System Requirements for Virtual Server Agent with VMware

Before you configure Commvault to protect VMware virtual machines, verify that your environment meets these requirements.

Access node requirements

The access node must run one of the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2025 x64 Editions (Standard, DataCenter, and Core)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2022 x64 Editions (Standard, DataCenter, and Core)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) x64 Editions (Standard, DataCenter, and Core)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 x64 Editions (Standard, DataCenter, and Core)

• For Linux access node support, use one of the following options:

  • Deploy a File Recovery Enabler for Linux (FREL) as an access node for VMware. For more information, see Linux Proxy Support for the VSA with VMware.

  • Install the Virtual Server Agent on a Linux machine that runs any of the following operating systems:

    • Oracle Linux 8.x or 9.x

    • RHEL 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.x, or 9.x

    • Rocky Linux 8.x or 9.x

      Note

      • For RHEL/OEL/Rocky 9.0 and 9.1 access nodes, if the libssl.so.3 and libcrypto.so.3 VDDK 8.0.1 load fails, upgrade openssl-libs to the latest version to use VDDK 8.0.1. Upgrading will protect the VMware workloads.

      • To use a machine that runs RHEL 7.7 as an access node, you must install the pcre-devel-8.32-17.el7.x86_64 package.

      • For a machine that runs RHEL 8.x or 9.x, to install operating system packages that are required to enable automatic installation of Mono, register the machine with Red Hat.

    For more information, see Deploying a Linux Machine as a VSA Proxy.

  • Linux access node support for VMware is enabled by default for the HyperScale 1.5 Appliance and HyperScale X. You can select appliance nodes to act as Linux access nodes.

For information about hardware requirements for the access node, see Hardware Specifications for Virtual Server Agent.

Hard drive

Verify that at least 100 GB free space is available for installing the Virtual Server Agent.

Platform support

• VMware vSphere versions: 9.x, 8.x, and 7.x (all minor updates). A licensed edition is required.

  Some transport modes, such as HotAdd, require a VMware vSphere edition that supports HotAdd. If HotAdd isn't available in your vSphere edition, use another transport mode.

• VMware vCenter Server versions: 9.x, 8.x, and 7.x (all minor updates).

• VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) support

  The supported VDDK version depends on the VMware vCenter Server version:

  VMware vCenter Server version	Supported VDDK version
  9.x	9.1.0
  8.x	8.0.3
  7.x	7.0.2 for Windows access nodes 7.0.3 for UNIX access nodes

You can protect VMs that are hosted on a vCenter or a standalone ESXi host. In Commvault, you configure a hypervisor to represent the vCenter or ESXi host.

ESX host support

Before configuring backup of any ESXi servers, ensure that you are using Essentials licensing level or higher. The vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) are not provided with the free version of ESXi.

VDDK support

For each Commvault service pack, the Virtual Server Agent includes the latest supported VDDK.

Multiple versions of the VDDK are included with the Virtual Server Agent. The appropriate VDDK for the vSphere version is loaded automatically when required. For more information, see VDDK Support for the Virtual Server Agent with VMware.

You can also update the VDDK manually. For instructions, see Frequently Asked Questions for the Virtual Server Agent with VMware. Do not place VDDK files in the VDDK installation in the Commvault base directory. Install a newer version of the VDDK only for access nodes running on Windows. For Linux access nodes, use a VDDK version that is included with the Virtual Server Agent package.

VDDK 5.5 or later is required for vSphere 5.5 support.

With VDDK 5.5 and later, 32-bit libraries and binaries are no longer supported.

VMware Cloud Director

VMware Cloud Director 10.6, 10.5, 10.4, 10.3

Virtual machine hardware

Version 4.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 13.0, 14.0, 15.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, 20.0, 21.0

Virtual machine operating systems

All Guest Operating Systems supported by VADP.

VMware Cloud on AWS

Commvault supports VMware Cloud on AWS.

For more information, see VMware Cloud on AWS.

Datastore support

• Network File System (NFS)

• Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)

• Virtual storage area network (vSAN)

• VMware Virtual Volume (VVol)

VMware Tools on virtual machines

The latest version of VMware Tools supported by the host must be installed on each virtual machine. At a minimum, the version of VMware Tools on virtual machines must be supported on the host; unsupported versions must be upgraded. For more information about VMware Tools support for Windows and Linux guest VMs, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

open-vm-tools

For Linux guest VMs running the following operating system releases, open-vm-tools can be used:

• Fedora 19 and later

• Debian 7.x and later

• openSUSE 11.x and later

• Recent Ubuntu (12.04 LTS, 13.10 and later)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later

• Oracle Linux 7.0 and later

• SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and later

For more information, see VMware support for open-vm-tools (2073803).

Port requirements

In an environment with firewalls, the vCenter, ESX servers, and Virtual Server Agent must be able to communicate with each other. To allow all components to communicate through the firewall, open the ports for web services (default: 443) and TCP/IP (default: 902) for bidirectional communication on each of these machines.

Additional port requirements might apply for the MediaAgent when you use specific features such as Live Browse, Live File Recovery, and Live Mount. For more information, see Entering Required Firewall Settings for the VSA with VMware.

Before performing any backup or restore operations, verify that the following port requirements are met.

vCenter

• Port for web service (default: 443) must be opened. If vCenter is configured to use non-default ports, the non-default ports must also be opened.

ESX server

• Ports for web service (default: 443) and TCP/IP (default: 902) must be opened for the vStorage APIs for Data Protection.

VMware Cloud Director

• A port for the vCloud REST API (default: 443) must be opened.

Subclient with multiple access nodes

• If you use multiple access nodes in a single subclient, open the CVD port (by default 8400) for all access nodes in the subclient to allow the coordinator node and other access nodes to communicate. The CVD port establishes communication between access nodes using a randomly selected port. To configure the firewall for this communication, see Network Routes.

Allocation unit size of NTFS volumes

The cluster size or the allocation unit size of an NTFS volume in a virtual machine must be a multiple of 1024 bytes per cluster. You can set the cluster size before formatting a volume. The default cluster size is 4096 bytes per cluster.

Microsoft Visual C++

The following redistributable package is installed automatically. The redistributable package can co-exist with other versions of this software.

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable Package

Disclaimer

Certain third-party software and service releases (together, "Releases") might not be supported by Commvault. You are solely responsible for ensuring Commvault's products and services are compatible with any such Releases.