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Smassey
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VCB Problem?

Hi All,

I'm not sure if my issue is down to Backup Exec or VCB - so if anyone here knows this is an issue not relating to VCB then please let me know and i'll head on over to their forums.

Background:

We have 1 ESX host (3.5 U3 - we can't upgrade to U4 at the moment). The host to connected to an MSA2000 via SAS. We have a dedicated Virtual Infrastructure server, which also runs Backup Exec but has no connectivity to the MSA.

So we are backing up via VCB over the network.

We have 5 virtual machines running on the ESX host and they are set to backup to disk first and then once a week to tape.

Problem:

Everything works fine for 4 of the 5 VM's. I can see when the backup to disk jobs start, a snapshot is created first and then the backup to disk process starts. With the 5th server none of this happens. All jobs are setup exactly the same (other than different timings).

All we get is "timeout connecting ESX or the Virtual Server" in Backup Exec. And there is nothing in the Event Logs to show any other errors.

Normally when the job begins i can see the VCB process kick off in task manager, but with the 5th server none of this happens. I can't seem to find any error logs for the VCB component or any logs for it at all (even under windows\temp there appears to be very little).

The only difference is that the 5th server is a notes server - but i'm not sure that would make any difference or not.

I've tried piggy-backing the backup to disk for the 5th server onto another (working) backup job, and that backups up the first server fine, but again fails (with the same error message) for the 5th server.

Does anyone know where i can look, what i can try (anything really)? - as i'm completely stumped on how to progress this further.

I've gone through the Symantec site and there are a number of fixes for this exact issue (host file amendment, registry change, creating a managedvmwrapper config file, removing the default gateway from the backup exec server), but none of these has made any difference at all - so i'm starting to look at the VCB side.

Many thanks for any help / advice given.

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bbambrick
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Edit the config vars at the top of the attached Perl file and it should work for you. It's a bit rough but does the job.

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AndreTheGiant
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If you change the backup order the problem is on the same VM?

Are you using ipaddr or name resolution?

Andre

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Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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Smassey
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Yeah, i' ve tried kicking off the job manually during the day - and swapping the timings around for the evening job, but the same issue cropps up.

Using ipaddr option, though i haven't tried using the name option. I've added the name and ip address into the hosts file, but the Backup server is able to resolve the name anyway (i.e. before i did that).

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AndreTheGiant
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Yeah, i' ve tried kicking off the job manually during the day - and swapping the timings around for the evening job, but the same issue cropps up.

The same issue on the same VM or alway a the 5th VM?

Andre

**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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Smassey
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Yep - always the 5th VM - doesn't matter which order the backups occur at, the problem follows the same VM around.

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AndreTheGiant
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Do you have enough local space for the stage area?

Andre

**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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Smassey
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Yeah i checked that earlier as well - the VM is approx 200GB in size and we have over a TB of free space on the Backup server and over 450GB free space on the VMFS partition.

(and thank you for taking the time to help me on this).

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AndreTheGiant
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Very strange problem.

If you are using custom script, try to increase the debug level of vcbMounter (with -L)

Andre

**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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bbambrick
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I'd agree with Andre here... try mounting the VM yourself using VCB and see if it completes okay, rather than going through the backup exec plugin to do it. It should at least rule out a problem with VCB if all works well, and then you know you can get onto symantec with some good info rather than speculation.

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Smassey
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Thanks for all your help on this.

I'm trying to get VCB working via the command line as suggested. I'm probably asking too much here, but (and i'm trying to understand the CLI options for VCB via the documentation), but would anyone be able to just drop an example on how i would do this? I've tried customising the examples in the documentation and from the output of the VCB help but to no avail.

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bbambrick
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Edit the config vars at the top of the attached Perl file and it should work for you. It's a bit rough but does the job.

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AndreTheGiant
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http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-consolidated-backup-utilities.htm

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
AndreTheGiant
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http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1392

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
Smassey
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Thanks guys,

Got it working - using the VCB from the CLI works fine - so off to Symantec i go.

Cheers again.

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AndreTheGiant
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You're welcome

Andre

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