse virtual machine data across the enterprise by deploying services to accomplish the following tasks:

If you are new to PowerProtect, i suggest you start by reading more about it here https://www.delltechnologies.com/he-il/data-protection/powerprotect-software.htm

• To discover, access and recover virtual machine copies non-disruptively across primary and protection storage without introducing new infrastructure or complexity
  
• To automate efficient copy creation
  
• To efficiently automate data retention SLA compliance, ensuring that the right number of copies are stored in the right place at the right level of protection
  
• To optimize operations based on actionable analytics and insight
  

  A Protection Policy allows you to select a specific group of assets that you want to back up. Use the PowerProtect Data Manager UI to create a virtual machine protection policy.
  

  The VM proxy(vProxy) protection engine is the virtual machine data protection solution within PowerProtect Data Manager. This solution allows you to deploy a VM proxy in the vSphere environment to perform virtual machine snapshot backups, and then move the backup data to a Data Domain system.
  

  PowerProtect provides several options for virtual machine recovery including Live virtual machine
  

  Creates a new virtual machine directly from the original virtual machine backup on the Data Domain system for the purposes of instant backup validation and recovery of individual files
  

  , Restore to New
  

  Create a new virtual machine using a copy of the original virtual machine backup
  

  , Restore to Original
  

  Recover virtual machine backup to its original location on the same vCenter
  

  , Direct Restore to ESXi
  

  Recover the virtual machine directly to an ESXi host without a vCenter server.
  

   and File Level Restore
  

  Recover individual files from backups of virtual machines or VMDKs performed in PowerProtect to a primary or secondary vCenter server
  

   

  Add Protection Storage to PowerProtect Data Manager
  

  The first step to protect a Virtual Machine with PowerProtect Data Manager is to ensure that you have a protection storage target. This is accomplished by adding a Data Domain system to the PowerProtect environment.
  

  The Data Domain system can be discovered and added to the PowerProtect environment through the PowerProtect Data Manager. Always check the release notes for PowerProtect Data Manager for the latest versions that are supported.
  

  The PowerProtect Data Manager supports the following Data Domain systems and software:
  

• Data Domain operating system: 7.x,6.1.0.x, 6.1.1.5, 6.1.2, and 6.2
  
• If the Data Domain system is running DDOS 6.1.x or later, it can only be discovered through the Data Domain Management Center (DDMC) 7.x and 6.1.x
  
• If the Data Domain system is running DDOS 7 or later, it can be discovered directly by PowerProtect API
  
• DD990, DD3300, DD4500, DD7200, DD9500, DD6300, DD6800, DD9300, DD9800
  
• Data Domain Virtual Edition (DDVE): 7.x
  
• Data Domain Management Center: 7.x, 6.1.0.x, 6.1.1.5, 6.1.2, and 6.2.0
  

  The following steps highlight the procedures to add Protection Storage:
  

• From PowerProtect Data Manager navigate to Infrastructure > Storage > PROTECTION STORAGE
  
• Click ADD then enter the Data Domain system credentials
  
• Specify a name and the FQDN for the Data Domain system
  
• Verify that the Data Domain system has been added
  

   

  Add a VMware vCenter Server Instance
  

  Adding a vCenter server instance is required before you can schedule a backup through PowerProtect Data Manager.
  

  Following are the steps to add a vCenter server instance as an asset source in the PowerProtect Data Manager.
  

  
  

• Navigate to Infrastructure > Asset Sources. The Asset Sources window appears.
  
• Select the vCenter tab.
  
• Click Add. The Add vCenter dialog displays.
  
• Specify the source’s attributes:
  
• Name – specify the vCenter server name
  
• FQDN – specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address
  
• Port – specify the port for communication if you are not using the default port, 443
  
• Select the credential to use, alternatively if the necessary credentials are not listed you can add the necessary credentials by clicking Add Credentials and adding the specific information.
  
• Click Save. The vCenter server information that you entered now appears as an entry in a table on the Asset Sources window.
  

   

  Virtual Asset Discovery
  

  
  

  After a vCenter server instance is added as an asset source, an automatic discovery of VMware entity information from the vCenter Server is initiated.
  

  The initial vCenter discovery identifies all ESX clusters, hosts, and virtual machines within the vCenter. Subsequent discoveries are performed automatically, according to a fixed interval. This process identifies any additional or changed VMware entities since the last discovery operation.
  

  
  

  Discovery of VMware entities can also be initiated manually anytime from the vCenter tab of the Asset Sources window, by selecting a vCenter server and clicking Discover.
  

  Virtual machine assets can be protected by manually adding the assets to a virtual machine protection policy. This can also be done by using dynamic filters to determine which assets will be included in a protection policy according to pre-defined rules.
  

