VMware Communities : All Content - Backup & Recovery

cmd.exe copy speed limitation -> Powershell

AndreTheGiant — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:24:43 GMT

It does not depend by your shell, but from your VCB transport method.
Are you using NDB mode? Can you set to SAN mode (and give to VCB proxy the LUN visibility)?

Andre

Unable to backup Virtual Machine from VDR

AndreTheGiant — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:12:06 GMT

Just power off the VM from the vSphere Client.
Seems that there is a process or a driver that lock the guest shutdown procedure.

Andre

Trouble deploying vDR appliance 1.1

MarkIveli — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:47:45 GMT

SUSSED!!!

I have solved my problem. I am able to deploy the ovf but only if i am in the Hosts and Clusters view. If i try from the VM and templates view it errors. Is this how appliances should be deployed (from the hosts and cluster view) or should i be able to deploy from the VM and templates view?

What's the latest on VDR 1.1????

Kiemo — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:45:52 GMT

As mentioned above, huge improvement in Integrity Check performance. A check on my 200GB dedupe store took 4hrs not 1-2 days (and this is on a very modest iSCSI setup - Starwind Free, Single 1TB drive, Vista Workstation). General responsiveness seems better too.

Has a couple of issues, nothing to get annoyed about so far but, importantly, I have not tested restore performance yet.

Overall this "feels" like a good release and what VDR should have been from the start but until consistent performance over a significant period of time is proven I can't honestly say.

I, like many others were let down by the real world performance of this product when it was released, so I won't believe it till I see it.

I am encouraged by this release though and am glad there is an effort being made by Azmir and his team to make it a workable solution. The way this software "should" operate is potentially brilliant for someone like me who wants to "set and forget".

Watch this space...

Can VMware Data Recovery be installed and used on free ESXi 4.0?

tom howarth — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:18:33 GMT

No you can not VDR can only be used on the paid versions. for backing up guests with the free version there is only traditional InGuest Agent based backup available

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on "VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment”.

VCB 1.5 not deleting

fafa24 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:32:55 GMT

Hi,

I use VCB 1.5 with Backupexec 12.5 for Full-VM. It works great, the only problem I have it does not delete the mounted files on the proxy after the backup is done. The snapshot gets deleted. I support another side with almost identical setup and there it works.

Thanks
Edy

Clone to Template Fails - No room on datastore

Paul1 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:16:14 GMT

When you assign a RAW-Device, a file with the same size as the RAW-Device will be created in the directory of your VM, which needs no real size on the disk but to create this Dummy-file the format of your VMFS-Datastore must be with 8 MB Block size, when you add such a big LUN with more than 1 TB. So I think you had to create a Datastore with such a big Block Size to save the Dummy-File on it. Hope this is true...
Paul

VCB Snapshot issue only with Server 2008 R2

joergriether — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:33:09 GMT

This is a pure impertinence. Release notes of esx4u1 say "W2008R2 support". I tell you something VMware, if I can´t backup my w2008r2 exchange and sql servers i can´t use the whole product!!!! I checked the eventlogs, no vss operations at all. No file system harmonizing, no clean exchange state, backup is ergo totally useless. Like a hardware SAN-Snapshot. This has to be addressed!! It is absolutely unbelievable how you have the heart to bring such a beta piece to sunlight.

Joerg

No VMware VSS on 2k8 R2?

joergriether — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:21:25 GMT

I agree. Many many things with w2008r2 are NOT suppoted at all with esx4, not even esx4u1. Just to mention this one here (VSS) and also graphics. VSS is a real bad one. Many admins count on vss awareness when using vcb with their exchange and sql servers.

Joerg

Data Recovery: restore while source VM is gone

AndreTheGiant — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:29:48 GMT

In the restore tab of VDR you must see all the restore point... also for deleted VM.
But remember retention policies... you can loose your restore point after their expire.

Andre

VCB & Symantec Exchange 2007 Agent

Rumple — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:52:30 GMT

The Symantec VI Agent is what enabled you to do the Image level backups of the Virtual Machines. Without that agent, you are not able to get copies of the vmdk files backed up.

Think of it like the physical world. If you purchase symantec backupexec system recovery or Acronis...you are gonig to get snapshots of your server (including all files at that point in time...but anything like Exchange will not have its logs truncated and will be crash consistant backups.

You need to have an application level backup solution to get valid and consistent Exchange, SQL, Oracle, Active Directory (basically database type products) backups.

VDR with vsphere , Failed to create snapshot for XXX, Fehler -3941 ( Erstellen des Snapshots fehlgeschlagen)

Ace007 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:20:04 GMT

Hello buddy,

I also have the same issue, hope u can suggest me someting,

•is FT enabled? No

•does it have 3rd party multi-path? No

•does it have a RDM in physical compatibility mode? No

•did you import this vm from a vmware server or workstation installation?No

My Virtual machine is Windows Xp Professional with HDD of 30 GB with vmware toosl installed, Hardware version 7, im trying to the destination of network share which have free space of 72 Gb.

Snapshots left on VMFS after VDR backup failed - how to merge/delete?

AndreTheGiant — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:13:31 GMT

Create a new snapshot and then choose delete all.

Andre

Which Backup Tool (on a budget) ?

AlbertWT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:34:24 GMT

No worries Gostev,

I'll be patiently wait for that :-o)

at the moment I also trialling VDR v 1.1 but it doesn't have much in terms of difference and functionality apart from bug fixes only.

Kind Regards,
AWT

CIFS errors - CIFS dedupe stores ready for production environment?

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:15:46 GMT

It depends is the best that I can offer with CIFS. We absolutely recommend against CIFS (documented in the Admin Guide)

On a server that has another role such as CIFS shares on a vCenter Server.
Connected to a virtual machine.
Shared to multiple services or servers.

Obviously, performance is ultimately dependent on the speed on that physical fileserver, the number of disks/ spindles that make up the CIFS share and the network connection between VDR and the fileserver. So, your mileage may vary with CIFS.

Because of this, running the VDR destination disk as a vmdk is highly recommended since you will most likely will be running it on HCL compliant storage - performance, sharing/locks and stability is better.

Good luck!

VDR 1.1 and Server 2008 R2 - cannot quiesce virtual machine

Kiemo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:51:21 GMT

Here's where I saw it!

http://blogs.vmware.com/uptime/2009/11/vmware-data-recovery-11-and-file-level-restore.html

Can't connect to Data Recovery Appliance

vkelly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:46:24 GMT

confirmed new release of VDR ver 1.1 fixes authentucation issue when you have a guest VM's with more than 16 IP Addresses

Although Early: How is new VDR 1.1 going?

mastrboy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:25:31 GMT

I see.. Thanks for the info.

