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New Features for Virtualization in 11.20

Common Virtual Server Agent Framework

Deploy Access Node (VSA Proxies) and FRELs on CentOS 8 or RHEL 8

A Linux machine that runs CentOS 8 or RHEL 8 can act as an access node (VSA proxy) for any hypervisor that supports Linux proxies.

In addition, a machine that runs CentOS 8 or RHEL 8 can act as a File Recovery Enabler for Linux (FREL).

The CentOS 8 or RHEL 8 machine must be registered with the vendor so that it can install required operating system packages.

For more information, see the following pages:

File Indexing for Virtual Machines

Using the Command Center, you can index guest files and folders of Windows and Linux virtual machines on the following hypervisors:

  • Amazon Web Services streaming and IntelliSnap snap copy.

  • Azure Resource Manager streaming and IntelliSnap backup copy.

  • Hyper-V streaming and IntelliSnap backup copy.

  • VMware streaming and IntelliSnap backup copy.

For more information, see File Indexing for Virtual Machines.

Managing VM and Server Backup Plan Associations

You can associate a discovered virtual machine (unprotected or protected) to a Server Backup Plan to quickly start protecting your data. Managing your virtual machines in this manner can be useful because you do not need to navigate to VM Groups, hypervisors or other Commvault entities to then configure a backup plan for your data. This feature allows you to simply select an existing plan for your VM and start backing up your data. This can be especially useful for Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

You can manage your VM and server backup plan associations in the Command Center.

For more information see, Associating a VM with a Server Backup Plan.

Amazon Web Services

Automatically Install NVMe Drivers for Conversion or Replication to AWS Nitro Instances

To convert or replicate VMs from an on-premises deployment to Nitro instances that run in Amazon Web Services, you can install drivers for NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) on the access node (VSA proxy) that is used to perform the operation. During conversion or replication operations that use the HotAdd method, Commvault automatically installs the drivers on the destination instances.

For more information, see HotAdd Restores.

Automatically Scale Amazon Access Nodes

You can use the automatic scaling feature to launch access nodes in Amazon only when you need to back up VMs, and then decommission the access nodes soon after you use them. This feature reduces the amount of time that you use Amazon access nodes for backup, and can also reduce the cost of using them.

For more information, see Automatic Scaling for Amazon Access Nodes.

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) Backups for AWS EC2 Instances and EBS Volumes

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) enhances the backup performance for AWS Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volumes by leveraging the newly-announced Amazon EBS direct APIs. With CBT, AWS Amazon EBS direct APIs detect the allocated blocks (for full backups) and changed blocks (for incremental backups) by comparing two Amazon Machine Image (AMI) snapshots. This enhancement provides improved Recovery Point Objective (RPO), backup acceleration, and reduced cost of backup operations.

Key features:

  • The ability to request all allocated blocks for full backups (ListSnapshotBlocks) to accelerate the full backup time.

  • The ability to request all new or updated blocks between two EBS snapshots (ListChangedBlocks) to accelerate the incremental backup time.

For more information, see Changed Block Tracking for Amazon.

Create Volume Filters that Contain Amazon Web Services Tags

You can manage your VM group content by creating volume filters that contain AWS tags.

An AWS tag is a unique identifier consisting of a name and value set. The tags are applied to AWS volumes. With tags applied to volume resources in your environment, they can be used to create volume filters to manage your VM group content.

You can create filter and rules that contain AWS tags in the Command Center and the CommCell Console.

For more information, see the following topics:

Google Cloud Platform

Create Filters and Rules that Contain Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Labels

You can manage your VM group content by creating filters and rules that contain GCP labels.

A GCP label is a unique identifier consisting of a key and value set. The labels are applied to projects through the GCP Console or GCP Resource Manager API. With labels applied to resources in your environment, they can be used to create rules and filters to manage your VM group content.

You can create filter and rules that contain GCP labels in the Command Center.

For more information, see Managing VM Group Content.

Kubernetes

Back Up and Recover Kubernetes Applications and Persistent Data

Commvault provides a container-native enterprise-grade data management solution for backing up, restoring, and migrating applications and data for Kubernetes distributions that are certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), hosted service providers, and PaaS/container service providers. Data management provides a vendor- and cluster-agnostic approach to managing hybrid container application landscapes. Native Kubernetes integration and Container Storage Interface (CSI) integration provide a software-defined approach to persistent data management across on-premises and cloud locations.

Supported on-premises distributions:

Supported hosted distributions:

Supported PaaS/container services:

Commvault integrates with the Kubernetes API and, therefore, supports any CNCF-certified Kubernetes offering.

