> Essential > Virtualization > VMware > Implementation Planning

Azure VMware Solution

You can deploy Commvault to protect workloads running in the Azure VMware Solution (AVS). The vCenter and hosts reside on high-performance servers in the Azure datacenter.

  • The CommServe system (CS) is the machine running Commvault software.

  • The Virtual Server Agent (VSA) manages backups and restores for virtual machines.

  • The MediaAgent (MA) handles data movement.

AVS operates in the same way as an on-premises deployment of VMware, except that Azure does not provide access to hosts.

  • vSAN is used as a shared datastore.

For best results, deploy your libraries in an Azure storage account.

For more information, see Azure VMware Solution.

Commvault Deployment and Configuration

For best results, deploy Commvault components on guest VMs on VMware Cloud. The CommServe software, VSA proxies, and MediaAgents can be installed on a single standalone VM, or on separate VMs.

  • Create a virtualization client, entering the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the vCenter host name, and then configure the vCenter username using any of the following methods:

    • Use cloudadmin@vsphere.local as the vCenter username.

    • Use the Active Directory (AD) user or group that is assigned to the CloudAdmin role.

  • Deploy Virtual Server Agent (VSA) proxies as virtual machines running in the AVS.

  • Add virtual machines to a subclient that is used as a target for backups.

  • Configure backups to use libraries for storage.

  • For IntelliSnap backups, configure the VSA subclient to use Virtual Server Agent Snap as the snap engine. For more information, see IntelliSnap Protection for VMs on VVol or VSAN Datastores.

Features

Commvault Version 11, Feature Release 21 and later, supports the following features with AVS:

  • Backups and restores using vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP)

  • Changed block tracking (CBT)

  • Full, incremental, and synthetic full backups

  • Restores of full VMs, VMDKs (alone or attaching to a VM), and guest files and folders

  • Agentless file recovery

  • Application-aware backups

  • VM conversion from VMware to Azure

  • VM conversion from Azure to VMware

  • Live Sync replication and Live Sync Direct for snapshot-based replication

  • Replication from VMware to Azure

Limitations

  • Because there is no access to hosts, the following Commvault features are not supported for AVS:

    • Live VM recovery using vMotion

    • Live mount

  • Only the HotAdd and NBD transport modes are supported. The SAN transport mode do not work with Azure VMware Solution.

  • When creating a replication target, you cannot specify a resource pool as Azure cvcloudadmin does not give the Assign VM to resource group permission. You must instead select "/".

  • When you restore a VM to a different ESXi host or cluster, you must specify the resource pool and VM folder path for the restored VM.

Loading...