backup storage in a cluster

copymaster

Member
Nov 25, 2009
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Hi
and a happy new year to all of you! i hope you all enjoyed the christmas days and had a fine party at the turn of the year.

i hope you can give me a idea of how to use the backup in a cluster configuration.

well i have a cluster with one master and actually two nodes (the nodes will increase in near future)

at the master, there's only a local storage of 200 GB, the nodes have 2 Tb each (local)

Also i use a netapp wich i mounted using iscsi and LVM.This is a 4 TB storage and i use the normal network, not an extra one for iscsi!

My question is: what is the best configuration to backup the vms on the nodes?

PLAN A:
install the VM's on the NetApp Storage and make the backup on the free Diskspace of the local node, which runs the vm

PLAN B:
install the VM's local on the specific node which should run the VM and use the NetApp as Backup storage ( this seems not to work, because i cannot tell the LVM Volume to be a backup storage).

And at the end a last question from what i have tested so far:

I installed a vm locally on a node. then i went to the webinterface of the master and created a local backup storage using the local storage (200 GB) and made a backup job.
is there a possibillity to add the localstorage of a node too? Or is the only possibillity to make a nfs share on the node to integrate this storage?
 
Hi
and a happy new year to all of you! i hope you all enjoyed the christmas days and had a fine party at the turn of the year.

i hope you can give me a idea of how to use the backup in a cluster configuration.

well i have a cluster with one master and actually two nodes (the nodes will increase in near future)

at the master, there's only a local storage of 200 GB, the nodes have 2 Tb each (local)

Also i use a netapp wich i mounted using iscsi and LVM.This is a 4 TB storage and i use the normal network, not an extra one for iscsi!

My question is: what is the best configuration to backup the vms on the nodes?

PLAN A:
install the VM's on the NetApp Storage and make the backup on the free Diskspace of the local node, which runs the vm

PLAN B:
install the VM's local on the specific node which should run the VM and use the NetApp as Backup storage ( this seems not to work, because i cannot tell the LVM Volume to be a backup storage).

And at the end a last question from what i have tested so far:

I installed a vm locally on a node. then i went to the webinterface of the master and created a local backup storage using the local storage (200 GB) and made a backup job.
is there a possibillity to add the localstorage of a node too? Or is the only possibillity to make a nfs share on the node to integrate this storage?

best practice is to have a central backup location, e.g. NFS. you cannot use local backup storage from node A on node B and vice versa.
 
thanks for your reply, tom.

compared to iscsi is nfs real slow. is there a way to use iscsi as a backup storage?

Would you prefer the version that all vms are installed locally on the specific nodes or on a central iscsi location?

i thought th best thing would be to use a iscsi for all vm images so i can hot migrate the machines if a node goes down.
but then i have a problem with backups. So my plan was to make the 2 TB local storage from each node a nfs share and go to the master via webinterface and add a nfs storage from these nodes to make backups.

So i have the VM's on the netapp (iscsi) and the backups local on the nodes. that would give me the possibility to restore vms if the netapp or a node dies.

Please have in mind, this should be a PRODUCTION environment.
 
Last edited:
thanks for your reply, tom.

compared to iscsi is nfs real slow. is there a way to use iscsi as a backup storage?

Would you prefer the version that all vms are installed locally on the specific nodes or on a central iscsi location?

i thought th best thing would be to use a iscsi for all vm images so i can hot migrate the machines if a node goes down.
but then i have a problem with backups. So my plan was to make the 2 TB local storage from each node a nfs share and go to the master via webinterface and add a nfs storage from these nodes to make backups.

So i have the VM's on the netapp (iscsi) and the backups local on the nodes. that would give me the possibility to restore vms if the netapp or a node dies.

Please have in mind, this should be a PRODUCTION environment.

BTW, if you design a production environment, you should ALWAYS use a dedicated storage network for iSCSI.

I would store the VM´s on very reliable (best case redundant iSCSI storage or better FC, maybe as a cheap alternative a intel modular server) SAN. and use an extra storage network.

and go for a NFS share for backups - you can also use the SAN to provide this NFS.
 
Okay i think there's no other way.

I will try to setup an extra network based on VLAN.
The netapp will have one connection to that "ISCSI VLAN" and the other connection to the "normal LAN"

But how do i configure that on my cluster?
I think i have to activate the second LAN port on my master Server to have also connection to this "ISCSI-VLAN" so that the master can connect to a iscsi share on the netappp. the other connection will then be to the "normal Lan".

How do i configure that? I only have the option to "add a new Bridge" or "add a new bond"

can you please help me with that?
 

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