Key features:

  • Backup, restore, and migrate cloud-native (Kubernetes) applications and data across any Kubernetes-certified distribution (on-premises, hosted, or PaaS)

  • Protect Kubernetes-persistent data via native API integration with Kubernetes and CSI for consistent data management across on-premise and cloud locations.

  • Recover a complete application to a previous point in time, including auto-deployment to a new application or a new cluster.

  • Migrate applications between Kubernetes clusters (on-premise, cloud, and PaaS). Migrate applications between or to cloud Kubernetes services (such as AKS, EKS, and GKE).

Azure

Back up and Restore Azure Generation 2 Virtual Machines

You can back up and restore Azure Generation 2 VMs, which use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI or EFI) boot architecture. Generation 1 VMs use BIOS boot architecture.

For more information, see Backups.

Create Disk Filters that Contain Azure Tags

You can manage your VM group content by creating disk filters and rules that contain Azure tags.

An Azure tag is a unique identifier consisting of a name and value set. The tags are applied to Azure disks. With tags applied to the disk resources in your environment, they can be used to create disk filters to manage your VM group content.

You can create disk filters that contain Azure tags in the Command Center and the CommCell Console.

For more information, see the following topics:

Azure Stack Hub

For Azure Stack Hub Virtual Machine Backups, use Microsoft Azure Stack Hub version 2002.

To back up your Azure Stack Hub virtual machines, you must use this release of Commvault and Azure Stack Hub version 2002.

You can use Commvault software with Azure Stack Hub in the Command Center and the CommCell Console.

For more information, see the following topics:

Hyper-V

Live Mount Available for Hyper-V

With Live Mount, you can run a virtual machine directly from a stored backup for that VM.

You can use this feature for the following:

  • Validate that backups are usable for disaster recovery.

  • Validate the content of the backup.

  • Access data from the virtual machine directly instead of restoring guest files.

  • Offload operations, like running analytics and antivirus scans, from the source machine.

Live Mount is supported with streaming backups and IntelliSnap backup copies.

You can configure Live Mount for Hyper-V in the Command Center.

For more information, see Live Mount for Hyper-V.

Use Credential Manager for Hyper-V Account Information

You can use Credential Manager to create an entity to store, share, and update account credentials for shared resources in your environment.

You can use Credential Manager to create an entity for Hyper-V in the Command Center and the CommCell Console.

For more information, see the following topics:

Replication (Live Sync)

Replication Monitor Displays Detailed Performance Information for Continuous Replication

In the Command Center, the Replication Monitor provides detailed performance information for continuous replication (formerly called “Live Sync I/O”). You can use interactive graphics to explore the I/O rate, replication rate, and network throughput for replication pairs, and journal retention for recovery points.

For more information, see Continuous Replication Monitoring.

Use the Replication Wizard to Configure Replication for VMware VMs

You can configure replication for VMware VMs using a replication wizard that simplifies and streamlines the configuration process. The replication wizard guides you through the process of setting up source and destination sites for disaster recovery (DR), helping you manage storage, network settings, data transport, and secondary copies.

After you set up replication, you can use the Replication Monitor to manage replication:

  • Monitor replication status and performance to ensure that you meet recovery objectives.

  • Manage DR orchestration operations such as failover and failback.

  • Validate replicated VMs at the destination site.

For more information, see Creating a Replication Group Using the Replication Group Wizard and Monitoring Replication and Initiating Operations.

VMware Cloud Director

Several Updates for the Commvault Plug-In for VMware Cloud Director

You can use the Commvault Plug-In for VMware Cloud Director to complete the following tasks:

  • View critical information for your entire environment in one area from the plug-in Dashboard

  • Restore guest files and folders

  • Manage your VM and server backup plan associations

  • View currently active jobs throughout your entire environment

For more information, see Commvault Plug-In for VMware Cloud Director.

Virtual Server Agent Supports VMware Cloud Director 10.0

For VMware or VMware Cloud Director hypervisors, you can back up and restore virtual machines that run in VMware Cloud Director 10.0.

This support is available in the Command Center and in the CommCell Console, for Service Pack 16 and more recent service packs and feature releases.

For more information, see the following topics:

Self-Service Backup and Restore for VMware Cloud Director Tenants

For VMware Cloud Director, MSPs can set up tenant organization hypervisors to enable tenants to manage their own environments. With Self-Service Backup and Restore, the tenants can manage their own virtual machines and VM Groups, as well as the scheduling of their backup and restore operations all from the Command Center.

