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duzolini
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-14-2009 07:06 AM

VCB or Arcserve issue ?

I am setting vcb to use another directory to mount the vmware machines before backup, but its using the locating C:\Program Files\CA\ARCserve Backup Client Agent for Windows\VmwareVcbMountDir\

My config.js is the next, but the BACKUPROOT="E:
mnt" doesn t change to this directory.

What should I do ?

/*

  • Generic configuration file for VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB).

*/

/*

  • Directory where all the VM backup jobs are supposed to reside in.

  • For each backup job, a directory with a unique name derived from the

  • backup type and the VM name will be created here.

  • If omitted, BACKUPROOT defaults to c:
    mnt.

  • Make sure this directory exists before attempting any VM backups.

*/

BACKUPROOT="E:
mnt";

/*

  • URL that is used by "mountvm" to obtain the block list for a

  • disk image that is to be mounted on the backup proxy.

*

  • Specifying this option is mandatory. There is no default

  • value.

*/

HOST="coandcvcvm";

/*

  • Port for communicating with all the VC SDK services.

  • Defaults to 443

*/

PORT="443";

/*

  • Username/password used for authentication against the mountvm server.

  • VCB can be configured to use SSPI for authentication. The advantage

  • of using SSPI is that it does not require the password to be stored

  • in this configuration file in plain text. In order to be able to use

  • SSPI, the following conditions must be met:

  • 1) VCB must be configured to connect to a VirtualCenter Server

  • version 2.5 or newer and not to an ESX host directly. (i.e: "HOST"

  • must point to your VirtualCenter Server).

  • 2) VCB must always be used from a user context with the same username

  • and password credentials on both the proxy machine and the

  • VirtualCenter Server or be a domain user. The backup application

  • service process which calls VCB must be configured to run under

  • this user context. VCB and the backup application that calls it

  • must not be used in the Local System account context.

  • 3) The VCB user must have administrator privileges on the VCB proxy.

  • 4) The VCB user must be assigned to the "VCB Backup User" Role in

  • VirtualCenter.

  • If your setup meets all these conditions, you can enable SSPI

  • authentication by setting USERNAME to "__sspi__". The value for the

  • PASSWORD setting will be ignored in this case and hence can be set

  • to "".

*

  • As a third option, you can also specify the password using a Registry

  • key. The Virtual Machine Backup Guide has more information on this.

*

  • Specifying a user name is mandatory. For SSPI, the password needs to be

  • set, but is ignored. When specifying the password in the Registry, do

  • not set the PASSWORD variable here, since this will override the

  • Registry setting.

*/

USERNAME="#########

PASSWORD="###########

/*

  • TRANSPORT_MODE determines how VCB accesses virtual disk data.

  • Currently, two modes are supported on Windows:

*

  • +) "san"

  • Virtual disk data is read directly off a shared storage device

  • that that the virtual disk resides on. This requires VMFS

  • storage on SAN or iSCSI and the storage device has to be

  • accessible from both ESX and the VCB proxy.

  • +) "nbd"

  • In this mode, VCB will use an over-the-network protocol to

  • access the virtual disk. Data is read from the storage device by

  • the ESX host and then sent across an unencrypted network channel

  • to the VCB proxy.

  • Please note that this mode does not provide the offload

  • capabilities of the "san" mode (since data is still transferred

  • from the ESX host across the network). However, "nbd" does not

  • require shared storage and also enables VCB to be run inside a

  • virtual machine.

  • +) "nbdssl"

  • This mode is same as "nbd" except that the data transfered over

  • the network is encrypted. The data transfer in "nbdssl" mode can

  • be slower and use more CPU than in the "nbd" transport mode. The

  • "nbdssl" mode will fail when connecting directly to ESX 3.0.x

  • or VC 2.0.x host.

  • +) "hotadd"

  • This mode is available only when using VCB in a VM. It allows the

  • data from the source VM to be backed up by hot adding its disks

  • to the backup VM. This gives the backup VM a very efficient data

  • access path to all the datastores accessible to the host running

  • the backing VM.

*

  • The default option is "san".

*/

TRANSPORT_MODE="san";

/*

  • The log level determines the amount of log output generated by VCB.

  • Valid ranges are from 0 (least verbose) to 6 (most verbose), with a

  • default setting of 3. Change this setting to 6 when troubleshooting.

