[Disclaimer:  This is a long post, and primarily for my own future reference.]

One of the things I’ve wanted to do with our backup server is get it running backups on a network separate from our LAN.  This would allow us to run backups at any time without loading down the network.

I’m no network guru (not even close), so I had a little bit of trouble getting my mind around how this would work.  After talking with my good friend Ed, it made much more sense.  Basically what we needed to do was put a new NIC in each physical machine and give it an address that’s a different class from our LAN.  (our LAN is 10.80.*; we chose 172.16.* for the auxiliary).  After that, I would set the backup server and clients to listen on their 172.16.* addresses.  Thus, all backup traffic should get pushed through the new NICs and onto the auxiliary network, and life would be good.

After installing the new hardware, the next task is to go into the virtual network settings of your VMware host and bridge each of your physical NICs to a specific VMnet.  By default, the VMware server bridges your first adapter to VMnet0.  You’ll need to disable this in your host’s virtual network settings.

I bridged the physical NIC for the 10.80.* network to VMnet0 and then bridged the new NIC to VMnet3.

The next task is to add new virtual network adapter.  You’ll want to select a Custom network connection for the new adapter and point it directly at a specific VMnet (VMnet3 for me).

After you’re done, go into your VM, configure your new virtual NIC for the right network, and you’re good to go!

We use CommVault Galaxy Express for backups, and so changing the client to run on the alternate network is pretty easy.

 

I am by no means saying that “this is how you should back up your stuff,” but this is what’s working for us.  I’ve only been using Galaxy Express for a couple of weeks, but I am already a huge fan of the software.  It is extremely flexible and as far as I’m concerned, quite easy to use.  If you’re in the market for a backup solution, this is definitely a tool that you’ll want to consider.