To have tenants manage their own environments, the MSP admin must set up a VMware Cloud Director tenant organization hypervisor. This hypervisor is associated with the tenant's organization entity in VMware Cloud Director and the company entity in the Commvault software. With this, tenant users can view and manage only the virtual machines corresponding to their VMware Cloud organization.

For more information, see Self-Service Backup and Restore for VMware Cloud Director Tenants.

VMware

Filter SATA or NVMe Disks from VMware Backups

You can define disk filters to exclude virtual device nodes from backups of VMware virtual machines, including SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) or NVMe (non-volatile memory express) disks.

For more information, see the following topics:

Synchronous Data Replication for VMware on Nutanix

Commvault provides a synchronous replication solution that builds on the Nutanix metro availability feature. The Nutanix metro availability feature provides datastore replication between an active site and one standby site. The Commvault solution enhances the Nutanix replication capability with enhanced management capabilities, backup copy operations, data retention controls, and additional options for the destination site.

With metro availability, you can provide data protection in the event of a site disaster. The Commvault software can track snapshots taken using metro availability on clusters in both sites, so you can have synchronous datastore replication across two sites.

You can use the metro availability solution with the Virtual Server Agent for VMware with IntelliSnap backups enabled and running on the Nutanix hyperconverged platform.

For more information, see Synchronous Data Replication for VMware on Nutanix.

Use Credential Manager for VMware Account Information

You can use Credential Manager to create an entity to store, share, and update account credentials for shared resources in your environment.

You can use Credential Manager to create an entity for VMware in the Command Center and the CommCell Console.

For more information, see the following topics:

Use NetApp Open Replication to Orchestrate Disaster Recovery for Virtual Machines

If a disaster occurs, or for testing, you can quickly create and power on VMware VMs from mirror copies that are created using NetApp Open Replication. Using an array replication failover group, you can failover VMs to a disaster recovery (DR) site (also called destination site or secondary site). Array replication is usually faster and more scalable than live sync replication.

For more information, see DR Orchestration for NetApp Open Replication.

Use vCenter Server 7.0 and VDDK 7.0

You can use Commvault with Service Pack 14 and more recent service packs and feature releases to protect virtual machines that run on vCenter Server 7.0.

For Feature Release 20, VDDK 7.0 is included with the Virtual Server Agent and is loaded automatically for vCenters running vSphere 7.0 or later.

For more information, see System Requirements for Virtual Server Agent with VMware.

Use VMware Cloud on AWS with SDDC 1.9, 1.10, or 1.11

For Feature Release 19 and more recent feature releases, Commvault can be used for VMware Cloud on AWS with SDDC 1.9, 1.10, or 1.11.

For more information, see Support for VMware Cloud on AWS.

VM-Centric Operations Enhanced for Greater VM-Level Independence and Resilience

VMware hypervisors that use Indexing Version 2 for VM-centric operations can take advantage of the following enhancements:

  • Virtual machine backups that carry self-contained backup data and metadata catalogs for each individual VM, without a dependence on VM groups (subclients)

  • VM admin jobs to associate individual VM backups with the parent VM group (subclient)

  • Improvements for secondary copy operations, data aging and retention, synthetic full backups, and replication for disaster recovery

  • Support for NetApp Open Replication using SnapVault and SnapMirror copies, and for inline replication with supported vendors

For more information, see VM-Centric Operations for Virtual Server Agent.

VMware Backups Use Enhanced HotAdd Dispatch Method for VMs in a vSAN Stretched Cluster

For VMs that are part of a vSAN stretched cluster, VMware backups that use the HotAdd transport mode can use a new VM dispatch method. When you back up a VM, the coordinator node tries to assign the backup to an access node (also called VSA proxy) that is part of the same fault domain as the source VM. This dispatch method is used when there is no access node available that runs on the same host as the source VM.

This approach enables the access node to read data locally instead of sending data across the cluster network.

This VM dispatch method is available for vSAN stretched clusters on vSphere 6.5 and 6.7.

For more information, see vSAN Support for the Virtual Server Agent with VMware.

Virtual Machine Conversion (Cross-Hypervisor Restores)

Restore VMware VMs as Google Cloud Platform Instances

When you restore a full VMware virtual machine from backup, you can restore the machine as a Google Cloud Platform instance.

You can use this feature to migrate virtual machines to Google Cloud Platform.

For 11.20 and more recent feature releases, you can use the Command Center to convert VMs from VMware to Google Cloud Platform. This feature is available from the CommCell Console for Service Pack 15 and more recent service packs or feature releases.

For more information, see Converting to Google Cloud Platform.

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