Increase virtualization efficiency and resilience with HPE and Veeam Data Platform

[HPE_Experts]

This article announces the general availability of the integration between Veeam Backup & Replication and HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software to advance virtualization management and data security.

Organizations in today's hybrid cloud environment want virtualization solutions that do more than just manage workloads; they also require platforms that offer enterprise-grade resiliency, operational flexibility, and security protection.

We are thrilled to announce that our newest integration between Veeam Backup & Replication and HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software is generally available. This integration combines Veeam’s industry-leading data protection with unified management capabilities of HVM (kernel-based virtual machine [KVM]) and VMware vSphere systems from HPE to provide a complete solution that removes complexity without compromising control. It offers performance, security, and flexibility that modern businesses require while adhering to the gold standard of 3-2-1-1-0 data protection framework, whether you are running mission-critical applications on-premises, preparing for disaster recovery across multiple data centers, or maintaining a cloud exit strategy.

This collaboration marks a major advancement in virtualization management and data security for IT teams weary of juggling many tools and battling vendor lock-in.

 A brief introduction to HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software and why it matters

 By providing a single interface to manage both HVM (KVM of HPE and VMware ESXi hypervisors), HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software allows you to provision workloads on demand without lock-in. This way, customers can manage existing virtualized workloads, replatform to the HVM hypervisor, and experience a simple virtual machine (VM)–vending experience across both stacks to reduce cost and complexity. Due to the shared nature of underlying hardware, VMs can be the target for attackers to access critical data or propagate malware across a network. Protecting VMs becomes crucial since data compromised on one VM can possibly affect every VM on the same host or network.

HPE Private Cloud Business Edition is now built with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software while also supporting VMware as a hypervisor choice. Deploying HPE Private Cloud Business Edition allows you to:

• Lower VM licensing costs: HPE Private Cloud Business Edition with VM Essentials brings down licensing costs through socket-based pricing.
• Transition existing workloads and licenses at your own pace to VM Essentials with full support for VMware and the flexibility to move to KVM-based HVM hypervisor of HPE.
• Keep pace with evolving business and technology needs by seamlessly extending to containers and public cloud environments through HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software.

Data protection approaches for VMs

Let’s examine the difference between agent-based and host-based approaches in protecting VMs, as displayed in Figure 1:

1. In agent-based backup, VMs are protected as physical servers with an agent within each guest OS. The main limitations are agent installation and a difficult full restore process.
2. In host-based backup, instead of using agents, VM disk images interfacing with the hypervisor are replicated. Backups are performed from the hypervisor layer with no agent within the guest OS. The Changed Block Tracking (CBT) option allows for 90% faster daily incremental backups.

Figure 1. Backup methods for VMs

Veeam Plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

 Veeam Backup & Replication software has a track record of delivering secure backup, clean recovery, and data resilience for any workload and storage configuration. Its tight integration with the HPE storage and server portfolio offers customers a robust data protection solution.

Customers have been using Veeam Agents to protect their workloads running on VM Essentials. These agents provide the same reliable and application-aware backups, immutable backups, and simple management experience that Veeam users know well.

Now, Veeam Plug-in for VM Essentials goes beyond this offering with hypervisor-level integration to provide image-based protection (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Architecture of Veeam host backup for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

Key capabilities include:

• Native CBT for faster incremental backups (Figure 3)
• Application-consistent checkpoints (Figure 3)
• Centralized management and policy control through Veeam Data Platform
• Dedicated worker processes that act as proxies for HVM workloads to handle compression, encryption, and data transport.
• Support for familiar Veeam transport modes such as HotAdd and network block device (NBD) for efficient data movement.

Figure 3. CBT and application consistency in Veeam host backup for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

The plug-in brings the full Veeam experience (e.g., scheduling, immutability, encryption, and monitoring) directly to HPE hypervisor stack where the underlying storage infrastructure is HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 or HPE SimpliVity. For organizations seeking a self-managed hyperconverged virtualization platform, HPE Private Cloud Business Edition is built with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software and fully integrated with the Veeam Data Platform. Available in both disaggregated hyperconverged infrastructure (dHCI) and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) configurations, it’s optimized to support a range of environments and operating models.

To learn more about how the plug-in works, read Expanding Veeam Data Platform support to HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software.

What about cross-platform recovery and data mobility?

Customers increasingly operate across multiple environments. Whether running VMware vSphere in one data center and HVM in another or leveraging public cloud for disaster recovery (DR), Veeam Data Platform provides data mobility for everyone.

Workloads protected on VM Essentials can be restored to:

• Other on-premises hypervisors
• Alternate data center locations
• Public clouds such as AWS or Microsoft Azure for DR scenarios

See Figure 4 for an overview of data mobility and protection with this solution.

Figure 4. Data mobility and protection with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

This is all about flexibility for the customer. If a data center becomes unavailable, backups can be restored anywhere to maintain business continuity.

Where do my VM backups land?

Recall how our Veeam + HPE architecture abides by the 3-2-1-1-0 rule: 3 copies of data, on 2 types of media, with 1 off-site and 1 as immutable copy, along with helping ensure 0 backup verification errors.

Customers have the flexibility to build this framework their way with the comprehensive data protection portfolio of HPE that includes backup targets such as:

• HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000: All-flash, high-performance S3 storage that’s ideal for reuse and AI workloads

• HPE StoreOnce Gen4 Plus and Gen5: Improved Catalyst OS and hardware architecture that delivers high-performance deduplication and replication

These systems provide the HPE foundation for Veeam’s immutability and data protection solution, delivering secure, high-performance storage for backup and recovery operations. Together, HPE and Veeam enable resilient architectures that can evolve as new integrations and capabilities are introduced.

The takeaway

 Ready to explore HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software virtualization solution that provides a single interface for managing HVM as well as VMware vSphere and on-demand workload provisioning? If yes, deploy VM Essentials running stand-alone or within HPE Private Cloud Business Edition powered by either HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 (dHCI) or HPE SimpliVity (HCI).

Then, add in a layer of data protection and resilience with Veeam Backup & Replication offering not only agent-based protection, but also image-based protection with CBT that lets you do daily incremental backups 90% faster. For best practice, implement the 3-2-1-1-0 framework to leverage HPE data protection portfolio that includes backup targets such as HPE StoreOnce and HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000.

To learn more:

• Watch the explainer video and a demo video on VM Essentials VMs and Veeam Data Platform
• Read Veeam Plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software explained for more details on the integration between VM Essentials and Veeam Data Platform
• Visit HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software webpage for features and benefits
• Download a trial version of the latest VM Essentials release

By Author:

Meet hybrid cloud blogger Parissa Mohamadi, Solution Product Manager, HPE Hybrid Cloud Technology Acceleration

Parissa leads enablement and go-to-market plan for HPE virtualization, containers, and data management solutions (cloud-enabled data protection for SAP HANA, Oracle, SQL Server), including driving joint enablement and collateral development with partners such as VMware, Veeam, Commvault, and Cohesity. Connect with Parissa on LinkedIn.