But i have to complain that the VDR does not check this before it starts a backup, everything will look fine untill 99% of the backup, stupid logic to not check this when adding it as a destination and then give a error/warning.

vdrfilerestore and vm with multiple drives

duhaas — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:01:21 GMT

thanks again, this is good stuff.

Slow vStorage API, Service Console Backup Performance in ESX4

Gostev — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:33:29 GMT

Orion, try using VEEAM in the Virtual Appliance mode to work around this issue.

Also, if you really have to do network backups, check out the speed of incremental backup by running the job more than once - it will be at least 10 times faster than first job run. With VEEAM, only first backup is full, but subsequent backups are forever-incremental (although you still get full backup as an output because VEEAM uses synthetic backup). For those incremental passes, you will also see 120MB/s and faster speed (in other words, comparable with VCB).

Anyone else having these VDR issues?

chrisaug — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:53:31 GMT

Good information. Thanks.

How to recover VMDK from Backup Exec 12.5 VMWARE agent

AlbertWT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:36:27 GMT

Yes, it would failed as the SID is different and unique.

Have you tried to recover the first / initial AD server using BESR 2010 as the whole complete set first and then you can start to recover the rest of the server ?

Kind Regards,
AWT

Potential VDR+CIFS Workaround

Bers — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:16:45 GMT

In vdr 1.1 i'm experience a problem with connection CIFS shares with domain credential auth..

With local credentials all - OK.

Failed to create snapshot for XXXX, error -3902 ( file access error)

tomtux — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:08:39 GMT

I will try it too.....

File Level Restore "unmounting disk" issue

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:07:51 GMT

We just released VDR 1.1 - and it comes with the fully supported File Level Restore Client for Windows VMs. It will support 64-bit guest OS and addresses the limitations that we had in the experimental version. You can download it here

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/datarecovery11/ZHcqYmQlcHBiZGUlcA==

Check out my post in the forum for more information about the VDR 1.1 release.

Next version of VDR??

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:01:32 GMT

VDR 1.1 was released today. It can be downloaded here

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/datarecovery11/ZHcqYmQlcHBiZGUlcA==

Look in the forum for more information about this release.

VDR schedule reboots

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:56:19 GMT

VDR 1.1 is available now

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/datarecovery11/ZHcqYmQlcHBiZGUlcA==

Selecting VM for VDR Backup strangeness?

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:48:51 GMT

I believe this is fixed in VDR 1.1 - available here

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/datarecovery11/ZHcqYmQlcHBiZGUlcA==

Release notes cover upgrade procedure

http://www.vmware.com/support/vdr/doc/vdr_110_releasenotes.html

VDR 1.0.2 - error message during recatalog error -2241 destination index invalid/damaged

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:31:51 GMT

VDR 1.1 is available for download and highly recommend downloading this release - more information here

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/243436?tstart=0

Also, some additional suggestions post VDR 1.1 upgrade

Check the backup appliance for the store.lck folder, which is found in

/VMwareDataRecovery/BackupStore/store.lck.

If this folder exists and you are certain there are no other instances of Data Recovery using this deduplication store, delete the store.lck folder and its contents.

Once upgraded to VDR 1.1, delete the <destination>/VMwareDataRecovery/BackupStore.cat and <destination>/VMwareDataRecovery/BackupStore.cat.bak files and start a manual integrity check. This will cause the VDR engine to rebuild the catalog.

Data Recovery backup job fails with error -3902

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:24:43 GMT

Note that VDR 1.1 is now available. This releaseeliminates reoccurring error -3902 after vCenter Server connection has been restored, so we highly recommend customers upgrading to this release. See my post in the forum for more information about this release.

Thanks.

VMware Data Recovery 1.1 is available now!

azmir — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:21:10 GMT

I am happy to announce the availability of VMware Data Recovery (VDR) version 1.1. We highly recommend every VDR customer to upgrade to this release. Note that VDR 1.1 is supported on both vSphere 4.0 and vSphere 4.0 Update 1.

A) What's new in VDR 1.1:

• GUI File Level Restore (FLR) client for Windows virtual machines – this is the fully supported version of the FLR client to allow granular restore of individual files. This new functionality complements the full virtual machine restore capability that has been available since VDR 1.0.

• Support for backing up Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 virtual machines (requires upgrading to vSphere 4.0 Update 1 for VMware Tools support)

• Datarecovery.ini support – this file allows customization of the VDR parameters such as how frequent integrity check and reclaim operations run, maximum concurrent backups allowed and disabling any file level restore operations.

• The VDR appliance is now a HW7 virtual machine, runs 64-bit CentOS 5.2 as the guest OS and has updated VMware Tools.

• OpsLocks is disabled by default when connecting to CIFS shares as a backup destination. In certain instances, disabling OpLocks improves stability of storing and retrieving data from CIFS destinations.

• Ability to add network shares using fully qualified domain name or IP address.

• Enhanced documentation set – the VDR Admin Guide now provides more detailed information on using, understanding and troubleshooting VDR.

B) Top issues resolved in VDR 1.1

• Improved integrity check performance – while the performance improvement is very data dependent (size of dedupe store and number of restore points), everyone should see an improvement in integrity check performance compared to VDR 1.0.x.

• Elimination of spurious damaged restore points and side effects (such as locked dedupe stores until damaged restore points are manually deleted).

• Elimination of reoccurring error -3902 after vCenter Server connection has been restored.

• Various vSphere Client to VDR appliance client connection problems including when there is a VM in inventory with too many IP addresses assigned.

C) Some things to keep in mind when upgrading to VDR 1.1

• Before shutting down the VDR 1.0.x instance, check the backup appliance for the store.lck folder, which is found in

/VMwareDataRecovery/BackupStore/store.lck.

If this folder exists and you are certain there are no other instances of Data Recovery using this deduplication store, delete the store.lck folder. This will eliminate any issues post VDR 1.1 upgrade issues around “Trouble writing files, error -1020 (Sharing violation)” and “Could not restore the Data Recovery appliance configuration” errors.

• Follow the steps outlined in the release notes around the 1.0.x to 1.1 upgrade steps, especially if you want to retain existing restore points.

VDR 1.1 documentation (Release Notes and Admin Guide) can be found here:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vdr_pubs.html

VDR 1.1 binaries can be found here

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/datarecovery11/ZHcqYmQlcHBiZGUlcA==

Thanks!

Open Files, databases

AlbertWT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:43:02 GMT

Hi Morpheous,

Does this means if theVM is Windows Vm with VMWare tools installed, those vss-aware application can be backed up without having agent specific installed on each VM ?

