Backing up Data Recovery Destinations to tape

[TommyAR]

I'm doing some testing with Data Recovery in a lab environment and am now wondering about getting the Data Recovery destinations to tape. Is there a way or a need to quiesce the destination for the tape backup? I’m considering this hypothetical: Data Recovery destination is on a NAS device and the tape job kicks off. Sometime during the tape backup, Data Recovery backs up another machine, updating the catalog and the dat files mid backup. Would that cause any problems when trying to recover?

Ideally we'd keep the Data Recovery window separate from the tape backup window, but wondering if we'll have trouble if the two schedules ever collided and we need to restore.

Thanks

[mikejroberts]

You don't really have control over when integrity checks and reclaim jobs run so you could end up with issues with open files and inconsistencies between files on tape. I have a scheduled task to shutdown my VDR appliance for a window long enough to get a tape backup. I have another task to start the appliance. I have not tested recovering from tape yet.

[TommyAR]

Hey, that's an interesting thought. I will have to do some testing. I also plan to test backing up the destination to tape while DR is hitting it to see if I can break anything.

[bitbucket]

I am doing tape backup of the dedupe store since I use VDR. I am testing recovery from tape to dedupe and from dedupe to vm on a regular base because I will never trust a disk to disk backup. Worked fine yet.

But I am not using a NAS share as dedupe store, I am using a RDM. You have to shut down VDR to get the dedupe store to tape. Just have look at this thread http://communities.vmware.com/message/1505632#1505632. There two different ways presented, RDM and SMB share.

At least using RDM there is no risk that VDR is hitting the backup to tape process. When VDR tries to start while the dedupe store is mounted anywhere else, VDR won't start.

You will also have some kind of influence to the integritiy check timer. It's just a work around until VMware gives us real control about it, but it works - at least for me. Just have look at this thread http://communities.vmware.com/message/1508463#1508463

[TommyAR]

Thanks for the info @bitbucket. This tells me what I need to know. The http://xtravirt.com/xd10131 document at the above thread is also useful. I will continue testing by shutting down our VDR appliance pre tape backup, backup the destination, then bring VDR back up.

Thanks again,

Tommy