NetBackup Admin Guide VMware

Symantec NetBackup ™ forVMware Administrator'sGuide

Release 7.1

21159712

Symantec NetBackup™ for VMware GuideThe software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be usedonly in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

Documentation version: 7.1

PN: 21159712

Legal NoticeCopyright © 2011 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved.

Symantec, the Symantec Logo, and NetBackup are trademarks or registered trademarks ofSymantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may betrademarks of their respective owners.

Portions of this software are derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-DigestAlgorithm. Copyright 1991-92, RSA Data Security, Inc. Created 1991. All rights reserved.

This Symantec product may contain third party software for which Symantec is requiredto provide attribution to the third party (“Third Party Programs”). Some of the Third PartyPrograms are available under open source or free software licenses. The License Agreementaccompanying the Software does not alter any rights or obligations you may have underthose open source or free software licenses. Please see the Third Party Legal Notice Appendixto this Documentation or TPIP ReadMe File accompanying this Symantec product for moreinformation on the Third Party Programs.

The product described in this document is distributed under licenses restricting its use,copying, distribution, and decompilation/reverse engineering. No part of this documentmay be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization ofSymantec Corporation and its licensors, if any.

THE DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS,REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OFMERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT,ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TOBE LEGALLY INVALID. SYMANTEC CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTALOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH THE FURNISHING,PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION. THE INFORMATION CONTAINEDIN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

The Licensed Software and Documentation are deemed to be commercial computer softwareas defined in FAR 12.212 and subject to restricted rights as defined in FAR Section 52.227-19"Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights" and DFARS 227.7202, "Rights inCommercial Computer Software or Commercial Computer Software Documentation", asapplicable, and any successor regulations. Any use, modification, reproduction release,performance, display or disclosure of the Licensed Software and Documentation by the U.S.Government shall be solely in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

Symantec Corporation350 Ellis StreetMountain View, CA 94043

http://www.symantec.com

Printed in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

http://www.symantec.com

Technical SupportSymantec Technical Support maintains support centers globally. TechnicalSupport’s primary role is to respond to specific queries about product featuresand functionality. The Technical Support group also creates content for our onlineKnowledge Base. The Technical Support group works collaboratively with theother functional areas within Symantec to answer your questions in a timelyfashion. For example, the Technical Support group works with Product Engineeringand Symantec Security Response to provide alerting services and virus definitionupdates.

Symantec’s support offerings include the following:

■ A range of support options that give you the flexibility to select the rightamount of service for any size organization

■ Telephone and/or Web-based support that provides rapid response andup-to-the-minute information

■ Upgrade assurance that delivers software upgrades

■ Global support purchased on a regional business hours or 24 hours a day, 7days a week basis

■ Premium service offerings that include Account Management Services

For information about Symantec’s support offerings, you can visit our Web siteat the following URL:

www.symantec.com/business/support/

All support services will be delivered in accordance with your support agreementand the then-current enterprise technical support policy.

Contacting Technical SupportCustomers with a current support agreement may access Technical Supportinformation at the following URL:


Before contacting Technical Support, make sure you have satisfied the systemrequirements that are listed in your product documentation. Also, you should beat the computer on which the problem occurred, in case it is necessary to replicatethe problem.

When you contact Technical Support, please have the following informationavailable:

■ Product release level



■ Hardware information

■ Available memory, disk space, and NIC information

■ Operating system

■ Version and patch level

■ Network topology

■ Router, gateway, and IP address information

■ Problem description:

■ Error messages and log files

■ Troubleshooting that was performed before contacting Symantec

■ Recent software configuration changes and network changes

Licensing and registrationIf your Symantec product requires registration or a license key, access our technicalsupport Web page at the following URL:


Customer serviceCustomer service information is available at the following URL:


Customer Service is available to assist with non-technical questions, such as thefollowing types of issues:

■ Questions regarding product licensing or serialization

■ Product registration updates, such as address or name changes

■ General product information (features, language availability, local dealers)

■ Latest information about product updates and upgrades

■ Information about upgrade assurance and support contracts

■ Information about the Symantec Buying Programs

■ Advice about Symantec's technical support options

■ Nontechnical presales questions

■ Issues that are related to CD-ROMs or manuals



Support agreement resourcesIf you want to contact Symantec regarding an existing support agreement, pleasecontact the support agreement administration team for your region as follows:

[email protected] and Japan

[email protected], Middle-East, and Africa

[email protected] America and Latin America

mailto:[email protected]



Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

About NetBackup for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13The features of NetBackup for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13New features in the 7.1 release ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Features added in the 7.0 release ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Full virtual machine backup vs file-level backup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15vStorage vs VCB .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Minimum levels for vStorage support ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16When VCB is required .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16NetBackup for VMware components ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Overview of the VMware backup process ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18NetBackup for VMware license requirement ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19NetBackup for VMware terminology .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 2 Required tasks: overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Overview of VMware tasks ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Overview of NetBackup tasks ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 3 Notes and prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Prerequisites ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27VMware notes and restrictions ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Notes on Linux virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29NetBackup character restrictions for virtual machine display

names .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Notes on the hotadd transfer type .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Creating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 4 Configure NetBackup access to VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

NetBackup for VMware environment diagrams .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Adding the VMware backup host to NetBackup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Changing the host name of a VMware server in NetBackup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Contents

Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 5 Configure NetBackup policies for VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Configuring a VMware policy from the Snapshot Policy Configurationwizard .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Configuring a VMware policy from the Policies utility ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Configuration parameters for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Client name selection .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Virtual machine backup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Transfer type .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Virtual machine quiesce ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Exclude unused and deleted blocks ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Existing snapshot handling .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Monolithic export (VCB only) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Snapshot mount point (VCB only) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Browse for VMware Virtual Machines screen .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing

for virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Virtual machine host names and display names must be unique in a

master server's policies ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Client Name Selection parameter and manual selection of virtual

machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63About incremental backups of virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Configuring incremental backups .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Incremental backups must be based on timestamps .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Volume Manager volumes in the virtual machine .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Recovery options related to policy selections .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66About older policies and pre-7.x backup hosts ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 6 Configure automatic selection of virtual machinesfor backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70The basics of a NetBackup query rule ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72NetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine

selection .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Automatic virtual machine selection: Task overview .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75NetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine

selection .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Configuring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in

Basic Mode) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Editing an existing query (Query Builder in Basic Mode) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Contents8

Using the Query Builder in Advanced Mode .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Use of AND vs OR .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86The IsSet operator ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Multiple policies that work together ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Order of operations in queries (precedence rules) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Parentheses in compound queries ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Query rules for resource pools ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Query rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Query Builder field reference .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Test Query screen .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Test Query: Failed virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in

Test Query results ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Effect of Client name selection parameter on VM Name column in

Test query results ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 7 Reduce the size of backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

About reducing the size of backups .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Block-level backup (BLIB): full vs incremental ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Deleting a vSphere Client snapshot ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Using VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only ... . . . . . . . . 110

Chapter 8 Back up virtual machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Backing up virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Further information on NetBackup policies ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Using the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups .... . . . . . . 115Using OpsCenter to report on virtual machine backups .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 9 Restore virtual machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Restoring the full VMware virtual machine .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Virtual Machine Recovery dialog boxes (restore to original

location) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Virtual Machine Recovery dialogs boxes (restore to alternate

location) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125About restore of the virtual machine from a VCB backup .... . . . . . . . . . 131Restore Marked Files dialog box (VMware with VCB) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

About restore of individual files ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Restoring individual files ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to a Windowsshared virtual machine drive ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

9Contents

Restore notes and restrictions ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137Restore notes and restrictions on Linux .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140If the recovery host is not at the same NetBackup release level as the

backup host ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Chapter 10 Best practices and more information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

NetBackup for VMware best practices ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143For VCB backups .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144VMware with deduplication .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

More information on VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Further assistance with NetBackup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Support information on NetBackup for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Chapter 11 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

NetBackup logging for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Other logs for troubleshooting .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

VMware environment—important! .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Why VCB is not used .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Preventing browsing delays caused by DNS problems .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery .... . . . . . . . . 151Changing timeout and logging values for vSphere .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Troubleshooting notes for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Credentials for VMware server are not valid ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153NetBackup status codes related to VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154Snapshot error encountered (status code 156) ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Restore fails when you restore individual files to a virtual machine

that has NetBackup client software .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Backup or restore job hangs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Mount point missing on a restored Windows virtual machine .... . . . . . . . . . 162Mount points not available when restoring files from a Linux virtual

machine .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Remove the Consolidate Helper snapshot ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162NetBackup catalog information for virtual machine backups made

by 6.5.4 or earlier may prevent browsing the imported imagesfor restore ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Invalid client error when you restore files using NetBackup BARinterface installed on the virtual machine .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

VMware virtual machine does not reboot after restore ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Contents10

Appendix A The Reuse VM selection query results option . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

About the Reuse VM selection query results option .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Appendix B The Symantec VSS Provider for VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

About the Symantec VSS provider for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Notes on the Symantec VSS provider for VMware .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Installing the Symantec VSS provider ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169How to use the Symantec VSS provider ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Symantec VSS provider logs ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Appendix C Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

