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Ask Google AIOn April 23rd, at the "VMware Alternative" Agentless Backup Webinar, Sangfor Technologies partnered with global data backup vendor Cohesity to reveal innovative practices and collaborative achievements in agentless backup technology. During the session, many users raised questions regarding technical principles, operational practices, and efficiency improvements. We have consolidated these questions and provided our answers below.
Mechanism and Technical Principles of Agentless Backup
1. Is the Sangfor HCI snapshot mechanism based on the virtual storage layer?
Sangfor HCI supports both virtualization-layer and virtual storage-layer snapshots. The VM's storage location determines the method: HCI native virtual storage uses storage-layer snapshots, while external storage uses virtualization-layer snapshots.
2. What are the technical foundations and advantages of VMware agentless backup?
Technical Foundation: It utilizes CBT (Changed Block Tracking) to track disk block changes, ensures data consistency via snapshots, and implements block-level data transfer through VADP (vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection).
Core Advantages: Deep integration with the vSphere kernel ensures significantly lower performance overhead than generic block-level tracking technologies from other vendors.
3. What are the version requirements for Sangfor SCP and Cohesity NetBackup(NBU)?
SCP: version >=6.11.1
NetBackup (NBU): version >=10.0
4. What is the core advantage of ROW snapshots over COW snapshots?
ROW (Redirect-On-Write) avoids direct modification of original data blocks by redirecting writes, significantly reducing write amplification (write volume is only 1/3 to 1/2 of COW). However, deleting a snapshot requires merging the metadata chain, which can cause brief I/O fluctuations in large-scale clusters (typically 5–10 mins), it is generally more efficient.
Ecosystem Compatibility and Migration Support of Agentless Backup
5. Does Cohesity support Sangfor HCI agentless backup?
Yes. As a Cohesity MSP Partner, Sangfor uses API to develop certified solutions integrated with Cohesity technology. Sangfor has developed an XBSA plugin based on Cohesity interfaces to integrate with Cohesity NetBackup (NBU) for agentless backup functionality.
6. Which backup vendors are currently supported by Sangfor agentless backup? What are the future plans?
Currently, we support the international backup vendor Cohesity, and we are also engaged in deep strategic cooperation with Veeam.
Additionally, we support various vendors including AISHU, DBackup, Information2, Clerware, and Vinchin. To empower our partners, we provide open agentless backup interfaces and developer guides for seamless integration. We are actively working to expand our compatibility with more backup vendors to build the industry's most robust backup ecosystem.
7. Are different clients required for different virtualization platforms in Cohesity?
Backing up different virtualization platforms with Cohesity requires installing specific clients or interface plugins tailored to the target platform's technical features.
Cohesity NetBackup achieves agentless backup for Sangfor HCI through a customized plugin that Sangfor built on the Cohesity XBSA interface. This plugin is exclusive to the Sangfor HCI platform and is not compatible with other virtualization environments.
Therefore, for a successful deployment, you must select the correct NetBackup components that are compatible with your specific platform to ensure full backup functionality.
8. How do users implement NBU agentless backup in legacy modernization scenarios?
The NBU compatibility plugin on the SCP platform allows users to reuse existing NBU backup policies and storage resources, preserving the backup scripts and recovery workflows from their VMware environment. This enables users to maintain their operational habits and fully protects their original investment.
9. Are there operating system restrictions for physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration?
It depends on whether the physical machine's operating system is compatible with the hyper-converged platform. Sangfor has a dedicated R&D team that performs thorough compatibility testing.
Performance Impact and Optimization of Agentless Backup
10. How does Sangfor avoid performance degradation caused by snapshot sprawl? What technical optimizations does Sangfor make for agentless backup?
Sangfor has implemented dual optimizations specifically for agentless VM backup:
Adaptive Block Replication: Adjusts block sizes (minimum 2KB) dynamically based on I/O models to reduce replication data volume.
Snapshot Chain Management: Merges snapshots chronologically and releases space in real-time to prevent I/O blocking caused by snapshot expansion.
Deployment Architecture and Networking of Agentless Backup
11. Does NBU agentless backup require the Sangfor Cloud Platform(SCP)?
Yes. SCP acts as the intermediate adaptation layer responsible for protocol conversion and task scheduling between NBU and Sangfor HCI.
12. Can Sangfor aSV virtualization products interface directly with NBU?
Sangfor aSV must interface with NBU via the SCP cloud management platform, as SCP is a standard and required component for aSV. Sangfor does not support a direct connection between aSV and NBU.
13. Is the NBU Appliance component installed on the Media Server or Client?
The Sangfor XBSA agent plugin must be deployed on the Client (VM or physical machine), not on the Media Server. This aligns with NBU's architectural paradigm where the Client provides the data source and the Media Server handles data storage.
14. Why is a Client still needed for agentless backup, and how is it deployed?
By leveraging the agentless backup capabilities provided by the Sangfor Cloud Platform in combination with the XBSA SDK provided by NetBackup, cloud hosts can be backed up to NetBackup.
The Sangfor XBSA App is deployed on the NetBackup Client, which can be a physical machine, a virtual machine, or a Media Server. The NBU Client must be able to access both the SCP management port and the HCI backup interface simultaneously, requiring Layer 3 network reachability.
If the Client is deployed as a virtual machine, we recommend deploying one Client for each cluster; if the Client is a physical machine, multiple HCI clusters can share a single Client.
15. Can the HCI backup interface share physical ports with other traffic?
Yes, it supports sharing with other traffic. By default, backup data is transferred through the management port, but a dedicated physical network port can also be configured in the SCP interface.
Operations and Policy Management of Agentless Backup
16. Can backup and recovery policies configured in SCP be executed in NBU?
Backup policies configured in SCP can be used for recovery in NBU. However, the two have different functional roles: SCP is responsible for policy creation and triggering backups, while NBU is responsible for data storage and executing recoveries.
Data Recovery of Agentless Backup
17. After backing up Sangfor HCI via NBU, does the recovery operation support an "Instant Access" method?
Currently, Sangfor's agentless interface supports Rapid Recovery (which provides an effect similar to instant access). However, when integrated with NBU, the native Instant Access function for recovery is not yet supported. Sangfor will integrate this capability in the future through native NetBackup support.
18. Can users individually restore a single file using Sangfor's agentless backup?
Currently, Sangfor's agentless backup does not support single-file restore. It only allows for full VM (Virtual Machine) recovery.
19. Does Sangfor HCI support backup for VMs using external block storage?
Yes. In addition to supporting its own distributed storage, Sangfor HCI can connect to external centralized block storage (such as SAN storage) via FC and iSCSI protocols, and it provides agentless backup capabilities for both scenarios.
Sangfor and Cohesity Agentless Backup Partnership
20. Since Sangfor already has its own backup products, why choose to cooperate with Cohesity?
Some VMware users are already using Cohesity NetBackup for their backups, and when replacing VMware, these users hope to reuse their existing backup software to reduce replacement costs. Therefore, when building the VMware replacement solution, Sangfor actively embraced leading agentless backup vendors, aiming to provide users with a solution that can lower replacement costs and ensure a smooth transition.
21. Are Sangfor's disaster recovery and backup products OEM/rebranded?
The Sangfor HCI platform already has a built-in, self-developed backup module that supports rapid hourly backups and second-level CDP (Continuous Data Protection). In addition, to provide users with a solution that reduces replacement costs and allows for a smooth transition, we cooperate with Cohesity and other mainstream backup vendors to offer users more flexible choices.
22. Is there an extra license fee for agentless backup?
No. The agentless backup feature on Sangfor HCI requires no additional license; customers only need to have NBU licenses.
