Dec 19, 2008 8:59 AM lamw   says:

Forgot to mention, you can also find more scripts/resources located at:

http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Hi lamw,
Thanks for the explanation.
in effect i was confused about how to use it.

thanks again.

Jan 10, 2009 10:53 PM lamw   says: in response to: dan82

Take a look at the my previous comment. I would not suggest setting this up on an ESXi host, probably an administrative linux/windows or even VIMA host.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 14, 2009 4:05 PM lamw   says: in response to: tuxfan2183

Hi tuxfan2183,

1) The power down feature was recently added, if you want to backup your VM(s) while they're live, just ensure the flag "POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP" is set to 0=no, 1=yes. By default this option is set to 0 which is to backup while the VM is running

2) There are multitude of options, depending where and how the backups are being stored and what your backup scenario requires. You can either mount the backup datastore and register the VM either by browsing the VI Client datastore or manually using CLI tool like "vmware-cmd -s register" or "vim-cmd" for ESXi. If you do not want to directly mount your backup but rather restore back to your source ESX/ESXi host, you can just manually run "vmkfstools" copy from your backup datastore to your source datastore and then register your VM. Again, this will be environment specific, but those are your options and this can be easily scripted or done manually as this is a backup process which requires additional care.

Hope this answered your questions.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

does this only back up 1 vmdk file per virtual machine? I ran it and it backed up teh vmdk of a vm i have but not another vmdk that is in the same directory

There are certain things which I as a user thought could add more value to this script. When taking backup to compress and store the backup in a compressed format in the remote location. makes sense?

Why dont you try to setup a solaris 10 or opensolaris box and use a compressed ZFS file system via NFS to ESXi host?

Its extremely easy - and no expensive hardware required.

Jan 21, 2009 9:47 PM lamw   says: in response to: nappyrat

Yea it should be -i, but from the various .vmx file I've viewed in the past for both 3.0 and 3.5 it's always been "fileName". What version of ESX are you running btw? This is the first I've heard of this issue

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Hello,
I'm trying your script.
Thanks for your work.
Just a question relative to performance.
In fact i was using vcbMounter on a local datastore and on an nfs server.
Backup time for the same machine:
with vcbmount on local datastore: 7 min
with vcbmount on NFS: 13 min

With your script on local datastore: 5 min
With your script on NFS: 180 min

Have you got an explanation for this or any clue?
Regards
Tom

Jan 22, 2009 8:34 AM lamw   says: in response to: Thomas BRETON

I'm not familiar with the vcbMounter tool, YMMV with different environments and I've seen various postings about the different performance with NFS and it all depends on your configuration and the type of NFS server you're running. It should not differ with over 100+min so I'm not exactly sure what type of VM you're backing up/etc. Does this occur on all VM(s) or just this one?

Also and FYI, the VMware VCB tools that come installed by default on the ESX host are only available with the version of ESX w/Service Console, this is not part of the ESXi releaese.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

when I run the command sh ./ghetto.sh vm_list from path / vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ of esxi 3.5 returns the following error:
. / ghetto.sh:. / ghetto.sh: 76: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "do").
What could be the problem?
Thank you.

Thanks for your answer, the script has been set to execute and the file has been downloaded and modified with ubuntu desktop.
This is the result of the command:
/vmfs/volumes/4975d95d-45fc3458-7ff4-001b212e4341 # sh -x ghetto.sh vm_list
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 6:
+ VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/datastore2/backupvm/
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 9:
+ ENABLE_2GB_SPARSE=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 12:
+ VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT=3
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 15:
+ date +%F
+ VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION=2009-01-22
: not foundghetto.sh: 17:
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 18:
+ POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 23:
+ ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 26:
+ ITER_TO_WAIT_SHUTDOWN=4
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 31:
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 36:
+ ENABLE_NON_PERSISTENT_NFS=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 38:
+ UNMOUNT_NFS=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 41:
+ NFS_SERVER=172.30.0.195
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 44:
+ NFS_MOUNT=/nfsshare
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 47:
+ NFS_LOCAL_NAME=nfs_storage_backup
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 50:
+ NFS_VM_BACKUP_DIR=mybackups
: not foundghetto.sh: 52:
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 53:
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 55:
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 57:
+ DEVEL_MODE=0
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 59:
+ basename ghetto.sh
+ SCRIPT_PATH=ghetto.sh
VM_FILE_INPUT\n ghetto.sh

VM_FILE_INPUT

+ exit
: not foundghetto.sh: 63: exit
+ }
: not foundghetto.sh: 64: }
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 65:
+ local BACKUP_DIR_PATH=vm_list
+ local BACKUP_VM_NAMING_CONVENTION=
+ ls -tr vm_list
: No such file or directory
+ LIST_BACKUPS=
+
: not foundghetto.sh: 70:
ghetto.sh: ghetto.sh: 76: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "do")
/vmfs/volumes/4975d95d-45fc3458-7ff4-001b212e4341 # sh -x ./ghetto.sh vm_list
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 6:
+ VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/datastore2/backupvm/
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 9:
+ ENABLE_2GB_SPARSE=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 12:
+ VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT=3
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 15:
+ date +%F
+ VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION=2009-01-22
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 17:
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 18:
+ POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 23:
+ ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 26:
+ ITER_TO_WAIT_SHUTDOWN=4
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 31:
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 36:
+ ENABLE_NON_PERSISTENT_NFS=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 38:
+ UNMOUNT_NFS=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 41:
+ NFS_SERVER=172.30.0.195
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 44:
+ NFS_MOUNT=/nfsshare
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 47:
+ NFS_LOCAL_NAME=nfs_storage_backup
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 50:
+ NFS_VM_BACKUP_DIR=mybackups
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 52:
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 53:
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 55:
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 57:
+ DEVEL_MODE=0
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 59:
+ basename ./ghetto.sh
+ SCRIPT_PATH=ghetto.sh
VM_FILE_INPUT\n ghetto.sh

VM_FILE_INPUT

+ exit
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 63: exit
+ }
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 64: }
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 65:
+ local BACKUP_DIR_PATH=vm_list
+ local BACKUP_VM_NAMING_CONVENTION=
+ ls -tr vm_list
: No such file or directory
+ LIST_BACKUPS=
+
: not found: ./ghetto.sh: 70:
./ghetto.sh: ./ghetto.sh: 76: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting "do")
/vmfs/volumes/4975d95d-45fc3458-7ff4-001b212e4341 #

also, you didn't remove the first line with #!/bin/bash did you? or you're not using some wierd shell are you?

Jan 22, 2009 12:20 PM lamw   says: in response to: apignoloni

Are you running this on ESX or ESXi? I also noticed you're executing this script on one of your datastores, it should not matter but can you try to move the script to another location, perhaps /root. I just downloaded both scripts and they executed fine using the default and just modifying the backup path, the issue seems to be in your environment but I'm not sure what might be causing this issue.

Could you also run the following on the shell:

echo $SHELL

vmware -v 

The command echo $SHELL returns:/bin/ash
The command vmware -v returns:VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-123629
Moving the file in the root me back the message: Operation not permitted

Hello,
I don't know really the difference between vcbmount and snapshots.
I know that vcbmount work on vmdk files to compact them.
The NFS server is a FreeNAS on a 2x3Ghz xeon with one disk of 300Gb 15K U320.
I'm using ESX 3.5.

I don't think it's related to nfs configuration or server performance because for the same vm and for the same nfs server the vcbmount take 13 min and your script take 180 min
And yes it's the same problem for all machines

I'm still investigating on this
Regards
Tom

Jan 22, 2009 1:00 PM lamw   says: in response to: RENATOG123

Please take a look at the documentation for your questions, it should answer majority of them.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 22, 2009 1:11 PM lamw   says: in response to: apignoloni

The "exit' you inserted, allowed me to see where the issue is occuring. It's telling to the script to basically exit once it hits that line. This means the error is caused during the variable declaration section before it even starts to execute.

This brings me to believe the file may have some additional characters that may not be part of the original script/etc, perhaps characters from a Windows system. Did you download this from your Ubuntu box and scp the script to your ESXi host?

Can you run the following:

wc -l ghettoVCB-enhance.sh

wc -c ghettoVCB-enhance.sh

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 22, 2009 1:17 PM lamw   says: in response to: RENATOG123

If you're posting in this section of the forum, you're already looking at the documentation. Please go over the instructions carefully, I do ask that new users read through the documentation before posting a question as you can answer most of your questions this way. You'll see that both your use cases can be solved by using this script and may require slight modifications, again this script is intended to help backup VM(s) that may reside on ESX/ESXi 3.5+. This script will not cover all processes/requirements for a backup or recovery scenario, I leave it to the discretion of the end user to understand what this script is doing and making modifications that fit your operating environment and needs.

You're welcome to post follow-up questions if you're still unsure of how the script operates or question about the functionality of the script. Hope this helps

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

William,

I was wondering if you could recommend teh best way for recovering a vm from a backup like this. Like say your esxi server blew up one day and you put a brand new one in it's place and hooked it up to the nas you had bacccked up your vms to.

most of hte instructions out there involve manually creating a vm in vic like the one you used to have, deleting it's hard drive, cloning the backup disk into your vm dir with vmkfstools -i and then adding it to your virtual machine.

since all the vm information is stored in a .vmx it seems like it should be easier to restore a vm, is it just that there aren't vm creation tools at the command line that can be used?

gotcha, thanks again for your work!

Jan 23, 2009 7:31 AM lamw   says: in response to: apignoloni

When setting up a cron entry, make sure the paths to all the commands use are the fullpath.

Please take a look at this thread to ensure they are: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1151164#1151164

I believe the vmkfstools is not being passed in my script as the full path, so you'll probably have to fix at least that command.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 26, 2009 10:38 AM lamw   says:

Yes, please download the latest script ghettoVCB-enhance.sh which will backup all valid VMDK(s) presented to the VM. This was added awhile back but I guess I must have forgotten to update the doc. I'll make sure I do that tonight and also remove the old instance of the script.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Sorry one more stupid question - does it also work on ESX3.02? I see the note "You*'re not running ESX 3.5+ ....
Or are there known issues using the script with 3.02.
Thank you!

lamw,
I was finally able to get the NFS setup working with WSFU (in case anyone's pulling their hairs out, make that when you configure User Name Mapping, you map the LOCAL ADMIN account (not a domain admin) to "root")

I tested with a live running VIMA and it did a full backup of the VM.

