Planning for protection of your Google Cloud (GC) VMs with Commvault Cloud includes verifying that your environment meets the System Requirements and setting up access to the resources you want to protect. As part of this process, you'll also need to add a hypervisor and install the access node. For information on how to add a hypervisor and install the access node, see Configuring Backups for Google Cloud Instances.
Google Cloud APIs & Services
The following APIs and services are required to manage various Google Cloud resources and services:
gcloud Commands
You can activate these APIs for the Service Account performing the protection by running the following commands in an authorized gcloud shell:
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gcloud services enable iam.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable storage.googleapis.com
For example:
gcloud services enable service_name
For information about activating APIs, see Enabling an API.
Google Cloud APIs & Services
The following APIs and services are required to manage various Google Cloud resources and services:
gcloud Commands
You can activate these APIs for the Service Account performing the protection by running the following commands in an authorized gcloud shell:
-
gcloud services enable iam.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
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gcloud services enable storage.googleapis.com
For example:
gcloud services enable *service_name*
For information about activating APIs, see Enabling an API.
Deployment Considerations
Tiers Based on Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Different instances can have different backup and recovery options that are defined in a service level agreement (SLA) for each class of instance. For example:
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High transaction instances that provide customer application support might require multiple daily backups with the requirement to recover instances quickly.
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User instances might need the ability to recover specific files and folders on a daily basis.
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Development and test instances might only need weekly backups or the ability to recover to predefined states.
To manage different SLAs, you can create a separate VM group for each class of instance. Each VM group can have its own storage policy, backup schedule, and recovery options.
Data Recovery Considerations
The frequency of backups should be based on your requirements for data recovery. For example:
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To determine backup frequency, determine how long the maximum window for potential loss can be. For example, if your policy calls for no more than an hour's work to be lost in the event of an instance failure, hourly backups are required.
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If immediate recovery is a priority, you can restore a copy of an instance that is frequently updated based on incremental backups.
Deployment and Other Requirements
Access nodes for Google Cloud instances must be present on Google Cloud. You can designate one access node to back up instances from multiple projects (to which access rights are provided in your Google Cloud service account). For faster backups and restores, designate at least one access node for every Google Cloud region.
Important
You must enable the Cloud Resource Manager API. If you do not enable the API, all backup jobs will fail (including backup jobs for clients that were created in a previous release).
Important
You can define discovery rules by a project parameter, in addition to region and zone parameters.
If an environment has discovery rules that are defined using zone or region parameters, then the following are true:
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Multiple projects can fall within a region or a zone.
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All instances in those multiple projects are backed up.
In this situation, backups might include instances that do not need to be backed up, and so incur unnecessary costs. Review all rules to ensure that only instances that need to be backed up are backed up.