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colintyrrell
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Backup Exec 12.5, ESX 4.0, SBS 2008

Hello all,

this is probably a tried and tested discussion; so apologies if this is the case.

I installed ESX 4.0 on a Dell T710 recently.

On this I installed SBS 2008 as a guest.

The Dell server has an internal LTO 4 tape drive; which the guest can see.

But Backup Exec 12.5 can't seem to write date to the tape. It fails each time.

It generates the following error: ‘an invalid command was sent to the storage device'

Apparently this is a known issue. VMware don't support such a set up I believe. Neither do Symantec.

What are my options?

Thank you,

ct

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AndreTheGiant
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If you are only looking for a solution that can work, first try to use a SCSI device.

Add the SCSI ID from the tape to the VM.

If it does not work try with VMDirectPath:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro

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asatoran
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Is Backup Exec fully updated? You're using Backup Exec drivers for the tape drive? (instead of Windows drivers.) Are you able to inventory or label media?

How is the tape drive connected: SCSI, SATA? (Or even USB over IP?) From what I've read, SCSI passthrough (SPTI) was only officially supported on Adaptec controllers on ESX3.5 (correct me if I'm wrong.) I've read conflicting things on these forums about official support from VMWare for SCSI passthrough on ESX4.

That said, I do have a HP 920 LTO3 using SCSI Ultra 320 to an Adaptec PCIe card. Guest is Windows 2008 running Backup Exec 12.5. Host is ESXi4 on a HP DL385. In my case, I had the tape drive and card running non virtual first but due to throughput issues which we thought were due to the slow host, we moved to a virtual machine. But at least I knew my tape and SCSI hardware didn't generate hard errors. I don't know if you could directly test the tape from the ESX console, but perhaps you can temporarily move the tape drive to another machine?

AndreTheGiant
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Symantec, but also other vendor of "traditional" backup to tape program, does NOT support BE (and NetBackup) in a virtual environment (I talk about the media server of course).

But I can work Smiley Happy

The big problem is "passing" the SCSI device to the VM... with ESX 3.x was simple and without big issues... with new version for some people works, for other no.

In vSphere you can "pass" the SCSI device in two mode: add a SCSI device to the VM (old way), or use VMDirectPath to pass the entire SCSI controller (but your hardware must be compatible with VMDirectPath).

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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krowczynski
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That is right, for BE 12.5 you nedd a physical server.

We also have installed BE 12.5 in an P Enviroment!

MCP, VCP3 , VCP4
colintyrrell
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Hi Astoran,

Backup Exec is fully updated using Live Update. I'm using the Symantec Drivers.

I can successfully do an inventory; but I cannot label. I can also successfully do a Backup-to-Dick; so it's not the software. I had Symantec on to me for 90 mins; but that was fruitless.

On vSphere; I can see the tape device being picked as a 'Local IBM Tape' device.

On the VM guest the SCSI controller is 'LSI Logic SAS'; and the tape is connected through (Edit Settings->Hardware) as 'SCSI device 1'.

Oddly enough; the Windows Backups software doesn't even see the tape unit.

I'm actually doing this remotely; the customer site is 200km away..so even if we had the hardware, moving the internal tape unit is not an option

Edit; I just did alabel media today, and that worked successfully

Message was edited by: colintyrrell

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colintyrrell
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Hi Andre,

do you think VMDirect Path is a viable solution for my environment?

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AndreTheGiant
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do you think VMDirect Path is a viable solution for my environment?

If your hardware support this feature, than it can work.

But remembert that is NOT a certified solution (from Symantec).

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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colintyrrell
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Hi Andre,

I don't mind if it isn't certified by Symantec, as long as it can work Smiley Happy

I've set the device up as a listed device in Host->Configurations-Advanced Config.

But I'm not sure what to do now..it doesn't work anyway!

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AndreTheGiant
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If you are only looking for a solution that can work, first try to use a SCSI device.

Add the SCSI ID from the tape to the VM.

If it does not work try with VMDirectPath:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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colintyrrell
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Andre,

I got this working! Thanks a lot for your help.

You've saved me my job Smiley Happy

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AndreTheGiant
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You're welcome.

Remember that this solution is not certified by Symantec Smiley Wink

Usually works (not so fast as a physical environment) but works.

In some cases (but was with old BE and ESX version) some tape feature doen't work (for example hardware compression).

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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AlbertWT
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Hm.. sounds like a good idea to make the Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 SP2 + VCB v1.5 as a VM inside local ESXi datastore ?

and then we can just use -m SAN mode to make the backup process faster, cmiiw ?

Kind Regards,

AWT

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AndreTheGiant
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and then we can just use -m SAN mode to make the backup process faster, cmiiw ?

If VCB is virtual, then you must use hotadd transport, not san transport.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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AlbertWT
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Great,

Thanks for the reply Andre.

and last thingthat I need clarification is that:

If the VCB Proxy is physical server, to be able to use hotadd mode the Physical machine must be able to have access into both datastore (source and target) ?

cmiiw.

Kind Regards,

AWT

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AndreTheGiant
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If the VCB Proxy is physical server, to be able to use hotadd mode the Physical machine must be able to have access into both datastore (source and target) ?

No... this is SAN nome.

From http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_vcb_15_u1_admin_guide.pdf

hotadd — Back up virtual disk files on any shared storage or local storage through the VCB proxy virtual machine.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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AlbertWT
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OK, now everything gets very clear Andre, thanks for your generosity in explaining it to us here.

I'm now creating Windows Server 2003 VCBProxy01 in the local ESXi datastore and make the hot-add VM as VCBProxy01(VCB-HELPER) in the same location to backup all of my VM inside the SAN_VMFS.

Cheers !

Kind Regards,

AWT

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