VCB - How does VCB proxy access the VMFS volumes on the SAN LUNS?

[java_cat33]

Hi,

I currently have 2 ESX Servers running 3.0.2. I have a VCB server that is running Backup Exec 11d with the VCB module installed. The VCB server is connected to the SAN that the vmfs's reside on. The SAN is a HP MSA 1500

My question is this - Does anything else have to be done for VCB to work? The zoning is done (Backup server zone has the backup server port WWN's as well as the ESX WWN's in the zone).

With HP SAN's there is Selective Storage Presentation (SSP) - I have not assigned the ESX volumes to the Windows VCB server (with SSP) - the ESX volumes are only presented to the two ESX servers.

Can someone please explain this? I haven't found any documentation that says the ESX volumes need to be presented to the Windows host as this would cause havoc wouldn't it with disk signatures etc??

Look forward to your responses...

Thanks :smileygrin:

[RParker]

If you completely followed and read the VCB install guide, then you should have it setup properly.

You point the VCB to your VI console, so the Windows machine should only see what the VI console sees, unless you map drives outside of the ESX servers on your VCB server.

Is your VI console at 2.02 and your VCB at 1.02?

[java_cat33]

Hi RParker,

Thanks for your reply - yes I have read the VCB guide. I followed the steps, disable automount of volumes etc.

I haven't changed the config file yet to point at the VC Server etc

VI console is 2.0.2 and VCB is 1.0.1

[java_cat33]

RParker - just to confirm - nothing needs to be done in regards to presentation of storage for the VCB server? As long as the VCB server is connected to the SAN and the the ESX WWN's are in the same zone as the VCB WWN's, the storage side of things is fine?

So really, the configuration required for VCB is zoning, and follow the VCB guide?

Thanks

[pcomo]

Hi,

it seems that you have configured your zone with VCB server WWN and ESX serve WWN.

You need to present the vmfs LUN (from your HP MSA) to the VCB server, to do it create a zone with your VCB WWN and HP MSA WWN. it's not necessary to make a zone with ESX FC card and VCB FC card.

Check in VCB documentation, before that you present your VMFS LUN to your VCB server, you should desactivate automount on VCB server.

VCB server discuss with esx server only for launch vcbMounter command and access directly the VMFS LUN by FC card.

The VCB acces the LUN and mount vmfs into a directory ( config file) to backup it

a fullvm option do a snapshot and import all vmdk files of the vm which is in backup file list of backupexec.

I hope that i can help you and that you understand my english.

thanks

a file backup create a snapshot and mount vm filesystem into the directory.

[virtualdud3]

To answer your question, the VCB proxy accesses the VMFS volumes on the SAN LUNs by using the vLUN driver. The vLUN driver, along with vcbMounter, a backup application (in your case, Backupexec 11d) and the corresponding Integration Module "make-up" the VCB Framework.

Just a suggestion for you to aid in testing:

Before you begin modifying the config.js file, make sure that you are able to "manually" mount the VM (that you want to back-up) via the vcbmounter command:

If your virtualcenter is "virtualcenter.virtual.local", and you are trying to backup virtual machine "backupvm.virtual.local" using user account "vcuser" with password "Password1", and you are trying to mount the "full VM backup" to C:\mnt on your VCB proxy server*, enter the following command:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework>vcbmounter -h virtualcenter.virtual.local -u vcuser -p Password1 -a ipaddr:backupvm.virtual.local -r C:\mnt\backupvm-fullbackup -t fullvm

(*note that by default, the config.js will have the VMs mounted to C:\mnt)

When the above completes, you'lls have a new folder "backupvm-fullbackup" located at C:\mnt\backupvm-fullbackup

If this completes successfully, you'll know that your SAN issues are worked-out and you can then proceed with configuring config.js, using "browse-start.bat", and go from there.

[java_cat33]

I ran the command you suggested to see if it would mount the vm (substituted your example with the actual info) however I got some errors. What IP address are you referring to in your example? I assume the IP of the VM?

The filename in your example in the "mnt" directory does not matter does it?

Here's the command I ran - pls advise if I got this wrong.....

D:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework>vcbMounter -h VCSERVERNAME -u DOMAIN\USERNAME -p PASSWORD -a 192.168.30.29(VM IP address) -r E:\

mnt\backupvm-fullbackup -t fullvm

Here's the error I got......

mnt\backupvm-fullbackup -t fullvm

2007-10-16 10:34:38.588 'App' 4620 info Current working directory: D:\Program

Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework

2007-10-16 10:34:38.588 'BaseLibs' 4620 info HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCo

resPerCPU 2 numThreadsPerCore 1.

2007-10-16 10:34:38.588 'BaseLibs' 4620 info HOSTINFO: This machine has 1 phys

ical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 2 logical CPUs.

2007-10-16 10:34:38.635 'BaseLibs' 4620 info Using system libcrypto, version 9

0703F

2007-10-16 10:34:39.119 'BaseLibs' 3800 warning Unsetting unknown

path: /vmomi/

2007-10-16 10:34:39.322 'vcbMounter' 4620 error Error: Invalid search specifie

r: 192.168.30.29

Message was edited by: java_cat33

[virtualdud3]

The command is confusing; you do NOT put the IP address after "-a ipaddr:", you put the FQDN (in my previous example, you would put "ipaddr:backupvm.virtual.local".

