HPE Knowledge Article

SimpliVity Video - How to configure remote backups – Network Requirments

Article Number mmr_sf-EN_US000022734

Environment

Server Platform: All

Software Version: All
Hypervisor: VMWare ESXi
Disclosure Level: Public

Issue

This knowledge base article talks about the network requirements to configure remote backups

Cause
NA

Resolution
Video Link: How to configure remote backups – Network Requirements
HPE SimpliVity Federation can be configured in either a full-mesh or a hub-and-spoke topology to support diverse deployment
scenarios.  This has a direct bearing on how remote backup locations can be selected within your federation. This video will give an
overview of the network requirments to configure remote backups. Configuring virtual networking in a HPE SimpliVity environment is
simple and flexible. There are a few requirements for connectivity to support the various topologies but beyond that the
virtual/physical networking is configured as it would be in any vSphere environment. In general, to implement the topologies
correctly, appropriate firewalls should be configured between the sites to allow or restrict the flow of traffic.

The two topologies that are supported when configuring an HPE SimpliVity federation are :

Mesh Topology
Hub and Spoke Topology

1. Mesh Topology:

A full mesh topology allows every HPE OmniStack host in every cluster in the network to communicate with each other directly. It
enables any-to-any mobility, where VMs can migrate, back up, and restore from any HPE SimpliVityCluster to any other HPE
SimpliVityCluster, without restrictions. All Mesh Nodes cooperate and are responsiblefor the distribution of data in the network.
When configuring remote backup policies all datacentres and their associated clusters will be available as locations to store HPE
SimpliVity backups of one or more virtual machines.

   

In a Fully Mesh Topology, each HPE SimpliVity cluster is separated logically in vCenter Server and are also on separate
LAN segments i.e. The Hypervisor and the HPE SimpliVity virtual controller management address along with the HPE
Simplivity Federation IP addresses are on separate ip ranges in each cluster.
All hosts within the HPE Simplivity federation have the ability to directly communicate with each other through the routed L3
network via their management addresses.As a result all clusters within the HPE Simplivity federation are available as remote
backup targets.
A remote cluster could reside in the same datacentre or a remote Datacentre, they are all sperate failure domains. It is best
practice to have HPE Simplivity clusters on separate networks.
Remote backup traffic will flow from eth0 on the HPE SimpliVity virtual controller VM to vSwitch0 and out via vmk0 onto the
routed network to other clusters. This traffic may also flow through a router and firewall appliance to remote locations.
 Regardless of weather the traffic is flowing between remote clusters or between cluster within the same datacenter vmkernel
interface zero will be the outbound interface that the hypervisor uses.

2. Hub and Spoke Topology

The hub-and-spoke topology is intended for geographically distributed deployments such as remote office/branch office
implementations. A Remote Office/ Branch Office topology allows one main cluster to communicate with other clusters  through a
separate wide area network (WAN) or a local area network (LAN) connection. All the clusters can communicate with the main,
centralized cluster, but they cannot communicate with each other through the separate networks.

   

In the Hub and Spoke Topology  each HPE SimpliVity cluster is separated logically in vCenter Server and are also on
separate LAN segments. A firewall policy is configured to block communication between required clusters
Cluster A and B are directly connected to cluster C, thus cluster C is available to both Clusters as a backup destination
Cluster B will communicate with cluster A via Cluster C for heart beating purposes however because that are considered not
to be directly connected they will not be available to each other as backup destinations.

Click here to access the HPE SimpliVity video gallery.

 

© Copyright 2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice.The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services.Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett
Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.