Kind Regards,
AWT

Backup Exec 12.5 Backup Strategy

AlbertWT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:13:29 GMT

Hi Tyson,

If I were you I'd get the Agent for each of the Server apps (eg. Exchange, SQL Server and Domain Controller) yes it does sounds very expensive solution but when disaster strikes, you can begrateful that all of the data is transactionally consistent (not crash consistentas in VM hard power off).

Exchange, SQL Server and Domain Controllers are the servers that you don't want to lose it so you can treat it as if they were a physical servers, the rest can go as normal assuming you install the VCB v1.5 properly.

Kind Regards,
AWT

VCB Batch Logging/History/Mail or VDR Mail Notification

AlbertWT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:06:10 GMT

Yes Please, that'd be great to know.

Cheers

Kind Regards,
AWT

How to compare VMDKs filesystem

DSTAVERT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:31:30 GMT

Create a minimal windows install specifically for maintenance and jobs like this. You can leave it off or suspended. Keep a collection of tools available for testing etc. It becomes easy to temporarily attach VMDKs to recover files, test, compare, etc. With your two disks mounted you have hundreds of simple Windows tools for directory compare.

vcbmounter.exe speed

LarsOeschey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:32:09 GMT

Hi,

I have written a script with the Perl CLI SDK to backup some VMs from our ESX servers. From within the script I'm using vcbmounter.exe with this commandline:

{quote} "c:\path\vcbmounter.exe -h vspherehost -u user -p password -a name:vmname -r w:\path\to\backup -t fullvm -F 0 -M 1 -m nbd"{/quote}

Now a 28Gb VM takes 80mins to backup, which seems a bit long for me. Converter only needs 28mins for it.

Can I somehow speed vcbmounter up? Do I use wrong/bad parameters?

Lars

(and what are the correct tags for code/quotes? There's no buttons in this editor...)

VMDKs not getting saved by VCBackup for V7 VMs

PACEDE — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:46:28 GMT

Hi there,

we did an upgrade from VI3 to vSphere4 a couple of weeks ago.
This week I created some new vms which now are version 7 vms.
Those vms are running great and haven't got any problems.

One drawback is, that we're no longer able to creat VCBackups from those V7 machines, because the VMDKs won't get saved.
The only files getting backed up are .log, .vmx, .vram and .da.

Here is what VCbackup logs:

~~2009-11-19 11:12:33.978 'App' 684 info~~ Current working directory: D:\Jobs\VCBBackup
~~2009-11-19 11:12:33.978 'BaseLibs' 684 info~~ HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 4 numThreadsPerCore 1.
~~2009-11-19 11:12:33.978 'BaseLibs' 684 info~~ HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 physical CPUS, 4 total cores, and 4 logical CPUs.
~~2009-11-19 11:12:34.447 'BaseLibs' 684 info~~ Using system libcrypto, version 90709F
Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16/BERVM09A16.vmx":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16/BERVM09A16.nvram":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-7.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-2.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-3.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-4.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-5.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware-6.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

Copying "_CX_Oracle_02 BERVM09A16//vmware.log":
+ 0%=====================50%=====================100%+
+ **************************************************+

We are using this command to initiate the backup:

vcbmounter.exe -h vcenter.ourcompany.local -u backup -p ultrasecurepassword -a name:%1 -r "E:\VCBBACKUP\TODAY\%DATE%_%1" -t fullvm -L 2 > D:\Jobs\VCBBackup\VCBLog\%date%\%1.txt

Older VMs are getting backed up without any problems.
Have you got any suggestions?

Regards,
John

Vsphere VCB

Anton V Zhbankov — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:28 GMT

No big difference between VCB for 3.5 and 4.0

You can setup VCB Proxy in VM for IP storage only if SAN mode is used. NBD is fully supported for all storage types, but it would load service console / vmkernel interfaces instead of direct access to SAN.

---
MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009
http://blog.vadmin.ru

vDR not seeing new cluster

fgl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:14:45 GMT

I created a new cluster (2 hosts) under the same datacenter as my other cluster (6 hosts) but for some reason the vDR does not see the new cluster as it doesn't even show up on the list to choose from. I've already tried rebooting the vDR appliance and the vCenter VM. Anyone else experienced this?

VCB error

mach03 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:32:59 GMT

hello we are using a script in the crontab that is backing up the virt. machine to a nfs volume
for a long time a works very fine since last weekend different esx hosts (3.5 update 4) shows
an error that the vmx-file contains unknow virtualhw.version = "4"

17:45:08: (BACKUP) FEHLER - unbekannte vHW(=) bei /vmfs/volumes/4aa7bfbd-4298d3e2-accc-001cc4467212/WNPQT001/WNPQT001.vmx

example of vmx file that is not working

#!/usr/bin/vmware
config.version = "8"
displayName = "WNPQT001"
sched.cpu.shares = "normal"
memSize = "3600"
sched.mem.shares = "normal"
guestOS = "winnetstandard"
scsi0.present = "true"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
scsi0:0.present = "true"
scsi0:0.name = "WNPQT001.vmdk"
ethernet0.present = "true"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
ethernet0.connectionType = "monitor_dev"
ide0:0.present = "true"
ide0:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"
ide0:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide0:0.startConnected = "FALSE"
powertype.reset = "default"
powertype.poweroff = "default"
powertype.poweron = "default"
draw = "gdi"
ethernet0.generatedaddress = "00:50:56:8e:28:f7"
uuid.bios = "50 21 00 2d 1e 35 a4 5e-0a d5 91 f9 32 cf 0b 78"
checkpoint.cptconfigname = "WNPQT001.vmss"
floppy0.startconnected = "false"
priority.ungrabbed = "normal"
uuid.location = "56 4d e8 5c f6 62 ac a3-4e b2 56 c5 ea 25 e7 d2"
suspend.directory = "."
ethernet0.addresstype = "vpx"
ethernet0.networkname = "VLAN_736"
priority.grabbed = "normal"
usb.present = "false"
floppy0.filename = "/dev/fd0"
virtualhw.version = "4"
powertype.suspend = "default"
isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "true"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

scsi0:1.present = "true"
scsi0:1.name = "WNPQT001_1.vmdk"
scsi0:1.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

numvcpus = "2"

scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
ide0:0.autodetect = "true"
extendedConfigFile = "WNPQT001.vmxf"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

scsi0:0.redo = ""
scsi0:1.redo = ""
scsi0:0.mode = "persistent"
scsi0:1.mode = "persistent"
nvram = "WNPQT001.nvram"
sched.cpu.units = "mhz"
scsi0:0.fileName = "WNPQT001.vmdk"
scsi0:1.fileName = "WNPQT001_1.vmdk"

guestOSAltName = "Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-Bit)"
sched.cpu.affinity = "all"
toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "true"
toolScripts.afterResume = "true"
toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "true"
toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "true"

