Datasheet

Lowe c01.indd V3 - 08/11/2011 Page 15

EXPLORING VMWARE VSPHERE 5

Figure 1.4

vSphere FT

provides protection

against host failures

with no downtime

experienced by the

VMs.

ESXi host ESXi host

VM failover,

no downtime

Logging connection

In the event of multiple host failures—say, the hosts running both the primary and second-

ary VMs failed—vSphere HA will reboot the primary VM on another available server, and

vSphere FT will automatically create a new secondary VM. Again, this ensures protection for

the primary VM at all times.

vSphere FT can work in conjunction with vMotion, but in vSphere 4.0 it could not work with

DRS; DRS had to be manually disabled on VMs that were protected with vSphere FT. In vSphere

5, FT is now integrated with vSphere DRS, although this feature does require Enhanced vMotion

Compatibility (EVC).

VSPHERE STORAGE APIS FOR DATA PROTECTION AND VMWARE DATA RECOVERY

One of the most critical aspects to any network, not just a virtualized infrastructure, is a solid

backup strategy as deﬁ ned by a company’s disaster recovery and business continuity plan. To

help address the needs of organizations for backup, VMware vSphere 5 has two key compo-

nents: the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) and VMware Data Recovery (VDR).

VADP is a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that backup vendors leverage in

order to provide enhanced backup functionality of virtualized environments. VADP enables func-

tionality like ﬁ le-level backup and restore; support for incremental, differential, and full-image

backups; native integration with backup software; and support for multiple storage protocols.

On its own, though, VADP is just a set of interfaces, like a framework for making backups pos-

sible. You can’t actually back up VMs with VADP. You’ll need a VADP-enabled backup application.

There are a growing number of third-party backup applications that are designed to work

with VADP, and VMware also offers its own backup tool, VMware Data Recovery (VDR). VDR

leverages VADP to provide a full backup solution for smaller VMware vSphere environments.

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