VCB Multiple ESX + Vmotion Backups

[bpierfy]

Can you back up multiple ESX hosts with one VCB proxy host? I was pretty sure you had to specify one host with credentials in the config.js file, so I'm not sure if you can multiple files or not.

Either way, how are you supposed to back up VMs that aren't necessarily on any specific host? If you specify a host in the config file and it moves to a different host because of DRS, my guess is that it would fail.

Can you specify a cluster to backup instead of a host?

[esiebert7625]

Yes you can as long as the VCB proxy can see all the VMFS volumes that each ESX server sees, these guides cover VCB pretty well...

Virtual Machine Backup Guide - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf

Consolidated Backup in Vmware Infrastructure 3 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf

Vmware Consolidated Backup Best Practices, Tips and Tricks - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4540.pdf

Backup and Recovery of Virtual Servers - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/mdc9870.pdf

Hot Backups and Restores - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9816.pdf

Non-disruptive Backups of Vmware Environments Using Veritas Netbackup - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9912.pdf

Vmware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery - http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab01-VCB-PRESENTATION.pdf

[vmmeup · Accepted solution]

VCB needs to point to Virtual Center....and Virtual Center will hand it off to the correct ESX host that has that vm. There are a number of ways you can select the virtual machine you want to back up, I would read the guides and become more familiar.

[bpierfy]

Ah, of course... I have read most of those docs, but when I read them last we didn't have VC!! I probably just skipped over those sections at the time. I'm sure it won't be difficult as I understand how the single ESX backup works.

Thanks!

[zemotard]

Not exactly, VC is not mandatory to use VCB ..

[fcapizzo]

VC isn't mandatory for VCB, but if you have more than one ESX 3.x server and you're using VMotion, you really should point your VCB login to VirtualCenter. If you only have 1 ESX host, or multiple hosts with no VC/VMotion, then yes you could point your VCB login at each ESX server.

[bpierfy]

Even though I prefer to point to VC (it just makes sense), how could you point to more than one ESX server when you can only specify one host and one set of credentials in the config file. Do you need more than one proxy?

[admin]

I have the same question. can you add multiple hosts in the config file when you aren't using VC?

[chiprock]

I have same question as well (although this is an old post). Not everyone uses VC. In our case we have two ESX servers but do not do VMotion. Any idea on how you can specifiy two hosts in the config.js? The alternative I have is running some batch files that do some script swapping depending on my backup...

[dconvery]

The default framework uses javascripting to create vcbMounter calls. It was only really intended to point to one host via the config.js file. Your best bet is to create stand-alone scripts that call vcbMounter directly for the two ESX servers that are not attached to a vCenter server.

Dave Convery

VMware vExpert 2009

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

[chiprock]

Not the anwser I was looking for but I can accept that. For those people that may be using Symantec Backup Exec with VCB on a VCB Proxy and have to backup multiple ESX servers but do not use VC. I just created two config.js files. Each one configured for one of the two ESX hosts. I then added some code to the pre-backup.bat that Symantec includes with their integration. It simply changes the config.js prior to the backup taking off. See the code below. Not really elagent but it only took 5 mins to write and another 5 to test. You need to make sure that your jobname for the script matches your below script. Note - in the below the portion in Italics is stuff I added. The rest if stuff that was in the file by default from Symantec.

@ECHO ON

REM A workaround around the fact that only the first 10

REM command line options are easily accessible in a DOS

REM batch file.

shift

set arg=%0

set jobname=%0

:loop

shift

IF %0.==. GOTO save

SET arg=%arg% %0

GOTO loop

:save

REM Portion I added to choose ESX Host - Chiprock 3/9/09

IF %jobname% == ESX01 GOTO ESX01

+ IF %jobname% == ESX02 GOTO ESX02+

+ GOTO :FAILED+

:ESX01

if exist "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.ESX01" goto switchfile

goto ESXServerPicked

:switchfile

rename "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.js" config.ESX02

rename "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.ESX01" config.js

goto ESXServerPicked

:ESX02

if exist "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.ESX02" goto switchfile

goto ESXServerPicked

:switchfile

rename "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.js" config.ESX01

rename "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\config.ESX02" config.js

goto ESXServerPicked

:ESXServerPicked

REM Call into the VCB framework.

for /f %%i in ('"%VCBBASE%\backupexec\gettimestamp.bat"') do set timestamp=%%i

cscript /nologo "%VCBBASE%\backupexec\command.wsf" -pre "%VCBBASE%" %arg% > "%temp%\pre_%jobname%%timestamp%.log" 2>&1

:FAILED

REM Correct the jobname

[rmicone1]

really vmware? you really didn't think anyone would want to run 2 or more standalone esx hosts w/o vcenter? geez!... 1 thing after another... sigh...

thanks for the script chiprock...

[dconvery]

Check out this thread to see ways to do selective disk backups as well ->

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/jturver/2008/01/24/vcb-how-to-backup-a-selected-specific-disk-or...

Dave Convery

VMware vExpert 2009

http://www.dailyhypervisor.com

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

[rmicone1]

thanks Dave, there's some good stuff there for sure... but for now my needs are very simple, even the above batch script is a bit much for what I need ... for others who run into this, here's what I did...for BE12 + vcb 1.5/ESX 3.5i

1. create a 2nd config file called "esx2config.js"

2. change pre command in BE to be a custom .bat file with it's path (C:\jobs\path\to\precommands.bat) contents of precommands.bat file for me are:

@ECHO OFF

C:

CD "C:\program files\vmware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\"

MOVE /Y config.js esx1config.js

MOVE /Y esx2config.js config.js

"C:\program files\vmware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\backupexec\pre-backup.bat" JobName NameOfYourVM-FullVM

3. change post command in BE to be a file like ... (c:\jobs\path\to\postcommands.bat), where "postcommands.bat" has the following below in it...

@ECHO OFF

"C:\program files\vmware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\backupexec\post-backup.bat" JobName

C:

CD "C:\program files\vmware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\config\"

MOVE /Y config.js esx2config.js

MOVE /Y esx1config.js config.js

I realize there's no script error checking to see if the commands for moving the file completed... but iv'e tested it and it works.

[dconvery]

It looks pretty simple and straight forward to me. I don't see any issues with this approach as long as you have backup copies of the config.js files. You may want to use copy instead of move. That would leave the backup copies intact for you.

Dave Convery

VMware vExpert 2009

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

[RMDiaz]

Dave:

I think you can help me.

I have vCenter Server 4.0.0 (162856) with 4 vSphere Hosts. 3 of then within a cluster and the other one stand alone. All managed by vCenter.

I use Backup Exec 12.5d over VCB and can do anything i want only if i browse vSphere hosts but can't get vCenter information. I get this error:

An error was encountered while attempting to browse the contents of VirtualCenter-Name. Cannot read the Virtual Machines and Templates view on VirtualCenter Server

All licences activated with Enterprise ones.

I browsed averywhere but can't find anything except this link in Symantec support.

But can't resolve the problem with the answer of case 2.

Any idea?

Thanks in advanced

PD: Excuse my poor english.