  VM Proxy Protection Engine Overview
  

  The VM proxy (vProxy) protection engine is the virtual machine data protection solution within PowerProtect Data Manager. This solution allows you to deploy a VM proxy in the vSphere environment to perform virtual machine snapshot backups, and then move the backup data to a Data Domain system.
  

  
  

   

  The PowerProtect Data Manager software comes pre-bundled with an embedded VM proxy for environments that do not require concurrent backups and where Hot Add transport mode is not required.
  

  For environments that require a large amount of data movement and concurrent data protection operations, Dell EMC recommends deploying an additional external VM proxy for virtual machine backups.
  

  Administrators can navigate to Infrastructure > Protection Engines to open the Protection Engines window to view statistics for the VM proxy engine, manage and monitor VM proxies, and add an external VM proxy to facilitate data movement.
  

   

  Add a VM Proxy
  

  In the Protection Engines window, perform the following steps to deploy an external VM proxy to facilitate data movement with the VM proxy protection engine.
  

  
  

  In the VM Proxies pane of the Protection Engines window, click Add.
  

• In the Add VM Proxy dialog box, fill out the required fields (marked with an asterisk).
  
• Only IPv4 addresses are supported for the Gateway, IP Address, Netmask, and Primary DNS.
  
• If multiple vCenter server instances are added, the vCenter to Deploy list enables you to choose the vCenter where you want to deploy the VM proxy.
  
• The ESX Host/Cluster list enables you to choose the cluster or ESX host on which the additional VM proxy will be deployed.
  
• The Network list shows all the networks that are available under the selected ESX Host/Cluster.
  
• The Data Store list shows all datastores that are accessible to the selected ESX Host/Cluster based on ranking (whether the datastores are shared, local, or NFS), and available capacity (the datastore with the most capacity appearing at the top of the list).
  
• The Transport Mode list enables you to use only Hot Add or Network Block Device (NBD) transport modes
  
• Click Save. The VM proxy is then added to the VM Proxies pane
  

  When an additional VM proxy is deployed and registered, PowerProtect Data Manager will use it instead of the embedded VM proxy. The embedded VM proxy is used when no deployed VM proxy is available.
  

  VM Backup with PowerProtect Data Manager
  

  Add a Protection Policy for Virtual Machine Protection
  

  A protection policy allows you to select a specific group of assets that you want to back up. The configuration of a protection policy for a virtual machine includes entering the information for the policy such as type, purpose of the policy, assets to be included, and creating a backup schedule.
  

  
  

  The first step is to navigate to the Protection Policies window and open Add Policy wizard.
  

• Go to Protection > Protection Policies. The Protection Policies window appears.
  
• Click Add. The Add Policy wizard appears.
  

   

  
  

  A protection policy allows you to select a specific group of assets that you want to back up. The configuration of a protection policy for a virtual machine includes entering the information for the policy such as type, purpose of the policy, assets to be included, and creating a backup schedule.
  

  
  

  There are three options available while configuring the protection policy to the virtual machines.
  

  
  

• Crash Consistent – Capture all of the virtual machine disks simultaneously and back up the data to storage targets to create a transactional consistent backup.
  
• Application Aware – Perform a virtual machine image backup that creates an application-consistent SQL Server backup with transaction log protection and truncation. This enables self-service recovery of SQL Server data from this backup by using the SQL Server Management Studio and Dell EMC ItemPoint.
  
• Exclusion – Exclude assets in this group from protection activities and dynamic filter assignment.
  

  
  

  On the Assets window, select the unprotected assets that you want to back up as part of this protection policy, or click Find More Assets to perform an updated asset discovery of the vCenter if you do not see the virtual machines you want to protect. The window enables you to filter by asset name to locate the required assets.
  

  
  

  In the Schedule window, Click + Backup to create the schedule. The Add Primary Backup dialog appears.
  

  Specify the backup schedule fields:
  

• The Recurrence options allow you to determine how often backups will occur. Choose from Hourly, Daily, Weekly and Monthly. Note that Recurrence also depends on the Start Time and End Time fields if you select the Hourly option.
  
• Keep For determines the retention period of the backup.
  
• Start Time and End Time determine the backup window. End Time means that no new backup will be initiated in this policy after this time. It does not mean that any policy that is currently running is stopped at this time.
  

  In the Advanced Option, you can select Automatically retry with a full copy in case of capacity cube failure checkbox if required.
  

  After completing a backup schedule, you can change any schedule details by selecting the checkbox next to the added schedule and clicking Edit. The SLA
  

  In SLA drop-down, select an existing service level agreement you want to apply to this schedule, or click Add to create a new SLA within the AddBackup Service Level Agreement window.
  

  , specific Data Domain system as a Target
  

  From the Target drop-down, select the backup destination from the list of existing Data Domain systems and virtual scale-out integrated storage, or clickAdd to add a new system within the Storage Target window.
  