I want to modify the script to do regular snapshots, not clone snapshots. Where/What do I have to change on the ghettoVCB-enhanced.sh script?
Thanks

What would be the procedure to restore the ghettoVCB backups?

How were you able to create a directory? When I try "mkdir whatever" I get: Operation not permitted.
I am logged in as "root". Am I missing something?

Thanks

Jan 29, 2009 8:27 AM lamw   says: in response to: ollivetti

Please take a look at the vimsh documentation to understand how it works.

http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/#vmware_vimsh

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 30, 2009 9:14 AM lamw   says: in response to: ibhp

Are you running ESXi? If so, you might need to change the line "grep fileName" to' grep -i fileName".

Multi-VMDK(s) are supported, so long they're valid and presented to the guestOS.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

you have to modify the script to have grep -i as well, it only uses grep without the -i which only returns matches to the exact case fileName. esxi servers sometimes have it as filename (lower case n)

Jan 30, 2009 1:10 PM lamw   says: in response to: ibhp

if you get a value of 1 for that particular line, it means that within the .vmx file for the ${SCSI_ID}.present = "true". This means that the VMDK was either removed from the VM but not deleted from the filesystem or it was removed and deleted from the filesystem. In either case, the reference is left in the .vmx file and the flag is just changed from true to false.

To verify this, you can look at your .vmx file, and if the code is returning a 1, it means that disk is not present to the VM which means it should not be showing up in the VI Client when you go into it's properties unless the .vmx file has been manually modified without the ESX/ESXi knowing about it.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Jan 30, 2009 4:49 PM lamw   says: in response to: ibhp

Look at what the script is doing .... it's grepping for "true" ... looks like your .vmx has "TRUE", see the problem.

I'm curious on why some of the user's .vmx files are slightly different from the one's I've worked with. I'm not sure if this is due to any specific version or user's are manually modifying their files. I've always seen the right hand side use lower case values, but I have seen it few times in older releases where it's all caps. I'll try to find some time this weekend to fix those two issues, it should be using grep -i.

That should fix your issue

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

I did it by adding the following lines to /etc/rc.local

/bin/echo "0 19 5 * * /vmfs/volumes/vmback/ghettoVCB.sh" >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
/bin/busybox crond -b

then run auto-backup.sh it will backup the changes to the rc.local file

basically this makes it so on boot the ghettovcb entry is added to the crontab and crond is restarted.

the auto-backup.sh script which runs like every hour or so i think backs up a number of files in /etc to be persistant upon reboot. this is why things like modifying inetd.conf to enable ssh still work after reboot. /etc/rc.local is another one that changes will be saved. that is why i put the code in there to add the crontab entry on boot.

Hello

Yes, I can confirm the Backups are persistent when you write the stuff in rc.local. All runs without problems.

Thank you for all the good tipps!

Feb 10, 2009 1:59 PM lamw   says: in response to: cybersayo

Usually when you get those warnings, it means it was not able to find the source VMDK for whatever reason. I know some user's have had issues in the past where their VMDK(s) were stored in other directories or if they had multiple VMDK(s), earlier versions of the script did not handle that use case.

The latest script should be validating that certain VMDK(s) exists prior to trying to take a backup, though if you've manually edited the .VMX file, there could be some inconsistencies in the .vmx itself. You can always try the script with a -x flag which gives detail verbosity of what's happening while the script execute and see if you can anything that's off. If it works for SAN to Local, then it should also work for NFS unless you some miss-configurations on your NFS Server (you can always manually take a snapshot and manually run vmkfstools copy manually to make sure it's working with your NFS Server)

(e.g.)

sh -x ghettoVCB.sh my_back_vm_list.txt

Feb 11, 2009 8:46 AM lamw   says: in response to: cybersayo

Well nothing is stopping the script do run daily backups, that is up to the end user's and the setup of their cron schedule. If you're looking for more elaborate backup processes such as transfer from SAN to local, then to NFS, etc, etc. You'll need to script that process, this script is intended to help provide a backup solution for your VM(s), it's left open for any modifications/specific requirements one may have for their environment.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

First off, this is really some great work. Thank you for posting this.

But, unfortunately I am having some issues. I downloaded the file yesterday 2-12-2009, onto my ubuntu machine. I opened it with gedit and it had the ^M throughout the file. I dont know if Ubuntu did that or the file up there has them but either way I fixed it with dostounix. So I set it up and ran it on a VM with 1 vmdk file and it worked like a charm. HDD to HDD on a 10 GB VM takes consistently less than 5 mins, which is great.

My next step was I added a vmdk with the VIC, I used the VM and added a partition and put files on the new hard drive, works fine. When I run the backup it still only backups the main HDD, or the first vmdk. I checked the vmx file and they are both set to "true". I checked your script and it is grep -i. So I am totally at a loss at what could be preventing the script from backing up the second vmdk.

Now my next question would be I have 4 HDD in the server. Disk 1 has a vmdk, Disk 2 has a vmdk, both for the same VM. Can I backup Disk 1 vmdk to Disk 3, and Disk 2 vmdk to Disk 4. All 4 drives are 1 TB drives. So both vmdk files are more than 1 TB which is the size of the other disk so I need each vmdk to go to a seperate location on the same server. I hope this makes sense if not let me know.

Also my last question is how does this backup run while the machine is on, can I still get a restorable copy of my files if I do the backup when the machine is powered on? Is it best to power down then do the backup?

********EDIT********02-13-2009 09:12
The 2nd vmdk that doesnt get backed up is stored on another drive, I added a 3rd disk to the same directory as the vmx and it backs up both, so for some reason it cannot find the 2nd vmdk on another drive.
Im also getting this when it tries to clone the disk:
DiskLib_Check() failed for source disk The system cannot find the file specified (25).

********EDIT********02-13-2009 09:45
I have attached the portion of my file that I believe to show the issue. As you can see the _2.vmdk and regular vmdk that are in the same directory as the vmx file backup fine. These files are in /vmfs/volumes/Main

Now the _1.vmdk is on /vmfs/volumes/Third, which it calls out by the long string of numbers which also match the string of numbers in the vmx file.

What looks wrong to me is it is starting out in the /Main directory then tries to go find it but cant. I could use some guidance on this one.

+ echo ################## Starting backup for MyVM ... #####################
+ OLD_IFS=

+ IFS=:
+ VMDK=MyVM_2.vmdk
+ 0 -eq 1
+ vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Main/MyVM/MyVM_2.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/Secondary/MyVMbkup/MyVM/MyVM-2009-02-13/MyVM_2.vmdk
+ VMDK=/vmfs/volumes/4896efad-39367fad-4058-00151762f7d0/MyVM/MyVM_1.vmdk
+ 0 -eq 1
+ vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Main/MyVM//vmfs/volumes/4896efad-39367fad-4058-00151762f7d0/MyVM/MyVM_1.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/Secondary/MyVMbkup/MyVM/MyVM-2009-02-13//vmfs/volumes/4896efad-39367fad-4058-00151762f7d0/MyVM/MyVM_1.vmdk
DiskLib_Check() failed for source disk The system cannot find the file specified (25).
+ VMDK=MyVM.vmdk
+ 0 -eq 1
+ vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/Main/MyVM/MyVM.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/Secondary/MyVMbkup/MyVM/MyVM-2009-02-13/MyVM.vmdk
+ IFS=

I hope you can help me out, I do appreciate you taking a look.

Thanks again for the great work.

-Ryan

The location is correct that it comes up with. It matches the same string thats in the vmx file so it almost knows its there it just cannot copy it.

Also is there a way to backup one vmdk to one location and a second vmdk to another, even though they are in the same VM?

I thought it was using the snapshot feature, but I wasnt sure. I appreciate the update, and have a good weekend!

Has anybody come up with a reliable method of monitoring this script for success/failure? Here's an idea off the top of my head for Windows users who use Kaseya/LPI for monitoring. I wouldn't have the expertise to write something like this but maybe somebody else would see value in this.

• Have ghettoVCB produce a log file. Does it already do this?
• Modify the .bat file in your scheduled task to download the log file to the Windows machine via Plink.

• Launch a .vbs that would parse the log and write custom events to the event viewer. Monitor events with your monitoring tool of choice.
• Parse the log file directly if your monitoring tools are capable of this (Kaseya is).

Feb 16, 2009 9:49 AM lamw   says: in response to: jaxislnad

You'll have to add that logic into the script if you're looking to split your destination copy.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

I have a problem.....
It all works find but VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT=1 does not do any thing.
I have now
.15_SpiceWorks-2009-02-17
.15_SpiceWorks-2009-02-16
as backups and if I run it now I get
.15_SpiceWorks-2009-02-18

any ideas?

Config part
VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/489326a8-7adbcdf8-a9f4-00188bf6e6f5

POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0

Code part
LIST_BACKUPS=$(ls -Atr ${BACKUP_DIR_PATH})
This is due to that my VM names are .15_Name_XXXX

OK, I recopied the original code.
this is my output.

~ # /ghettoVCB.sh /backup_vms

1. Taking backup snapshot for .15_SpiceWorks ... ################

Feb 18, 2009 10:24 AM lamw   says: in response to: cyberfire

I'm not sure what you mean by actual cloning of the folder? If you're asking about the rotation count, you'll need to set that = 1, it does not make sense to set it to 0.

You should give the script a read through, the logic should not be too difficult to follow and you're welcome to ask further questions. If you can manually run through this process, then the script will make more sense.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Just changed the name of the VM. No .15_ as prefix.
Running the code.....
Lets see.

is Date: 11/01/2008 the last version of the file? I see updates later than that

mmmm
now its creating
SpiceWorks-2009-02-18--1
I will rename to 02-17--1 and run again.

Feb 18, 2009 12:13 PM lamw   says: in response to: cyberfire

Glad to hear. Try setting up an NFS Server, it's pretty simple and this will allow you to get the VM(s) off the host to other backup or tape storage.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Realy nice Work, but I found an Izzue
When you have multiple vmdks on different datastores in one vmx thd filename contains the fullpath to the vmdk
So the Script could not save this vmdk because it is not in the VMX_DIR Path.

I hope you understand this.

Nope, sorry you lost me.

I do have a couple of different VMs on different datastores, but I got this error when I tried to back up just one of them.

Are you saying that all my VMs need to be on the same datastore for the script to work?

Or am I just not understanding this...

Oh wait, I think I (might) get it!

So, yes the VM I am backing up also has a couple of disks which do reside on different data store.

