A lot has changed since our last VMworld update blog post. Broadcom has acquired VMware, VMworld is no longer called VMworld, (now VMware Explore), we’ve sponsored two major KubeCon conferences, and Kasten has released two new major versions for K10, v4.5 and v5.0.
Last year around this time we talked about the different “flavors” of VMware Tanzu, including a discussion of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid/TKG-multicloud vs. vSphere with Tanzu (aka TKGs) and the differences in support within Kasten K10 at the time.
If you hadn’t heard, one of the biggest announcements we made with the launch of version 5.0 of K10 (and one we’re super proud of) was our support for vSphere with Tanzu along with a host of under the cover changes for any Kubernetes distribution.
If you're familiar with the architectural differences between vSphere with Tanzu and typical virtualized Kubernetes environments, you’ll know that this is no small feat, extending the same look and feel of data protection with Kasten K10 to vSphere with Tanzu. Some of the interesting challenges that had to be overcome include:
- Access to vCenter is required with all types of cluster infrastructures as K10 directly communicates with vSphere to snapshot a First Class Disk (FCD), resolve paravirtualized volume handles, set tags and access volume data with the VMware VDDK API.
- The guest clusters in vSphere with Tanzu use paravirtualized Persistent Volumes and these clusters do not support the static provisioning of a specific First-Class Disks (FCD) from within the guest cluster itself. This notably disables K10’s ability to restore applications from the local snapshots and the ability to export snapshot data in filesystem mode.
In v5.0 of the K10 UI, you’ll notice a few new elements in the Infrastructure Profiles setup for vSphere.
To enable the vSphere with Tanzu support, The vCenter Server is required and must be a valid IP address or hostname that points to the vSphere infrastructure. The vSphere User and vSphere Password fields are also required.
To stay up to date on all the supported capabilities and caveats for vSphere with Tanzu vs other Kubernetes distributions on vSphere, be sure to bookmark https://docs.kasten.io/latest/install/storage.html#vsphere-profile.
All New Block Mode Export for K8s on vSphere
One of the new capabilities introduced exclusively for vSphere users is “Block Mode Export”. Block Mode Export takes advantage of the vSphere changed block tracking (CBT) mechanism to produce ultra efficient block-level incremental forever backups of your persistent disk volumes.
In K10 v5.0, you can now enable this functionality in your backup policies by setting the new “Export Snapshot Data in Block Mode” option in the export properties of the policy. You then must select an Object Storage location or optionally a Veeam Backup & Replication Repository as the profile destination. Snapshot data will be uploaded in a K10 proprietary format which provides deduplication, compression, and encryption support.
Follow this Kasten Knowledge Base Article for the detailed instructions on how to enable Changed Block Tracking for Guest Clusters on vSphere with Tanzu.
Demo: Protecting Applications on vSphere with Tanzu
Demo Kasten K10 for vSphere with Tanzu
Veeam and Kasten at VMware Explore 2022
Like in the years past at VMworld, you’re not going to want to miss these Veeam and Kasten related sessions at VMware Explore 2022. Be sure to register for:
The Journey: Veeam and VMware – Cloud, Security, Kubernetes [SECB2467USS]
Tuesday, Aug 30 at 1pm PDT
Michael Cade and Anthony Spiteri are back together, in person, with an update on the data protection innovations Veeam Software is bringing to the fore with regard to cloud, security and containers. In this session, we will look at how Veeam supports hybrid cloud deployments and enables data protection for virtualized workloads running on either hosted or multitenant environments, including VMware Cloud Director, with a look at what to expect from future releases. We will touch on security in today’s complex IT environments and how Veeam offers tooling to enable workload and data protection. Finally, we will look at the leadership Veeam offers when it comes to Kubernetes data management, including a closer look to VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and all things native to the cloud.
Anthony Spiteri, Senior Global Technologist, Product Strategy, Veeam
Michael Cade, Senior Technologist, Veeam
Ransomware Best Practices for VMware: Detection, Response and Recovery [SEC2425USS]
Tuesday, Aug 30th at 10:45am PDT
Get ready to up your ransomware game. Rick Vanover and Kirsten Stoner from Veeam will highlight best practices for ransomware scenarios. In reality, secure backup is your last line of defense, but let’s cut off the problem before you have to deal with it. Rick and Kirsten will share their best. From immutability to field observations and worst practices, everyone will level up their skills to keep data safe for VMware environments.
Rick Vanover, Sr. Director Product Strategy, Veeam Software
Kristen Stoner, Technologist, Veeam Software
All Things Veeam Community [VMTN1984US]
Wednesday, Aug 31st and 9:45am PDT
Do you run a home lab, test/dev or some sort of playground for all your technologist needs? Do you require a backup of your VMs, physical systems, cloud resources and Kubernetes applications? You want to do that all for free but want to use some enterprise-grade software to get the job done. In this 12-minute session, we will cover all the free things that you can get from Veeam to protect your workloads and systems across any environment with no reduction in functionality.
Michael Cade, Senior Technologist, Veeam
#90DaysofDevOps – The DevOps Learning Journey [VMTN1979US]
Tuesday Aug 30th at 11:15am PDT
I spent 90 days walking through some of the key areas of DevOps and documenting my journey, starting with what is and why do we use DevOps? This touches on the responsibilities of a role surrounded by DevOps processes and principles. It then goes into hands-on practical examples covering, programming languages, networking, Linux, containers, Kubernetes and lots more. In this session, we will take a look at this learning in a public resource that has gained more than 10,000 stars on GitHub to date and growing massively fast with contributors actively adding functionality and adding to the resource in so many ways, including translating to Chinese.
Michael Cade, Senior Technologist, Veeam
An Application’s Journey Through Time – or at Least the Past 20 Years [VMTN1981US]
Thursday Sept 1st at 9:45am
It’s no secret that the way in which we deploy and manage applications has changed dramatically over the past 20 or so years. In this quick look back in time, I will go through the evolution of the platforms that host applications, from physical to virtual to containers, cloud and beyond.
Anthony Spiteri, Senior Global Technologist, Product Strategy, Veeam
To learn more about Kasten’s presence as VMware Explore and for your chance to win a Millenium Falcon lego set, head here.
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Adam Bergh focuses on Cloud Native Technical Partnerships and Architectures for Kasten by Veeam. Having been on the forefront on every major shift in data center storage and communications, from analog interconnectivity to cloud computing, he is known as a subject matter expert in enterprise storage technologies, hybrid cloud solutions, and data availability. Adam is a frequent speaker at global industry events delivering the value and vision of truly integrated solutions that solve real world problems.
