Part 1 – Veeam and AWS Tape Gateway Integration – Deploying the Tape Gateway

As I’m sure many of you are, I’ve been working on ways to effectively harness the power of the cloud.  One idea I decided to pursue was integrating an AWS Tape Gateway with an on-prem Veeam infrastructure in order to move my archived backup data from my local datacenter to AWS S3 storage.

Now, I’ll prove to you very quickly that I’m not an elite Veeam engineer.  Why?  Because I had in mind that I’d get backup data to AWS by configuring my backup copy jobs to use the virtual tape library as the backup repository.  Yes….if you’re a Veeam guru (like Adam) you’re laughing because you know it’s not possible to use a tape library as the backup repository for a backup copy job.  Well, I know that now!

Though my original idea for the AWS tape gateway was shot, I decided to deploy it anyway just to familiarize myself with the installation and integration process.  It’s a long process, or maybe it’s better to say there are a lot of steps so I’m going to break the process up into multiple parts to make it somewhat easier to digest (in my opinion at least).  I’m also going to make some assumptions for the sake of brevity when possible.  As an example, I’m not going to go over every single step involved in deploying a VMware OVF template as this is a pretty basic administrative procedure.

Deploying the AWS Tape Gateway on VMware vSphere

1. Login to the AWS Management Console and under the Storage heading, click Storage Gateway.
2. If you haven’t created a gateway in the AWS Region you selected, choose Get started
3. On the Storage Gateway page, click Create Gateway
4. On the Select gateway type page, click Tape gateway, and then click Next
5. On the Select host platform page, select VMware ESXi and then click Download image.
6. On a separate browser tab (do not leave the AWS management console), connect to the vSphere web client to deploy the OVF template you just downloaded, deploying it into the desired VM Folder, vSphere cluster, virtual network, etc.  Be sure to deploy the Storage Gateway using Thick Provisioned Disks.

When the deployment of the OVF completes, DO NOT power it on as a few changes need to be made to the VM prior to doing so.

7. When able, right-click on the Tape Gateway VM and select Edit Settings.
8. On the VM Options tab, check the box to Synchronize guest time with host.
9. On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand SCSI controller 0 and change the Type to VMware Paravirtual and click OK. 
10. Finally, add two virtual hard disks, one for the upload buffer and cache space.  The minimum size for each disk is 150GB but there is a mathematical equation you can use to more accurately estimate your storage needs within the Veeam/AWS VTL deployment guide.  My lab is pretty simple so I created a 150GB disk for the upload buffer and a 200GB disk for the cache.
11. Power on the AWS Tape Gateway appliance and make a note of its IP address.
12. Return to the AWS management console and click Next on the Select host platform page.
13. On the Connect to gateway page, enter the IP address of the Tape Gateway appliance as found on step #11, and click Connect to Gateway.
14. On the Activate gateway page, select the Gateway time zone, enter a Gateway name, select the Backup application and then click Activate Gateway.
15. On the Configure local disks page, specify which local disk(s) to use as the Upload buffer and Cache.  Click Save and continue.
16. The AWS Tape Gateway is now running and ready for use.

On the next post, I’ll detail the process of creating tapes for the AWS tape gateway.  WordPress auto-numbered lists are still driving me crazy!!!  If anybody knows how to disable this feature, please let me know.