Fortunately I do not actually need to back those up (they are storage for openfiler which I am spanning across a software RAID).

I really just need to backup the main disk associated with the VM.

So I am guessing I can just ignore this error.

If you do happen to extend the script to support this, you might consider allowing the user to specify which disks to back up and which to ignore...

Feb 19, 2009 8:24 AM lamw   says: in response to: santalaus

All, this has been acknowledged by a few as an issue, the current workaround is to only backup VM(s) that reside on the same datastore.

I've been occupied with other projects recently and when I get some time I'll take a look and provide a fix. If anyone has implemented a a working solution, feel free to post or send me a PM.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Feb 19, 2009 1:01 PM lamw   says: in response to: docsys

Sorry about that, I must have forgotten to update the engineering account. They should be the same, I've uploaded the current version and can you try the download on the VMTN doc again?

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Alright it seems the file from the vmware site still has the ^M somehow, tried the sed command and it was OK.
The file from the ucsb site is updated and Good still.
Thanks.

Feb 20, 2009 12:45 PM lamw   says:

I'm looking at the issue and basically it boils down to the SOURCE and DESTINATION path, the VMDKS array will contain either the local VMDK disk names with respect to the VM's folder which you'll need to append the VMX_PATH variable or if the disk is stored in another datastore, it'll contain the full path to the VMDK. A quick fix would to check the variable that goes through each for loop iteration to see if it starts with /vmfs/volumes, if so then you know it's a disk that's located in another datastore and setup the variable accordlying. Running through some print statements, I noticed an issue with the DESTINATION which also needs similar logic.

Though right now the issue from my basic test is the following: I have one Windows VM with 1 disk call it Quentin.vmdk which is the unique descriptor describing one of Quentin's disk that is stored in Datastore A. I know add a second disk and store i in Datastore B, I commit the changes and then look at the disk name from both the VIC and on the filesystem and what do I notice?

The name of the .vmdk is the same as disk 1, this will be an issue when backing up the disks to your destination as these filenames are no unique and will most likely over write one another. I then added a third disk two the VM and stored it in Datastore B and the .vmdk now has a unique name appended with _1.

The observation, at least on ESX w/SC (haven't tested on ESXi) if you have a VM with 1 disk and you add another and you're going to store it on another datastore the name will not be unique as it'll default to the VM's display name. This will cause a problem when backing up ... I'm trying to think of what changes would need to occur but it seems that it'll most likely requiring the modification of the .vmdk name's to the destination which may or may not be something end users want.

I'm still pondering over the issue right now over lunch ... if anyone has any suggestions I'm open, but this may be a feature that may not be supported due to the way the disk's are not uniquely labeled across datastores.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Or more technically, retain the path relative to /vmfs/volumes

Feb 20, 2009 2:58 PM lamw   says: in response to: ScottChapman

Even if you retain the path ... what's to say a user can't bring up the original datastores, they're recovering to another ESX/ESXi host with another datastore or local. This really goes hand in hand with recovery which is going to be unique for each environment. This script will not be able to handle all those use cases, hence it's up to the end users to customize as needed for their enviornment. We're trying to generalize the process so that such customization is available if necessary.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Feb 22, 2009 8:43 PM lamw   says:

Script has been updated, please let me for those that have multiple VMDK(s) across multiple datastores if this works. Thanks

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

First of all.. thank you William and all others who have contributed to this. The script is sweet. Much faster than other scripts that use other backup methods. I am however getting speeds that are unusually slow for file transfer on an internal LAN.
I am running ESXi embedded on my host and I have a Allegro NFS Demo running on a physical server 2008 box (attempted to configure Unix on server 2008 using native Windows tools with no luck; authentication issues). The export is located on my local server 2008 storage. It's a 1.5TB Barracuda. Both boxes have Intel Gigabit Nics and are connected VIA a Linksys Gigabit switch. I tested my transfer speeds using wireshark at 15.8MBit/sec while running this script. I tested windows transfer from my guest VM to my Windows 2008 server at ~320MB/s. I know it's not my network configuration because of the results I get with Windows. Is allegro just slow as mollases? Server 2008 and Allegro Hate eachother? I know Server 2008 hates Unix (unless it's solaris 10), but thats another story.. What numbers should we expect/shoot for? What are other seeing backing up to NFS storage?

Feeling down? Need a good laugh? 100GB of data split between two VM's..

Start time: Wed Feb 25 00:16:28 UTC 2009
End time: Wed Feb 25 11:56:51 UTC 2009
Duration : 700.38 Minutes

Completed backing up specified Virtual Machines!

mmm
I just did a backup of a server that has its OS on one DS and the data on a second DS.
The only vmdk that was backedup was the data disk. the the actual OS vmdk was not.

no comment?

hello all
I am backing up about 4 different vm-images each night with the script. But somethimes the snapshots are not removed after backing up and so the next time the backup of this vm will fail.

• would it be possible to backup a vm also if a snapshot exists? What's the reason you check for existing snapshots?
• How is it possible to send a mail after each backup with the content of the ghettovcb-script?

Thank you for your response. But somethimes the snapshots created by ghettovcb are not removed correctly and so the next backups are not performed anymore.

Is there a way to remove every snapshot automatically (in the script) before the new backups are performed? That would ensure that the backups run even if there are "old" snapshots.

I have a directory with my virtual disc and a snapshot created from ghettoVCB (not removed after the backup). When I try to:
${VMWARE_CMD} vmsvc/snapshot.remove ${VM_ID}

then I get a segmentation fault. So that seems to be the problem the snapshots are not correctly removed after the script terminates.

Any idea what could be the reason?

Sorry, but where i can't find ghettoVCB-enhance.sh script?

Mar 2, 2009 8:35 AM lamw   says: in response to: hremul

The current download is the most up to date version of the script, please look over the documentation if you have further questions.

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Mar 3, 2009 12:35 PM lamw   says: in response to: shechtl

I think you might have had some bad backups that were not rotated out properly which is causing some issues. Can you please move any previous backups whether they're good/bad out of that directory or purge them completely. Try a fresh backup

=========================================================================
--William
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/

Just like you I wanted to log to a file.

This is what I came up with

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9653

I did this at my own risk...I'm not a shell programmer so this should be tested before used in a production environment.

Hope this helps

First of all, i wish to thank for great script.

I have one suggestion. It is possible to add functionality to backup power off machines which have snapshots?
In some kind applications (like development) night downtime does not matter. But snapshots does. Thank you.

Hi lamw,

Thanks for a great script! I have one question though. Is it possible to change the script in such way that it can copy the backups to a datastore on a remote esxi host using something like scp?

Thanks for your reply. Fastscp is a nice tool, but it is only a file copy-tool. It does not handle running vm's because it does not take snapshots.

There is also veeam-backup 3.0 now with support for esxi. The draw back of this tool is that it does not backup to a target esxi host, only local storage or san or iscsi storage. Veeam-backup makes use of the console of esx to make incremental backups of vm's and esxi of course does not have an esx-like console, so that is why it cannot use esxi as a target for its backups.

And then there is also an other tool, vm-explorer, which does do backups to other esxi hosts, but this tool does not run as a service. It is intended to be run as a user only.... For me that is not an option for a backup tool. I could run the tool with a service wrapper, to run it as a service, but i cannot test this scenario with the trial license because there is this annoying popup window, you have to click away every time you start the tool.

So it looks like i have to customize your script. Wish me luck

Jeroen

Hi there and thank you for a wonderful script and contribution to the community!

I have two ESXi host machines that are colocated at a data center. There is a 3rd Linux backup computer with NFS on it, and I want to be able to backup the VMs running on these hosts on a regular basis. I have a 'public' WAN network (the VLAN provided by the data center that is public to the world) and a private LAN that is not private. All machines have dual NICs - one for the public WAN and one for the private LAN.

I would like to have it so that my NFS server runs the backups of all VMs using the LAN for this. I'm also sensitive to security concerns, particularly brute force attacks on SSH which are showing up routinely. As a result, all public servers on the WAN have their SSH ports changed from default ports to non-default ports, and Fail2Ban scripts installed to detect brute force login attacks on these boxes. This has been very successful so far.

I cannot install a firewall in this environment because the cost of doing so is prohibitive since I have about 20 WAN IP addresses on the VLAN. I may do this in the future when I work out how to set this up with pfSense but for now, its prohibitive as an option. Consequently every server that is WAN facing has their own local IPTables firewalls in place.

I understand from reading the posts and documentation on the ghettoVCB scripts that it appears to run from within a ESXi host which is made available through a SSH port enable on the box. As much as I would like to be able to do this, its not possible due to security concerns. I can't have default port 22 open like this. So is there a way that I can install it on my NFS server for the LAN only, and not have any of the ESXi boxes set with SSH at all?

Or if not, is there anyway to apply some 'best practice' security approach to enabling SSH on the ESXi hosts that allow for the use of non-default ports, and some form of script that could be run to thwart brute force attacks on the boxes?

Thanks again for your wonderful work, and I look forward to any comments or suggestions.

Myles

Hi,
I am using ESXi 3.5 Update4 with the ghettoVCB.sh script downloaded from this website.
I trying to backup 3 machines: Ubuntu 8.10, Windows 2003 STD, Windows 2008 STD, on all 3 machines are the latest VMWare tools installed to a NFS share which is mounted.

I have tried to backup all 3 machines with putty connected to the ESXi server.
su root ./ghettoVCB.sh virtual_machine_backup_list

The problem now is that I would like to backup the machines while they are running (Online)
POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0
ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF=0
2 of the 3 machines are shut down immediately (not gracefully, its like power off) when I start the backup script.

Can anyone tell me where the problem can be?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Thanks for your quick answer, the 2 machines where the problem with the hard shutdown occurs have the current VMWare Tools installed, the two machines are also Powered On and running before starting the backu script.

Hi,
I'm confused about the versions of this script. The version I downloaded today from the link in the "attachments" section of this page (or from "http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/") is 11/01/2008:
#!/bin/bash

1. Author: william2003atgmaildotcom
2. Date: 11/01/2008

May 1, 2009 7:20 AM lamw   says: in response to: tbsky

Hi sky_li,

If you're running hight transactional databases, it's generally not recommended to use snapshots for backups due to transactions occurring within a DB. There is something called VSS which is available within VMware Tools that makes the guest aware that a snapshot is going to occur and it forces all data to be flushed from memory to disk, I've not used this personally and I believe it may only be available when VMware VCB is called, Duncan has an article at http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/07/26/vss-snapshots/

I would probably stay away from taking VMware snapshots and rely on database snapshots.

