AHV virtual machines

This section provides considerations and requirements for protecting virtual machines hosted in Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) environments.

NOTE   AHV host-level backups include the VM file data but not the Acropolis File Services data that is internal to the Nutanix share. To protect this internal data, you can add the Nutanix share to the Unitrends appliance and run Unitrends NAS backups over the NFS protocol. Start by reviewing the requirements in NAS protection using CIFS/NFS. Next, add the share to the Unitrends appliance as described in To add a NAS CIFS or NFS asset. Then create a backup job as described in To create a NAS CIFS or NFS backup job.

When you add an AHV host cluster to the appliance, all VMs are discovered and available for host-level protection. Unitrends leverages Nutanix REST APIs to communicate with AHV hosts.

The following information summarizes the high-level steps that protect AHV virtual machines. The steps include links to detailed instructions for each procedure.

Step 1:   Review the Best practices and requirements for AHV protection.

Step 2:   Add the AHV host cluster to your Unitrends appliance. See Adding a virtual host.

Step 3:   Create backup jobs for your VMs:

●   To create a job manually, see To create a Nutanix AHV backup job.

●   To create a job by using an SLA policy, see To create an SLA policy for AHV assets.

●   For a comparison of the manual and SLA policy job creation methods, see About creating backup and backup copy jobs.

Review the information in these topics before implementing AHV host-level protection:

Follow these best practices to protect your AHV virtual machines:

●   Adhere to Nutanix best practices.

●   Full and incremental backups are supported for AHV VMs.

●   A new full backup is required if the VM configuration has changed since the last backup. This includes any configuration changes made to a VM through the hypervisor, such as creating or deleting a snapshot, or adding a new disk.

If the VM configuration has changed since the last backup, the next incremental fails. After this failure, the appliance promotes the next scheduled backup to a full (or displays a message indicating a full is required if an on-demand incremental is attempted). Once a full backup succeeds, subsequent incrementals run as scheduled.

●   Due to a Nutanix limitation, Unitrends AHV snapshots do not display in the Nutanix AHV hypervisor. Note the following:

●   The first time a VM is backed up, the job creates a new snapshot of the AHV VM that remains with the VM after the job completes. During subsequent backups, the job creates a new snapshot of the AHV VM, performs the backup, then removes either the previous snapshot (if the job was successful) or the current snapshot (if the job failed). If a job ends ungracefully (such as due to a power outage) the unneeded snapshot may remain on the hypervisor. A Unitrends cleanup process runs hourly to check for and remove any unneeded snapshots.

●   If you are no longer protecting a VM on this Unitrends appliance, any leftover snapshot that has not been removed will remain on the hypervisor. This applies even if you begin protecting the VM with another Unitrends appliance. If you are no longer protecting a VM with the original Unitrends appliance, contact Support for assistance removing any unneeded snapshots.

●   In some cases, you may want or need to protect VMs by using agent based, file-level or image-level backups. For recommendations, see Protecting AHV virtual machines with file-level backups.

●   To protect a VM with both host-level and file-level (agent-based) backups, ensure that the VM's host-level and file-level jobs do not overlap. Running both simultaneously may lead to undesirable results.

The following requirements must be met for host-level protection of AHV virtual machines.

Item

Description

Unitrends appliance version

The Unitrends appliance must be running version 10.2 or higher.

The Unitrends appliance must be running an Enterprise or Enterprise Plus license.

Nutanix AHV host cluster version

The AHV host must be running Acropolis Operating System (AOS) version 5.1.4 or a higher version supported version listed in the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix.

AHV host account privileges

While adding the AHV cluster to the Unitrends appliance (described in To add a virtual host asset), you must enter the username and password credentials of one of the following AHV cluster accounts:

●   The Nutanix cluster admin account – You must use this account if the AHV cluster is not configured to use directory services authentication and the cluster is running a pre-5.5 AOS release. Other user accounts with full administrative privileges are not supported.

●   Any local Nutanix cluster account that has been assigned the user admin or cluster admin role – Use a local account with either of these roles if the AHV cluster is not configured to use directory services authentication and the cluster is running AOS release 5.5.

