Creating VADP proxies

You can create VADP proxies to run VMware backup jobs with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in Linux environments.

Before you begin

Review the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus system requirements in VADP proxy requirements.

Ensure that you have the required user permissions to work with VADP proxies. For instructions about managing VADP proxy permissions, see Permission types.

Restriction: For running the steps to create VADP proxies, ensure that you have a user ID with the SYSADMIN role assigned. For more information about roles, see Managing roles.
Tip: The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus version of the VADP proxy installer includes Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) version 6.5. This version of the VADP proxy installer provides the external VADP proxy support with vSphere 6.5.

Procedure

To create VMware VADP proxies, complete the following steps:

  1. In the navigation pane, click System Configuration > VADP Proxy.
  2. Click Register Proxy.
  3. Complete the following fields in the Install VADP Proxy pane:

    Hostname/IP

    Enter the resolvable IP address or a resolvable path and machine name.

    Select a site

    Select a site to associate with the proxy.

    Use existing user

    Enable to select a previously entered user name and password for the provider.

    Username

    Enter the user name for the VADP proxy server.

    Password

    Enter the password name for the VADP proxy server.

  4. Click Install.
  5. Click Yes on the confirm screen.
  6. Repeat the previous steps for each proxy you want to create.

Results

The proxy is added to the VADP Proxy table. You can suspend, uninstall, unregister, or edit a proxy server by clicking the ellipses icon ellipses icon to open the actions menu. Suspending a proxy prevents upcoming backup jobs from using the proxy, and jobs that use a suspended or unregistered proxy will run locally, which may impact performance. You can complete maintenance tasks on the proxy while it is suspended. To resume usage of the proxy, click the ellipses icon ellipses icon to open the actions menu and click Resume. After successful creation, the service vadp is started on the proxy machine. A log file, vadp.log, is generated in /opt/IBM/SPP/logs directory.
The connection between the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance and a registered VADP proxy is a bidirectional connection that requires the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance to have connectivity to the VADP proxy, and the VADP proxy to have connectivity to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance. To ensure a proper connection from the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance to the VADP proxy, verify that the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance can ping the VADP proxy by completing the following steps:
  1. Connect to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance by using the Secure Shell (SSH) network protocol.
  2. Issue the following command: ping <vadp_ip>, where <vadp_ip> is the resolvable IP address of the VADP proxy.
If the ping fails, ensure that the IP address of the VADP proxy is resolvable and is addressable by the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance and that a route exists from the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance to the VADP proxy. If the ping succeeds, ensure that there is a proper connection from the VADP proxy to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance by performing the following procedure:
  1. Connect to the VADP proxy by using Secure Shell (SSH) network protocol.
  2. Issue the following command: ping <spectrum_protect_plus_ip>, where <spectrum_protect_plus_ip> is the resolvable IP address of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance.

If the ping fails, ensure that the IP address of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance is resolvable and is addressable by the VADP proxy. Ensure that a route exists from the VADP proxy to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance.

In the case that the IP address of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server has changed since initial deployment, the ping between the new IP of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server and VADP proxy may succeed. There are two considerations when the IP address of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is changed after deployment:
  • Existing VADP proxies deployed in the environment will lose connection with the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server because they still point to the previous IP address. It will be necessary to run the update_vadp.sh script on each VADP proxy. For more information, see Updating the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus IP address for VADP proxies.
  • For new VADP proxy installations or updates to an existing VADP proxy that is registered, the virgo.service configuration on the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server must be updated. The following procedure can be used to update the service configuration to reflect the new IP address.
    1. Connect to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus by using Secure Shell (SSH) network protocol and log in with the serveradmin account.
    2. Run the following command to update the virgo.service configuration file with the IP address where <spectrum_protect_plus_new_ip> is the new IP address of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server:
      sudo sed -i '12 a Environment=RMQ_SERVER_HOST=<spectrum_protect_plus_new_ip>'  /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/virgo.service
    3. Next, reload the systemd manager configuration. Issue the systemctl daemon-reload command:
      sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    4. Restart the virgo service:
      sudo systemctl restart virgo
    5. Create or update the VADP proxy through the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server user interface

What to do next

After you create the VADP proxies, you can complete the following action:
Action How to
Run the VMware backup job.

See Backing up VMware data.

The proxies are indicated in the job log by a log message similar to the following text:

Run remote vmdkbackup of MicroService: http://<proxy>

nodename, IP:proxy_IP_address