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15 Posts
0
4391
Sharing a vm proxy node between different Avamar servers
Hi all,
Some backgroud info:
We are planning to have different Avamar servers pointing to their own respective DD Boost account on the same DataDomain hardware.
The idea is that each Avamar server is dedicated to a single business group.
We can't make use of Avamar subdomains because Avamar forces all subdomains on the same Avamar server to point to the same DD boost account.
But we need to use different DD Boost accounts because we are going for the "secure multi-tenancy" architecture.
We also need DataDomain's per-account storage hard-quota feature that Avamar subdomains cannot provide.
I asked about this topic in a previous thread.
Question for this discussion:
Since we will be using multiple Avamar servers, I would like to know if vm proxy nodes can be shared between them?
For example, if we deploy a single Avamar vm proxy node inside an ESXi cluster (let's say the cluster has 2 ESXi hosts and one shared datastore), can all Avamar servers use this same vm proxy node to backup their own VMs from the ESXi cluster?
If different Avamar servers cannot share vm proxy nodes, then that would mean each Avamar server must deploy their own vm proxy node in the same ESXi cluster. This would be considered an inefficient use of resources.
If that is indeed the case, base on our overall architecture, what would be the best workaround to mitigate this issue?
Thanks all!
RLeon
gautamgp
226 Posts
0
April 25th, 2016 20:00
Hi,
Currently you cannot share the Avamar Proxy between multiple Avamar Systems, as each of the Proxy server only allows you register with one Avamar Server.
For your scenario, I think only Guest backup can help you segregate the data. You always have an option of dedicating one Avamar Server for Image Level backups.
rleon_bw
15 Posts
0
April 25th, 2016 20:00
Thanks for confirming that vm proxy nodes cannot be shared between Avamar servers.
In our environment, we cannot dedicate a single Avamar server for vm image level backups because each business group (department or tenant, if you prefer) must backup to a different DD Boost account, as described.
gautamgp
226 Posts
0
April 26th, 2016 09:00
I feel there could be another problem (even if you deploy separate proxies for each Business Units), registering Same vCenter to different Avamar Servers.
rleon_bw
15 Posts
0
April 26th, 2016 20:00
Please elaborate on the vCenter problem.
Your reply may make or break our planned Avamar architecture and therefore our project and deployment.
Please let me know if I need to explain our currently planned architecture better. (You can also refer to the previous thread I linked to in the opening post).
Thanks!
gautamgp
226 Posts
0
April 26th, 2016 22:00
When you register the vCenter with Avamar it creates a Domain and client on Avamar with the necessary signatures. So, if you try to register that with other servers, there could be a conflict.
rleon_bw
15 Posts
0
April 26th, 2016 23:00
I know a vCenter server does not care if multiple backup software (from different vendors, even) all use VADP + hotadd to backup vmdk snapshot images. I have seen this is many environments.
Therefore it is logical to assume that multiple Avamar servers doing VADP + hotadd to a single vCenter would not cause problems.
I appreciate you are trying to help, but can you give me something solid to go on with about this, such as the page number on which Avamar guide, or a link to the KB you got this information from?
ionthegeek
2K Posts
1
April 27th, 2016 07:00
Associating multiple Avamar systems with the same vCenter will not cause problems in and of itself. The number of Avamar systems you can associate with a vCenter depends mainly on the resources available to the vCenter server.
rleon_bw
15 Posts
0
April 27th, 2016 17:00
Thanks Ian, that's what I thought.
It is also what I saw in multiple environments, that is why I was sure multiple Avamar servers to the same vCenter will be fine.
Do you have any suggestion to mitigate the wasted resources issue discussed previously, where instead of sharing a single proxy node, every Avamar server needs to deploy their own?
ionthegeek
2K Posts
0
April 28th, 2016 06:00
Each proxy can only be registered to a single Avamar Server. I can't think of a practical way to work around this. I've sent a note to some of my colleagues to see if they have any ideas.
I've also sent a note to the product manager for virtualization to bring this specific issue to his attention.
rleon_bw
15 Posts
0
April 28th, 2016 23:00
Thanks.
If only each subdomain in an Avamar server could map to their own respective DD Boost Account this wouldn't be an issue.
I could then simply deploy one (1) Avamar server to handle all business groups by segregating them using subdomains, each with their own DataDomain storage hard-quota limit (because each DD Boost Account will a have hard-quota).
In this scenario, all Avamar vm proxy nodes will just be owned by that one single Avamar server. Problem solved.
Let's hope this will be possible in the next version
RLeon
bkin
14 Posts
0
December 20th, 2018 16:00
I would also like to see if this is still the case now, 2 1/2 years on.
While I may be going about this entirely incorrectly (this is a relatively new installation of Avamar), I am currently attempting the following:
Avamar Server - Connected to vCenter with Proxies backing up to a primary DD
Avamar VE - Replication target replicating to an off-site DD
For testing purposes, I want to attempt restoring VMs from the Avamar VE and off-site DD in case of a loss of the Avamar Server and Primary DD, and would like to do so without needing to deploy another set of proxies for the restores.
ionthegeek
2K Posts
0
December 20th, 2018 20:00
This is unchanged. You could probably reactivate the existing proxies to the off-site Avamar but it's probably easier and less disruptive to just deploy a proxy (or several) in the off-site environment and power them down when you're not using them.