I’d like to initiate a conversation to talk about vSphere Tag usage, ideas, etc in the context of VRO specifically.
Now in full disclosure, I’ve scoured the web, YouTube, Forums, Veeam.com, etc and I can’t help but think that with the forthcoming adoption of VRO, we have a conversation that is very much needed about the usage of vSphere tags. There really isn’t an industry standard, or best practice recommendation. Yes, our mileage will vary, but as Veeam’s install base for VRO grows, people are going to ask, and I think we should be ready.
First, vSphere Tags are “required” for VMware Recovery Locations. Compute + Storage. This is the minimum requirement for the use of vSphere Tags as far as VRO is concerned. This can as simple as applying a single tag to an ESXi host or vSphere Cluster at the designated recovery location. You could have multiple recovery locations.
- Original Location - no vSphere Tags needed.
- Original Site, Different Host or Different Cluster - vSphere Tags needed.
- Different Site, Different vCenter, etc, vSphere Tags needed.
But I think about all the “other” benefit that can come from this as well. Most people will say “Yes, I know about vSphere Tags, but I don’t use them as much as I could/should/etc.”
So, consider this:
- Applying Tags for Applications.
- Using a vSphere Tag as the source of B&R jobs.
- The use of vSphere Tags can provide tremendous value and lack of burden on the backup administrator if implemented correctly.
How many categories should you have? Here are a few examples.
- Category named “Veeam”
- Category named “VRO”
- Category named “Application Name”
- Category named “RPO”
- Category named “Job Type”
- Category named “Status”
- Category named “Storage”
- Category named “Service Levels”
How many different tags should you have? Here are a few examples..
- App1 Name, App2 Name, etc.
- VMware - Agentless
- Agent - Windows
- Agent - Linux
- Backup Copy Job
- 8 hour RPO Backup
- 8 hour RPO Replication
- Platinum DR - 15 minutes
- Gold DR - Hourly
- Silver DR - Daily
- Bronze DR - weekly
- Production
- Development
- Tier-1
- Tier-2
- Tier-3
- Tier-1-with-array-snapshots
- Nobackup
- No_vmware_backup
- Catch-all
- Bronze-Backup-Weekly-Veeam
- Bronze-Replication-Weekly-Veem
- Platinum-Backup-15min
- Gold-Backup-1hour
- Silver-Backup-Daily
- Bronze-Backup-Weekly
- Platinum-Replication-15min
If you have read this far, hopefully I’ve caused you to think a little bit.
Do you need multiple vSphere Tags for your VM’s, Apps? Probably…..
App Name, Backup Policy, Replication Policy could get you started.
When you initiate a VMware recovery plan, you have an option to “Restore VM Tags”.
If your existing B&R jobs use “vSphere Tags”, then that greatly reduces the risk of remembering to reprotect the recovered VM’s.
You can create the VRO Template Jobs to do this as well, but I feel like vSphere Tags is a really good option here, but needs some thought.
So, love the new community! Let’s see how we can collaborate together and share some ideas and experience towards a goal of a set of recommendations that will help Veeam customers protecting vSphere workloads find perhaps a better, simpler way of not only protecting their applications, but also making the life of a Backup Admin a little simpler.
Who’s in???