annotation = "Logon Portal Evaluierung"
migrate.hostlog = "./WNPQT001.vmss.hlog"
sched.cpu.min = "0"
sched.mem.minsize = "0"
sched.mem.max = "3600"
sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/4aa7bfbd-4298d3e2-accc-001cc4467212/WNPQ T001/WNPQT001.vmss.vswp"
hostCPUID.0 = "0000000168747541444d416369746e65"
guestCPUID.0 = "0000000168747541444d416369746e65"
userCPUID.0 = "0000000168747541444d416369746e65"
hostCPUID.1 = "00020f120002080000000001178bfbff"
guestCPUID.1 = "00020f120000080000000001078bbbff"
userCPUID.1 = "00020f120002080000000001078bbbff"
hostCPUID.80000001 = "00020f1200000e4600000002e3d3fbff"
guestCPUID.80000001 = "00020f1200000e4600000000e3d3fbff"
userCPUID.80000001 = "00020f1200000e4600000000e3d3fbff"
evcCompatibilityMode = "FALSE"

vicfg-cfgbackup restore fails, "invalidbundle"

AlbertWT — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:34:20 GMT

Good, glad to hear that Dan.

Kind Regards,
AWT

VDR - clear logs

Paul1 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:56:58 GMT

Yes, under Configuration -- Log -- Clear log
But as i can see now, this only clears the log - not the events.

Paul

Veeam Backup Vs PHD esXpress

RDellimmagine — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:34:07 GMT

A number of messages that were irrelevant to the discussion were deleted. This thread remains locked.

I ask people to abide by the VMware Communities Terms of Use and please keep the conversation civil.

Regards, Robert

Robert Dell'Immagine, Director of VMware Communities

VMware Data Recovery could not add the specified network share.Please ensure your network credentials are valid

fixit — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:16:59 GMT

Thanks jguide, that did the job!

VDR 1.2 major issue. Anyone see this one?

jguide — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:53:45 GMT

I figured out the problem on this one.
I didn't have enough space in the data store that the backup was running in to attach the drive.
I can't say VMWare support was any help here, didn't hear from anyone until the following morning.
Looks like Gold support is now 8 hours wait time.

Mysql service problem with VCB

dconvery — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:36:55 GMT

OK. So, using the example on pg 6:

{code}

IF “%1%” == “freeze” goto doFreeze

goto postThaw

:postThaw

IF “%1%” == “thaw goto doThaw

goto fail

:doFreeze

net stop mysql

goto EOF

:doThaw

net start mysql

goto EOF

:fail

echo “$ERRORLEVEL% >> vcbError.txt

:EOF

{code}

This would go on the VM under "%ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d". You can call it vcb.bat or vcb.cmd. The VCB snapshot process will call the batch file automagically. You will need to have VMware Tools installed as indicated in the doc in order for this to work. If you have doubts, test it before putting it in production. I would recommend that you test backing up AND restoring the VM.

Dave Convery, VCDX
VMware vExpert 2009
http://www.dailyhypervisor.com
http://twitter.com/dconvery

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.
Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

VMware Data Recovery step-by-step for newbie's

AlbertWT — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:15:43 GMT

Yes, that is very true, since I use that Veeam product, I'm no longer in anger with VDR

Cheers.

Kind Regards,
AWT

restoring an vm to a different host

CMCC — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:07:14 GMT

Here is my backuptools.conf configuration:

#URL for the VC SDK instance to connect to. The format is

#<hostname>:port

VCHOST=localhost

#The certficate thumbprint for the host. This needs to be set only if SSL

#certificate verification needs to be enabled. The thumbprint can be obtainedby using

#"openssl s_client -connect <host>:443" to get the certificate and

#"openssl x509 -noout -in <certificate> -fingerprint -sha1".

#HOST_THUMBPRINT=

#Username to use for VC SDK authentication

USERNAME=root

#Password to user for VC SDK authentication WARNING: It is recommended that you don't specify the

#password in the configuration file.

PASSWORD=xxxxxxxxxxxx

#Since VMware tools report IP addresses only for running VMs,

#we cache a mapping of IP addresses to virtual machine UUIDs

#in this file. This enables a powered off VM to be backed up

#using its DNS name or IP address as an identifier even when it

#is powered off. (However, the first backup must be taken when

#the VM is powered on, or a cache entry must be created by invoking

#vcbVmName when the VM is powered on.

VMNAMECACHE=/var/cache/vmName.cache

#Temporary directory (required for legacy VM restoration and for restoring using scp.

TEMPDIR=/tmp

#Optional datastore catalog file.
#By default, all VCB utilities assume that datastore names refer to

#VMFS volume labels and are therefore accessible under "/vmfs/volumes".

#If this is not the case for any of your file systems containing virtual

#machines (because you are using a non-standard NAS mount, for example),

#you can use a datastore catalog to do the translation. Entries in this

#catalog must adhere to the following standard:

#"= "<mountpoint>
#Example: NAS share labelled "esxnas42" mounted on "/mnt/nas/42":
#
:port

#
esxnas42= /mnt/nas/42
#DATASTORE=/etc/vmware/datastore.cat

#Default settings for importing legacy VMs that have been backed up

#with "vmsnap.pl" on ESX 2.5.x.

#Datastore path and directory under which the VM is going to be

#restored. You can use %VMNAME% to indicate the legacy VM's name

#in the path

#DSPATH="vol0 %VMNAME%"

#The host the virtual machine is going to be associated with.
#The default setting associates the VM with the host the restore
#is being run on.

VMHOST='hostname'
#Resource pool the VM is part of. You can use %VMHOST% to specify the

#host name the VM is going to be associated with.

#You can use the "resourcepools" command of "vcbUtil" to get a list of

#all known resource pools on the VC/ESX server.

#RESOURCEPOOL="/ha-folder-root/ha-datacenter/ha-folder-host/192.168.253.205/Resources"

#VC folder in which the virtual machine is going to be placed in.

#User permissions are associated with folders.

#You can use the "vmfolders" command of "vcbUtil" to get a list of

#all folders that can hold virtual machines.

#FOLDERPATH="/ha-folder-root/ha-datacenter/ha-folder-vm"

I don't know where else to configure...

file level restore for linux systems for VMWare Data Recovery

seniornwb — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:03:10 GMT

Hi,

I was trying to dig up some information about the file level restore feature for VMware data recovery, specially for linux systems.

For example, is it limited to specific linux systems, specific linux filesystems being used within the guest.

For example, can it backup Novell NSS filesystems on linux.

I checked the documentation, but I can't seem to find any info in there about it.

Kind regards,

Hen

ComVault Simpana 8 with VCB

Garrethh — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:16:29 GMT

Hi All,

Any findings on this subject?

