You can protect ESX hosts, vCenter, or VMware Cloud (VMC). This article applies to all scenarios.
You'll want to make sure you follow these steps in order, and experience the simplified Druva deployment in 15 minutes - with no implementation services needed!
Understand VMware data protection
Understand VMware data protection
Druva protects global VMware environments and centralizes data into a single pool, accelerating backup and disaster recovery operations as well as advanced functions such as long-term data retention, compliance, eDiscovery, and analytics.
Additional resources to help you get started:
Plan and set up your VMware environment
Plan and set up your VMware environment
Ensure your vCenter Server is 6.5 or later and the ESXi Host version is 6.5 or later. See supported versions.
Ensure you have read the prerequisites to install the backup proxy and to configure virtual machines for backup.
The IP address / Network provided to the backup proxy must be able to communicate to Cloud on port 443. See the list of ports and communication protocols used for communication between Druva and various VMware components.
Check resource availability and storage considerations; ensure your VMware setup has sufficient resources to deploy the backup proxy. When you deploy the appliance, a new Ubuntu virtual machine is created along with an installation of the backup proxy with the following configuration: 8 vCPU, 6 GB RAM, and 4 virtual disks with 40GB, 60GB, and 2 disks with 1MB storage each. To know more, see Resource sizing for VMware backup proxy.
Ensure you have required privileges to back up and restore vCenter and ESXi virtual machines.
Connect Druva to vCenter/ESXi host/VMC
Connect Druva to vCenter/ESXi host/VMC
Druva connects to your VMware environment via a backup proxy. The VMware Proxy Deployer makes this easy.
Here’s what you have to do:
Download the VMware Proxy Deployer on your local system.
Copy or generate the activation token to activate virtual machines.
Deploy the backup proxy using steps listed in Deploy VMware proxy using VMware Proxy Deployer.
Protect your virtual machines
Protect your virtual machines
Configure virtual machines for full, application-aware SQL Server backups or instant restores by specifying the type in the backup policy.
Here’s what you have to do:
Configure VMs manually for backup
You can manually configure discovered VMs for backup. During this one-step configuration, you apply or create administrative groups, cloud storage targets, backup policies, and proxies (or proxy pools) via the Management Console.
Link to detailed instructions: Manual configuration of VMs for backup
Configure VMs based on resource types
Create Druva auto-configuration rules to identify and protect new VMs based on VM folder, data store, host and cluster, or tag. Based on the rule, eligible virtual machines are automatically associated with designated cloud storage, administrative group, backup policy, and backup proxy pool.
Link to detailed instructions: Auto-configuration of VMs for backup
Set up granular and app-aware recovery
Set up granular and app-aware recovery
Application-aware recovery requires no agents and gives you both flexible database and VM recovery options. Here is the link that guides you through how to Restore MS SQL Server databases on VMware virtual machines
📌 Additional information
Watch a quick onboarding video to see how it all happens.
Review the Frequently asked questions on VMware registration.