●   An LDAP user that has the cluster admin role – Use this account if the AHV cluster is configured to use directory services authentication. See these topics for additional requirements: Requirements for directory services authentication in AOS 5.1 or Requirements for directory services authentication in AOS 5.5.

Requirements for directory services authentication in AOS 5.1

These additional requirements apply to Nutanix AHV clusters running in AOS 5.1 that are configured to use directory services authentication:

●   Set up authentication (as described in this Nutanix document: Configuring Authentication) to use these settings:

●   In the Directory List, add a new directory of type Active Directory and connection LDAP. For the Directory URL, specify ldap://<ip-address>:<port>

●   Create a role mapping for the LDAP user and assign the cluster admin role.

●   In the self service portal (SSP), set or update the SSP administrators to the user@domain. Use fully qualified domain names.

●   SSP will need to query the active directory for details of users. Ideally a service account with no time limit should be used. This account must have privileges for listing the users in the Directory server.

●   While adding the AHV cluster to the Unitrends appliance (described in To add a virtual host asset), you must specify a domain in addition to the username. The username and domain are case sensitive. Be sure to match the case that was entered in the self service portal (SSP). In the Username field, enter the username and domain in this format: user@domain. For example, jalvarez@unitrends.com

Requirements for directory services authentication in AOS 5.5

These additional requirements apply to Nutanix AHV clusters running in AOS 5.5 that are configured to use directory services authentication:

●   Set up authentication (as described in this Nutanix document: Configuring Authentication) to use these settings:

●   In the Directory List, add a new directory of type Active Directory and connection LDAP. For the Directory URL, specify ldap://<ip-address>:<port>

●   Create a role mapping for the LDAP user and assign the cluster admin role.

●   While adding the AHV cluster to the Unitrends appliance (described in To add a virtual host asset), you must specify a domain in addition to the username. In the Username field, enter the username and domain in this format: user@domain. For example, jalvarez@unitrends.com

iSCSI target access

AHV backup and recovery jobs access the AHV host over the iSCSI protocol.

Ensure the following:

●   The Unitrends appliance is able to connect to the iSCSI targets on the Nutanix storage LAN.

●   iSCSI Data Services are configured for the Nutanix AHV cluster. To configure this setting:

1.  In the Nutanix Prism interface, select Cluster Details from the Options menu.

2.  Enter the iSCSI Data Services IP address.

3.  Click Save.

Virtual machine storage

The following requirements apply to virtual machine storage:

●   Virtual machine storage must be disk storage allocated on a storage container. VM disks that are attached to a Volume Group are not included in the backup.

●   Host-level protection is not supported for independent and pass-through disks. To protect these disks, you must install a Unitrends agent and use file-level backups instead.

Virtual machine configuration

The following VM configuration requirements must be met for Unitrends host-level protection:

●   Nutanix recommends installing Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) in the guest operating system to ensure file system and application consistency.

●   NGT tools must be installed and running to enable application consistent quiesce. If NGT is not running, crash consistent quiesce is used. For details, see this Nutanix document: Nutanix Guest Tools.

●   For Windows guests, Nutanix recommends installing VirtIO drivers for enhanced performance and stability. For details, see this Nutanix document: Nutanix Virtio for Windows.

Virtualized Active Directory servers

To ensure database consistency, you must set up the virtualized Active Directory (AD) server in accordance with Microsoft best practices. If all Microsoft considerations are not addressed, backup and restore of the virtual machine may yield undesired results. If you prefer not to research these best practices, install the agent on the VM and protect it as you would a physical server (leveraging Microsoft’s VSS writers).

Distributed File System environments

Distributed File System (DFS) Namespaces and DFS Replication offer high-available access to geographically dispersed files. Because of the replication and syncing operations in DFS environments, you must set up the virtual machine in accordance with Microsoft best practices to ensure database consistency. If all Microsoft considerations are not addressed, backup and restore of the virtual machine may yield undesired results. If you prefer not to research these best practices, install the agent on the VM and protect it as you would a physical server (leveraging Microsoft’s VSS writers).