sfletcher1959

<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I have a old physical server with external attached hard drives for backup. &nbsp;I am using Veeam 9.5 for the backup software. &nbsp;These external drives are very slow and the the resources on the old Gen 5 server are poor.<br />
<br />
I was thinking about creating a VM to run Veeam and attaching the external drives to the ESXi Host using a Thunderbolt adapter in the host and backing up to Thunderbold external drives.<br />
<br />
I have verified that Veeam can be run on a VM.<br />
I have verified that the Thunderbolt Adapter is compatible with my new HP Proliant Gen10 server (This is an ESXi 6.5 host)<br />
<br />
What I am not sure about is how to add the external drives to the host. &nbsp;I see how to do that with a USB 3 controller for USB drives, but not sure how to attach the drives since there isn't a Thunderbolt controller. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
Do I just add it like it is a usb drive or do I add it as a PCI Device<br />
<br />
Additionally, since we are using 6.5, is the thunderbolt capability maybe version related and upgrading to 6.7 or 7.0 may work.
</div>
</div>


I have a old physical server with external attached hard drives for backup.  I am using Veeam 9.5 for the backup software.  These external drives are very slow and the the resources on the old Gen 5 server are poor.

I was thinking about creating a VM to run Veeam and attaching the external drives to the ESXi Host using a Thunderbolt adapter in the host and backing up to Thunderbold external drives.

I have verified that Veeam can be run on a VM.
I have verified that the Thunderbolt Adapter is compatible with my new HP Proliant Gen10 server (This is an ESXi 6.5 host)

What I am not sure about is how to add the external drives to the host.  I see how to do that with a USB 3 controller for USB drives, but not sure how to attach the drives since there isn't a Thunderbolt controller.  

Do I just add it like it is a usb drive or do I add it as a PCI Device

Additionally, since we are using 6.5, is the thunderbolt capability maybe version related and upgrading to 6.7 or 7.0 may work.

VMWare Thunderbolt external drives

Veeam® has pioneered a new market of Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™ by helping organizations meet recovery time and point objectives (RTPO™) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data. Veeam develops backup, disaster recovery and virtualization management software for VMware and Hyper-V virtual environments. The company focuses on products that help with virtualized workloads, reduce downtime, and ensure the system Availability required by service-level agreements.

Veeam

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Storage devices include any device used for storing and retrieving digital information. Hard disk drives (HDDs) use one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order and not only sequentially. The primary competing technology for secondary storage is flash memory in the form of solid-state drives (SSDs), but HDDs remain the dominant medium for secondary storage due to advantages in price per bit and per-device recording capacity. CD-RW (Compact Disc-ReWritable) is a digital optical disc storage format that allows information to be stored outside the mechanical HDD.

Storage Hardware

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.