Nimble Storage

This section contains integration specific information for configuring orchestration of snapshot creation and replication between Nimble Storage arrays.

Storage array configuration

1. Browse the NimbleOS web GUI: Manage -- Protection -- Volume Collections
2. Add a new volume by clicking on New Volume Collection

3. Add the Volume Collection Name on the Introduction.

   Be careful with the naming to stay within the limits of 80 characters.

4. Select None on the Synchronization tab.

   Veeam will orchestrate the creation of a volume snapshot, and initiate replication to the secondary Nimble array before the backup job starts.

5. Set the scheduling for Nimble Storage snapshots.

   Note that Veeam Backup & Replication uses its own engine to initiate the creation and replication of snapshots.

   Nimble configuration will not allow empty scheduling. Therefore you can choose Weeks or Repeat Every Week and Replicate to set to "2" as the minimum — or any desired configuration, as these configurations will not be used by Veeam.

6. Associate the desired volume for replication on the Volumes Tab

Snapshot only jobs

When a job is configured for using "Nimble snapshot" as the backup repository, Veeam will not copy any data from the source storage to a target repository. Instead Veeam will orchestrate the creation of a storage snapshot, and can entirely skip VMware snapshot creation, in case application-aware image processing is left disabled.

It is not recommended to rely on storage snapshots as backups, as it violates the 3-2-1 rule. It is however a great complement to traditional backups to achieve lower RPO, in case the primary storage array is still available, when a restore is needed.

Note.

It is recommended by the vendor that volumes should be in individual Volume Collections. Please verify Nimble Volume Collections configuration before running the snapshot-only job, otherwise it may not operate properly- for example, replicate more data than expected.

Snapshot replication

When configuring backups using the "snapshot only" repository, or regular repositories, it is possible to configure orchestration of replication to a secondary Nimble Storage array by checking the Configure secondary destinations for this job.

By clicking Add -- Nimble Snapshot Replicated Copy, it is possible to configure how many snapshots should be retained at the target Nimble Storage array. During the job run, Veeam will search for replication settings configured on the Volume Collection for the source volume being snapshotted. Please see the initial paragraph of this chapter for details on configuring Volume Collections.

Note.

When configuring replication between Nimble Arrays for integration with Veeam for Snapshot Only Jobs or for backups to Secondary Array, it is recommended by Nimble to have each volume have its own volume collection group.

Backup from secondary storage

When performing backups to a backup repository, it is possible to configure using the replicated copy at the target Nimble Storage array as the source for the repository based backup.

By clicking Add -- Nimble Snapshot Replicated Copy, it is possible to configure how many snapshots should be retained at the target Nimble Storage array, and furthermore use the checkbox "Use as the data source". This will instruct the backup proxy to using the secondary Nimble Storage array as the data source for backups.