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Virtual Media Agent Control


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Hi guys,

 

For a specific need, I wanted to create VMs MA with VMware. As the goal of the virtualization part, it to be able to control the power state of the VMs.

I know that Commvault has “VM Power Management” which offers the possibility to control VMs.

 

But I still have confusions on how to implement this,  does my VMs have to be added as client first on my commcell then install the MA package, or do they have to be added in a separate way ?

 

The final goal is to be able to shut down a VM MA after an aux copy job.

Any tips would be much appreciated

 

Regards. 

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Best answer by Mike Struening RETIRED 17 May 2022, 22:01

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14 replies

Userlevel 6
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Good morning.  You install the MediaAgent and add it to the CommCell.  You then create a cloud controller:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101324_creating_cloud_controller.html

and then Enable Power Management for the MediaAgent:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101327_enabling_power_management_for_mediaagent.html

You can also manually manage power for a Cloud MediaAgent:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101389_manually_managing_power_for_cloud_mediaagent.html

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Userlevel 3
Badge +12

Good morning.  You install the MediaAgent and add it to the CommCell.  You then create a cloud controller:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101324_creating_cloud_controller.html

and then Enable Power Management for the MediaAgent:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101327_enabling_power_management_for_mediaagent.html

You can also manually manage power for a Cloud MediaAgent:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101389_manually_managing_power_for_cloud_mediaagent.html

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks a lot for all the explanations @Orazan will try to set up all this and may be back to you :)

Userlevel 3
Badge +12

Good morning.  You install the MediaAgent and add it to the CommCell.  You then create a cloud controller:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101324_creating_cloud_controller.html

and then Enable Power Management for the MediaAgent:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101327_enabling_power_management_for_mediaagent.html

You can also manually manage power for a Cloud MediaAgent:
https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101389_manually_managing_power_for_cloud_mediaagent.html

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hi @Orazan,

 

I followed your steps :

 - Installed the MA.

 - For the cloud controller part, I’ve added my ESXi as a client and installed VSA.

 - Enabled VM power management on my MA and selected my ESXi as the cloud controller.

 

But when I try to power off the MA, I’m having the following error :

I’m having a feeling that I’ve missed something with the cloud controller part.

 

Thanks again for your time.

Userlevel 6
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Can you please tell me what cloud vendor you are using?

Userlevel 3
Badge +12

Can you please tell me what cloud vendor you are using?

Hi Orazan,

 

Actually, we are only using VMware ESXi host for test purpose, we set up 2 VMs, one a client, the second as an MA, just wanted to test how can we be able to manage MA VM power from the CommServe.

The end goal is to be able to implement some sort of air gapping with the MA VM (Power it on only for aux copy jobs, then shut it down after the successful job).

 

Any tips would be great, thanks a lot :)

Userlevel 3
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Hi Guys,

 

We have a VM MA based on VMware, we want to be able to manage its power through Commvault using VM Power Management.

Does Commvault need vCenter access or the ESXi access hosting the MA VM is sufficient to accomplish this task ?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Hi @Commvault Engineer !  thanks for the post!

Can you elaborate a bit on how you plan to perform the Power Management side?  we have Cloud MA power management, though I’m not sure where your vms are located (or if you plan to let ESXi handle the power management).

Sharing the link for the above option:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101313_cloud_mediaagent_power_management.html

Userlevel 7
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@Commvault Engineer , is this the same concern is this other thread?  Might be best to consolidate (I can move the replies to that thread if you’d like):

Let me know!

Userlevel 3
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Hi @Commvault Engineer !  thanks for the post!

Can you elaborate a bit on how you plan to perform the Power Management side?  we have Cloud MA power management, though I’m not sure where your vms are located (or if you plan to let ESXi handle the power management).

Sharing the link for the above option:

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101313_cloud_mediaagent_power_management.html

Hi @Mike Struening,

 

Thanks for the answer, actually, the main goal to achieve, is to be able to power On/Off a VM MediaAgent through the CommServe, the VM is VMware based. The VM MA is located on a DR site, we want to be able to Power ON the VM only for Aux Copies, and shut it down after every successful copy.

 

On the Commvault documentation, we found that it’s possible to control the VM MA, as mentioned in the link below :

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101313_cloud_mediaagent_power_management.html

 

So we have 2 questions actually :

 1 - Does the VM MA need to be in the cloud in order for us to be able to control it, or even if it is in our network, we can also control it ?

2 - If it's possible to manage the VM MA power, and since the VM MA is a VMware based, do we really need a vCenter in order to control the power management of the VM, or the ESXi alone is sufficient ? From the link below, the cloud controller is not really clear what should it be (vCenter or ESXi) :

https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/101325_requirements_for_cloud_controller.html

 

Thanks in advance for your help, Mike.

Regards.

Userlevel 7
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@Commvault Engineer yes, the MA has to be in the cloud for this function to work (which answers #1 and negates #2).

I’m sure you could create a Workflow with some VMWare scripts to start and stop the MA/vms before and after the Aux Copies, but the feature for CV to handle the power is cloud only.

Is creating cloud based MAs an option for you?

Userlevel 3
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@Commvault Engineer yes, the MA has to be in the cloud for this function to work (which answers #1 and negates #2).

I’m sure you could create a Workflow with some VMWare scripts to start and stop the MA/vms before and after the Aux Copies, but the feature for CV to handle the power is cloud only.

Is creating cloud based MAs an option for you?

Thanks, @Mike Struening For your valuable time.

How can we implement a cloud based MA ? Since everything is locally in our Infra.

Userlevel 3
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@Commvault Engineer , is this the same concern is this other thread?  Might be best to consolidate (I can move the replies to that thread if you’d like):

Let me know!

Yes you can Mike, thanks a lot.

Userlevel 7
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Moved all threads onto 1 place.

If your library and everything else is local, then adding a Cloud MA is likely not going to be all that helpful.

Let’s step back and think about your goal.  Are you concerned about Ransomware?  If so, try the Ransomware Protection feature for the MA which will help a lot.

If you definitely want to control the power of the vm itself, I would go the Workflow angle.  Implementation will be complex, but it’s the only way I can see getting this done.

Userlevel 3
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Thanks a lot @Mike Struening for your usual support.