About VMware raw device mapping (RDM) .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177NetBackup support details for RDMs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Configurations for backing up RDMs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178About alternate client backup of RDMs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Requirements for alternate client backup of RDMs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Configuring alternate client backup of RDMs .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Appendix D SYMCquiesce utility for Linux virtual machines . . . . . . . . . 183

About the SYMCquiesce utility ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183Requirements for the SYMCquiesce utility ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Installing the SYMCquiesce utility ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Configuration options for the SYMCquiesce utility ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185SYMCquiesce logging and troubleshooting .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Appendix E File-level backup of Windows virtual machines . . . . . . . . . . 187

About file-level backup of Windows virtual machines ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187File-level backup with automatic virtual machine selection .... . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Configuration tasks for file-level backup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188File-level backup options .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189Configuring a policy for Windows file-level backup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190What you can restore from a file-level backup .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

11Contents

Contents12

Introduction

This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About NetBackup for VMware

■ Full virtual machine backup vs file-level backup

■ vStorage vs VCB

■ Minimum levels for vStorage support

■ When VCB is required

■ NetBackup for VMware components

■ Overview of the VMware backup process

■ NetBackup for VMware license requirement

■ NetBackup for VMware terminology

About NetBackup for VMwareNetBackup for VMware provides backup and restore of the VMware virtualmachines that run on VMware ESX servers. NetBackup for VMware takes advantageof VMware vStorage APIs for data protection. The backup process is off-loadedfrom the ESX server to a VMware backup host.

The features of NetBackup for VMwareNetBackup for VMware does the following:

■ Performs off-host backup of virtual machines (NetBackup client software isnot required on the virtual machine). Off-host backup reduces the backupprocessing load on the VMware ESX server.

1Chapter

■ Automatically creates quiesced snapshots using VSS (Windows only).

■ Uses snapshot technology to keep virtual machines 100% available to users.

■ Supports VMware vSphere as well as older VMware environments.

■ Performs full backups and incremental backups, including block-levelincrementals.

■ Backs up the full virtual machine. Can also back up selected files (Windowsonly; requires VCB).

■ Can restore selected files from the backup.

■ Backs up the virtual machines even when they are turned off.

New features in the 7.1 releaseThe following features are new in NetBackup 7.1:

■ Virtual Machine Intelligent PolicyNetBackup can automatically select virtual machines for backup by means offiltering rules in the policy. The policy Clients tab includes a Query Builderfor creating the rules. Requires vStorage.See “About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup” on page 70.

■ Limits on NetBackup use of virtual resourcesYou can limit the number of simultaneous backups that NetBackup performson VMware resources, such as vCenter servers or datastores. Applies only topolicies that use automatic selection of virtual machines.See “Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources” on page 40.

■ In addition to host name, VMware display name, or UUID, NetBackup can nowback up virtual machines by their DNS host name.See “Client name selection” on page 51.

■ The Browse for Virtual Machines screen allows manual selection of virtualmachines within VMware clusters and vApps.

■ Restore of individual files from Linux virtual machine backups.See “Notes on Linux virtual machines” on page 29.

Features added in the 7.0 releaseThe following items were added in the 7.0 release:

■ NetBackup supports VMware vSphere with vStorage APIs for data protection.VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is still supported but not required in mostcases. vStorage eliminates the need to make a VCB copy of a virtual machine

IntroductionAbout NetBackup for VMware

14

snapshot on the VMware backup host. Instead, NetBackup can back up thesnapshot directly from the VMware datastore.See “vStorage vs VCB” on page 15.

■ NetBackup can back up certain pre-vSphere environments (such as ESX 3.x)without requiring VCB.

■ NetBackup can perform file-level and block-level incremental backups ofvirtual machines (cumulative and differential).

■ NetBackup can perform full and incremental backups by means of the samesnapshot backup option.

■ NetBackup can create virtual machine backups that are storage optimized(unused space on the virtual machine is not backed up).

■ New virtual machine recovery dialogs make it easier to recover the virtualmachine to the original location or to an alternate location.

Full virtual machine backup vs file-level backupWhen it is configured as described in this guide, NetBackup backs up the entirevirtual machine as a set of virtual disk files. The backup includes all data files aswell as operating system files and VMware virtual disk files. From the backup,you can recover the guest OS and the entire virtual machine. Depending on thetype of backup and the guest OS file system type, you can also recover individualfiles from the same backup.

