VMware vSphere Data Protection(VDP)

• VMware vSphere Data Protection is a backup and recovery solution from VMware.
• Fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and VMware vSphere Web Client, providing disk-based backup of virtual machines and applications.
• vSphere Data Protection is based on the industry-leading EMC Avamar deduplication backup and recovery software.

Softwares Used

Following softwares are used for the Setup purpose:

Prerequisites for VMware vSphere Data Protection(VDP)

• Before installing VDP you need to make sure that your VMware vCenter and the ESX hosts NTP servers are synced with the same DNS server, which is to be used by the VDP.

Installing VMware vSphere Data Protection(VDP)

• Download the OVA template from

  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VDP61&productId=491
  

• Deploy the OVA template on a vCenter.

• While deploying select the Datastore (of size atleast 2TB), on top of which you want to deploy the VDP VM.

  

  NOTE: In this case the Datastore seelcted is a CloudByte Volume mounted on the ESX host.

• Now after couple of steps, use the following as the initial Network configuration for VDP VM.

  

• The deployment will take around 20-25 minutes to complete.

• Once the deployement is done, the next steps will involve the configuration of VDP.

Configuration of VDP - PART I

• After the deployment is done and the VDP VM is powered on, the first step will be configuring the timezone.

  

• Once the above is done SSH into the system using root as username and changeme as the password.

• We will then need to update /etc/hosts to reflect the IP Address/Hostname of our VDP appliance as well as any others you may want VDP to be able to resolve.

• It should look something like this:

  

• Now add the following highighted part in /etc/reslov.conf:

  

• Next we need to edit the dnsmasq configuration file located in /etc/dnsmasq.conf and add the following entry (replace it with the IP Address you have assigned your VDP appliance):

  server=20.10.112.131
  

• Finally we just need to start the dnsmasq service as well as enable it to automatically startup on boot by running the following two commands:

  /etc/init.d/dnsmasq start
  chkconfig dnsmasq on
  

• To confirm that everything has been configured correctly, we will perform both a forward and reverse lookup of our VDP hostname and IP Address. You can do so by using nslookup command or any others such as dig or host. In this example, I will be using nslookup and you will need to run the following two commands (ensure to replace it with your hostname/IP Address):

  nslookup vdp.vmcert.com
  nslookup 20.10.112.131
  

  

• Once you have confirmed both forward and reverse lookups are successful, you can then proceed to configuring your VDP appliance by opening a browser to https://[VDP-ADDRESS]:8543/vdp-configure and proceed with moving forward with the VDP configuration wizard.

  Note: 
  - Ensure that 127.0.0.1 is shown in the VDP configuration UI for the DNS entry. 
  - For hostname, you will need to use the short hostname even though a hostname is officially defined as specifying the FQDN
  

Configuration of VDP - PART II

• STEP 1: Network Settings
  • By default your Stactic IP, Netmask, Gateway and Primary DNS will be present in the settings page.
  • Make sure your Primary DNS is 127.0.0.1, if so proceed further.
  • Enter the Hostname and Domain you provided in /etc/hosts.

  

• STEP 2: Setting Up Timezone
  • Select the timezone according to your region and then proceed further.
• STEP 3: Updating VDP Credentials
  • Update the VDP password with you credentials.

  

• STEP 4: vCenter Registration
  • Enter your vCenter Credentials and do the Test Connection

  

  • Once the Test Connection is done you will get the following

  

• STEP 5: Storage Creation
  • Select the first option and then click next.

  

• STEP 6: Device Allocation
  • Select the options as mentioned below and click next.

  

• STEP 7: CPU and Memory Configuration
  • You will get a default value, don’t change it and proceed to next step.

  

• STEP 8: Ready To Complete
  • in this step just click next and you will get the following:

  

  • On clicking Yes it will start configuring the setup and you will get something like below.

  

• Once the above steps are done the VDP VM will be rebooted.

Verification

• To verify the installation is completed successfully, refersh the browser and enter the new password.

• You will get the following after logging:

  

Connecting VDP to VMware vCenter

• STEP 1 : Login to vCenter WEB-Console

• STEP 2 : Go to vSphere Data Protection tab and connect to the VDP VM you created.

  

• STEP 3 : While adding if you get the following error, then follow STEP 4.

  

• STEP 4 : Go to /etc/hosts and check if the below is present or not:

  

  If not add the same again to your /etc/hosts and then connect the VDP VM.

• After connecting you will be prompted to the final screen where ypu can run the operations provided in VDP.