In terms of vimsh wrapper for creating snapshots, you won't find much information on any of the commands as these are not officially supported by VMware even though it provides a slew of advanced functionality.

You can always run the following for some basic info:

[root@himalaya scripts]# vmware-vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create
Insufficient arguments.
Usage: snapshot.create vmid [snapshotName] [snapshotDescription] [includeMemory]

Creates a snapshot for the vm.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

May 1, 2009 7:50 AM lamw   says: in response to: gbras

Hi Guido,

As tbsky stated, the latest script is currently available for download on this page. The date within the script may be a little miss-leading, it's actually the date that I started develoment of the script. The chanelog on the other hand is accurate in terms of the changes that have taken place since the release of the script and again the latest download will always be available on the VMTN document download page.

I'll ensure that both the script on the VMTN and on our website is the same, sorry for any confusion

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

hi lamw:

i am just curios. "quiesced windows snapshot" seems become complete at 3.5 update 2 with sync+vss driver. but the link you give me tell us stay away from exchange,ad,sql. then i don't know what this "quiesce" function for.

also there seems some version of snapshot command line have "quiesce" option, like the link mentioned:
http://www.esxguide.com/esx/index.php?option=com_mambowiki&page=createsnapshot&page_heading=&show_pageheading=&allowanonymoususers=

but it seems the new command line version didn't have the "quiesce" parameter, only "memory" option is left. i wonder if the snapshot is quiesced automatically now, or the option is because "quiesced" may bring problems.

someone said that if you do a "quiesced snapshot", ms-sql log will tell you.i haven't any real ms-sql server running in the vm now. maybe i can check that in the future.

May 2, 2009 4:34 PM lamw   says: in response to: tbsky

Yea I'm not too familiar with the expected behavior of VSS other than asking the VM to flush its data from memory to disk. I just know from reading on the VMTN forums from other experts it's not recommended to using VMware snapshots on VM(s) like databases and if you do, you'll need to look into VSS which is only available per VMware VCB (I think). You may need to run a few tests to see the behavior and I would actually recommend posting a question regarding this on the main VMTN forum and I'm sure an expert familiar with the process can provide further insight.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



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May 11, 2009 8:51 AM lamw   says: in response to: pietcur

Specific VMDK disk(s) backups are not supported, only full backups. You're more than welcome to modify the script to fit your needs.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Thanks for the script.

Shouldn't the script bypass the creation of a snapshot if the guest is in a powered down state? Seems like extra work to take a snapshot and then merge the snapshot back into the base when the machine is already static.

Also, I got the following error while backing up a guest that was powered off:

/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/scripts # ./ghettoVCB.sh single_vm

################ Taking backup snapshot for Windows XP 32bit Base ... ################
DiskLib_Check() failed for source disk Insufficient permission to access file (38).
Destination disk format: VMFS thick
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/Development/Windows XP 32bit Base/winxp-32bit-base.vmdk'...
Clone: 16% done.

The clone appears to have worked, however out of all the guests that I backed up, that was the only one that echoed the DiskLib_Check() message.

May 13, 2009 3:36 PM lamw   says: in response to: mhanby

You know I think this was something I had missed when dealing with the option of allowing a user to configure the shutdown of a guest, I think I might have forgotten to take into consideration the current state of the VM. You're right, this may be a bug. Majority of the user's I've spoke to that have used the script are running live backups and would not run into the issue, but it's a good point and I'll ensure the next update of the script is fixed.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

hi:
please consider add "monolithic sparse" also. with that you get a small,single vmdk file.
backup tools like rdiff-backup can compare two versions for a file and only backup the difference.
with "monolithic sparse" single vmdk file, backup tools can easily backup many versions of vms with little harddisk space.

May 21, 2009 7:25 AM lamw   says:

Hi everyone,

We're proud to announce the release of ghettoVCBg2 the next gen of ghettoVCB. You can find more information located at: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9843

Hope you guys like it!

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

May 26, 2009 10:44 AM lamw   says: in response to: freez267

ghettoVCB has not been tested/certified for ESX(i) 4.0, we've been pretty busy and just have not had the time to test. This holds true for variety of other scripts and some will fail due to changes in vSphere release. In general, I think the script should work and it does not utilize anything that is not already available in ESXi 4.0, make sure the permissions on your script is set to executable. I'll try to do a quick run tonight and post back.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



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May 26, 2009 11:15 AM lamw   says: in response to: freez267

Okay, just got ESXi 4.0 installed as a VM on our ESX 4 (physical) and I see the problem, looks like there was some change to their shell environment and if you didn't know the busybox console runs on ash ... kinda like bash. It looks like it has a problem when you try to do the following:

./ghettoVCB.sh

-ash: ./ghettoVCB.sh: not found

#!/bin/ash

ash ./ghettoVCB.sh

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

May 27, 2009 12:06 AM lamw   says: in response to: freez267

I ran a quick test earlier and realized some of the code may need to be updated. I have not had a chance to dig further on what needs to be modified.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Thanks for the great script. I finally have an option for backing up my ESXi (free) 4 VMs. I downloaded ghettoVCB4i.sh and attempted to use it but encountered a problem where all of my VMs with the letter 'n' in the name where causing an error. This is similar to the issue described by freez267 above. I don't fully understand why but commenting out the line

IFS=$'\n'

appeared to resolve the issue for me. I am not sure what this line does.

Thanks
Tony Russell

I am running this on ESXi 4. I have tried to follow the directions very closely but I keep getting a Permission Denied error every time I try to actually run the script. Any suggestions?

I continue to have this error

Error: failed to extract VM_ID

On the VMs that have 'n' in the name. For example is impossible to backup the VM '2008Terminal' and 'AssistenzaXp' but no problem with 'W7RC'

That is exactly what happened in my case. If I commented out that line, it worked fine.

Hi,
Thanks for a fantastic script. Works well, but I have a problem with the rotation. Anyone with a clue why it won't work? See output from a sh -x command (last bit):

Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/HB-ESXi2-scsi1/HB-Label/HB-Label.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done.
+ IFS=

+ ! 0 -eq 1
+ /bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.remove 256
+ echo Removing snapshot from HB-Label ...
+ ls /vmfs/volumes/HB-ESXi2-scsi1/HB-Label
+ grep -q delta
+ sleep 3
+ ls /vmfs/volumes/HB-ESXi2-scsi1/HB-Label
+ grep -q delta
+ sleep 3
+ ls /vmfs/volumes/HB-ESXi2-scsi1/HB-Label
+ grep -q delta
+ checkVMBackupRotation /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-06-07
+ local BACKUP_DIR_PATH=/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label
+ local BACKUP_VM_NAMING_CONVENTION=/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-06-07
+ ls -tr /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label
+ LIST_BACKUPS=HB-Label-2009-05-31
HB-Label-2009-06-05
HB-Label-2009-06-07
+ -z 4
+ TMP_DIR=/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31
+ echo /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31
+ TMP=/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31
+ /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31 = /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-06-07
+ /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31 -ge 4
sh: /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31: bad number
+ echo /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31
+ BASE=/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31
/vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Script/HB-Label/ghettoVCB.sh: /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Script/HB-Label/ghettoVCB.sh: 340: Syntax error: /vmfs/volumes/Thecus/Backup/HB-Label/HB-Label-2009-05-31+1
/vmfs/volumes/46df116f-b561be9a/Log #

I have a few different VM's with different rotation counts (I keep several copies of the script). At least one does not delete when more than the rotation count, I suspect the problem above. Any clue anyone? Why syntax error etc?

I've running an ESXi 4.0 Server.
The backup does function well. But there is one problem wich is descibed by other persons above. It is the empty log file. Is there a solution for it or not? At the moment I see through all folders if the backup success. But that can't be the final solution.
Further the current version of ghettoVCB4i.sh runs great if there are no whitespaces in the vm name. Otherwise the rename after backup fails and because of that the backup rotation fails too. So I've removed all whitespaces in VM names like lamw describes as best practice

Thanks lamw for his great work... really really usefull script!!

Does this backup method copy the vmdk to the same vmfs volume and to get it offsite you would have to download the backup vmdk file from the datastore?

Quick question... I am running ghettoVCB.sh on ESXi 3.5 and its working great on most of my VMs. However I have a VM that seems to have a snapshot associated with it. I checked in the datastore, and there was a 'delta' file there. I powered down the VM and then deleted the delta file. Powered it back on, and then attempted to run ghettoVCB.sh. It again wouldn't do the backup because it said that there was a snapshot there. I checked it again, and the delta file had returned...

I know this isn't a specific question of ghettoVCB, but how do I get rid of these snapshots so I can do a clean backup of a live VM?

Unfortunately I only have my one ESXi box at home with 1 HDD in it and my desktop so I have no NFS volume to mount

So for me, does that mean that this script just backs up the running vmdk and I would need to manually download it?

If that is the case the primary function of the script would be to reduce downtime as otherwise I would need to power down the VM and copy the vmdk correct?

Hi !

Very great Job !

I try to use it under ESXi 4.0 (last release) but I encountered a problem. I logged it :

+ SOURCE_VMDK='/vmfs/volumes/Datastore 1/Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon//usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/linux.iso'
+ DESTIONATION_VMDK='/vmfs/volumes/NFS_GED//Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon/Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon-2009-07-08//usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/linux.iso'
+ ''
+ vmkfstools -i '/vmfs/volumes/Datastore 1/Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon//usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/linux.iso' '/vmfs/volumes/NFS_GED//Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon/Fedora 9_Nagios_Centreon-2009-07-08//usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/linux.iso'
DiskLib_Check() failed for source disk The system cannot find the file specified (25).

Someone could help me ?

Hello lamw,

I used your script since a long time without problems (great work any many thanks), but yesterday we changed to esxi4.0 and I changed to your latest ghettovcb4.x version.
Like others I get this error:
+ vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/5fbd225c-3cf7a7b1/xpsp2.iso /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2backupdsa1/backups/endiancfg/endiancfg-2009-07-13/5fbd225c-3cf7a7b1/xpsp2.iso/xpsp2.iso
DiskLib_Check() failed for source disk The file specified is not a virtual disk (15).

your script tries to backup the iso file of the cdrom. Why ? I there a way to disable it or is it only a bug ?
Also if the cdrom is a phys. cdrom of the host I get this disklib errors.
So my workaround now is to remove the complete cdrom from the vm hardware. Not nice but working.
The harddiskbackup is still working

Hope you will find a solution, because I check my backup logs automatically for the word failed and error and that
CDrom problem will prevent my autolog check from correct running.

