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alex_Su78
Contributor
Contributor

vCenter 7.0 Appliance backup fails

vCenter 7.0.3.00600 Appliance backup fails with an error "Failed to create backup directory on backup server."

I tried to create a new directory, but it it gives me the same error. I tried with a backup location smb://FQDN:455/ and without the port same result.

I cannot open a log file /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/backup.log with an error message "permission denied". It Copied the log to a different location an still cannot open it

Any ideas?

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alex_Su78
Contributor
Contributor

I tried to delete an existing backup schedule and created a new one, but it keeps failing as well. 

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Your example shows the protocol and the server. What I'm missing is the share name, i.e. smb://server/share.

André

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alex_Su78
Contributor
Contributor

This is how it was set up before the backups started failing:

smb://domain.com/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware/

Then I tried these options:

smb://domain.com:445/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware/

smb://servername.domain.com/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware/

smb://servername.domain.com:445/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware/

Created a new share:

smb://domain.com/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware01/

smb://domain.com:445/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware01/

smb://servername.domain.com/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware01/

smb://servername.domain.com:445/InformationSystems/IT/Backups/VMware01/

A VMware backup service account has Full Control to the both shares

 

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

It looks like a Domain DFS is in use!? I've never tried a backup using DFS, so I can't tell you whether this may cause the issue.
Anyway, can you please try using the backup server's IP address instead of the server name to see whether this works.

André

alex_Su78
Contributor
Contributor

I tried using IP with the port and without and getting this "Path not exported by the remote filesystem."

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

That's interesting, because the issue should be fixed in the build that you are using (see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86069).
Are you able to access the log file that's mentioned in the KB article?

André

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pmichelli
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

In 2 years I have never managed to get SMB to work.  Here is the easiest way that I have found and have been using on 3 separate vCenter instances

Install FileZilla FTP server (its free) on Windows or Linux

Create a user, set a password, create a home directory and allow read / write / append and delete

Setup a FTP or FTPS backup connection in VC Appliance.  Works beautifully

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Evawoma
Contributor
Contributor

Are you using Windows DFS ? Could you try to create a backup using the server name instead of the domain name ?

Earlier this year file-level backup was broken after a minor VCSA update (version 7 Update 3 something). Until then it was working for us without problems. We had a support request at VMware and after many tests they admitted that something must have changed in an update. We are still waiting for a final fix, but in the mean time we create our backups directly on a Windows server and do not use \\domain.com\share anymore but \\servername\share

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