Backing up your Nutanix cluster with HYCU – Technical prerequisites
In my previous article, I introduced you to the HYCU backup solution. I will now describe my deployment environment and explain how to retrieve the solution’s installation sources.
Deployment environment
My deployment environment is as follows:
- Nutanix CE2.1 cluster to deploy and as a source for backups
- Synology NAS as a destination for backups
This is enough to test the solution and simulate a real production environment.
I have already set up a share on the Synology NAS to receive the backups and I have made sure that the Nutanix cluster, the HYCU VM and the Synology NAS could communicate without any problem.
I will see later if I can simulate an additional S3 type location to simulate an externalization of data in “Archiving” mode.
Let’s now move on to recovering the files needed for the installation.
Solution Compatibility
In terms of compatibility, here are the main elements to keep in mind on the scope that interests us:
- Nutanix AOS 6.5, 6.8 and 6.10
- Nutanix Files 4.4 and 5.0
- Nutanix Objects, Amazon S3, Wasabi
- VM Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022
- Linux
I invite you to consult the compatibility matrix available on the HYCU Support site to learn about all the HYCU compatible platforms: https://download.hycu.com/ec/v5.1.0/help/en/HYCU_CompatibilityMatrix.pdf
Retrieving installation images
IMPORTANT
HYCU is a software subject to a license. Its installation in trial mode is subject to the condition that it is deployed on a Nutanix infrastructure in Community Edition so that the license is automatically activated and it will only allow you to back up the VMs of the Community Edition cluster. An installation on a production Nutanix cluster or the addition of a production Nutanix cluster will require the purchase of a license adapted to your environment for the solution to work.
To retrieve the images, you must go to the publisher’s website and request a trial license: https://www.hycu.com/solutions/data-protection/nutanix#getForm
There are a few fields to fill in, a person from HYCU will then contact you by phone (so provide a number on which you can be reached!) to ask you what your motivations are.
Once all the prerequisites are filled in, HYCU will provide you with a download link that will allow you to retrieve the software installation image in qcow2 format, ready to be imported into your Nutanix cluster.
Transferring images to the Nutanix cluster
Once you have downloaded the qcow2 image from HYCU, you now need to transfer it to your Nutanix cluster.
To do this, connect to the Prism Element of your Nutanix CE cluster and go to “Settings > Image Configuration”:
Click on “Upload image”, fill in the form and select the previously uploaded image:
As this will be a prerequisite for future operations on your HYCU, I invite you to get into good habits right away and name your image according to the HYCU-VERSION-BUILD model.
Click on “Save” to start the transfer and wait until your image is processed by the cluster and is indicated as “ACTIVE”.
HYCU official documentation
For the official documentation from the publisher, it is freely available on the HYCU website in PDF format: https://support.hycu.com/hc/en-us/categories/15363454825500-Documentation
No translation other than English, so you’ll have to learn the language of Shakespeare!
There you have it, you now have everything you need to deploy the HYCU controller on your cluster, see you in a future article to find out how to deploy the controller.
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