*/

LOGLEVEL=6;

/*

  • SNAPSHOT_POLICY determines how disk snapshots for backup are being created:

  • +) "automatic"

  • A snapshot is being generated automatically by the Interoperability

  • Module right before backup and it is being removed

  • automatically right after backup.

  • +) "manual" -

  • Exactly one snapshot named "_VCB-BACKUP_" must already exist for

  • each protected VM. The snapshot is mounted/unmounted on the proxy,

  • but the snapshot is neither created nor deleted by VCB.

  • This can be used to have external tools manage the backup snapshot.

  • +) "createonly"

  • The Interoperability Module will create the snapshot for each VM

  • right before it gets backed up, but will not remove the snapshot

  • after unmounting.

  • +) "deleteonly"

  • The Interoperability Module assumes that the snapshot named

  • "_VCB-BACKUP_" has been created beforehand. The snapshot will be

  • deleted automatically after backup.

*

  • The default option is "automatic"

*

*/

SNAPSHOT_POLICY="automatic";

/*

  • The criteria to be used to identify a virtual machine

*

  • +) ipaddr

  • VMs are looked up based on their DNS name/IP address.

  • +) name

  • VMs are looked up based on their name as shown in VirtualCenter.

  • Note that backup will fail for VMs with non-unique names.

*

  • The default option is "ipaddr". You should only change this

  • if you have multiple sets of VMs with the same IP address, but with

  • different names.

*/

VM_LOOKUP_METHOD="ipaddr";

/*

  • Behavior for a backup job when the VM mount point already exists.

  • +) fail

  • A pre-existing mountpoint is causing a backup job to fail

  • +) delete

  • Attempt to remove the pre-existing mount point (and backup

  • snapshots associated with it). If this op. fails, fail

  • the backup job.

*

  • The default option is "fail"

*

  • Note that when TRANSPORT_MODE is set to "hotadd", the value for

  • PREEXISTING_MOUNTPOINT and PREEXISTING_VCB_SNAPSHOT must be

  • the same, since it is not possible to reliably remmove a pre-existing

  • snapshot in this case without cleaning up the mount point.

*/

PREEXISTING_MOUNTPOINT="fail";

/*

  • Behavior for backup job when a previous backup snapshot of a virtual

  • machine already exists.

*

  • +) fail

  • A pre-existing backup snapshot is causing a backup job to fail

  • +) delete

  • Attempt to delete the pre-existing backup snapshot. If the

  • backup snapshot can be deleted without errors, proceed with

  • the backup job. Otherwise fail the backup job.

*

  • the default option is "fail"

*

  • Note that when TRANSPORT_MODE is set to "hotadd", the value for

  • PREEXISTING_MOUNTPOINT and PREEXISTING_VCB_SNAPSHOT must be

  • the same, since it is not possible to reliably remmove a pre-existing

  • snapshot in this case without cleaning up the mount point.

*/

PREEXISTING_VCB_SNAPSHOT="fail";

/*

  • Number of times an operation is re-tried after it fails.

  • You might want to use this option if you see a large number

  • of backup jobs fail with "resource busy" errors.

*

  • Usually, backup software will retry failed jobs, but it

  • might be hours until the backup software retries.

*

  • By default, retry is disabled (set to 0).

*/

MAX_RETRIES=0;

/*

  • Number of seconds to wait before retrying a failed

  • operation. The default value is 10 seconds.

*

  • If you change this default, you probably also want to change

  • the default for MAX_RETRIES (since this setting only matters

  • if MAX_RETRIES is larger than 0).

*/

BACKOFF_TIME=10;

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1 Reply
wongel
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-14-2009 09:27 PM

Arcserve is using the default mount path when VCB backup operations occur. You can specify the your a different mount path location by doing the following:

On the Backup Proxy System, Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ComputerAssociates\CA ARCserve Backup\ClientAgent\Parameters

Create a new String value and specify the following Value Name:

VMwareAgentBaseMountPath

Modify the Value Data for the string so that it specifies the path where you want the agent to temporarily mount the VM during the backup operation as your example:

e:\mnt

Run the Cstop.bat and then the Cstart.bat once the registry updates have been done.

Run a VCB job and it should now mount to the new location.

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