For Windows, NetBackup also supports file-level backup (backup of selected files).File-level backup requires VCB. For more information on file-level backup ofWindows virtual machines, see the appendix titled "File-level backup of Windowsvirtual machines."

vStorage vs VCBNetBackup 6.5.x for VMware relied upon VMware Consolidated Backup technology(VCB) to make off-host backups of virtual machines. VCB software was installedon the VMware backup host (called the backup proxy server). For backups of theentire virtual machine, all files were copied from the VMware datastore and writtento disk on the backup host.

NetBackup 7.x uses VMware vStorage APIs for data protection. vStorage APIsenable a variety of data protection features for more efficient use of storagecapacity and faster backups. NetBackup can use vStorage to back up the latestvSphere environments and earlier VMware environments.

15IntroductionFull virtual machine backup vs file-level backup

Note that NetBackup 7.x can back up vSphere environments using VCB. VMwareintends to discontinue VCB in a future release, however, and recommends the useof vStorage APIs.

Minimum levels for vStorage supportTo use VMware vStorage, NetBackup requires the following minimum levels ofVMware servers: ESX 3.5 update 2, or VirtualCenter 2.5 update 1.

When VCB is requiredNetBackup can protect most VMware environments by means of VMware'svStorage APIs, without using VCB.

VCB is required in the following cases:

■ For backups of selected files instead of the entire virtual machine, if aNetBackup client is not installed on the virtual machine.

■ For the following older VMware environments:

■ ESX servers older than 3.5 update 2 if no VirtualCenter server is present.

■ For VirtualCenter servers older than 2.5 update 1.

NetBackup for VMware componentsNetBackup for VMware uses the following components.

IntroductionMinimum levels for vStorage support

16

Figure 1-1 NetBackup for VMware components

LAN / WAN

VMware datastore(Must be available toVMware backup host)

vCenterserver

ESXservers

Virtual machinesVM VM VM

VM VM VM

SAN

NetBackup media serverUNIX, Linux, or Windows

NetBackup master serverUNIX, Linux, or Windows

Backup hostNetBackup Windows client.(Can be combined with aWindows master/media server)

Table 1-1 describes these components.

Table 1-1 Components of NetBackup for VMware

DescriptionComponent

NetBackup for VMware uses a special Windows host that is called a VMware backup host(formerly called the VMware backup proxy server). The backup host is a NetBackup clientthat performs backups on behalf of the virtual machines. The backup host must have accessto the datastores of the virtual machines.

The backup host is the only host on which NetBackup client software is installed. No NetBackupclient software is required on the VMware virtual machines.

Note that the backup host is referred to as the recovery host when it performs a restore.

The backup host can be configured in either of the following ways:

■ The backup host can be a NetBackup Windows client with a connection to separate masterand media servers. The master servers and media servers can be Windows, UNIX, or Linux.

■ Or, the NetBackup Windows client and a Windows master and/or media server can allreside on the same backup host. In this case, all NetBackup components (servers and client)must be Windows.

Backup host

Installed on the backup host (Windows).NetBackup client

Manages the backups of virtual machines, by means of the NetBackup client that is installedon the backup host.

NetBackup masterserver

17IntroductionNetBackup for VMware components

Table 1-1 Components of NetBackup for VMware (continued)

DescriptionComponent

Performs backups to storage on behalf of the NetBackup client.NetBackup mediaserver

Virtual machines provide complete guest operating systems on virtualized hardware. In aNetBackup policy, a virtual machine is configured as a NetBackup client, even thoughNetBackup client software is not installed on the virtual machine.

Virtual machine

The VMware ESX server presents a virtualized hardware environment to multiple virtualmachines; each virtual machine runs an independent operating system. Users can runapplications in the virtualized OS as if the OS was installed in its own physical computer.

ESX server

The VMware vCenter Server (or VirtualCenter server) coordinates multiple ESX servers andworkloads. It can migrate virtual machines from one ESX server to another. It also providesthe ability to back up the virtual machines that are turned off.

The vCenter Server is optional in the NetBackup for VMware environment.

vCenter Server

For older VMware environments, VMware Consolidated Backup software (VCB) allowsNetBackup to communicate with the VMware VirtualCenter server and with individual ESXservers. VCB is installed on the VMware backup proxy.

See “When VCB is required” on page 16.

VCB

For the backups that were made with VCB, the VMware Converter server assists in full virtualmachine restores to the ESX server. The Converter must be installed on the same host as thebackup host.

Converter server

Note that the VMware NetBackup Integration Module (VNIM) is not required.Conflicts can occur between NetBackup for VMware policies and any olderscript-based policies that use VNIM.

See “Troubleshooting notes for VMware” on page 152.