Same problems with cdroms and same solution of "shechtl".
I have to delete the cdrom on some VM to complete the backup

Hi.
I just upgraded the scripts for 4.0 and get this error on one of 2 VM one the box.

RDM was found for 14_MSCLink_TestOS_Win2k8, backup will not take place

Jul 19, 2009 10:27 AM lamw   says:

Hi everyone, I've just pushed out an update to both ghettoVCB.sh and ghettoVCB4i which should fix the issue with the script trying to backup .iso when you have a mounted CD-ROM, this should not be an issue anymore and supports backing up w/o having to remove the CD-ROM device.

I've also added 2 additional VMDK output format and added a new variable to support the various types:

# Format output of VMDK backup
# 1 = zeroedthick
# 2 = 2gbsparse
# 3 = thin
# 4 = eagerzeroedthick
VMDK_OUTPUT_FORMAT=1

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



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Jul 19, 2009 10:56 AM lamw   says: in response to: mylesw

Not a supported feature of the script, you're more than welcome to modify to fit your needs or create separate backup jobs. Remember, the script itself is providing a generic backup solution, if you need something more specific you'll need to make those changes.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Jul 19, 2009 11:29 AM lamw   says: in response to: mylesw

Yes, you'll need to add some type of logic to on figuring out which VMDKs to backup and not backup and have a way to specify that in either a local configuration file stored within each VM or a config file read into the script. There's nothing in the script today that supports the request you're talking about, good luck.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

To check if the process is running, from ssh:
ps|grep ghettoVCB.sh

To kill the process:
kill -9 id_from_above

If you kill it, remember to manually remove snapshots using VirtualCenter or whatever you use, don't delete snapshot files by hand.

I've tested the new version of the script. I try to create thin format for the backup. But although it creates flat format vmdk's. Where could be problem?

thanks in advance for a reply.

Adrian

Hi Lamw,

I changed now to your new version with the cdrom fix. It works with most of our machines, but there is one vm where I got problems.
Its the only VM with Win98 and a ide hdd (I know Win98 but its a must)
If I start the script, the scripts makes a snapshot and removes the snapshot after that immediately, but no disks will be copied.
I think the problem is ide. With the old version backup is running but only without the cdrom.

Here is the relevant part of the log:

+ IFS=
+ echo ide0:0
+ SCSI_ID=ide0:0
+ grep -i ide0:0.present /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2dsa1/samwin/samwin.vmx
+ grep -i true
+ 0 -eq 0
+ grep -i ide0:0.deviceType /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2dsa1/samwin/samwin.vmx
+ grep -i scsi-hardDisk
+ 1 -eq 0
+ IFS=

+ vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate 224
+ tail -1
+ ORGINAL_VM_POWER_STATE=Powered on
+ 0 -eq 1
+ [ ! 0 -eq 1 ]
+ [ Powered on != Powered off ]
+ echo ################ Taking backup snapshot for samwin ... ################
+ date +%F
+ vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 224 vcb_snap VCB_BACKUP_samwin_2009-07-21
+ OLD_IFS=

+ IFS=:
+ IFS=

+ [ ! 0 -eq 1 ]
+ [ Powered on == Powered on ]
+ vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.remove 224
+ echo Removing snapshot from samwin ...
Removing snapshot from samwin ...
+ ls /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2dsa1/samwin
+ grep -q delta
ls: /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2dsa1/samwin/samwin-000001.vmdk.lck: No such file or directory
+ sleep 3
+ ls /vmfs/volumes/iscsi2dsa1/samwin
+ grep -q delta
+ [ 0 -eq 1 ]
+ TMP_IFS=

Hope you could help

/vmfs/volumes/4965afe0-76fbdae2-48e3-00221952c5db # ls
ANTHEAFILESThin PieraVMThin TimbratureVMThin
ANTHEAR10TEST R10INTERNO ghettoVCB4i.sh
AntheaDom R9SVP weekly
IvanoVMThin RosalbaVMVistaThin weekly2
/vmfs/volumes/4965afe0-76fbdae2-48e3-00221952c5db # sh ghettoVCB4i.sh weekly2

1. Taking backup snapshot for IvanoVMThin ... ################

First of all, thanks to all who have had a part putting this script together. I'm very new to VMWare and Linux, and this has all been such a huge help. However, I'm having the same issue as adiXSG. I have a Linux VM that I have given a thin disk, and I have uploaded the most recent version of the ghettoVCB4i.sh script, choosing option 3 for thin disk format. However, the output is "servername-flat.vmdk" and the file size is 100 gigs, not the 5.2 or so gigs that it should be (the size of the original thin .vmdk file).

I hope I'm describing this properly, does anyone know what the problem could be? Thanks!

I'm running the latest version of the script. I tried with ./ghetto..... but the problem remain.
The file have the rights "rwxr-xr-x"

If I change DEVEL_MODE I receive this information

/vmfs/volumes/4965afe0-76fbdae2-48e3-00221952c5db # ./ghettoVCB4i.sh weekly2
(vim.fault.DuplicateName) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
name = "VMBACKUP",
object = 'vim.Datastore:192.168.111.23:/VMBACKUP',
msg = "The name 'VMBACKUP' already exists.",
}
##########################################
Virtual Machine: IvanoVMThin
VM_ID: 448
VMX_PATH: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/IvanoVMThin/IvanoVMThin.vmx
VMX_DIR: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/IvanoVMThin
VMX_CONF: IvanoVMThin/IvanoVMThin.vmx
VMFS_VOLUME: datastore1
##########################################

##########################################
Virtual Machine: PieraVMThin
VM_ID: 432
VMX_PATH: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/PieraVMThin/PieraVMThin.vmx
VMX_DIR: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/PieraVMThin
VMX_CONF: PieraVMThin/PieraVMThin.vmx
VMFS_VOLUME: datastore1
##########################################

##########################################
Virtual Machine: TimbratureVMThin
VM_ID: 400
VMX_PATH: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/TimbratureVMThin/TimbratureVMThin.vmx
VMX_DIR: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/TimbratureVMThin
VMX_CONF: TimbratureVMThin/TimbratureVMThin.vmx
VMFS_VOLUME: datastore1
##########################################

##########################################
Virtual Machine: RosalbaVMVistaThin
VM_ID: 416
VMX_PATH: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/RosalbaVMVistaThin/RosalbaVMVistaThin.vmx
VMX_DIR: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/RosalbaVMVistaThin
VMX_CONF: RosalbaVMVistaThin/RosalbaVMVistaThin.vmx
VMFS_VOLUME: datastore1
##########################################

Start time: Thu Jul 23 06:16:31 UTC 2009
End time: Thu Jul 23 06:16:34 UTC 2009
Duration : 3 Seconds

DEVEL MODE OUTPUT COMPLETE

/vmfs/volumes/4965afe0-76fbdae2-48e3-00221952c5db #

Ok, I hope I'm being clear, please let me know if you need clarification:

1) For VMDK_OUTPUT_FORMAT, I set the value to 3 for thin disk

2) I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you provide instructions on how to "cat out" the .vmdk file? I do see two vmdk files, one is the -flat file (100 gigs) the other is servername.vmdk but is only 1k.

3) When running the script, I do see that output and the line "Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned"

I also was able to clone the disk manually using the following command, which appears in the ghettoVCB4i.sh script:
#vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/san_vmfs/my_vm/large_disk.vmdk -d thin /vmfs/volumes/san_vmfs/my_vm/new_thin_disk.vmdk

That command worked in converting the vmdk to a thin disk, so I'm not sure why the script isn't.

I've spent the past 2 hours or so reading through this thread from start to finish!! Incredibly valuable help from all!

However, I have a few questions that I feel have not been asked/answered.

1. I access my ESXi host remotely with HP iLO via VPN. Am I correct in saying that I can copy the script from my remote system to the ESXi system WITHOUT enabling the unsupported mode and/or SSH if I use vCLI with command vifs?

2. Maybe I have missed something, but where do you actually store the ghettoVCB script? It seems that you can choose to store it on external or internal storage. I am interested in internal, but where is the appropriate location?

3. I understand that most users are starting the script from another system via SSH. This is well explained, but I am interested in scheduling the script from within the ESXi host. Now there are a few references to crontab (new to me) and some suggestions on how to set this up. Some say edit rc.local and others are doing something like this

*echo "0 2 * * 6 /vmfs/volumes/vmiscsi/tools/ghettoVCB4i.sh" > /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root*

However, the different approaches have me confused, so William could you please add a section at the top with the "best practice" of configuring a crontab to run the script or post a recommendation?

Thanks for an excellent free backup solution!!

3) If you want to schedule it without keeping a ssh session open or using a remote system, you have to use ESXi's crond. Busybox's crond is limited and adding that line in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root is the only way, but it will be lost upon rebot. That's why some suggest adding that echo in rc.local

Jul 25, 2009 1:17 PM lamw   says: in response to: clone0326

When looking at the actual size of thin provisioned disk, if you do 'ls -lha', it will not show you the actual disk consumption. So by running the conversion in a script or from the CLI, it should yield the same results. Are you sure you're using the same VM and doing one backup and then doing it from the CLI to ensure you're looking at the same VM? You'll be able to see the actual consumption if you do something like 'du -h' since ESXi unsupported console does not have 'du' nor 'vdf'.

Here is an example:

I have a VM that is allocated thick with 8gb:

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # ls -Falh
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          980 Jul 25 12:06 ./
drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root         1.2k Jul 25 12:03 ../
-rw-------    1 root     root         8.0G Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm-flat.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root          440 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         1.5k Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmx*
-rw-------    1 root     root          261 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmxf

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
visorfs                 278.2M    243.3M     34.9M  87% /
nfs                       1.3T    789.7G    558.7G  59% /vmfs/volumes/d32c5a97-e039bdbf
vfat                      4.0G    384.0k      4.0G   0% /vmfs/volumes/4a59c381-8059e09f-33a3-005056825b84
vfat                    249.7M     76.2M    173.5M  31% /vmfs/volumes/7db9337b-a328f52c-2a05-87d4ed7807df
vfat                    249.7M      4.0k    249.7M   0% /vmfs/volumes/eb676f73-6dd0961e-3224-09791e2c7199
vfat                    285.9M    230.2M     55.7M  81% /vmfs/volumes/c2a427e4-2d317086-fef9-b5750d88536c
vmfs3                    15.0G      9.4G      5.6G  62% /vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # vmkfstools -i ide-vm.vmdk -d thin ide-vm-THIN.vmdk
Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned
Cloning disk 'ide-vm.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done.

