VCB Recovery through Networker

[amediratta]

I am using Networker 7.4 and have been backing up Virtual machines through VCB Proxy server.

Backups are good even if I backup a folder, a drive or full VM i.e. C:\, D:\ or FULL.

I am not able to do a file level recovery. I can do Save set recovery throguh Networker User on VCB Proxy but am not able to see thr interface to recover a particular file. Ex. I want to recover c:\msizap.exe form C:\.

I am sure this is supported but don't know how to do this. Please help.

[uslacker99]

Do this from within the guest itself. You don't need to use VCB to do recovery file level.

[GBromage]

If you've done a fullvm backup, then you'll need to restore the VCB backup, open the VDMK file and pull out the file(s) you need.

There's a utility you can get to mount a VMDK file as a local drive letter on the system - can't remember the name offhand.

Otherwise, you can use VMWare convertor to convert the VCB backup file to a VMWare workstation compatible file, then use workstation (or Player) to boot up the machine and retrieve the files that way.

Hope that helps - if it does, please award points.

Greg

[amediratta]

I am very new to VMware hardly a week old.

Please help me understand what is the guest here. Is it the Virtual machine and if yes, what do I need to run on the Virtual machine to get the option to recover its backup taken by Networker through VCB proxy?

[admin]

With VCB you have the option to take a snapshot of the entire Virtual Machine (copy of the vmdk disk files) or individual file backup of the files within the Virtual Machine.

If you are backing up the individual files within the Virtual Machine you need to restore the files from the backup target (Tape?) to an alternate location, then copy those files to the location you want them restored (i.e. the original location).

So if you were trying to restore c:\msizap.exe you would have backed it up from the VCP proxy server after it mounted the drive from location c:\mnt\mytestvm.foo.com\letters\+X+ and you will need to restore it to another location (i.e. c:\restoretemp\ ) then copy it back to that location via a network share or something (i.e. \\mytestvm.foo.com\c$\ )

If you did a fullVM backup you will need to first restore the Virtual Machine, then create and power on the Virtual Machine and pull the file off the guest O/S and restore it.

[amediratta]

Agreed, I want to recover one file from the VM to the VCB proxy.

I am not able to figure out whether this would be done by Networker or VM since I am not able to see this option in NW and EMC support is yet to respond on this.

[GBromage]

A "guest" is a virtual machine. Conversely, a "host" is the physical VMWare/ESX server.

You don't need to run anything on the VM itself. VCB backs up the VM (usually as a single complete file) to your proxy server, which then is backed up with Networker.

You'll need to restore the entire VM to another location, then extract the file from the VM.

[admin]

So the question is; how did you back the file up? You used VCB but did

you backup the entire VM (VMFull) or did you backup the individual file

(c:\ c:\mnt\mytestvm.foo.com\letters\c\filename.ext

What do you see in NW? Do you see a .vmdk file or a list of files?

[amediratta]

I have taken both full backup as well as backup of file system data i.e. save sets VM:client:FULL & VM:client:.

Networker shows me both save sets to recover and I am able to recover the entire save sets to the VCB proxy. If I recover FULL, I get vmdk files else I get the logical files from C:.

I want to recover only one particular file from C:\. Ex. c:\msizap.exe. I know it would recover on VCB proxy only but how do I make sure it recovers on \ly this file and not entire C:.

[att_118]

This is abit late, however you can perform a directed recovery if your VM host is able to connect to your storage node directly via ethernet. In this case you would be recovering from the file level backup instead of the image based backup (recovering a single file from the image is not as straight forward and easy).

This is what you can do:

1) log onto the VM and install the networker client (if you havent already)

2) ensure that the VM is setup as a registered client

3) allow the VM to remote access the proxy's client file index (done via entering the user@vmsystem in the remote access field in the proxy's client profile

4) on the VM perform a directed recovery by specifying the vcb proxy as the client and recover the files to local.