VMware Cloud Community
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Now Available: VMware Data Recovery version 1.0.1

All,

VMware Data Recovery version 1.0.1 was released today and is available from

http://www.vmware.com/download/vsphere/

Note that updates are happening, so the listing on the page may still say version 1.0.0 . Go ahead and select Download and after accepting the EULA, you will see the new ISO with Build 17677.

The v1.0.1 release addresses the following

Large Temporary Files Removed as Expected

Data Recovery modifies virtual machines' vmdk files' settings so a snapshot can be created for backup purposes. In the past, after the backup has been created, the vmdk file's settings was sometimes left configured for snapshots even after the backup was complete. This led to these virtual machines being left in snapshot mode while accumulating snapshots that were undetected by vSphere Client. This process has been redesigned so that these temporary files are no longer be left behind. In previous versions of Data Recovery, this issue can be resolved by following the process described in the knowledge base article titled "Delete ddb.delete entries and snapshots left behind by Vmware Data Recovery".

Backups Can Be Completed While Integrity Checks Are Running

Data Recovery can complete backup operations at the same time that an integrity check is running. In the past, when an integrity check was running, backups could not be completed.

Improved Integrity Check Backup Speed

Integrity check has been optimized for faster performance. In the past, comparable integrity checks took longer to complete.

Improved VMotion Licensing Support

Virtual machines can be moved between hosts using VMotion without producing licensing issues. In the past, if a virtual machine was moved between hosts using VMotion, licensing checks sometimes produced errors.

Reduced Data Recovery Backup Appliance Shutdown Time

The Data Recovery Backup appliance now shuts down more quickly than it did before. In the past, the appliance often took 15 minutes to shutdown.

Improved Support for Different Time Zones

In the past, Data Recovery did not consistently handle time zones with positive offsets relative to GMT. For example, Data Recovery could encounter issues with data associated with the Paris time zone, which has an offset of +1, whereas data associated with the New York time zone, which has an offset of -5 was handled as expected. These issues no longer occur.

Data Recovery Supported with Essentials Plus Licenses

Data Recovery is included in Essentials Plus licenses. In the past, using Data Recovery with Essentials Plus licenses failed. Backup jobs created with Essentials Plus licenses failed with the error "License not available to perform operation. Feature hotplug not licensed..."

Integrity Check Optimized to Run During Idle Times

Before running regularly scheduled integrity checks, the Backup Appliance determines if the current time is during a backup window. If the current time is not during a backup window, the integrity check runs. If the current time is during a backup window, the backup appliance checks the backup schedule to determine if there will be a time in the next 24 hours that will not be during a backup window. If there is a time in the next 24 hours that is not during a backup window, the Backup Appliance waits for that time. If there is no time that is not during a backup window in the next 24 hours, the Backup Appliance completes the integrity check.

Reply
0 Kudos
23 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

The v1.0.1 release notes is also live - it includes v1.0.0 to v1.0.1 upgrade instructions to ensure that the restore points in the dedupe store remain intact

http://www.vmware.com/support/vdr/doc/vdr_101_releasenotes.html

Reply
0 Kudos
steveharder
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Where can I download the new plug - in for the new release of vdr?

thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Steve,

just download the new iso image. You will find the "VMwareDataRecoveryPlugin.msi" in the folder "DataRecovery".

André

Reply
0 Kudos
pkurnaev
Contributor
Contributor

azmir,

Is the new VDR release available for evaluation??

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Not yet, but it will be. Also, the file level restore client will be pushed to the eval page at the same time

Reply
0 Kudos
jarsenea
Contributor
Contributor

The integrity check still fails miserably. Instead of the errors I was getting before, I now get issues like

"Trouble reading from destination volume, error -1020 ( sharing violation)"....

Just an FYI that there are still integrity issues (didn't mean to hijack this thread).

Reply
0 Kudos
Omar2SNA
Contributor
Contributor

I upgraded 1.0.0 DRAs to 1.0.1 today, one of them failed to access the old share. I just moved the old data store to another location, deleted the DRA VM and redeployed a new one and seems that the authentication and snapshot problems have been resolved.

I did not really expect to see this level of problems from a 1.0 VMware product, but DRA is going to be the new backup standard and waiting for third party Backup tools to start using API-hot add-block change and dedup.

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I opened SR 1431443551 because VDR will not successfully complete the backups or restore a backup, and the integrity checks fail.

I am running 1.0.1. I have reloaded it twice (without "carrying forward the previous backups").