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # ls -Falh
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         1.2k Jul 25 12:08 ./
drwxr-xr-t    1 root     root         1.2k Jul 25 12:03 ../
-rw-------    1 root     root         8.0G Jul 25 12:08 ide-vm-THIN-flat.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root          494 Jul 25 12:08 ide-vm-THIN.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root         8.0G Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm-flat.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root          440 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmdk
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         1.5k Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmx*
-rw-------    1 root     root          261 Jul 21 19:36 ide-vm.vmxf

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
visorfs                 278.2M    243.3M     34.9M  87% /
nfs                       1.3T    789.7G    558.7G  59% /vmfs/volumes/d32c5a97-e039bdbf
vfat                      4.0G    384.0k      4.0G   0% /vmfs/volumes/4a59c381-8059e09f-33a3-005056825b84
vfat                    249.7M     76.2M    173.5M  31% /vmfs/volumes/7db9337b-a328f52c-2a05-87d4ed7807df
vfat                    249.7M      4.0k    249.7M   0% /vmfs/volumes/eb676f73-6dd0961e-3224-09791e2c7199
vfat                    285.9M    230.2M     55.7M  81% /vmfs/volumes/c2a427e4-2d317086-fef9-b5750d88536c
vmfs3                    15.0G      9.4G      5.6G  62% /vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84

/vmfs/volumes/4a59c382-f2feee8e-0280-005056825b84/ide-vm # vmkfstools -i ide-vm.vmdk ide-vm-THICK.vmdk
Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick
Cloning disk 'ide-vm.vmdk'...
Failed to clone disk : There is not enough space on the file system for the selected operation (13).

Jul 26, 2009 10:20 AM lamw   says: in response to: mylesw

The script should always remove all snapshots that 'it' creates so long as you don't intervene or manually tweak with a VM during the backup process. I'm not exactly sure what you mean your initial statement, of ESXi servers that never use snapshots. The backup process requires snapshots as you know OR you have the option of powering off the VM before backup. If you're worried for some reason that snapshots may be left behind for whatever reason, you of course could modify the script in such a way to loop through all VMs and removeallsnapshots, but you will receive no support if you do make such modifications. If you follow all requirements and you've verified before implementing ghettoVCB, you should not have any issues with VMs having snapshots in the first place and they should all be removed prior to moving to the next VM.

Hopefully this cleared up your concerns, also if this was an issue, I'm sure I would have heard from many others about it

Thanks again.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Jul 27, 2009 9:33 PM lamw   says: in response to: cookieme

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

The best free backup script ever written was the VISBU

The main important features were
1. Backup vm mentioned based on criteria powered on or off only
2. compress the backup
3. restore script included

Important features
1. Specify which vmdk's can be backed up in a vm for example we have a few vm's that have vmdk and an rdm so we specify the backup to only backup the vmdk and skip the rdm from the vm
2. CIFS/NFS/LOCAL DESTINATION

Unfortunately its no longer available, will this script have all the features and become the best free script to work on esx/esxi without any license needed from vmware ?

"Error: failed to extract VM_ID"

The solution is:

Check this fields on the VMX file:

displayName = "Vmname"
extendedConfigFile = "vmname.vmxf"

Both need be the same, example:

displayName = "vmname"
extendedConfigFile = "vmname.vmxf"

The problem is the empty space, on the name of virtual machines. Remove it.

Hi!

Since there much more activity now here I want to ask you again if there is any idea about the problem posted several weeks ago.
We are using the 3.5 version of ghettoVCB.sh. If you need any more details - just let me know....

*-------
We are backing up 4 ESXi 3.5 servers successfully with about 6VMs each.

There is only one problem to backup a Debian Linux 60GB virtual harddisk. Snapshot seems to be OK. Backing up the disk (one of two) failed after some time with the following error message.

Taking backup snapshot for DEASX401 ... ################
Destination disk format: VMFS thick
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/DEASX401/DEASX401_2.vmdk'...
Clone: 79% done.Failed to clone disk : Insufficient permission to access file (38).
Destination disk format: VMFS thick
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/DEASX401/DEASX401.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done.
Removing snapshot from DEASX401 ...
Completed backup for DEASX401! ####################
Start time: Wed Jul 1 06:45:27 UTC 2009
End time: Wed Jul 1 09:21:51 UTC 2009
Duration : 156.40 Minutes
Completed backing up specified Virtual Machines!

Might it be possible that the disk is to big? Is there any timeout?

Here some more information:
./ghettoVCB.sh is running with root account!
backup disk mouted vie NSF from a Win2003R2 server
share is an external 1GB USB disk
nsf shared folder is windows compressed (can save until 75% of original space)

*------

Regards,

Bjoern

Thank you. It seems I was not able to read your answer before.
I will try to do it manually using vmkfstools and give you feedback.

Aug 5, 2009 8:25 AM lamw   says: in response to: fqu89

Majority of the use cases is live backup of a running VM, I don't know of many environments that can actually afford to take down their VMs/physical systems for backups. Again this option is present in the script if you wish to power down your VM, in which case a snapshot is NOT required as the VMDK is not locked. A snapshot is only necessary when it's running and a VMFS lock is issued and a snapshot will create a delta in which the main VMDK will be set to read-only allowing for the backup.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

How does GhettoVCB handle VMs that have virtual hard disks on two different volumes?

Thanks!

Normally the vmdks are stored with the VMs. When the backup of a VM with a second vmdk on a different disk, does ghetto move the secondary vmdk files into the same directory as the other vmdk?

Aug 6, 2009 6:39 PM lamw   says:

I think there has been quite a bit of confusion on Thin Provisioning, not only with this script which has supported this feature for awhile but also in the general forums.

Within the guestOS, it may show free/unsused space but it does not mean that blocks have not been allocated in the past that could have used up more space than it's showing. Remember, when you delete something, you're just not referencing it anymore, it's still there. Blocks within the OS needs to be zeroed out and this is explained in detail from Mr. 007 himself Duncan Epping at: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/07/31/storage-vmotion-and-moving-to-a-thin-provisioned-disk/

Thin provisioning does work using vmkfstools but you need to ensure you've zeroed out any unused blocks before actually see this when trying to backup or even convert a VMDK.

Hopefully this clears things up

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Hi William,

Thanks for such a great script!

Were using it in an ESXi 3.5 environment. I have presented 380GB iSCSI storage to the host as a datastore.
Ive used Starwind to create the iSCSI target.
When I run the script I get:

/bin # ./ghettoVCB4i.sh servers.txt
Invalid desination disk format 'zeroedthick'
Removing snapshot from (servername)

The remove snapshot hangs.
There are no lingering snapshots or backups on the server Im testing.
Ive tried changing the format output but get same message with relevent storage type name instead of zeroedthick.
Any clues as to why this is failing?

Thanks,
Perry.

Hi William,

Thanks for such a great script!

Were using it in an ESXi 3.5 environment. I have presented 380GB iSCSI storage to the host as a datastore.
Ive used Starwind to create the iSCSI target.
When I run the script I get:

/bin # ./ghettoVCB4i.sh servers.txt
Invalid desination disk format 'zeroedthick'
Removing snapshot from (servername)

The remove snapshot hangs.
There are no lingering snapshots or backups on the server Im testing.
Ive tried changing the format output but get same message with relevent storage type name instead of zeroedthick.
Any clues as to why this is failing?

Thanks,
Perry.

Thank you! There are no more error messages.

Backup log file containing no information problem

The problem is in the Windows batch file. Do something like this and it will work:

"C:\Program Files\PuTTY\plink.exe" root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -pw MyPassword "/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ghettoVCB/ghettoVCB4i.sh /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ghettoVCB/backup_list > /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ghettoVCB/backuplog.txt &"

nohup is the problem

Resolved: The VM I tried to backup as test was actually booted on the main ESXi host ! ( Oops..).
When I use one that is not in use, the script runs correctly.

Dirk

I'm using ESXi and I was using one NFS datastore for backups successfully. I recently switched the NFS storage to a new server, but I'm getting an error. I've tried doing just one server at a time, from 3 different esxi boxes, but it always fails after a few minutes. Are there any logs I can check to get a better idea of what's happening, or whether this is a network issue? thanks. Here is what I get:

/vmfs/volumes/4a6efadf-c0cc9be4-7146-000d601a03f2 # ./ghettoVCB4i.sh vmbackups

1. Taking backup snapshot for myserver... ################
Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/myserver/myserver.vmdk'...
Clone: 66% done.Failed to clone disk : Input/output error (327689).
Removing snapshot from myserver...
ls: /vmfs/volumes/VM_Backups/myserver: Input/output error

1. Completed backup for myserver! ####################
Start time: Thu Aug 13 19:02:33 UTC 2009
End time: Thu Aug 13 19:22:47 UTC 2009
Duration : 20.23 Minutes

Completed backing up specified Virtual Machines!

dos2unix.org works good to remove the ^M characters.

Aug 13, 2009 2:25 PM lamw   says: in response to: clone0326

This is due to a network connectivity issue, ensure you're not saturating your NFS link. Take a look at this VMware KB: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2116375

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Aug 13, 2009 3:12 PM lamw   says: in response to: willmarmn

Which script is giving you this issue? I think this was fixed in the latest ghettoVCB.sh

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Hi

I am using your script to backup thin provisioned disks to an NFS on a windows machine however when they are backed to the nfs datastore they switch to flat full size vmdk files. I have tried the sdelete script as suggested to zero out all the data and also created new virtual machines however it still does the same. Is this set-up supported or is there anything I could be doing wrong.

Thanks

Is there a modification where we can backup other vmdk in a vm and skipping only rdm disk instead of skipping the whole vm.

Aug 14, 2009 6:50 AM lamw   says: in response to: willmarmn

You've only answered the first question .... what about the rest?

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

The current as of 8/16 script checks the ESXi version. It appears to reject ESXi 3.5 or 4.

Also I have a three disk VM. The vmx file contains the path (/vmfs/volumes/9d044c9e-6965e94b etc) to the original third disk. The third disk was cloned to the 9d044c9e-6965e94b folder within the backup folder. I will run it again to make sure.

Aug 16, 2009 12:46 PM lamw   says: in response to: DSTAVERT

The code check might be denying 3i, but 4i is working. I'll have a fix for the string later this evening.

