Druva is a robust, agentless backup solution specifically designed for Nutanix AHV clusters. This document explores the features and advantages of using Druva for efficient VM-level backups, highlighting its unique capabilities and the benefits of utilizing a Druva AHV Backup Proxy.
With Druva, you can:
- Backup Nutanix AHV VMs at the hypervisor level (no in-guest agents required)
- Restore VMs to the same location or an alternate Nutanix cluster
- Optimize backup performance with deduplication, scheduling, and retention policies
Overview of Druva
Druva is a cloud-native backup solution that simplifies data protection for virtual environments. Its agentless architecture is particularly beneficial for organizations using Nutanix AHV clusters, as it streamlines the backup process and reduces management overhead.
Key Features
- Agentless Backup: One of the standout features of Druva Phoenix is its agentless backup capability. By leveraging the Druva AHV Backup Proxy, users can perform VM-level backups without the need for installing individual agents on each virtual machine. This not only saves time but also minimizes the complexity associated with managing multiple agents.
- Efficient VM-Level Backups: Druva Phoenix provides efficient VM-level backups, ensuring that all critical data within virtual machines is captured without impacting performance. The solution is designed to handle large volumes of data while maintaining fast backup and recovery times.
- Seamless Integration with Nutanix AHV: Druva Phoenix is built to seamlessly integrate with Nutanix AHV clusters, allowing for straightforward deployment and management. This integration ensures that organizations can quickly implement a reliable backup solution without disrupting their existing infrastructure.
Key Benefits
- Reduced Management Overhead: The agentless approach significantly reduces the time and effort required for backup management, allowing IT teams to focus on other critical tasks.
- Cost-Effective: By eliminating the need for per-VM agents, organizations can reduce licensing costs and simplify their backup architecture.
- Scalability: Druva Phoenix is designed to scale with your organization, accommodating growing data needs without compromising performance.
- Enhanced Data Protection: With efficient VM-level backups, organizations can ensure that their data is protected against loss, corruption, or disasters.
Let’s go step-by-step on how to set up and run your first backup.
Deploy the Druva AHV Backup Proxy: The Druva AHV Proxy is a lightweight virtual appliance that enables hypervisor-level backups.
Step 1: Download the Druva AHV Backup Proxy
- Log in to the Druva Phoenix Console → https://login.druva.com
- Go to Protect > Nutanix AHV > Register Prism
- Download the Hybrid Workloads Common Installer
- NOTE: You can always use the backup proxy image if you cannot down the installer. This process will let you create your proxy with an image
- Copy the Activation Token to a text file (you will need this later)
- Click Done
Step 2: Install Hybrid Workloads Common Installer
- Launch Install and click Next
- Agree to the EULA, click Next
- Leave the Default setting and click Install
- Once complete, check off Launch Hybrid Workload Agent, click Finish
Step 3: Deploy the Druva Nutanix AHV Proxy
- In the Hybrid Workload Agent, click Nutanix AHV Proxy.
- Enter the following details:
- Prism Type: Prism Element or Prism Central (this guide assumes Prism Element)
- Prism IP/FQDN
- Port (default: 9440)
- Admin Username/Password
- Choose Download the image file to a local path and upload it to the storage container (if you already have the image, use the second option, Upload the image file to the storage container directly from a local path). Click Next.
- Enter VM configuration details:
- Backup Proxy Name
- Proxy VM Password
- Time Zone
- Cluster (if Prism Central is used)
- Host
- Storage Container
- Configure Networking:
- Click Add NIC
- Select Static or DHCP (recommended: Static)
- Choose vLAN
- Enter IP Address, Netmask, Gateway, Primary & Secondary DNS
- Click Add
- (Optional) Add Web Proxy settings.
- Click Next.
- Enter the Activation Token (copied from Step 1).
- Click Deploy Proxy.
Druva makes it easy for you to start with Default Administrative Group and a default Backup Policy.
Administrative Groups are used to organize your assets into groups
A Backup Policy is a schedule for when you want your backup to occur, such as Daily, Weekly, Monthly, M—F, and Time of day. You can also control the Maximum Bandwidth used, which is good when you don’t want to use all your internet bandwidth for backups. You can also set a Retention schedule here, including Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly recovery points and Long-Term Retention.
Step 4: Configure Backup for Nutanix AHV VMs
Once the AHV Proxy is deployed, it’s time to set up backup policies and start protecting VMs.
- In the Druva Enterprise Workloads dashboard, navigate to: Protect > Nutanix AHV
- Under Prism, select your Prism Element where the AHV Proxy is installed.
- Select the VM(s) you want to back up, then click Configure for Backup.
- Configure the backup settings:
- Administrative Group: Default Administrative Group (or create a new one).
- Backup Settings:
- Storage: Select the Druva storage pool (e.g., N/A+1_us-east-1).
- Backup Policy: Choose the default or a custom backup policy.
- Local Storage: (Leave default unless using CloudCache).
- Exclude Disks: (Leave default or select specific disks to exclude).
- Backup Proxy Pool: (Leave default unless multiple proxies are deployed).
- Click Save.
Note: A Backup Policy controls when and how often backups run, bandwidth usage, and retention settings. These can be customized for different workloads.
That’s it; you are now backing up VMs! As backups happen, you can see the related tasks in the Druva Dashboard and in Prism Tasks
Now, let’s restore a VM.
Step 5: Restore a VM from Backup
Restoring a VM with Druva Phoenix is simple and can be done to the original location or an alternate Nutanix cluster.
- From the Enterprise Workload dashboard, go to: Protect > Nutanix AHV
- Under Prism, select the Prism Element where the AHV Proxy is installed.
- Click Configured VMs, then select the VM you want to restore.
- Click Restore, then choose one of the following: Data Restore or Full VM Restore
- Data Restore: Restore specific vDisks, files, or folders from any Recovery Point
- Full VM Restore will restore the entire VM; you can either restore it to its original location or an alternate location. Restoring to an alternate location allows you to select another cluster or storage container and change the network and name of the VM.
- Click Finish to begin the restore process.
Once you have the basics down, you can continue setting up Druva with more advanced options, such as Disaster Recovery or a CloudCache for local backups.
Summary: Druva stands out as a reliable and efficient backup solution for Nutanix AHV clusters. Its agentless architecture, combined with the capabilities of the Druva AHV Backup Proxy, makes it ideal for organizations looking to streamline their backup processes while ensuring robust data protection. By choosing Druva, businesses can enhance their data management strategies and safeguard their critical virtual environments.
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