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SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization

Definition

The “SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization” certification is part of the SUSE Certified product certification framework. It provides a standardized process for partners to validate their backup, restore, and disaster recovery software with SUSE Virtualization. This program ensures our mutual customers can rely on certified integrations for data protection across cloud-native workloads.

SUSE Virtualization is designed for cloud-native environments and integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes. The SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization invites third-party vendors to certify their backup, restore, and disaster recovery software, demonstrating full lifecycle support for VM backup, restore, and disaster recovery use cases within SUSE Virtualization.

By achieving SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization, your solution will be listed in the SUSE Certified Partner Catalog, giving you visibility and credibility with enterprise customers seeking robust backup options for SUSE Virtualization clusters.

The  “SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization” certification aims to:

  • Ensure Compatibility: Test third-party backup, restore, and disaster recovery software is fully compatible with SUSE Virtualization, promoting seamless integration and reducing the likelihood of conflicts or issues. 
  • Maintain Quality Standards: Certify that the relevant software adheres to best practices and meets the quality standards set forth by SUSE, providing a consistent and reliable user experience. 
  • Stability for Upgrades: Upgrading your SUSE Virtualization cluster should not result in a breakdown of your environment. By validating your third-party backup, restore, and disaster recovery software with SUSE Virtualization, you are providing a common set of functionality that users of SUSE Virtualization can expect a consistent baseline. 
  • Promote Interoperability: Certify third-party backup, restore, and disaster recovery software to work effectively with other certified components within the SUSE Cloud Native ecosystem, fostering a more collaborative and efficient ecosystem. 
  • Simplify Deployment and Management: Verify that third-party backup, restore, and disaster recovery software can be easily configured in a SUSE Virtualization cluster managed by SUSE Rancher, providing a smooth experience for end-users and administrators. 
  • Streamline Support: Allow partners to showcase their commitment to supporting their backup, restore, and disaster recovery software when deployed within a SUSE Virtualization cluster managed by SUSE Rancher, ensuring that SUSE Rancher Prime customers can rely on expert assistance when needed. 
  • Build Trust and Recognition: Serve as a mark of quality and trust, demonstrating to customers that the certified backup, restore, and disaster recovery software meets industry standards and is backed by SUSE's endorsement.

Certification Prerequisites

  1. Review the SUSE One Partner Program requirements and sign up for the SUSE One Partner Program if you are not a SUSE One Partner yet.
  2. After joining the SOPP, request permission to join the SUSE Certified Data Protection for Virtualization testing program at certifications@suse.com 
  3. Upon acceptance to the certification program, you will be provided with not-for-resale subscriptions for all necessary products from SUSE to perform your testing as well as a liaison from the SUSE product or engineering teams.

Familiarity with Helm charts, Harvester, Kubernetes, and Rancher is required – check out the Rancher Academy on the latest free, community training for Kubernetes and Rancher.

Certification Requirements

  1. All certification testing must be completed on the latest Prime release of SUSE Virtualization, i.e. versions x.y.1 or later.
  2. Testing infrastructure requirements:
    1. Minimum three-node SUSE Virtualization cluster.
    2. Important: Laptops and nested virtualization are not supported for this validation.
    3. For node hardware requirements and recommendations, see the latest support matrix.
    4. For networking and port requirements, see the latest Network Requirements documentation.

To certify a third-party backup and restore solution with SUSE Virtualization, the following scenarios must be performed successfully. These tests validate that your integration is compatible with SUSE Virtualization VM and volume lifecycle operations, including snapshot, backup, and disaster recovery workflows.

  1. Baseline: With a virtual machine using volumes backed only by SUSE Storage:
    1. Create a backup of the virtual machine and its volumes using the Harvester UI or CLI
    2. Restore the virtual machine to the same Harvester cluster
    3. Power on the restored VM and verify:
      1. Guest OS boots correctly
      2. Data integrity of volumes
    4. Optionally, delete the original VM and validate recovery solely from backup

This establishes a functional baseline for VM backup and recovery operations using native SUSE Virtualization capabilities and ensures your backup solution is interacting with core APIs correctly.  