What version of ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.0 are you using?

Can you please output the following for ALL ESX(i) host's you're using the script against by doing the following"

vmware -v

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

on the 3 server VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-120505

Not my server but I will update and re run.

ESX_VERSION=$(vmware -v | awk '{print $3}') Should be print $5

I have a vm with 2 vmdks one of them is a raw disk , how can I only skip that disk instead of skipping the whole vm ?

Aug 17, 2009 6:53 AM lamw   says:

This is a known issue, I'll be pushing a fix later this week. Sorry for the inconvenience. The reason this is occurring is due to a variable declaration that is not defined within the script and this definition is crucial to the looping of the VMDK(s) within the script. If you would like to remediate this yourselves, you can edit the script and add the following to line 193:

original code:

IFS='
'

ORIG_IFS=${IFS}
IFS='
'

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Anyone know why I would get a Your not running ESX(i) 3.5 or 4.0 when running the ghetoVCB.sh script. I am running Esxi 3.5 update 176894? This should work right?

That did not work, I still get:
ghettoVCB.sh: ghettoVCB.sh: 460 : 3i: not found
You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+

I made the change to the script above
any assistance is greatly appreciated

Hi William,
vmware -v outputs VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-153875

Code i'm running looks like

	ESX_VERSION=$(vmware -v | awk '{print $3}')
	if [; then
		VER=4
	else
		ESX_VERSION=$(vmware -v | awk '{print $4}')
		if [ || [; then
			VER=3
		else
			echo "You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+!"
			exit
		fi
	fi

• Now i only need to figure out how to make the code show up properly...

Unmodified script outputs following:

/scripts # sh -x ghettoVCB1.sh backup_list
+ VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/backup/tempest
+ VMDK_OUTPUT_FORMAT=1
+ VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT=3
+ date +%F
+ VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION=2009-08-19
+ POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0
+ ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF=0
+ ITER_TO_WAIT_SHUTDOWN=4
+ ENABLE_COMPRESSION=0
+ ENABLE_NON_PERSISTENT_NFS=0
+ UNMOUNT_NFS=0
+ NFS_SERVER=172.30.0.195
+ NFS_MOUNT=/nfsshare
+ NFS_LOCAL_NAME=nfs_storage_backup
+ NFS_VM_BACKUP_DIR=mybackups
+ DEVEL_MODE=1
+ IS_4I=0
+ [ ! -f /bin/bash ]
+ sanityCheck 1
+ NUM_OF_ARGS=1
+ [ ! 1 == 1 ]
+ [ -f /usr/bin/vmware-vim-cmd ]
+ [ -f /bin/vim-cmd ]
+ VMWARE_CMD=/bin/vim-cmd
+ VMKFSTOOLS_CMD=/sbin/vmkfstools
+ vmware -v
+ awk {print $3}
+ ESX_VERSION=Server
+ [ Server == 4.0.0 ]
+ vmware -v
+ awk {print $4}
+ ESX_VERSION=3i
+ [[ 3i == 3.5.0
sh: missing ]]
+ 3i == 3i ]]
ghettoVCB1.sh: ghettoVCB1.sh: 460: 3i: not found
+ echo You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+!
You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+!
+ exit

The output for my version
VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-120505
3.5 is in the fifth column not fourth. It could be that VMware is "messin witcha".

The code didn't check for 3i and 3.5. When I reported a problem on the 16th the code read
if ; then VER=3

I was just going by the changelog date and assumed it hadn't changed.

My apologies for thinking that William couldn't count.

Here is my output

+ VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/Backup/VMBack_Daily
+ VMDK_OUTPUT_FORMAT=2
+ VM_BACKUP_ROTATION_COUNT=1
+ date +%F
+ VM_BACKUP_DIR_NAMING_CONVENTION=2009-08-19
+ POWER_VM_DOWN_BEFORE_BACKUP=0
+ ENABLE_HARD_POWER_OFF=0
+ ITER_TO_WAIT_SHUTDOWN=4
+ ENABLE_COMPRESSION=1
+ ENABLE_NON_PERSISTENT_NFS=0
+ UNMOUNT_NFS=0
+ NFS_SERVER=172.30.0.195
+ NFS_MOUNT=/nfsshare
+ NFS_LOCAL_NAME=nfs_storage_backup
+ NFS_VM_BACKUP_DIR=mybackups
+ DEVEL_MODE=1
+ IS_4I=0
+ ! -f /bin/bash
+ sanityCheck 1
+ NUM_OF_ARGS=1
+ ! 1 == 1
+ -f /usr/bin/vmware-vim-cmd
+ -f /bin/vim-cmd
+ VMWARE_CMD=/bin/vim-cmd
+ VMKFSTOOLS_CMD=/sbin/vmkfstools
+ awk {print $5}
+ vmware -v
+ ESX_VERSION=3.5.0
+ http:// 3.5.0 == 4.0.0
+ vmware -v
+ awk {print $5}
+ ESX_VERSION=3.5.0
+ [[ 3.5.0 == 3.5.0
sh: missing ]]
+ 3.5.0 == 3i ]]
ghettoVCB1.sh: ghettoVCB1.sh: 460: 3.5.0: not found
+ echo You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+!
You're not running ESX(i) 3.5+ or 4.0+!
+ exit

New Script works like a charm, thanks very much for the assistance

Aug 19, 2009 6:51 AM lamw   says: in response to: penzipa

awesome to hear! Thanks for your feedback

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

I agree that would be a helpful addition.

For vmdks that are on different datastores it would be useful to run sed against the vmx file to remove the "/vmfs/volumes/${DS_UUID}/" so that the vmx file doesn't point to the original disk.

Really sorry that this probably keeps you up nights. I do voluntary support for a small college and I know that they really appreciate your efforts. I do as well.

Thanks

Aug 20, 2009 7:58 PM lamw   says: in response to: IT_Architect

A) You're using an old version of the script, I would highly recommend using the latest as it has fixes/updates to any previous issues/bugs.
B) If you can do this manually and it's successful, then this is an issue with your scheduling.
C) I don't know how you're scheduling them on Windows, but to avoid contention, you should schedule these to be in sequential order and as I've suggested several times, instead of manually calling each of these backups, have a script that call these two backups sequentially and all you run is just one single script which contains these two within the file.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

T_Architect
You could add some simple conditional things to the ghettoVCB script. I add the following to the ghettoVCB script to have a weekly copy in another datastore. It wouldn't be hard for you to add other conditionals.

if [ "$(date +%A)" = "Saturday" ]; then   
VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/somewhere_else
else VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/sameplace
fi

# start
rm /tmp/list
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | awk -F " " '{print $2}' | sed '1,1d' > /tmp/currentvms
for i in `cat /tmp/currentvms` ;do
awk -v var=$i -F, '$1==var' /vmfs/volumes/nfs-datastore/scripts/globaltobecloned >> /tmp/list
done
/vmfs/volumes/nfs-datastore/scripts/ghettoVCB.sh /tmp/list

I had no intention of suggesting that this be included at all. My comments were directed at IT_Architect who had posted a few steps back that they wanted different datastores and different outcomes. I appreciate the basic nature of the script and wouldn't want it to become otherwise. I was saddened by the need to accommodate spaces in VM names but such is life.

Thanks.

Where is the ghettoVCB4i file download?

Hey Lamn!
Your script is really nice!! Thanks a lot for it!

Now to my little problem:
Situation as it is now: I'm using an ESXi 3.5 153875. I edited the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root as mentioned by you (see below). And i asured that it would survice a reboot.
If I start yout script manually it works fine.
But if the crond runs your script I got the following output in /var/log/messages
_______________________
Aug 25 23:55:01 crond1472: USER root pid 124920 cmd /vmfs/volumes/volume01/ghettoVCB.sh /vmfs/volumes/volume01/backuplist 2>&1 | busybox logger -t ghettoVCB4i -p 1
Aug 25 23:55:01 crond1289: USER root pid 132147 cmd /vmfs/volumes/volume01/ghettoVCB.sh /vmfs/volumes/volume01/backuplist 2>&1 | busybox logger -t ghettoVCB4i -p 1
_______________________
If I now do a 'ps|grep cron*' I get this: 1289 1289 busybox crond

What is this second crond with PID 1472??? And why does it always start just nanoseconds after the 'real'(?!) crond with PID 1289?

I observed that this second crond is also comming up with another task defined in the crontab.
________________________
Aug 26 14:40:01 crond1289: USER root pid 360693 cmd /sbin/decodeSel.sh #Every 10 minutes, translate the latest IPMI SEL data
Aug 26 14:40:01 crond1472: USER root pid 360695 cmd /sbin/decodeSel.sh #Every 10 minutes, translate the latest IPMI SEL data
________________________

Here's my crontab as it is right now:
________________________
#syntax : minute hour day month dayofweek command
01 01 * * * /sbin/tmpwatch.sh
01 * * * * /sbin/auto-backup.sh #first minute of every hour (run every hour)
00,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /sbin/decodeSel.sh #Every 10 minutes, translate the latest IPMI SEL data
01 * * * * /sbin/vmwarerootwatch.sh #first minute of every hour.
55 23 * * * /vmfs/volumes/volume01/ghettoVCB.sh /vmfs/volumes/volume01/backuplist 2>&1 | busybox logger -t ghettoVCB4i -p 1
________________________

Do you have a clue why this second crond is running? It's causing me massive problems with my backups! The script runs twice but there's just one backup and even worse the backuprotation routine is used twice --> so there's just one backup left instead of three.

Hope you can provide me with some ideas!
Best regards
Grimes

(ESXi)
The script seems to backup okay, but it always hangs at "Removing snapshot". The code loops looking for a file with the word "delta" in it. This file is never created though so the loop is infinite. At least that is what the problem seems to be. Am i the only one having this problem?

I would like to propose for consideration that ghettoVCB use a configuration file that was fed on the command line. All editable variables would be contained in the config file. Multiple config files could be used for different destinations, different backup lists, different nfs stores etc. One script could satisfy any host or destination and no direct editing of the script.

I just tried it again and it seems to be working. I have no idea what I did differently, but it looks good. The only thing is I never see the "-delta.vmdk" mine are named "-0001.vmdk". And the removing snapshot didn't take long at all, and the snapshot files were indeed removed.

Since we often create new machines and move machines around between ESX:es we want to make sure ALL machines present on the ESX are backed up. Is there any way (or plan) to enable the script to backup ALL machines running on the ESX rather then the need to specify all VMs manually (like putting "ALL" or "*" in the server list file).