I too am looking to upgrade to vSphere 4 and would prefer to keep the existing scripted method for VCB backups when upgrading to CV8 also.

Just curious about the VCB 1.5U1 reliance for the proxy box, whichin my case is ALSO the CV server.

Cheers,

Garreth.

VDR and Firewall ports?

shlomo.rivkin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:53:36 GMT

You need to open TCP port 902 from VDR appliance to ESX servers.

vcbmounter failed to mount the vm

rahqa — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:21:07 GMT

Also please ensure that F: is not a mapped network drive.

Thanks

Rahul

Vshpere 4.0 Data Recovery Issue(Failed to create snapshot for VM1, error -3941 ( create snapshot failed)

AlbertWT — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:53:01 GMT

Jacky,

That's ok, at least i can share what I've learnt and went through, this is also one of the most common error in using VDR v1.02.

please share it here if you know any other trick for the resolution.

Cheers.

Kind Regards,
AWT

VMX only backup - supported agents (e.g. TSM)

AndreTheGiant — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:22:58 GMT

Note the all backup solutions for virtual environment will backup also the vmx file. So do not worry.
For example you can use VCB or VDR (two VMware solutions).

Andre

bring to compliance

swany7 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:23:42 GMT

I agree - the VDR admin guide is not close to complete. It does not include the word 'compliance' anywhere in it, let alone how to use it.

A search of the "knowledgebase" yields no results for compliance either.

Try the evaluator's guide, it fils in some of the gaps, though it still leaves a lot to be desired:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/data-recovery-evaluators-guide.pdf

Issue backup up Windows 2003 VM's

AlbertWT — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:49:04 GMT

Hi Eire,

What is the actual Error message ? is that Error 156 failed to mount VM ? or failed to quiesce or even failed to hold up VM ?

Kind Regards,
AWT

Disaster Recovery solutions (and ideas?) for VMWare vSphere4?

Runamuck — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:45:40 GMT

I have Falconstor coming next week to discuss replication with me. Trying to avoid buying FC/IP routers because of the cost of those things plus they really dont do much for the price.. The guy said IBM, HP, I think dell and someone else is OEMing there product now.

Also going to be taking a look at hitachi's new storage. I have heard allot of good things about there new AMS line. Finally someone moving into the less expensive SAS storage with same performance, wonder what took so long. Also interested in the dense sata shelves they are offering.

Sorry about the troubles you have had with your SVC, I have always had good luck with SVC. I worked with a shop had SVC in front of 8300's talk about fast storage. I know the last time I did replication with SVC we didnt have any issues. I also had a HUGE pipe to replicate over, OC3.

My next pipe is a 1.5 gig pipe so I dont think I am going to have any trouble.

Let me know how your falconstor turns out if you go that route.

SMVI or NetBackup

CharlesSchlesinger — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:57:21 GMT

I do have a secondary filer at a DR site, and SMVI's ability to initiate snapmirror replication is very appealing to me. I think my plan is to use SMVI for snapshots locally and replicating to our DR site, along with an occasional ndmp backup of a snapshot to tape.

Thanks!

Backup report script required

AndreTheGiant — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:19:34 GMT

What you want is a little complicated to do on a single command line
Try to use VESI:
http://blog.thevesi.org/2009/07/08/vizioncore-vranger-pro-40-and-powershell/

Andre

Issue backing up VM

AlbertWT — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:00:23 GMT

Hi All,

Has anyone try logon to SSH console and then issue this command:

services.sh restart

That's what I usually do since I'm using ESXi 4

Kind Regards,
AWT

backup software compatability guide

AndreTheGiant — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:40:41 GMT

where is the backup software compatability guide?

Good question, but I haven't find.

i heard of some backup software support vStorage API now, so when we do VCB backup, we never need holding tank now, this will reduce the backup time. but i want to know which backup software vendor support this functionality.

Probably all new version of backup product will support this feature.

At this timeVeeam Backup 4 use it:

NEW Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 offers a major breakthrough in full and incremental backup speeds. Using technological advancements within VMware vSphere 4 and the VMware vStorage APIs for data protection

Andre

VCB on a linux host.

AndreTheGiant — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:31:20 GMT

As written before VCB framework works only on Windows.

You can use other solution, like VDR.
Or use vcbMount from your ESX.

See also: Backup solutions for VMware ESXi

Andre

Backup solutions for VMware ESXi

AndreTheGiant — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:44:17 GMT

Free solutions

ghettoVCB
ghettoVCB.sh - Free alternative for backing up VM's for ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.0+
ghettoVCBg2 - Free alternative for backing up VMs in ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.x (no SSH console required!)
This script performs backups of virtual machines residing on ESX(i) 3.5/4.0+ servers using methodology similar to VMware's VCB tool.
It's created and well maintained by lamw

Other script based solutions
Another ESXi backup script
http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/gabrielmaciel/2008/12/08/free-vm-backup-alternative-for-esx-35-and-esxi
Re: Free ESXi Backup Solution for Windows
Any new backup VM Solutions - ESX 3.5

VMware Converter Standalone
http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
Is not designed as a backup solution, but could be used also for this purpose.

File copy solutions
For a powered off VM is possible to simple copy all the files in the VM folder.
To use also with a powered on VM you need to do create a VMware snapshot to unlock the *-flat.vmdk files
To make this copy several tools could be used:

Datastore browser (directly from VIC or vSphere Client)
SCP / Veeam fastSCP (need to enable SSH access: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/08/10/howto-esxi-and-ssh/)

VMware solutions (need license)

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

VMware Data Recovery (VDR)
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-data-recovery/

Commercial solutions that may support ESXi in the future releases

esXpress
http://phdvirtual.com/products/esxpress-virtual-backup
esXpress radically alters the notion of how to protect data in virtual infrastructures in one simple way: we use the virtual infrastructure to backup and restore itself!
esXpress v3.6 is Compatible with VMware ESX v3, v3.5 and vSphere4.

Vizioncore vRanger Pro 4.0
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/documents/vRangerPro-DPP-FAQ.pdf
vRanger Pro Data Protection Platform (DPP) is the market-leading backup, recovery and backup management solution for virtual environments. The 4.0 release is the next generation of vRanger Pro which features a completely redesigned architecture, including plug-n-play modularity and a service-based architecture. VMware ESX3.x and VMware ESX 4.x upon initial release. Future releases include support for: VMware ESXi 3.x, VMware ESX & ESXi 3.x VCB, VMware ESXi 4.x, VMware ESX & ESXi 4.x VCB.

The free ESXi "problem"

With the free version of ESXi then you cannot actually use a third party tool to perform any backups. This is against your EULA. If it is the paid version of ESXi go for it.
So be sure which you are using to be sure you do not violate the EULA.