Overview of the VMware backup processThe following tables describe the phases in the NetBackup backup process.

Table 1-2 NetBackup backup process with vStorage

DescriptionPhase

The NetBackup master server initiates the backup.Phase 1

The NetBackup client on the VMware backup host initiates a VMwaresnapshot on the virtual machine.

Phase 2

IntroductionOverview of the VMware backup process

18

Table 1-2 NetBackup backup process with vStorage (continued)

DescriptionPhase

Windows only: VSS synchronizes the file system on the virtual machine.Phase 3

The VMware server creates a snapshot on the virtual disk datastore.Phase 4

The NetBackup client reads the snapshot from the datastores and writesthe data to the NetBackup storage unit.

Phase 5

Table 1-3 NetBackup backup process with VCB

DescriptionPhase

The NetBackup master server initiates the backup.Phase 1

The NetBackup client on the VMware backup host initiates a VMwaresnapshot on the virtual machine.

Phase 2

Windows only: VSS synchronizes the file system on the virtual machine.Phase 3

The VMware server creates a snapshot on the virtual disk datastore.Phase 4

The VMware backup host does one of the following:

■ For full virtual machine backup, it copies the files from the VMwaredatastore and writes them to disk on the backup host.

■ For file-level backup, it mounts individual disk volumes from theVMware datastore.

Phase 5

The NetBackup client reads the data from the backup host and writes thedata to the NetBackup storage unit.

Phase 6

NetBackup for VMware license requirementNetBackup for VMware requires an Enterprise Client license for each ESX Server.

NetBackup for VMware terminologyTable 1-4 lists the terminology that is used in NetBackup for VMware.

For further explanations of VMware terminology, refer to your VMwaredocumentation.

19IntroductionNetBackup for VMware license requirement

Table 1-4 NetBackup for VMware terms

DefinitionTerm

The backup host is a NetBackup client that performs backups onbehalf of the virtual machines. (This host was formerly known asthe VMware backup proxy server.) The backup host is the onlyhost on which NetBackup client software is installed.

As an option, the backup host can also be configured as aNetBackup master server or media server.

The backup host is referred to as the recovery host when itperforms a restore.

See “NetBackup for VMware components” on page 16.

backup host

In NetBackup for VMware, the datastore is a disk that containsthe virtual machines files.

datastore

An operating system that runs on a virtual machine.guest OS

A software virtualization layer that lets different operatingsystems run simultaneously on the same physical computer. TheVMware hypervisor is vSphere, which runs on the ESX serverhost.

hypervisor

A virtual disk that cannot be captured with a snapshot. Anindependent disk can be configured as either persistent ortemporary.

Note: NetBackup for VMware cannot back up the data on anindependent disk. The backup succeeds but the backup imagecontains no data for the independent disk. If you restore the diskfrom the backup, the independent disk is restored to its originalallocation size but contains no data. For example, the Windowsswap file can reside on an independent disk, and is consequentlynot included in the virtual machine backup.

independent disk

The combination of rules in the policy's Query Builder, by whichNetBackup selects virtual machines for backup. A query consistsof one or more rules.

query

For creating filtering rules for automatic selection of virtualmachines for backup. The Query Builder is on the Clients tab ofthe NetBackup policy.

Query Builder

A single statement in a query, by which NetBackup selects virtualmachines for backup.

An example of a query rule is: Displayname Contains "finance"

query rule

IntroductionNetBackup for VMware terminology

20

Table 1-4 NetBackup for VMware terms (continued)

DefinitionTerm

Allows a virtual machine to directly access physical disks (on FibreChannel or iSCSI). RDM allows the OS and applications in thevirtual machine to have pass-thru access to raw devices.

Note that disks in RDM mode cannot be backed up with VMwareVCB (on a backup host). NetBackup client software must beinstalled in the virtual machine.

Raw device mapping(RDM)

See backup host.recovery host

See VMware Consolidated Backup.VCB

An execution environment that the hypervisor creates for thecomputer hardware. The resulting virtualized environment allowsdifferent operating systems to run simultaneously on the samephysical computer.

virtual machine

A logical network that allows the exchange of data between virtualmachines. A virtual network uses a virtual switch (VMwarevSwitch). A virtual network can be connected to a physicalnetwork.

virtual network

In a VMware ESX server, one or more vmdk files make up the diskimage or virtual drive in a virtual machine. The.vmdk files containthe operating system, applications, and data in the virtualmachine.

vmdk file

An off-host backup application programming interface (API)created by VMware. Designed to off load backups from the ESXserver.

VMware ConsolidatedBackup

Installed inside each VMware virtual machine. Enhances thevirtual machine performance and adds backup-relatedfunctionality.

