Understanding ABDs
Please note: This article is out of date. The instructions and contents of this article only apply to v2.08 and below.
For the most current version of this article, please see the following page.
ABDs (Alike Backup Delegates) are tiny guest virtual machines that assist Alike in Enhanced backup and restore jobs. Only one ABD is necessary per Xen Resource Pool.
Please take note of the following requirements for an ABD:
ABD Requirements
-Uses 128MB ram and 150MB disk space in the selected SR-Must be deployed to shared storage when used in Pooled environments (typically the default SR).
-Must reside on a host that has access to all SRs in which the VMs being backed up reside
-Assigned IP Address must be accessible from the server running Alike
-Not available in Alike Free Edition
Other helpful tips about ABDs
-They store no permanent data, and when not in use during a job may be deleted and redeployed freely.-They are hidden by default, so to manipulate their VM settings via XenCenter, you may have to show hidden objects
-If desired, you may allocate additional memory to the ABD to gain a small performance boost in your backup and restore jobs. This must be done via XenCenter, and requires a reboot of the ABD.
-Alike Free does not contain the ABD image for deployment. If you downloaded Alike Free and later applied a license key, you will have to download the ABD image separately. (See the KB article describing this process)
How to deploy an ABD
1. Navigate to the Network tab on the Settings page within the Alike Manager (seen below)
2. Select the Resource Pool from the list. Please note, Alike discovers your Resource Pools from the XenServer hosts entered on the Virtualization Settings tab. If you do not see any pools, or something is incorrect, please double check the XenServer host settings.
3. Fill out the IP information that will be assigned to the ABD. Note these settings will be for the ABD guest, so make sure the IP address is appropriate for the XenServer network you select. Also ensure that the Alike server will be able to access the IP address you allocate to the ABD once it is in place.
4. Click "Import ABD" and wait for the ABD to be imported and configured. Typically this takes about 1-2 minutes.
5. You are now able to begin using Enhanced Backup jobs. Please allow the ABD a minute or two to fully boot up before you start your first job.