As for other mechanisms, you can snapshot the VM and then copy the data via the vSphere Client/VIC as well. There is also VMware Converter. These tools do not violate the EULA.

See also: http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/?p=274 - VMware Forcing Third Parties to NOT Sell Products for Free ESXi

Storage based solutions

If you have a stora NFS base, then file copy could be simple...
For other shared storage you can use storage snapshots.

Backup ESXi configuration

You can use the RCLI to make a backup configuration of your ESXi host using
esxcfg-cfgbackup
You can find more information for the RCLI documentation here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_rcli.pdf

There are also other ways to do a backup of ESXi configuration, see:
http://www.r71.nl/index.php/kb/technical/212-vmware-esxi-configuration-backup
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/DG/ESXi_3_5_U4/HTML/app_c.htm

Restoring vm in ESXi 4.0

raimundasjan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:10:48 GMT

thank you all for replys. I made transfer to another esxi host vm's powered off via copying all vm's files.

Datacentre Failure

singhpdeep0007 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:54:47 GMT

Thx Andru.

VDR will not complete a backup of a VM stuck at xx%

abbasi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:56:24 GMT

I tried your tips but all 5 VM's reported a closed bracket on active tasks

~~root@hpc01b14 /~~# vim-cmd vmsvc/get.tasklist 96
(ManagedObjectReference) [ ]

So I assumed the pending task must be on the VDR server so I rebooted it (I can't reboot my VM's a they are in production and I have to wait for a maintenace window)
When the VDR rebooted it did remove snapshots from 3 out of the 5 VM's

For the remaining 2 VM's it is no longer showing them as active backup tasks but it still has the drives mounted and there are still Snapshots on the 2 VM's

I was thinking of shutting down the VDR and just removing the snapshots manually and unmounting the drives from the VDR. Anyone have experiance/thoughts with that?

I do have a SR open with VMware. If there is an official resolution I will post it

VDR Damaged Restore Points

GT_Jacket — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:24:15 GMT

"Aha! Clearly, VDR has become self aware, and obviously gets jealous when you get to leave and it doesn't."

For right now... I'm okay with that... If it would just return when I do.

usage of QueryChangedDiskAreas

dayra01 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:33:01 GMT

Hi All,

I need some info regarding QueryChangedDiskAreas API introduced with vSphere. Can this API be used to get used blocks related to a disk.

say, i have a VM with one disk. for this VM, i enabled changeTracking. now that i created a snapshot for it. this created a changeId. Now, i call QueryChangedDiskAreas API with changeId set to '*'. It is returning me DiskChangeInfo structure with only one entry, pointing to my entire VM length.

another scenario, i have a VM enabled with changeTracking. this VM has got few snapshots. Now that am trying to retrieve only used blocks for this VM. How can this be done??

Please let me know your comments.

Thanks,
-Raghu.

Backup of data store and VMs on Netapp

mark_a_k — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:14:52 GMT

I am having some difficulty backing up our VMs that are stored on a Netapp filer. I was wondering if anyone using a netapp filer with VMs on a FC lun could tell me how they are performing backups? I am intesrested in some commments on my following 3 issues from anyone with some experience with these products.

I have the following products purchased:
Snap Manager for VI
FlexClone
Netbackup NDMP license

ISSUE 1
The difficulty that i see is that the NDMP backup produces a backup which consistes of 2 large files. These two large files are my 2 ESX datastores. The 2 datastores are located on 1 FlexVol containing 2 FC Luns. I cannot recover any individual files or VMs. I think that this pretty much makes the NDMP backup of 2 FC Luns containing ESX data stores useless (unless i want to recover the whole datastore). Therefore I think that i will have to use VCB backups to backup the individual VMs and keep them for long term backup (we purchased NDMP license and no VCB).

ISSUE 2
We have Snap Manager for VI configured and working successfuly to take snapshots of the VMs located on the 2 data stores. If i want to backup a snapshot I would usually enter the name of the snapshot in the file list sucah as /vol/vol2/.snapshot/hourly.1 Snap Manager for VI uses its own naming convention for snapshots which is a long and unique name. Therefore if i want to backup a snapshot created by SMVI I have to enter the name of the snapshot which changes daily into the backup software file list. This is not practical on a daily basis for automated backups. Backups of these SMVI snapshots are required for consistent backups.

ISSUE 3
FlexClone has been recommended to aid with backups so that a Volume can be mounted and then used for backup. Simple in theory for non-FC luns but in this case the FC luns contain VMFS datastores so the backup cannot take place until the FlexClone is presented and mounted to the ESX server. A flat file backup of the Datastore using Linux client may be possible at this stage. To perfrom VCB backups at this stage the VMs would have to be added to the ESX inventory and brough online. A lot of manual work here and not ideal on a daily basis.

VDR Snapshots fail with VMware tools VSS support installed

ydnA — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:45:07 GMT

Hey Mightyman

Thanks for your response. I am testing with a 2008r2 server and a 2003 server. The 2008r2 server displays the snapshot error and the 2003 box times out. Manual snapshots work without an issue.

At this point, after reading pretty much every post that is even slightly relevant (several from you), if decided to drop VDR until there is official 2008r2 support. Hopefully by then lots of the other bugs that are being complained about will be resolved.

Cron Issues again with GhettoVCB.sh script

Stevester — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:45:39 GMT

Good Evening Everyone,

Actually the issue has been resolved. Cron does work as I had a spelling mistype in my GhettoVCB.sh script. Also, I downloaded the latest GhettoVCB script.

Thanks

Steve

Backing up a single ESXi v4 Server

GregBradley — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:04:41 GMT

Thanks Dave and Andre,

This first customer originally purchased ESXi for $500. It is licensed but ESXi became free only weeks later. They have now upgraded to ESXi v4 with a new license. I guess that is the free version. I purchased an HP for another customer with ESXi on a USB device. I've since upgraded them to ESXi v4, which may also technically be a "free" version. I'm really looking for a plan here to use for 6-8 regular customers. I think the customers would choke over $1000 for essentials but I could actually use that for 3 customers since they are such good customers that they are connected to my system thru a VPN and are centrally administered from my site. They have been customers for 15-25 years, starting with mini-computers so it isn't like they are going away anytime soon.

Seagate Backup Exec looks messy with VMWare. They are clearly targeting HUGE customers for their product and it has become massive overkill for most of mine. The VMWare agent is $3000 MSRP, although it is on-sale right now for $1669. One customer would need upgrades totalling $3000- for a media server (old server with tape drive), VMWare agent, Exchange Agent, SQL Agent. They still wouldn't be backing up Active Directory, but the forest is backed up at my location weekly.

