Unable to connect backup solution

[McHenry]

I am new to VMWare...

I have two VMWare 6.7 hosts at different sites and I am trying to connect the same type of backup solution in the same way.

At one site it works fine and at the 2nd site the backup solution is unable to connect.

The only difference I can see is at the site the works the web clients shows VMotion Supported = Yes and at the 2nd site it says No.

Both sites are unlicensed.

I see in the event log that the backup device logs in and then immediately logs out.

Could this VMotion setting be the cause and if so how can I change the 2nd site to match the 1st?

Thanks in advance.

[MikeStoica]

vMotion shouldn't affect your connection to the backup solution.

How do you connect the hosts to the backup solution?  You deploy the backup appliance in both sites? please provide details

[McHenry]

Yes, I deploy the backup device at both sites, one per VMWare host.

The connection process is just case of entering the server IP, username & password into the backup device web interface.

https://kb.datto.com/hc/en-us/articles/209735863-Connecting-a-SIRIS-to-a-VMware-Hypervisor

[sk84]

The free version of ESXi has some limitations. Among other things, the Storage API which many backup solutions use. Datto also writes on its website that it uses these APIs and therefore the free ESXi version is not supported.

• Backups are more efficient now that they are done through VMware's data storage API (VADP).

and

• SIRIS Virtual (and thus agentless backup) is not supported in the free version of vSphere (vSphere Hypervisor).

See: https://kb.datto.com/hc/en-us/articles/205931640-Getting-Started-with-Agentless-Backups

So I'm more surprised that it work on one site.

Can you please check whether a host is in evaluation mode and whether the trial period has not yet expired?

[McHenry]

Thanks.

Yes, because we are running unlicensed version we are unable to take advantage of agent-free backups and have to run an agent on the clients.

https://kb.datto.com/hc/en-us/articles/213994246-Getting-Started-with-the-Datto-Windows-Agent

You are correct in that the host that works is in eval mode and the host that does not work is not in eval mode. What difference does this make?

[sk84]

I think the problem will be the connection of the SIRIS appliance. If I have understood this article (https://kb.datto.com/hc/en-us/articles/209735863-Connecting-a-SIRIS-to-a-VMware-Hypervisor ) correctly, the backup device wants to have credentials to the ESXi host and make settings for virtualization and RDM.

To back up a virtual machine hosted on VMware vSphere, you must set up a connection to the hypervisor. This connection enables automatic screenshots and virtualization.

and

The iSCSI adapter on the ESXi host is used for ESXi virtualization. The adapter should be on the same subnet as one of the NICs on the SIRIS appliance in order for proper iSCSI connection and RDM creation.

This is not possible in the free version, because some APIs are not available and all other APIs are read-only.

But I don't know this backup solution, so I can only assume that this is the reason.

Maybe you can skip this step or you need to contact the datto support for their assistance.