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7 Posts tagged with the restore tag
0

http://vizz.info/2006/08/vmware-vi3-esx3-has-arrived/

vmsnap and vmrestore that were used on ESX 2.x to backup (snap) and restore virtual machines & vmdk’s have been replaced in ESX 3.x with the vcbMounter and vcbRestore commands

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VI / ESX 3 VM file naming tips

Posted by osde.info Feb 20, 2009

VMware VI / ESX VM & VMDK file naming tips

1) avoid spaces and brackets ( ) and other nasty characters in .vmx and .vmdk names
2) use a common suffix for each VM's name, vm.vmx, /vmfs/vm subdirectory AND vm.vmdk disks !

ie
orac
/vmfs/volume/storage/orac/
orac.vmx
oraca.vmdk
oracb.vmdk

3) give real names to VMDKS instead of accepting default _N suffix

ie
DISKC.VMDK
DISKD.VMDK
DISKE.VMDK

or
diskos.vmdk
disksw.vmdk
diskdb.vmdk

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2

PHASE 1

  • Setup NFS
  • Setup SSH RSA login
  • Setup mailx
  • Setup host,username,password in /etc/vmware/backuptools.conf

PHASE 2

Create vcbBack.sh (on masteresx)

#
VMIMBK=/vmimages/vmbk
mount slaveesx:$VMIMBK $VMIMBK
rm -rf $VMIMBK/$1
vcbMounter -a name:$1 -r $VMIMBK/$1
umount $VMIMBK

Create vcbRes.sh (on slaveesx)

#
VMIMBK=/vmimages/vmbk
CATALOG=$VMIMBK/$1/catalog
echo $CATALOG
sed 's/masteresx\.com/slaveesx\.com/' $CATALOG > $CATALOG.rest
vcbRestore -s $VMIMBK/$1 -a $CATALOG.rest -b overwrite

Create vcbCron.sh (on masteresx)

#

/root/vcbBack.sh $1
ssh slaveesx -c "/root/vcbRest.sh $1"

Create cronjob

#
0 * * * * /root/vcbCron.sh myvm1 | smtp=upstream /usr/local/bin/mailx -s "<subject>" <name@domain>


Sit back and enjoy being a SysAdmin

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To get the most out of your guest VMs and backup and restore them using VMware Consolidated Backup in the most reliable way you should install VMware Tools.

As well as providing better mouse & video drivers it provides an API to the host providing IP, clock information and installs VM startup, VM shutdown, VM freeze & VM thaw scripts /usr/sbin/pre-freeze-script and /usr/bin/post-thaw-script.

http://vizz.info/2007/11/quiesce-your-live-vmware-vms-before-you-snapshot-them/

These scripts are required to quicese the guest services so a reliable quiescent redo / snapshot can be made by VCB.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf

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VMware Consolidated Backup -- Disk export utility, Version 1.0.3 (52542)
(C) 2005,2006, VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

Usage:

vcbExport -M (0 -F (0 -d <dest_file> -s <diskspec> <verbosity>

<dest_file> := <local_filename>
<diskspec> := <authdspec>|<blklstspec>|<local_filename>
<verbosity> := -L (0-6)
<blklstspec> := blklst://<path>@<host>:<port>?<username>/<password>
<authdspec> := authd://<path>@<host>:<port>?<username>/<password>

Export Disk Flags:
-M: If set, the disk is exported into a single (monolithic) file.
When turned off (default), the disk is split into multiple 2GB files.

-F: If set, the disk is exported as "flat" disk, with no optimizations.
When turned off (default), the exported disk files will be more compact as unused space in the disk image is not included in the exported file.

VMware Consolidated Backup -- Snapshot Utility, Version 1.0.3 (52542)
(C) 2005,2006, VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

Usage:

vcbSnapshot -h <url> -u <username> -p <password> <verbosity> <command>

<url> := <hostname>
<command> := <create>|<find>|<list>|<delete>
<verbosity> := -L (0-6)
<create> := -c <VmId> <SnapshotName> <Description>
<find> := -f <VmId> <SnapshotName>
<list> := -l <VmId> <SsId>
<delete> := -d <VmId> <SsId>
<VmId> := "moref:"<Sdk-MoRef>
<SsId> := "ssid:"<Sdk-MoRef>


VMware Consolidated Backup -- Virtual Machine Mount Utility V1.0.3 (52542)
(C) 2005-2007, VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

Usage:

vcbSnapAll -h <url> -u <username> -p <password> <operation> <verbosity>

<url> := <hostname>
<operation> := <mount_op>
<verbosity> := -L (0-6)
<mount_op> := -a <VM> <mountPoint> <export-flags><datastores>
<VM> := <any><powerstate><...>(See VM Backup Guide for complete list of search criteria.)
<mountPoint> := -r <local_dir>
<datastores> := -C <datastore_catalog_file>
<export-flags> := -M (0|1) -F (0|1)

Export Flags:
-M: If set, the disk is exported into a single (monolithic) file.
When turned off (default), the disk is split into multiple 2GB files.

-F: If set, the disk is exported as "flat" disk, with no optimizations.
When turned off (default), the exported disk files will be more compact as unused space in the disk image is not included in the exported file.

NOTE: options -h -u -p must be present in command string.

Example:
+) Do a full VM style backup of powered up VMs on ESX host "wisdom.bar.com" as user "vc" with password "foobar". Export will go to local dir ackups" as a single file:

vcbSnapAll -h wisdom.bar.com -u vc -p foobar -a powerstate:on -r \backups\foo-fullVM -M 1

Full VM backups export an entire virtual machine into a set of files within a directory. Backing up this file set allows for the entire virtual machine to be restored later on.


VMware Consolidated Backup -- Virtual Machine restore utility, V1.0.3 (52542)
(C) 2005,2006, VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

Usage:

vcbResAll -h <url> -u <username> -p <password> -C <datastorecatalog>
-s <sourcedir> -a <catalog> -V(0 -M(0 -F(0
-m <mode> -b <behavior> -o <powerop> <verbosity>

<url> := <hostname>
<datastorecatalog> := <filename>
<sourcedir> := <dirname>
<catalog> := <filename>
<mode> := cos|nas
<behavior> := overwrite|prompt|keep|abort
<powerop> := on|allon|alloff
<verbosity> := -L (0-6)

Import Disk Flags:
-V: If set to 1, the disk is imported into a VMFS-style disk. This will only work if the target location for the disk is on a VMFS file system. This flag defaults to (1) in COS mode and to 0 otherwise.
This flag is mutually exclusive with -M

-M: If set (default), the disk is imported into a single (monolithic) file.
When unset, the disk is split into multiple 2GB files.

-F: If set (default), the disk is imported as "flat" disk, with no space optimizations, but better I/O performance.
vcbResAll adds the "-d" option to this to specify an optional delay between virtual machine restores.


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VMware ESX 3 vcbRestore quick restore

After backing up a VMWESX VM with vcbMounter you can use vcbRestore to perform a quick restore on another ESX server

Edit the catalog file

  • change SOURCE hostname to DEST hostname
  • check the same "resource pool" exists on DEST host (if not change it so it does)


for example


  • host=myserver.mydomain


  • resourcepool= "/ha-folder-root/ha-datacenter/host/myserver.mydomain/Resources"

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For example in a GNU/Linux VM

jumproot.vmdk

jumpswap.vmdk

jumpvari .vmdk

and then after you've done an initial backup snap of all the disks with vmbk.pl you can choose NOT to back up the swap area / disk / space in your hourly, daily, weekly backup cron jobs

You also get increased flexibility to resize it if you require without any impact to any other volumes or partitions

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