At this point the customers are using the backup included with Server 2003, which is the basic product version that eventually became Seagate Backup Exec. It is less than they should have but is free. I have exported each machine and written them to DVDs so I could create the virtual machines on a new VMWare server fairly easily. Perhaps I should just wait awhile until somebody gets a package well done for VMWare.

Failed to create snapshot for <VM-Name>, Error -1 (Unknown) on VDR v1.0.2

blautens — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:20:01 GMT

I found several posts on here that indicate you should reinstall VMWare Tools on the 2008 servers doing a custom install without the VSS driver (and without the SVGA driver, but that's unrelated to VDR). Some people say that works.

It definitely changed the error I was receiving....but hasn't resolved my issue yet. YMMV. Worth a try, right? If you try it, please post the results.

Thanks,

Bruce Lautenschlager

VDR and High I/O SQL Server

jjahns — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:50:49 GMT

Update.

Apparently VDR for some reason is recognizing the Persistent disks. I do not know how or why that would be possible, but I am going to find out with a restore rehearsal once this is done, and see what the problem is.

vData Recovery deleted the vmdk files that I didn't "tick" to backup

sportsystems — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:30:48 GMT

That looks to be the correct KB article for our scenario, specifically this was relevant to us..

A non-independent disk resides on another datastore that is formatted to a larger block size as the disk is larger than 256GB

...the disks that got wiped out were all 500GB on seperate datstores.

Just had a thought, it still only partly explains it, because the 5th disk in this VM was kept intact (the disk named the same as the C: drive).

fullvm and file server:storage1

marcosdarosa — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:33:50 GMT

All right, thank you.

Att

Marcos da Rosa

Trouble reading from destination volume, error -2241 ( Destination index invalid/damaged)

Kiemo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:40:17 GMT

Just wanted to say this I found this post very useful. Had a problem with my SAN over night and couldn't pull any backups from my dedupe store untill I had deleted the lock file as described above.

Life saver!

VDR evaluation - backups fail due to licensing issue

riaanb — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:51:43 GMT

Thanks for the suggestions. We had in fact had added another host to the vCenter Server to manage - the host was running a licensed copy of Esxi. Changeing this host's licensing to Evaluation Mode resolved the issue.

riaan

VDR - Multiple VMDKs with the Same Name

ben13 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:25:36 GMT

Does anyone have any insight ? I can't be the only one that still gets this wih 1.0.2 even though it says its fixed.

VDR job starts at wrong time

Paul1 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:08:54 GMT

Have you ever used the "Bring to compliance" button? With using this option, the backup window will be ignored until all the VM's are backuped. (in compliance).

But I can remeber, the same behavior in my environment. The selected times were inverted. Backups's stop at the beginning of the backup time frame. I than used 24 hours timeframe for backups, because the backup itself dosn't make a very high load with Version 7 HW, so it was no problem backuping up during the day. When you start the job at night for the first time, it will be backuing up at night for the following days.

vcbmounter error : X is not a writeable directory

Lakshmi Gayatri — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:54:31 GMT

Junction points cannot be created on mapped drives. Hence you cant backup.

Networker Virtual Edition Client

AllBlack — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:17:28 GMT

As far as I know there is still no support

VMware Consolidation Backup

AndreTheGiant — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:53:53 GMT

VCB proxy can work on 2003 and 2008 Server, and also on x86 and x64 architecture.
But be sure that also the backup program (if you use some other software) is compatible.

Andre

VCB for Linux?

AndreTheGiant — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:39:23 GMT

The vcbMount command exist also on each ESX.
So you can implement some script also there.
But I do not think that you can move those script to another Linux system.

Andre

VCB Won't Work To New vSphere Host

rhill — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:40:58 GMT

Problem fixed. The host name / certificate were not correct. I renamed the host and generated a new certificate. Here are the steps:

In VI client, configuration, DNS and Routing, properties, change hostname. Next, reboot server.

Run these commands and input the information when prompted:

~~root@usvs1 ssl~~# openssl req -nodes -new -x509 -keyout rui.key -out rui.crt -days 3650 -config /etc/pki/tls/openssl.cnf
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
.++++++
.......++++++
writing new private key to 'rui.key'

You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.

Country Name (2 letter code) GB:US
State or Province Name (full name) Berkshire:California
Locality Name (eg, city) Newbury:Palo Alto
Organization Name (eg, company) My Company Ltd:VMware, Inc.
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:VMware ESX Server Certificate
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:usvs1.localdomain
Email Address []:ssl-certificates@vmware.com
~~root@usvs1 ssl~~# service mgmt-vmware restart
Stopping VMware ESX Management services:
VMware ESX Host Agent Watchdog OK
VMware ESX Host Agent OK
Starting VMware ESX Management services:
VMware ESX Host Agent (background) OK
Availability report startup (background) OK
~~root@usvs1 ssl~~#

Replace "usvs1.localdomain" with your hostname:

~~root@usvs1 ssl~~# hostname
usvs1.localdomain

ESXi 4.0 upgrade broke my backup solution, fix or alternate plan for small business?

DSTAVERT — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:27:49 GMT

You mentioned not wanting to mess with scripts but there is a very well developed solution that combined with your intended iomega NAS device and external USB would make an excellent DR solution. Have a look at http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760. It is truly set and forget. A new version is eminent and will add a great deal of flexibility.

VDR Schedule

pacmantravis — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:01:55 GMT

Did you get this fixed?

We have the same issue in our environment.

Manual backups work fine, however the schedule backups do not run. We see in the logs that the integrity check runs fine, however, there is no attempt to run the actual backup.

Any ideas?

Vmware data recovery vs vmware consolidated backup

jjahns — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:33:53 GMT

So here's some preliminary results on this.

Using CIFS to backup to a windows share, you technically do not even need VCB to backup the deduplicated data off to tape. The speed, on our environment, did not change that much using CIFS, but all environments are different.

I for one like this method of backup for the VMs. Its integrated with vCenter. Meaning my boss only goes to 1 interface to test the viability of a backup by performing a "restore rehearsal."

I do not like the fact that there are a few limitations on this method of backup. I believe that this is on purpose, and VMware will possibly intend to package this as a separate and expensive add-on for vSphere. Granted I could be wrong, but that is my opinion on the matter. Either way, this is something that, once they work out most of the kinks and provide file-level restore capabilities that are built-in to vCenter, will probably put most methods of backing up virtual machines to shame. The concept and methods are there.

Overall, happy with this. Have not had any major issues so far.

restore via Vibe

LEslinger — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:33:48 GMT

Review the other article from NetworkAdminKB.com on how to install and configure NetApp Vibe for use with VMWare ESX server.

http://networkadminkb.com/kb/Knowledge%20Base/SAN/Installing%20and%20Configuring%20NetApp%20VIBE.aspx

In that article the configuration file is explained. Add the following line to the configuration file to specify SSH.Bat as the SSHCMD to run

sshcmd=D:\Folder\ssh.bat

Vibe is from Netapp, not VMWare.