VMware Tools

Sometimes called the VMX directory or configuration datastore.Contains the configuration files that describe the virtual machine,such as .vmx files. During a backup of a virtual machine snapshot,vmdk writes are also cached on this datastore. Note that a separateVMX datastore is not a VMware requirement.

VMX datastore

VMware vStorage APIs enable data protection features for moreefficient use of storage capacity. NetBackup can use vStorage toback up the latest vSphere environments as well as to back upearlier VMware environments.

vStorage

21IntroductionNetBackup for VMware terminology

IntroductionNetBackup for VMware terminology

22

Required tasks: overview


■ Overview of VMware tasks

■ Overview of NetBackup tasks

Overview of VMware tasksThe VMware components including ESX servers and virtual machines must beset up before you configure NetBackup.

Table 2-1 briefly describes these VMware-specific tasks; further assistance withthese tasks may be found in your VMware documentation.

Table 2-1 VMware tasks

TasksSequence

Set up disk storage on Fibre Channel or iSCSI. The VMware backup hostmust be able to access the disk storage.

Phase 1

Install the VMware ESX server and virtual machines.Phase 2

Install VMware Tools on the virtual machines that you plan to back up.Phase 3

Optional: install a vCenter (or VirtualCenter) server.Phase 4

For recovery of VCB backups: Install the VMware Converter server on theVMware restore host.

The VMware Converter server is not required for vStorage.

Phase 5

2Chapter

Table 2-1 VMware tasks (continued)

TasksSequence

For older versions of VMware only: Install a supported version of VCB onthe VMware backup host.


For further information on supported guest operating systems and VMwarecomponents and versions, refer to the following Symantec tech note:

Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

Symantec recommends that the NetBackup media server and the VMwarebackup host be installed on the same host.

Phase 6

Notes:

■ Ensure that the hardware and the SAN are configured properly. The VMwaredatastore where the target virtual machine files exist must be accessible tothe VMware backup host.With vStorage, and with VCB version 1.1 and ESX server 3.5, note: A SANconnection between the backup host and the datastore is optional if you usethe NBD transfer type or NBDSSL transfer type.

■ VMware has specific hardware and configuration requirements. VMware SANrequirements can be found in the appropriate VMware SAN Configurationguide.

■ VMware requires that ESX server names resolve to an IP address. Symantechighly recommends the use of DNS for the naming resolution among VMwareservers. For DNS configuration instructions for VMware servers, please referto the following VMware site:VMware vSphere Online Library

Overview of NetBackup tasksTable 2-2 lists the NetBackup configuration tasks that are described later in thischapter and in other NetBackup documentation, as indicated.

Required tasks: overviewOverview of NetBackup tasks

24

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsp40_i/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=welcome/welcome.html

Table 2-2 NetBackup tasks

TasksSequence

Install the NetBackup 7.1 master server and media server.

See the NetBackup Installation Guide.


Phase 1

Install the NetBackup 7.1 Enterprise Client license on the master server,and install NetBackup client 7.1 software on the VMware backup host.

Phase 2

Add the VMware backup host to your NetBackup configuration.

See “Adding the VMware backup host to NetBackup” on page 36.

Phase 3

Set NetBackup access credentials for the VMware vCenter or VirtualCenter(if any), or for VMware ESX servers.

See “Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware” on page 36.

Phase 4

Configure incremental backups for VMware.

See “Incremental backups must be based on timestamps ” on page 65.

Phase 5

Create a NetBackup policy for VMware.

See “Configuring a VMware policy from the Policies utility” on page 46.

Phase 6

Perform a backup or restore.

See “Backing up virtual machines” on page 113.

See “Restoring individual files” on page 135.

See “Restoring the full VMware virtual machine” on page 119.

Phase 7

Recheck the configuration.

See “NetBackup for VMware best practices” on page 143.

See “NetBackup status codes related to VMware” on page 154.

Phase 8

25Required tasks: overviewOverview of NetBackup tasks

Required tasks: overviewOverview of NetBackup tasks

26

Notes and prerequisites


■ Prerequisites

■ VMware notes and restrictions

■ Notes on Linux virtual machines

■ NetBackup character restrictions for virtual machine display names

■ Notes on the hotadd transfer type

■ Creating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer

PrerequisitesThe following prerequisites apply to NetBackup for VMware:

■ The VMware backup host must run Windows 2003 or 2008. (For VCB onWindows 2008, VCB 1.5 update 2 is required.) The supported hardware typesare the same as for any NetBackup Windows client. For further informationon supported guest operating systems and VMware components and versions,refer to the following Symantec tech note:Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments:http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

■ To use the hotadd transfer type for backup or restore, the VMware backup orrestore host is installed in a virtual machine.For ESX 3.5 and earlier: You must set up a shadow virtual machine that hasthe same name as the backup host but with the (VCB-HELPER) suffix.