  1. Test 1: Starting with a virtual machine whose boot volume is backed by SUSE Storage, and at least 2 data volumes are managed by SUSE Storage: 
    1. Create a backup policy for the test VM with a backup and retention schedule defined
    2. Perform a manual backup operation using your third-party tool
    3. Delete or simulate failure of the VM and associated volumes
    4. Perform a restore operation from a Restore Point using your solution
    5. Allow your solution to perform a scheduled backup per the policy defined above
    6. Validate:
      1. Backup is exported off of the SUSE Virtualization cluster (i.e. to Object Storage or NFS Storage)
      2. Exported Data is encrypted in transit and at-rest
      3. Immutability is supported by the solution to prevent deletion or modification of the backup data
      4. Restored VM boots successfully
      5. All data volumes are recovered and intact
      6. Backup metadata (e.g., time, retention policy) is consistent
      7. Retention schedule is honored, where the appropriate number of backups are maintained
         
  2. Test 2: Starting with a virtual machine where both the boot volume and data volumes are protected by your backup solution:
    1. Create a backup of the entire VM (boot + data volumes)
    2. Simulate a disaster scenario (e.g., delete the VM and volumes from the cluster)
    3. Perform a full VM restore using your tool, including:
      1. Re-creating the VM object
      2. Re-attaching volumes
      3. Re-applying network and metadata configuration
    4. Validate:
      1. The VM is fully functional post-restore
      2. All previous volume data is intact
      3. Network identity (e.g., MAC/IP if retained) behaves as expected
      4. Your solution supports version-consistent snapshot or backup points
    5. Note: Support for CSI-based snapshot and restore APIs is recommended for full compatibility. If not available, you must document your custom backup/restore mechanism.

Certification Workflow

  1. Prepare your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software for certification:
    1. Get administrative access to a SUSE Virtualization cluster
    2. Ensure that your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software is installed and configured for use
    3. Create and/or compile comprehensive documentation for your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software, including configuration and troubleshooting guides 
    4. Create a document with step-by-step instructions for integrating the backup, restore, and disaster recovery software into a new SUSE Virtualization cluster 
    5. Create a document with step-by-step instructions for upgrading the backup, restore, and disaster recovery software in an existing SUSE Virtualization cluster
  2. Test the backup, restore, and disaster recovery software on a SUSE Virtualization cluster
    1. Set up a test environment for SUSE Virtualization to run the baseline test. Run through the following steps:
      1. Create a new SUSE Virtualization cluster using the latest stable release
      2. Configure storage and networking
      3. Create and upload a VM image
      4. Create a virtual machine
      5. Install test data and simulate workload
      6. Create a VM backup
      7. Simulate failure
      8. Perform a full restore operation
      9. Validate the restore
    2. Repeat these steps for Baseline, Test 1, and Test 2 as outlined in the Certification Requirements above.
    3. Document the validated procedures and monitor the performance of the backup, restore, and disaster recovery software using SUSE Virtualization’s built-in monitoring tools (rancher-monitoring).
  3. Submit your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software for certification
    1. Complete the SUSE Certified Proof of Performance documentation form(s) with proof of successful backup, restore, and disaster recovery or certification to the certification team.
      1. This will be provided to you by your Virtualization liaison
    2. Collaborate with the certification team to address any issues or concerns that arise during the certification process.
  4. Complete the certification process
    1. Send the Proof of Performance documentation and documented validated procedures to certifications@suse.com. 
    2. Receive confirmation from the SUSE certification team that your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software is certified. Once approved, your SUSE Virtualization backup certification will be listed in the SUSE Partner Certification and Solutions Catalog (PCSC) 
    3. Update your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software’s documentation (if applicable) to reflect the certification status 
    4. Promote your certified backup, restore, and disaster recovery software to the SUSE Virtualization and Rancher Prime community and customers 
  5. Maintain and recertify your certified storage appliance
    1. Keep your storage appliance up-to-date with the latest x.Y.z SUSE Virtualization releases, which are released every 4 months.
    2. Address any reported issues or bugs in a timely manner 
    3. You need to recertify your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software with each new minor SUSE Virtualization release and any relevant updates.
    4. Update your backup, restore, and disaster recovery software’s certification status with a list of all the tested versions with SUSE as needed.