(Historically, I don't think there has ever been a recorded case of a person who, when first trying to configure VCB, did NOT initially enter a numerical IP address as opposed to the FQDN after ipaddr: !!!) ; )

To answer your second question, no, the filename in the "mnt" directory does not matter.

I think the documentation included with the Backupexec 11d integration module is not as clear as it could be. Once you get the vcbmounter command working, feel free to post some additional questions on the VCB process and I'll be glad to do what I can to help.

[java_cat33]

Thanks for all your help so far! This command is actually doing something this time

At present it is hung on the below message - however it has created the folder in the mnt directory and copied over the vmx files etc, but not the vmdk.

Actually it's just died.......... here's the error

Unsetting unknown

path: /vmomi/

No path to device LVID:47069d35-13a07

93c-3b33-00187173ea92/47069d35-ddec8bf8-4cbd-00187173ea92/1 found.

Error: Failed to open the disk

: One LUN could not be opened

An error occurred, cleaning up

...

I couldn't RDP to the server after this - it wouldn't accept my login credentials (or other domain admins until I rebooted the VM).

This definitely doesn't seem right???

[virtualdud3]

Hmmmm...

Are the ESX host(s) and the VCB proxy all seeing the same "LUN ID"?

Another question - Since it appears that you are using ESX 3.0.2 and VC 2.0.2, have you considered installing VCB 1.0.3? In VCB 1.0.3, it is no longer a requirement to have LUNs presented with identical LUN IDs to the ESX host(s) and the proxy.

When you mention that you couldn't RDP into the server, were you referring to the VCB proxy or to the VM you were trying to backup?

Make sure the ESX hosts and the VCB proxy are all seeing the same LUN IDs and/or install VCB 1.0.3 and we'll go from there.

[java_cat33]

How do I check to make sure the ESX host and VCB server are seeing the same LUN ID's?

I actually have the latest version of VCB installed - when I check in add/remove programmes it says it's version 1.0.1.51389 (51389 is the latest version)

I couldn't login to the VM I was trying to backup (I could only get as far as the login screen) - the VM is DC.

To re-itterate what the VCB server can see via disk management - it can see C: and 😧 (2 local logical arrays), and 2 other partitions (E: and F:) - these are 2 arrays on a MSA20 (the MSA20 is only for D2D backups etc).

The VCB has one FC connection to a MSA 1500 SAN - the two ESX luns are not presented to the VCB server, however the VCB server and the ESX hosts are in the same zone.

[virtualdud3 · Accepted solution]

Ahhh...I hadn't realized that the SAN LUNs were still not being presented to the VCB server.

You NEED to have the LUNs presented to the VCB proxy. From the vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf), page 3:

"The Consolidated Backup package is installed on a proxy server. This server must be able to access

all SAN LUNs on which virtual machines reside and it must be able to communicate with the

VirtualCenter Management Server."

(the above PDF is also a nice reference for VCB in general)

Once you present the SAN LUNs to the VCB proxy, it might not hurt to create a "test VM" to test backing up (rather than using a domain controller).

My guess is that your VCB proxy can "connect to" the virtual center server, and then when you ran the vcbmounter command the VM was snapshotted and quiesced (sp?) and since the VCB proxy could not access the VM, the VM was never "released" and therefore you were not able to login.

So, the next step is to present the LUNs to the VCB proxy. Once you have this done, try running the vcbmounter command and let me know what happens.

[java_cat33]

OK this is making more sense now With the Array Configuration Utility for the MSA 1500 there are different host mode options available before presenting a LUN to a host. The default host mode is "default". For all my LUNS presented to Windows servers (SQL etc) the host mode is set to "Windows" obviously, and the 2 luns I have presented to the ESX servers is a host mode of "Linux".

What host mode do I use for presenting the 2 ESX luns to the VCB server? Default, Windows or Linux?

When the two ESX luns are presented to the VCB Server - the VCB server will not write it's disk signatures will it as automount of volumes has been disabled on the VCB Server?

Once this is clarified I will build a test vm for testing VCB as you advised - I don't want to use any of the other VM's for testing.

Thanks for all your excellent help so far!!

[virtualdud3]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what "host mode" to use on the MSA 1500; I'll look through documentation from my previous projects and see what I can come up with.

Yes, you are correct that disabling automounting of volumes will prevent the VCB server from writing its disk signatures on the VMFS LUNs. The VCB server will use the VCB framework (the vLUN driver and vcbmounter to mount the volumes/snapshots) therefore as long as you use diskpart to disable the automounting within Windows you should be good-to-go.

Regarding the "host mode", is there anyway you can create a LUN, present it to both ESX hosts and the VCB proxy, then test which host mode (Default, Windows, Linux) works? I'll still look through my documentation, but if I encountered this on a previous project I'm pretty sure I would remember it.

[java_cat33]

Nice one. Yes I can create a test LUN and present it to the ESX servers and VCB server. I'll create a VM on this test LUN and present the LUN to the hosts with the Linux host mode.

[java_cat33]

To keep you up to date with progress - I haven't had a chance to do any testing with a different VMFS etc. At present we are now testing ESX vRanger Pro as a backup solution and it rocks! I probably wont get a chance to test any further as I'm going to another site. Thanks for all your help. By presenting the luns to the VCB server it would of worked.