Thanks lamw and others for ghettoVCb - after getting all the errors listed on this page it is now running like a dream.

I have several large (500GB+) vms on ESXi and use ghettoVCB to backup to a 2003 NFS ds. Obviously this takes many hours so i installed rsync (daemon mode) and this also works well manually.

Being a noob as well as being a bit thick I would ask for some assistance to hack rsync into ghettoVCB since the cloning only really needs to be done once - differences after that. I can see that i do not need rotation anymore but i still need snapshotting.

Anyone done this?

I think it's because the ghettoVCB.sh file is in DOS format (with ^M characters at the end of each line)

Sep 9, 2009 6:49 PM lamw   says: in response to: SIFTU

The method in which you downloaded the script using lwp-download probably caused the ^M character to show up versus LF. The script by default will work off the bat if downloaded properly and edited within ESX(i) console.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

I need to only backup the first harddisk which has the OS using the ghettoVCB script. I read earlier version can do this. Is there any way to do the same with the current version of the script? Anybody can help?

Are the compressed backups not supposed to be overwritten after a certain number of days specified in the file? I have noticed that the compressed files just continue on.

Sep 11, 2009 8:51 AM lamw   says: in response to: thinami

It should be rotating based on your rotation settings, default 3 backups before removing older backups.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

It is not working for compressed files. I have it set to 3 and I have 11 backups for one vm showing.

Sep 11, 2009 10:44 AM lamw   says: in response to: thinami

I'm confused by your recent comment, your original post asked about 'compressed files' and now you're saying you're not using compression? Are you or are you not enabling compression on the backups? If the answer is no, then it should rotate properly. Also a note, if you try to manually delete backups, you could screw up the counters. I would suggest trying to a new backup and perhaps move the current backups to another folder and change the value of rotation to see if it's working properly.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Sorry. Bad use of words. I said it is not working FOR compressed files. I am not deleting files manually but will clear out the folder and start out with a fresh run.

It depends on where you view the files as to whether you see the true size. I had the same problem, but I was looking at the files under the shell using ssh. The shell displays the size that it could expand to over time. If you browse the data store using the vSphere client, you will see the true size stored.

Hi winterg,
yes, you're right, however I have setting the cron like this:
5 4 * * 2-6
and I have problem as Rob98 still.
I am not sure but i think that cron job worked without any problems if not exist previous backup directory...

So it still leaves the -delta and -00001 files behind in the consolidate-helper snapshot, preventing future backups. So, a little more about my set-up:

• I'm running ESXi 4.0 free and backing up one Guest server running Windows 2000 server.

• I converted from a thick to a thin provisioned disk on the VM guest after creation. So it is a thin provisioned disk that is backed up to a thin provisioned backup image stored on a locally attached datastore (External Sata drive).

• I was backing up the Guest Windows 2000 server without shutting down the server.

• I am not using compression, because it doesn't work for me under ESXi 4.0 (a separate issue).

So, based on your reply, I checked the processes running via the ssh console using ps -c | grep crond. The output is:

5120 5120 busybox crond
5141 5141 busybox /bin/busybox crond -b

I think the rc.local entry above in the article might be in error. I don't think "crond -b" is accomplishing the intended goal. It appears to run a second copy of crond, which may be causing the problem. I'm testing again with only one copy runnning. I deleted the crond -b from the rc.local and instead did a kill -HUP (process id of crond) to re-read the crontab file. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Shutting down the guest O/S avoided the problems with the snapshot lingering, but I'd rather leave the guest running.

Sep 15, 2009 10:32 PM lamw   says: in response to: winterg

Thanks for all your investigations, been really busy these last few days. I think that definitely makes sense and you're right when you issue crond -b (-b runs in the background, which you probably want when restarting), creates another cron daemon process. Let me know what you end up finding out and I'll be more than happy to update the documentation.

The line you probably want to add at the end of rc.local including the cron job is:

kill $(cat /var/run/crond.pid)
crond -b

~ # busybox crond --help
BusyBox v1.9.1-VMware-visor-654 (2008-12-17 10:01:32 PST) multi-call binary

Usage: crond -d[#] -c crondir -f -b

        -d [#] -l [#] -S -L logfile -f -b -c dir
        -d num  Debug level
        -l num  Log level (8 - default)
        -S      Log to syslog (default)
        -L file Log to file
        -f      Run in foreground
        -b      Run in background (default)
        -c dir  Working dir

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Hi all,
next option for restart crond

kill -HUP `pidof crond`
i.e. without crond -b

I think that this is better and cleaner than the last...

I can confirm that compression works without problems in esxi 4.0.0 181792 but I do not use it because of the extra time it adds to the backup process. You don't say what the error is?

So every time I try to backup I get the following. There is plenty of storage available according to df -k.

"################ Taking backup snapshot for hostname.temp-dom.local ... ################"
Start time: Thu Sep 17 03:36:16 UTC 2009
Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned
Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/SAS-Datastore1/hostname.temp-dom.local/hostname.temp-dom.local.vmdk'...
Clone: 100% done.
Removing snapshot from hostname.temp-dom.local ...
Compressing VM backup "/vmfs/volumes/External-eSata1/host-backups/hostname.temp-dom.local/hostname.temp-dom.local-2009-09-17.gz"...
tar: cannot store file 'hostname.temp-dom.local-2009-09-17/hostname.temp-dom.local-flat.vmdk' of size 107389255680, aborting
End time: Thu Sep 17 03:49:09 UTC 2009
"#################### Completed backup for hostname.temp-dom.local! ####################"

Start time: Thu Sep 17 03:36:13 UTC 2009
End time: Thu Sep 17 03:49:09 UTC 2009
Duration : 12.93 Minutes

Completed backing up specified Virtual Machines!

I cleaned out the destination directory to make sure no other backups where in the system.

hello,

i use esxi 4.0 and want to set up the cronejob correct. when i use the script manual it woks fine.
when i make a cronjob now an then add the necessary lines in the /etc/rc.local is this example correct?

~ # cat /etc/rc.local
#! /bin/ash
export PATH=/sbin:/bin

log() {
echo "$1"
logger init "$1"
}

#execute all service retgistered in /etc/rc.local.d
if http:// -d /etc/rc.local.d; then
for filename in `find /etc/rc.local.d/ | sort`
do
if -f $filename && -x $filename ; then
log "running $filename"
$filename
fi
done
fi

/bin/echo "* 0 * * 1-5 /vmfs/volumes/simplejack-local-storage/ghettoVCB.sh /vmfs/volumes/simplejack-local-storage/backuplist > /vmfs/volumes/simplejack-local-storage/ghettoVCB-backup-\$(date +
%s).log" >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
/bin/busybox crond -b

kill `cat /var/run/crond.pid` ; crond

I try to use this scipt to do backup with compression enabled.
Howerver, I cannot uncompress "filename".gz as it show "tar: Invalid tar magic".

Currently, I use ESX 3.5i U4 free edition and backup it to local drive of ESX server itself.

Any thought about the issue?

Thank you

1.) # gunzip < /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/backup/vm1/vm1-2009-09-22--1.gz | tar xvf - -C /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/restore

and

2.) # gunzip < /vmfs/volumes/nfs/backup/vm1/vm1-2009-09-22--1.gz | tar xvf - -C /vmfs/volumes/datastore

I try to backup and uncompress in 2 scenarios 1.) on local hard disk, 2.) on nfsshare
both give me "tar: Invalid tar magic"

Thank you

hi,

backup and cronjob with esxi 4.0 works great.

thanks
kanngoo

Sep 22, 2009 9:48 PM lamw   says: in response to: chayawatv

Interesting, it works for me on ESXi 3.5u4

~ # vmware -v
VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-153875

~ # gunzip < /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/WILLIAM_BACKUPS/test/test-2009-09-22--1.gz | tar xvf - -C /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/
test-2009-09-22/
test-2009-09-22/test.vmx
test-2009-09-22/test-flat.vmdk
test-2009-09-22/test.vmdk

~ # gunzip -v
gunzip: invalid option -- v
BusyBox v1.2.1 (2008.06.26-17:58+0000) multi-call binary

Usage: gunzip [OPTION]... FILE

Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-').

Options:
        -c      Write output to standard output
        -f      Force read when source is a terminal
        -t      Test compressed file integrity

~ # tar -v
BusyBox v1.2.1 (2008.06.26-17:58+0000) multi-call binary

Usage: tar -[czxtvO] [-f TARFILE] [-C DIR] [FILE(s)] ...

Create, extract, or list files from a tar file.

Options:
        c               create
        x               extract
        t               list

Archive format selection:
        z               Filter the archive through gzip

File selection:
        f               name of TARFILE or "-" for stdin
        O               extract to stdout
        C               change to directory DIR before operation
        v               verbosely list files processed

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Sep 23, 2009 1:43 PM lamw   says: in response to: Kabs123

It looks like the error is:

Snapshot found for xvm3_1, backup will not take place 

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Hi,

here is my VMWare Version
~ # vmware -v
VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 build-153875

Here is my tar and gunzip version

~ # tar -v
BusyBox v1.2.1 (2008.06.26-17:58+0000) multi-call binary

Usage: tar -czxtvO -f TARFILE -C DIR FILE(s) ...

Create, extract, or list files from a tar file.

Options:
c create
x extract
t list

Archive format selection:
z Filter the archive through gzip

File selection:
f name of TARFILE or "-" for stdin
O extract to stdout
C change to directory DIR before operation
v verbosely list files processed

~ # gunzip -v
gunzip: invalid option -- v
BusyBox v1.2.1 (2008.06.26-17:58+0000) multi-call binary

Usage: gunzip OPTION... FILE

Uncompress FILE (or standard input if FILE is '-').

Options:
-c Write output to standard output
-f Force read when source is a terminal
-t Test compressed file integrity

This is error what I get:
~ # gunzip < /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/backup/vm01/vm01-2009-09-24--1.gz | tar xvf - -C /vmfs/volumes/datastore2/
vm01-2009-09-24/
vm01-2009-09-24/vm01.vmx
vm01-2009-09-24/vm01-0-flat.vmdk
tar: Invalid tar magic

I set disk format as "VMFS Thick". Not sure whether it relates to the issue.

Thank you very much for you time on this matter.

Sep 23, 2009 10:11 PM lamw   says: in response to: cookieme

You're posting in the wrong forum, this is not ghettoVCBg2 forum and No you can not. The script is written specifically to work with vMA and vi-fastpass.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw



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