SUMMARY
After deployment, you can add backup storage by adding disks to the UEB or UB virtual machine through the hypervisor.
ISSUE
Need high-level recommendations for adding storage.
RESOLUTION
After deployment, you can add backup storage by adding virtual disks to the UB virtual machine through the hypervisor. You should add storage in the same manner as the initial disk you created during deployment.
For UB systems, it is best to attach external backup storage through the hypervisor and deploy the UB VM to this same external storage array, as described in these guides: Deployment Guide for Unitrends Backup 10.6 on VMware and Unitrends Enterprise Backup 10.6 Deployment Guide for Hyper‐V. If you must connect to external storage from the UB virtual machine directly through network protocols (NFS, CIFS, or iSCSI), be sure to use a supported vendor listed in Supported external storage vendors for use with Unitrends Enterprise Backup appliances.
Warning: It is strongly recommended that all UB storage is either direct attached storage (DAS, internal to the hypervisor) or resides on one external storage array. If you configure storage across multiple storage arrays and one becomes unavailable, all backup data is corrupted, resulting in total data loss.
Consider the following when determining your storage approach:
- Determine the storage target you will use and deploy to that array. This can be direct attached storage (DAS, highly recommended), or external storage on a NAS share or SAN LUN.
- After initial deployment, you can add more storage to the hypervisor. Once storage is added in the hypervisor, go to the Unitrends system to either expand the existing backup device to include the new disk (recommended) or add a separate backup device.
- External storage should be connected to the hypervisor rather than directly to the UB guest. (Although it is possible to attach external storage directly to the UEB VM, this feature is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.)
- It is highly recommended to use hypervisor-certified storage arrays (for deploying UBs) that are on VMware’s and Hyper-V's hardware certified list.
- You can leverage SAN or NAS storage to create datastores by connecting the external array to the hypervisor host.
- You can connect a SAN LUN on the array to the hypervisor host and expose it to UB. You can then add the entire LUN to UEB or create virtual disks (VMDKs and VHDs) on the LUN and expose these disks to UEB for added storage.
- You can connect a NAS share to the hypervisor host over CIFS or NFS protocol to create virtual disks (VMDKs or VHDs) for added storage.
- If you are using external SAN or NAS storage, the UB shares or LUNS used by the UEB VM should be dedicated to that UEB VM and not shared by other virtual machines, applications, and so forth.
Once the storage is added to the Hypervisor:
- Log onto the Unitrends HTML /ui/ Administrative Interface.
- Verify that no other work is being performed (stop and disable backups, suspend Hot Backup Copy replication).
- Click on CONFIGURE and from the Appliance tab, select the name of the Unitrends Appliance.
- From the Storage tab below, select the Internal device, and click the Edit button to open the Edit Storage dialogue box.
- The newly added disk(s) is listed on the bottom right and the current MANAGE ATTACHED DISKS in use are above. Click on the new disk, then click the Add↑. This disk is now listed as the next disk in the MANAGE ATTACHED DISKS list.
- Click Save. It will take a few minutes for the new disk to be added. The more storage, the longer it will take.