See “Creating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer” on page 32.See “Notes on the hotadd transfer type” on page 31.

3Chapter


VMware notes and restrictionsNote the following about NetBackup for VMware:

■ NetBackup for VMware does not work with the VMware NetBackup IntegrationModule (VNIM). Conflicts can occur between NetBackup for VMware policiesand any older script-based policies that use VNIM.See “Troubleshooting notes for VMware” on page 152.

■ NetBackup for VMware does not support the NetBackup Instant Recoveryfeature.

■ NetBackup for VMware cannot back up the data on an independent disk,because an independent disk cannot be captured with a snapshot. The backupsucceeds but the backup image contains no data for the independent disk.

■ If a Windows virtual machine includes Veritas Storage Foundation volumes,only the Full VM backup option and the Perform block level incrementalbackup option (BLIB) are supported.

■ VMware does not support non-ASCII characters in virtual machine displaynames or in other objects that are associated with the virtual machine.(Examples are annotations, floppy image name, parallel port or serial port filename, and CD-ROM ISO name.) For the complete list of objects that VMwaredoes not support with non-ASCII characters, see the following VMware article:Troubleshooting errors resulting from non-ASCII names (1003866)http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003866In keeping with VMware’s position, NetBackup does not support non-ASCIIcharacters in display names or in other vSphere objects. Symantec recommendsthat you follow VMware's guidelines in naming vSphere objects.In addition, NetBackup has its own restrictions on characters in display names.See “NetBackup character restrictions for virtual machine display names”on page 30.

Note: If the virtual machine display name contains non-ASCII characters, thebackup may succeed but the restore fails. To restore the virtual machine, youmust change the display name to contain ASCII characters only and retry therestore.

■ Incremental backups must be based on timestamps.See “Incremental backups must be based on timestamps ” on page 65.

■ Several notes and limitations apply to the automatic selection of virtualmachines for backup (Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy).

Notes and prerequisitesVMware notes and restrictions

28

See “NetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine selection”on page 75.

■ Several notes and limitations apply to Linux and UNIX virtual machines.See “Notes on Linux virtual machines” on page 29.

■ For hotadd backup or restore: The virtual machine to back up (or restore) andthe virtual machine that contains the hotadd backup host must reside in thesame VMware datacenter.See “Notes on the hotadd transfer type” on page 31.

■ NetBackup for VMware does not support the Mapped full VM backup optionfor the virtual machines that contain encrypted drives. For backups of thevirtual machines that contain encrypted drives, use the FullVMbackup option.

■ Storage optimization cannot be used if a snapshot exists on the virtual machinewhen VMware Changed Block Tracking is turned on.See “Using VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only” on page 110.See “About reducing the size of backups” on page 107.

■ If the policy's Client name selection option is set to VM hostname, note:NetBackup cannot select a VMware virtual machine for backup if it cannotobtain an IP address for the virtual machine.

■ For backups using VCB, NetBackup for VMware supports USB drives as thesnapshot mount point (for staging) on a VMware backup host. The USB drivemust be formatted with the NTFS file system.

■ NetBackup cannot terminate a VCB snapshot on the virtual machine. If youcancel a virtual machine backup that uses VMware VCB, NetBackup terminatesthe backup job. NetBackup may not be able however to terminate the VMwarevcbmounter process that creates the snapshot on the virtual machine.

On the virtual machine, you must use VMware Virtual Infrastructure or vSphereClient to delete the snapshot.

■ For Windows virtual machine backups using VCB, the snapshot mount pointon the backup host must be a local drive, not network mounted. Do not setcompression or encryption on the mount point.

■ See “Restore notes and restrictions” on page 137.

Notes on Linux virtual machinesThe following notes apply to virtual machines with Linux guest operating systems:

■ On Linux virtual machines, NetBackup requires a special utility (SYMCquiesce)to quiesce the file system in preparation for taking the snapshot. Without

29Notes and prerequisitesNotes on Linux virtual machines

SYMCquiesce, NetBackup cannot guarantee that data in the file system is ina consistent state when the snapshot occurs.See “About the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 183.See “Installing the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 184.For the Linux virtual machines that do not have the SYMCquiesce utility: Toguarantee that the file system is consistent at the time of backup, considerpowering down the virtual machine before the backup. When the machine ispowered down, data buffers are flushed to disk and the file system is consistent.For a description of file system quiescence, see "Processing before and afterthe snapshot" in the NetBackup Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide.

