All,
We have built a new Cluster on ESXi 5.5 with 2 DL380 G8 servers (hosts) and a HP Storevirtual 4330 connected via iSCSI for SAN storage. All iSCSI have 4 NICs attached to a iSCSI 1GB Switch.
The HP Storevirtual 4330 has 7TB of space but will have 1-1.5 TB of VMs and Data on it. 2x16 core Xeon processors and 256gb RAM in each host.
There are 10 server VMs (2008 R2) on the cluster.
I also have a DL360 G8 with 5TB of space on it and a FC HP 1/8 autoloader (I need to make weekly and monthly tapes for compliance requirements).
I have 4 extra nics in this to connect to the iscsi san if thats an advantage.
All my previous backups were full backups to tape but will need to be different.
Just wondering what is the best solution for me in relation to
What type of backups are best (snapshot in storevirtual, VDP, or software (Backup Exec and VEEAM are my options)
Where should I store the data from backups (SAN or space on win2008 backup server)
What type of backup gives less impact on performance of SAN, Hosts or VMs while running.
Is de-duplication a help in managing space, if yes what way should it be configured.