VMware Cloud Community
GregMeathead
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Lost network connectivity during VDR.

Every night, when VDR runs the VM's that are getting backed up are loosing network connectivity for a few minutes or seconds.

Its not a big issue for me, all im getting is the email from HPSIM that VM is unreachable, but our CAD people leave drawings open on their machines and when they come in the morning they have an error that connection to server was lost and they have to close and reopen drawing which takes some time.

So, is it normal for VM to drop net for short time during VDR?

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
mail2ibrahim21
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can you verify your VMkernel logs in the ESX Servers. What is the bandwith of your network. If possible upload you VMkernel logs and mention the time of your problem occurs.

Reply
0 Kudos
GregMeathead
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have 2 ESXi 4U1 servers as a hosts, how can i get the VMKernel logs?

Our bandwidth is 2 GB (2 1gb NIC on ESXi side, both active) and LACP NIC Team (2 1gb) on VDR CIFS share Windows 2008

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

I wouldn't say it is normal. The only time that VDR "touches" the running VM is during snapshot operation (initiate and delete) - this is relatively short on both ends. So, you can try to perform a manual snapshot (uncheck memory option and check quiesce guest OS) and see what happens - if you see the same behavior , then thisis the root cause and you can troubleshoot further down this path. The other thought is that the VDR destination disk sits on the same network as the VM - maybe that link is getting saturated? Is the destination disk a virtual disk or a CIFS share - more likely if it is the latter since the former will most likely send the data over the storage network.

Reply
0 Kudos
GregMeathead
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VDR destination is on CIFS, 2GB connection (nic team), so is ESXi

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

I would still try the manual snapshot, uncheck memory and check quiesce guest, and see if your VM disconnects. If not, then my guess would be tha the CIFS share is sharing the network path as the VM - and this path is getting overloaded when data transfer to the CIFS share is occuring.

Reply
0 Kudos
GregMeathead
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes, our default network adapter for VDR appliance is on the VM network, so all VMs and VDR are using the same net.

Should i create a separate VM network to dedicate it to VDR appliance?

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

I would still do the manual snapshot test first before looking at that option. Of course, backing up to a virtual disk destination allows you to offload the data transfer to the storage network, which also solves the traffic problem.

Reply
0 Kudos
GregMeathead
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Manual snap is fine, doesnt do anything to the box, must be smth with net.

Reply
0 Kudos