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AntonVZhbankov
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FT VM Backup

Is there a way to backup powered on FT VM since snapshots are not supported?


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admin
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Unfortunately VCB support of FT VMs did not make into the GA release of vSphere 4. We are actively working on it, though, and are planning to release it as soon as possible. The solution is a bit complicated, and it will take some time to get this scheduled into a release.

Thanks,

Karyn

P.S. For those of you keeping track, I edited this response on 9/30 to remove the optimistic release estimate that was originally in this post. I chose to edit the response rather than post a new one to avoid confusion for anyone finding this post now.

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depping
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VCB with VSS, or client agent?

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator | VCP | VCDX

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AntonVZhbankov
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So, the only way to backup FT VM with linux as before is to stop FT, backup VM with standard VCB and start FT again?


---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

EMCCAe, HPE ASE, MCITP: SA+VA, VCP 3/4/5, VMware vExpert XO (14 stars)
VMUG Russia Leader
http://t.me/beerpanda
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AndreTheGiant
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So, the only way to backup FT VM with linux as before is to stop FT, backup VM with standard VCB and start FT again?

Yes.

Maybe Data Recovery (http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-data-recovery/) could do something, but I'm not sure.

Andre

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Steve_Tron
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Hi,

VMware data recovery still uses snapshots I think

Regards

joergriether
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That is an interesting one. Can someone please clarify or test if VCB/VDR works or not? From my view regarding the points mentioned in this thread you simply CAN´T backup an FT enabled machine with vcb or vdr. Only with backup agent inside guest.

regards

Joerg

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mcwill
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Approaching from the other side, I can confirm that VDR utitlises snapshots as part of the backup process. So if snapshots are forbidden for FT then VDR will not work.

Regards,

Iain

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ceemour
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yup

i have tried and failed

both vcb and vdr fail to backup an ft machine when powered on or off

chris

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Rumple
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Now thats a handly piece of information that perhaps they might have wanted to add to the marketing materials..oh wait..maybe not....

Nice to know I have a machine thats immune to failure..because god forbid I ever need to restore...

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admin
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Unfortunately VCB support of FT VMs did not make into the GA release of vSphere 4. We are actively working on it, though, and are planning to release it as soon as possible. The solution is a bit complicated, and it will take some time to get this scheduled into a release.

Thanks,

Karyn

P.S. For those of you keeping track, I edited this response on 9/30 to remove the optimistic release estimate that was originally in this post. I chose to edit the response rather than post a new one to avoid confusion for anyone finding this post now.

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ealaqqad
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Hi Karyn,

Thanks for the update, but are you planning to enable snapshots of VMs protected by FT as well.

It has been difficult to get customers to make a real use of VMware FT, as most customers seems to priotize VCB backup & snapshots on FT.

I know you had removed the expected release date from this post, though is it possible to PM me with any expected date just to have a feeling of how to face our clients.

Thanks,

Eiad Al-Aqqad

System X & Storage Technical Specialist

Founder of

Regards, Eiad Al-Aqqad Technology Consultant @ VMware b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com b: http://www.TSMGuru.com
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Deb0
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This a big deal for me as I will not be able to implement FT on production VMs in our datacenter. Business units will balk at the availability of this feature, only if they are willing to sacrifice a more important feature. This is a major omission of information in VmWare documentation and should not have required a posting in a forum to discover it.

Now that the release date is pulled, I guess we will have to wait and see when and if it will actually become supported.

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ealaqqad
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Hi Deb0,

I understand why you are anger on this, but look at the shiny side of things. This feature is already out you can test and see how it can benefit you.

Beside hey there is some backup solutions which can still get VMware images without using VCB :). Or you can just go use your traditional backup software till the update come out :).

Ah not to forget HA is always still there for you.

I hope this help some one, if it does please reward points.

Enjoy,

Eiad Al-Aqqad

System X & Storage Technical Specialist

"Physical suck, Go virtual check out VMware ESX"

Founder of

Regards, Eiad Al-Aqqad Technology Consultant @ VMware b: http://www.VirtualizationTeam.com b: http://www.TSMGuru.com
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Deb0
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It's just another example of VmWare touting a feature, without revealing it's any serious limitations it may have. Very disappointing, but not a deal breaker for us. It's not like there's a viable alternative out there.

And I don't consider HA the same as, or a replacement of FT.

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miromosconi
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A solution will be provided soon ?

There is any workaround?

Keep me in touch, please!!!!

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admin
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My sincere apologies that VCB being unsupported was not in the Availability Guide, it will be added to the "unsupported" list when the documentation is next updated. Snapshots is on the not supported list in the documentation, but VCB should also have been listed. Perhaps it our optimism that it would be out shortly after vSphere 4.0 was the reason for the oversight.

We are working on supporting snapshots with VCB, but since my last post about the release vehicle was wrong, I do not want to make the mistake of listing our target release again. Ensuring that the protected VM can survive a failure (without losing data) while a backup is being done on the primary only takes a lot of care in design and implementation as well as testing. We are working as quickly as we can while making sure that we get it right.

I am curious about the snapshots use case because that becomes a little more complicated in the implementation. Can people chime in with how they would use snapshots with FT? Is this an alternative to backup? How often do you take snapshots? How many do you keep around? How often do you have to revert to a snapshot?

The only workaround to the issue at this point is to completely turn off FT (not just disable it), backup the VM, and then turn FT back on. The big caveat there is that if the backup fails and a snapshot remains, you will not be able to turn FT on until the snapshot is cleaned up. VCB cleans up the snapshot when it is done, so manual intervention will be required if it fails and you decide not to restart it.

Thanks,

Karyn

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lamw
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From the look of the thread, the questions around snapshot really pertain to backups and trying to leverage tools such as VCB/VDR which require snapshots for their full image backup to work. Yes you could rely on traditional backup software that does in-guest backups, but it it sounds like more people are interesting in full image backup. Atm, this requires snapshots and since an FT protected VM does not support snapshots, full image backups are not possible ...

You're correct, the only way to backup full FT VMs today is to fully turn off FT, snapshot the VM if you need the VM running while the VM is being backed up (most people probably do it this way) and then remove the snapshot and re-enable FT. Regarding the issue of the failed backup, I would probably create a clean up script that runs every so often checking on these 'special' VMs and removing any snapshots that may have been left and re-enable FT, it's crappy hack but if you really need to backup full FT VMs, this probably would suffice. All this would be possible leveraging the vSphere SDK in either PowerCLI or even vSphere SDK for Perl but will need to be executed against a vCenter since FT is a vCenter feature so tools such as ghettoVCB would not work

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