Using NDMP to backup volumes on Dell EQL PS4000 array

EQL is a block (ISCSI) storage with a great and deep integration into VMware vSphere. Think about:

- VAAI/VASA

- MeM

- VSM

- Well certified for ISCSI a long time....

In small or medium sized invironments you would like to use a backup product which use the VMware VADP to keep benefit of CBT, VSS Snapshots and so on. So take a look to Dell vRanger or Veeam B&R.

To offer file storage like NFS/CIFS you need an addon which is called FS7600 (FS7500 is the old one). This unit take storage from the EQL backend, place its own filesystem on and present this as file storage over NFS and CIFS. This (File)data can be backuped through NDMP and we use a Symantec product for this job.

Yes, vSphere ESXi supports NFS but iam sure its not on the VMware HCL and you also lose all the great stuff mention above. It doesnt make "real" sense to connect an FS7600 to VMware vSphere.

We build an EQL Group for a customer which provides storage to the vSphere Cluster and offer CIFS/NFS trough a FS7610 for the Clients (Windows 7) and special (Linux)Servers.

For VMs you would like to backup you have to create a VMware Snapshot first to get a consistent state. Just selecting the data and copy it isnt enough and does not work well. NDMP isnt the right one for this job. A backup programm which know about VMware VMs is needed.

Regards

Joerg