Yesterday, I re-deployed the 1.0.1 OVF with a clean data store. The first set of backups for 7/18 completed succesfully, but the integrity check failed on 7/19 with this error:

7/19/2009 5:16:45 AM: Executing Integrity Check* 7/19/2009 5:16:45 AM: To Backup Set /SCSI-0:1/... 7/19/2009 9:55:08 AM: Can't load source session tree for 7/18/2009 5:15:40 PM, error -2249 ( could not find session) 7/19/2009 9:55:09 AM: Task incomplete 7/19/2009 9:55:09 AM: Remaining: 40 files, 35.8 GB 7/19/2009 9:55:09 AM: Completed: 109 files, 645.9 GB 7/19/2009 9:55:09 AM: Performance: 2376.2 MB/minute *7/19/2009 9:55:09 AM: Duration: 04:38:24 (00:00:04 idle/loading/preparing)

Obviously, the time of the integrity check is terribly slow...and this is for just 1 day of backup in the data store! Can VDR be trusted as a reliable backup solution?

Reply
0 Kudos
Omar2SNA
Contributor
Contributor

I forgot to mention that I upgraded all VMs to version 7 HW to speed up the backups.

How many VMs are you backing up? are you saving to a CIFS share ? and what is the size of the data store ?

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

My my facility, all 26 guest Windows servers are running v7 HW and VDR is backing up to a NFS datastore across a 1G ethernet connection.

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I forgot to mention.

The datastore is provisioned with 150GB of disk space. The backups (2 day's worth) is sitting on 95GB.

Kevin

Reply
0 Kudos
Omar2SNA
Contributor
Contributor

It could be a store disk space issue, are you trying to backup a VM bigger than 50GB of allocated space?

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

No...at one point, the data store was 750GB and after 4 days, the datastore was still less than 100GB. I rebuild the VDR, and for sake of time, I only configured a 150GB datastore.

I have a SR open and I am in the process of submitting the log files to VMWare. Here are the log files or support files that VMWare Support has requested:

I will need the log from the VDR appliance itself and the ESX host it resides on.

a. Here is the instruction for collecting VDR appliance log :

Log into the appliance's console , run

'./usr/sbin/datarecovery-support'

it creates a datarecoveryLogs.tar.gz in the datarecovery folder which will capture all relevant log information from the appliance.

SCP it to your deskstop and upload it together with the ESX host log.

b. VDR operation logs are in /var/vmware/datarecovery. Please upload me all the log file inside especially 'operations...log.utx' and 'assert..log.utx'

The following is the ESX host log collection and FTP instruction .

Reply
0 Kudos
maxel
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Which License is required to use that produkt? vsphere enterprise?

Axel

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Advanced license.

Kevin Buchanan

Chief Information Officer

Lexington Memorial Hospital

336-238-4286

kbuchanan@lexmem.org

Reply
0 Kudos
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

Which License is required to use that produkt? vsphere enterprise?

Well the documentation isn't very clear on this, but It's not just Advanced, it's Enterprise, Enterprise Plus & Essentials Plus as well.

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Are correct. My reply stated Advanced, but all the features "step-up" with their licensing model.

Kevin

Reply
0 Kudos
rlaor
Contributor
Contributor

Although VDR 1.0.1 solved a major issue concerning snapshots removal, I must say that there are too many critical issues with 1.0.1 that disqualified it from being used in production environment.

During the past weeks I have made a lot of efforts trying to make VDR our backup solution, but till now this was a real disapointment.

Now the 60 days evaluation we have for vSphere Enterprise are going to be expired soon and since we have only vSphere Standard we will have to end the VDR evaluation and look for another backup solution.

Here is a partial list of the issues I've encountered:

  • Backup tasks are stuck "forever" (or until the VDR crashes)

  • Integrity checks are stuck "forever" (or until the VDR crashes)

  • VDR crashes every couple of days

  • "There are no restore points" - all restore points are gone

  • Backup tasks keeps failing with error -107 (out of application memory)

  • Backup tasks fail to create snapshot - error -1 ( unknown)

  • VDR plug-in fails to connect to VDR machine although it is powered on and running

  • It still takes 15 minutes to shutdown the VDR as it was in 1.0.0

BTW, I already opened an SR # 1432073051 for the first issue. I don't see a point in opening SRs for each one of the other issues.

Roy

Reply
0 Kudos
KBuchanan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Our backup complete, but we may get 1 out of 26 to fail; if run manually, it will backup successfully.

Integrity checks fail every day. I have an SR. For this issue, but so far the suggestions for possible reasons to explain why it happens has been LAME. For example - the Integrity check may fail if a backup is still running. Well here's an idea: Can't you tell the Integrity check to wait until all backups are complete?? May that is too simple??

We have been successful in restoring backups - but there is a bug with the VMs CD drive...set it to client device or it will give y an error about the backing device.

Needless to say, we are disappointed with this first release. there is a lot of promise for what they are advertising for VDR...just wish it actually worked!!

Kevin Buchanan

Chief Information Officer

Lexington Memorial Hospital

336-238-4286

kbuchanan@lexmem.org

Reply
0 Kudos