  , Retention Lock
  

  Select the Retention Lock checkbox to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system
  

  , and Network Interface
  

  From the Network interface drop-down, select a network interface card (NIC)
  

   also can be configured by selecting the checkbox next to the added schedule.
  

  
  

  Review the protection policy group configuration details. Except for the protection policy type, you can click Edit next to any completed details to change the protection policy information. When completed, click Finish.
  

  An informational message appears to confirm that PowerProtect Data manager has saved the protection policy. When the new protection policy group is created, PowerProtect Data Manager automatically performs a full backup. For virtual machines, if you have not yet added a VM Proxy, the backup is performed using the embedded VM Proxy. Subsequent backups will be performed according to the schedule specified.
  

  On-demand Backups of Virtual Machines
  

  Once virtual assets have been added to a virtual machine protection policy, you can perform on-demand backups of individual virtual machines by using the Backup Now functionality in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.
  

  
  

  To perform an on-demand backup:
  

• Go to Infrastructure > Assets.
  
• Select the Virtual Machines tab. A list of virtual assets for the discovered vCenter is displayed
  
• Select a virtual machine from the table that has an associated protection policy.
  
• Click Backup Now. A notification appears indicating whether the request was processed successfully
  

   

  VM Recovery with PowerProtect Data Manager
  

  Once virtual assets are backed up as part of a VM Protection Policy, image and file-level recoveries can take place. These can be from individual or multiple VM backups.
  

  
  

  To restore a virtual machine, PowerProtect Data Manager provides the following restore options:
  

• Restore to new
  

  Create a new virtual machine using a copy of the virtual machine backup.
  

• Restore to original
  

  Restore and Overwrite the VM to its original location on the same vCenter.
  

• Instant Access VM
  

  Create a new virtual machine directly from the virtual machine backup on the Data Domain system.
  

• File level restore
  

  Restore individual files from the virtual machine backup.
  

• Direct restore to ESXi
  

   

  Restore to New
  

  
  

  
  

  The Restore to New option allows you to create a new virtual machine using a copy of the original virtual machine backup. This copy is an exact replica of the virtual machine that you backed up with the protection policy in PowerProtect Data Manager.
  

  Select the checkbox next to one or more desired virtual machines and click Restore. Then perform the following steps from the Restore Wizard.
  

• Select a VM and a Copy to restore
  
• Choose Restore entire VM
  
• Select Create and Restore to New VM
  

  This video demonstrates the Restore to New feature.
  

  Restore to Original
  

  A restore to the original location will recover a virtual machine backup to its original location on the vCenter, rolling back the virtual machine that you backed up with the protection policy in PowerProtect Data Manager to an earlier point in time.
  

  Perform the following steps to restore a virtual machine to its original location:
  

• 
  
• In the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, go to Recovery > Assets and select the Virtual Machines tab.
  
• Select the checkbox next to the desired virtual machines and click Restore.
  
• On the Select Copy page, for each virtual machine that is listed in the table, select the radio button next to the virtual machine and click Choose Copy.
  
• Click DD if the backup is on a Data Domain system, and then select from one of the available copies that are displayed in the table.
  
• On the Purpose page, for the restore type select Restore Entire VM.
  
• From Restore Type, select Restore and Overwrite Original VM.
  
• Select Restore from the Summary Page.
  

  File Level Restore
  

   

  
  

   

  A file level restore allows you to recover individual files from backups of virtual machines, or VMDKs performed in PowerProtect Data Manager to a primary or secondary vCenter server.
  

  In the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, go to Recovery > Assets and select the Virtual Machines tab. The Recovery window displays all of the virtual machines available for recovery.
  

  Perform the following steps to restore files to a VM:
  

• Select a VM and a Copy
  
• Choose File Level Restore
  
• Select a Target VM
  
• Mount a Copy
  
• Select Files and a location to recover
  
• Perform Recovery after review
  

  Direct Restore to ESXi
  

  
  

  
  

  When a protected VM is running Vcenter Server, PowerProtect Data Manager can perform a restore without a Vcenter Server instance.
  

  In the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, go to Recovery > Assets and select the Virtual Machines tab. The Recovery window displays all of the virtual machines available for recovery.
  

  Select the checkbox next the desired virtual machines and click Restore. Then perform the following steps:
  

• Select a Copy
  
• Choose Direct Restore to ESXi
  
• Enter the ESXi credentials
  
• Select a DataStore
  
• Review the Summary page
  

  Restore an Instant Access Virtual Machine
  

  An instant access virtual machine restore enables you to create a new VM directly from the original backup on the Data Domain.
  

  Here are some considerations when using Instant Access Restore:
  

• Access is available for 7 days
  
• Does not move data from the Data Domain
  
• Will not use the production Datastore
  
• Option to move the VM to production Datastore
  

  The following video demonstrates how to restore an Instant Access Virtual Machine.
  

  Below you can see a demo showing everything you read about above when the VM is hosted on PowerStore on vVols based datastore