PHD Virtual Backup for VMware vSphere

The PHD Virtual Backup Appliance

The PHD Virtual Backup Appliance (PHD VBA) performs all of the backup and restore processing including source-side deduplication and compression. After it is deployed, the appliance must be configured with hypervisor credentials and a backup storage location.

Figure B - 1. The PHD Virtual Backup Appliance in vSphere Client

When creating backup jobs, you select which PHD Virtual Backup Appliance to use to perform the job. The PHD VBA you select also determines where the backup data is stored based on its configured storage location.

Note:    If the PHD VBA is stored on a VMFS volume with the default formatting of 1 MB block sizes, you will be able to backup VMDK files up to 256 GB, only. If you need to backup VMDK files larger than 256 GB, you will need to store the PHD VBA on a volume formatted with larger block sizes.
1 MB block size = 256 GB max file size
2 MB block size = 512 GB max file size
4 MB block size = 1024 GB max file size
8 MB block size = 2048 GB max file size

Configuring the PHD VBA

All configuration for the PHD VBA is done using the PHD Virtual Backup Console. See The PHD Virtual Backup Console for details.

PHD VBA status and log information can also be seen by selecting the PHD VBA virtual machine within vSphere Client then clicking the Console tab. See The PHD VBA in vSphere Client.

How many VBAs do I need?

• The number of PHD VBAs you will need to deploy should be determined by how your VMware environment is configured. Each appliance can perform backups and restores for the VMs with the same shared resources. If you have configured your environment with multiple clusters or pools or other container using different shared resources, you will need to deploy a PHD VBA within each container to allow the VMs within to be backed up. Depending on the number of VMs and available resources within each pool, cluster, or Datacenter, you may choose to deploy multiple PHD VBAs within each. If you will be replicating VMs to another location you will need to deploy at least one PHD VBA to the second location, if it is unreachable by the primary PHD VBA. Note that although multiple appliances can be deployed within an environment, PHD Virtual Backup is licensed on a per-socket basis.

  If you need to deploy additional PHD VBAs , see Deploying the PHD Virtual Backup Appliance.If you need to deploy additional PHD VBAs, refer to the Installation Guide.

Figure B - 2. PHD VBA in a vCenter Cluster with shared storage

Note:    If a PHD Virtual Backup Appliance is restarted while a backup or restore job is in progress, the job will be canceled and any leftover snapshots will be removed the next time a backup is run. In addition, a system job runs each time the PHD Virtual Backup Appliance starts up, as well as once daily, to locate and remove any leftover snapshots. Any snapshots that cannot be removed automatically can be removed manually using vSphere Client.

Caution:   If a PHD Virtual Backup Appliance is suspended during a job, when it is started again, it may become unresponsive and a restart will be required. Avoid suspending the PHD VBA during backup and restore jobs, when possible.