Tape Backup Integration with VMware Data Recovery (VDR) - How to guide

AlbertWT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:57:09 GMT

Great, thank you for the response sir !

Kind Regards,
AWT

VDR /RDM

AlbertWT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:56:20 GMT

Great, glad to hear that Cesario.

Don't forget to mark it as answer to help people know which one is the solution

Cheers.

Kind Regards,
AWT

GhettoVCB.sh on ESX4 for backup VM: sintax error

mardux — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:47:42 GMT

hi to all.

after upgrade from esx3.5 to esx4, my old backup script (vmbk.pl) is unsupported.

now i want test and use a new script, ghettoVCB.sh, for backup of my VM.

with a old version of ghetto (Date: 11/01/2008), the script is working fine, but with last version (with new feature COMPRESSION) the script return a sintax error:

~~root@esx03 ~~~# ./ghettoVCB-completo.sh vmbcklist
: command not foundo.sh: line 5:
: command not foundo.sh: line 8:
: command not foundo.sh: line 15:
: command not foundo.sh: line 18:
: command not foundo.sh: line 20:
: command not foundo.sh: line 21:
: command not foundo.sh: line 26:
: command not foundo.sh: line 29:
: command not foundo.sh: line 34:
: command not foundo.sh: line 37:
: command not foundo.sh: line 42:
: command not foundo.sh: line 44:
: command not foundo.sh: line 47:
: command not foundo.sh: line 50:
: command not foundo.sh: line 53:
: command not foundo.sh: line 56:
: command not foundo.sh: line 59:
: command not foundo.sh: line 61:
: command not foundo.sh: line 63:
: command not foundo.sh: line 65:
'/ghettoVCB-completo.sh: line 66: syntax error near unexpected token `{
'/ghettoVCB-completo.sh: line 66: `printUsage() {
~~root@esx03 ~~~#

at line 66 the code is this:

66 printUsage() {
67 SCRIPT_PATH=$(basename $0)
68 echo -e "\nUsage: ${SCRIPT_PATH} VM_FILE_INPUT\n"
69 exit
70 }

can you help me??

very thanks

Snapshots & Backups

Anton V Zhbankov — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:33:46 GMT

I suppose there is no such limitations. VDR can backup any VM and maximum size for both VMDK and RDM disks is 2TB.

But I strongly do not recommend VDR to backup such VMs. Backup system disk / partition only with VDR and backup data with traditional backup solutions.

---
MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009
http://blog.vadmin.ru

Snapshot question while trying to using VDR 1.02

SonyaGJordan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:45:49 GMT

I'm getting the same error on some of my VMs using VCB and NetBackup. Any one know how to fix or work around this?

How to use vStorage API ?

AlbertWT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:32:27 GMT

Yes, that's what i was thinking before :-|

Otherwise your Ghetto script will supports vStorage :-O

Cheers.

Kind Regards,
AWT

cannot backup powered off VM's with VDR

AlbertWT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:06:23 GMT

Hi ehinkle,

May I know what VM is that ?

I also got thesame problem with Windows Server2003-8 x64 bit too but i've found the solution by following the steps bellow:

This is what VMWare suggest: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1009073&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=38752513&stateId=0%200%2038754922

But I'm not following it ;-| since I feel uncomfortable in removing the VSS snapshot provider support in VMWare tools:

Backup the following regkey: *HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem *
Erase the regkey _HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216} _an below
Reboot.
Verify that things are working by running

vssadmin list writers
* vssadmin list providers.*

and then in the services.msc list of services snap ins, make sure the following services are Started Automatically:COM+ System Application

Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Volume Shadow Copy
VMware Physical Disk Helper Service

Automatically but not started:

Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
VMware Snapshot Provider

now the backup is all working great

This is the solution that i tried around myself without uninstalling the VSS Provider support in VMWare tools

Kind Regards,
AWT

Cannot create a quiesced snapshot because the create snapshot operation exceeded the time limit for holding off I/O in the frozen virtual machine.

AlbertWT — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:30:09 GMT

To All,

The
following tricks working without uninstalling the VMWare tools support
for VSS. Please be advised that I've tried this method on all of my failed to backup of Windows Server 2008/2003 x64 VMs

The reason why I'm doing this again is that I feel uncomfortable in removing the VSS snapshot provider support in VMWare tools:

1. Backup the following regkey: _*HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem* _
2. Erase the regkey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216} an below
3. Reboot.
4. Verify that things are working by running

vssadmin list writers
vssadmin list providers.

and then in the services.msc list of services snap ins, make sure the following services are Started Automatically:

1. COM+ System Application
2. Distributed Transaction Coordinator
3. Volume Shadow Copy
4. VMware Physical Disk Helper Service

Automatically but not started:

1. Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
2. VMware Snapshot Provider

now the backup is all working great

This is the solution that i tried around myself without uninstalling the VSS Provider support in VMWare tools.

See the following KB URL: _http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1009073&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=38752513&stateId=0%200%2038754922_

Hope this can be a helpful post for all of you.

Kind Regards,
AWT

vcenter vcb role and search virtual machine

dsumsky — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:06:32 GMT

Hi,

that was the reason, the permission was defined at wrong place - at the cluster level. I forgot it. When I redefined it to datacenter, enumeration started working.

Thanks, David

vSphere includes VMware Data Recovery...correct?

SlickBag — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:34:34 GMT

Thank you!

File <unspecified filename> is larger than the maximum size supported by datastore <unspecified datastore>

glemmestad — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:32:59 GMT

Thanks, dstavert.

The information is very useful, and offers a work around of sorts. Only problem I see with this is that it locks you in with regards to Storage vMotions? If you move the VM using SvMotion to different LUNs (say from LUN 1 and 3, to LUN 6 and 8). The config file would probably still point the working dir and the swap dir to LUN 1 and 3? Which means, if you want to remove LUN 1 and 3 for a storage redesign, you have to take down the VM in question to reconfigure the VMX.

So adding these parameters to the VMX basically makes Storage vMotions unusable for the VMs (If I understand how the config parameters work). I presume that Storage vMotion does not update the working dir and move the swap files during a Storage vMotion.

We have 3 storage systems attached to our SAN with a total raw capacity of approx. 130TB, and changing the LUN design (adding/removing) is vital to us. We also completely changed out our Dell EMC Clariions with new ones, all without downtime. The only reason we managed to achieve this was because of Storage vMotions. Because of this, I cannot do a configuration change that locks us in to the LUNs the VMs are running on now. Especially for these VMs, which are basically some of the most important ones.

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