Veeam 9.5 VTL to AWS Storage: setup AWS - pt.1

Veeam can now leverage VTL on Amazon AWS storage as a scalable and cost-effective tape alternative allowing to complete the final stage of the 3-2-1 backup rule.

Veeam currently offers two options for VTL which include either utilizing Amazon’s native VTL or StarWind Cloud VTL solution. 

 

Blog Series

Veeam 9.5 VTL to AWS Storage: setup AWS - pt.1
Veeam 9.5 VTL to AWS Storage: configure the Tape Backup Job – pt.2

 

The VTL technology emulates on-premises physical tape devices and can be integrated in the existing backup infrastructure without changing the process of taking backups to tape. Data reside on AWS S3 storage service with the capability to move the data to more cost-efficient Amazon Glacier Storage for long-term retention.

To allow Veeam Backup & Replication to offload backups to the cloud, the Amazon VTL Storage Gateway must be used to connect Veeam with AWS.

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid storage service that enables the on-premises applications to use the AWS Cloud storage for backup and archiving, disaster recovery, cloud bursting, storage tiering, and migration.

Standard protocols, such as NFS and iSCSI, are used by the Amazon gateway appliance to connect the local application to AWS storage services (S3, Glacier) providing storage for files, volumes, and virtual tapes.

 

Configure AWS Storage Gateway

Login to the AWS console and select the Storage Gateway option under Storage area.

From the Select gateway type tab, select Tape gateway and click Next.

Select the host platform to use (in the example VMware ESXi) and click on Download image button. Click Next when download has been completed.

Enter the IP Address assigned to the gateway appliance. Before connecting to gateway, we need to install and configure the appliance in the chosen environment.

 

Deploy the VMware gateway appliance

Open the vSphere Web Client, right click the cluster and select Deploy OVF Template option.

Click Browse in the wizard to select the .OVF file to use then click Next.

Enter a Name and specify a location. Click Next.

Select a resource where to run the appliance and click Next.

Click Next to continue.

Select the virtual disk format and the storage then click Next.

Specify the Destination Network then click Next.

Click Finish to start the deployment.

 

Configure the gateway appliance

Once the appliance installation has completed, right click the VM and select Edit Settings. Go to VM Options tab, expand VMware Tools and enable the Synchronize guest time with host option.

Now go to Virtual Hardware tab. Add two new Hard Disk devices and assign for each disk a new SCSI Controller set as VMware Paravirtual. The disks will be used by the gateway appliance for the following purposes:

• Cache storage - cache storage acts as the on-premises durable store for data that is waiting to upload to Amazon S3 from the upload buffer. You should allocate at least 20% of your existing file store size as cache storage and it should also be larger than the upload buffer.
• Upload buffer - the gateway stores incoming data in a staging area to prepare for upload to Amazon S3.

To avoid errors from AWS, the disks size should be at least 150 GB. Click OK when done.

Access the appliance console to configure the network parameters.

To access the configuration, enter the default credentials sguser/sgpassword.

Enter number 2 to configure network parameters and press Enter.

Enter number 3 to configure static IP and press Enter.

Enter all the required parameters then type y to apply the configuration.

Press Return to continue.

Enter x to complete the configuration.

Configuration has updated in the system. Press Return to continue.

The gateway appliance configuration has been completed successfully. Enter x to exit the session.

 

Complete AWS gateway setup

Once the appliance IP address has been configured, go back to AWS console to complete the setup of the gateway. Double check the entered IP address is correct then click on Connect to gateway button.

Specify the Gateway time zone, Gateway name and the Backup application used. Note the Tape drive type is IBM-ULT3580-TD5. Click Activate gateway.

When the gateway has been activated, you have to configure the local disks. Configure the Upload buffer and Cache roles to the appliance's disks and click Save and Continue to save the setup.

The gateway has been created successfully.

Depending on the backup application used, you have to choose the recommended Medium changer. Select the Medium Changer and click Change media changer type.

Since Veeam version 9.5 is used in this example, the Medium Changer Type to configure is AWS-Gateway-VTL.

Select the AWS-Gateway-VTL type then click Save.

The VTL device type has been set to AWS-Gateway-VTL.

 

Create tapes

Final step of the gateway configuration is the creation of the tapes used to store the backup data. Go to Tapes tab and click Create tapes.

Specify the Number of tapes to create, Capacity (at least 100 GB) and a Barcode prefix. Click Create tapes when done.

The tape has been created successfully.

Once the gateway has been created and configured, the AWS environment is ready to be used as VTL device for the backup application. Part 2 will show how to setup Veeam Backup & Replication to leverage VTL on Amazon AWS.