■ If the Linux file system was not quiesced before the snapshot, some files maybe inconsistent. Such files can be recovered from the NetBackup.lost+founddirectory.See “About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux” on page 140.

■ For Linux virtual machines, FlashBackup-Windows is the only supportedpolicy type.

■ For Linux virtual machines, only the Full VM backup and Mapped full VMbackup options are supported. Note that files can be restored individuallyfrom a backup that used the Mapped full VM backup option.See “Configuration parameters for VMware” on page 51.

■ Unmounted LVM2 volumes must start with /devIf the path of an unmounted LVM2 volume does not start with /dev, the backupof the virtual machine fails. Note: The path of the volume is set with the "dir"parameter on the LVM volume configuration file. An example of thisconfiguration file is /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.

■ For Linux files or directories, NetBackup for VMware has the same path namerestriction as NetBackup on a Linux physical host. Files or directories withpath names longer than 1023 characters cannot be individually backed up orrestored. Such files can be restored when you restore the entire virtual machinefrom a full virtual machine backup.

■ See “Restore notes and restrictions on Linux” on page 139.

NetBackup character restrictions for virtualmachinedisplay names

When virtual machines are included in a NetBackup policy, certain charactersare not allowed in the virtual machine display name. If the display name containsthe wrong characters, the backup fails.

Notes and prerequisitesNetBackup character restrictions for virtual machine display names

30

For NetBackup, the following characters are allowed in virtual machine displaynames:

■ Uppercase and lowercase ASCII characters

■ Numbers

■ Period (.)

■ Hyphen (-)

■ Underscore (_)

■ Plus sign (+)

■ Percent sign (% )

■ Spaces

Note: No other characters are allowed.

See “Client name selection” on page 51.

Notes on the hotadd transfer typeNetBackup supports several transfer types for sending snapshot data betweenthe VMware datastore and the VMware backup host during a backup or restore.One of those transfer types (hotadd) is used when the VMware backup host isinstalled in a virtual machine.

Note the following about the hotadd transfer type:

■ For a backup or restore, the hotadd transfer type does not support the vmdkfiles that are larger than 1 TB. If the .vmdk file is larger than 1 TB, the filecannot be mounted.

■ The VMware backup host must be installed in a virtual machine.

■ For ESX versions 3.5 and earlier: You must configure a shadow (helper) virtualmachine before the backup starts. The helper virtual machine must have atleast as many SCSI controllers as exist on the virtual machine that you wantto back up.The helper virtual machine is used internally by the VMware VDDK to attachthe disks temporarily during hotadd backup or restore.

Note:A helper virtual machine is not required for backups of ESX 4.0 (or later)virtual machines. For earlier ESX versions, whether you use VCB or vStorage,a helper virtual machine is required.

31Notes and prerequisitesNotes on the hotadd transfer type

See “Creating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer” on page 32.

■ The following is a VMware requirement: The virtual machine to back up andthe virtual machine that contains the hotadd backup host must reside in thesame VMware datacenter. The same VMware requirement applies to virtualmachine restore: The virtual machine to restore and the virtual machine thatcontains the hotadd restore host must reside in the same VMware datacenter.For hotadd backup, Symantec recommends at least one hotadd backup hostfor each datacenter.

■ NetBackup does not support IDE disks on the virtual machine.

■ On the virtual machine to back up, no two disks should have the same name.(Identical names can occur if the disks reside on different datastores.)

■ The ESX server (where the backup-host virtual machine resides) must haveaccess to the datastore of the virtual machines that you want to back up.

■ The datastore for the backup-host virtual machine must have some free spacebefore the hotadd backup begins. Otherwise, the backup may fail.

■ For additional hotadd information, see the following VMware document:VDDK 1.2.1 Release Notes

Creating a helper virtualmachine for hotadd transferThis procedure applies only to ESX versions 3.5 (and earlier) with use of the hotaddtransfer type.

Notes and prerequisitesCreating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer

32

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/VDDK-1.2.1-Relnotes.html

To create a helper virtual machine for hotadd backup or restore

1 Create a virtual machine.

You do not need to assign any drives to the virtual machine.

2 Give the helper virtual machine the same VMware display name as the virtualmachine where the backup host is installed. Add the (VCB-HELPER) suffix tothe name.

For example, if the virtual machine that contains the backup host is calledbu_host_VM, the name of the helper virtual machine must be the following:

bu_host_VM(VCB-HELPER)

Note that the complete name including the suffix must not exceed 32characters.

3 For more information on helper virtual machines, see the following VMwaredocument:

VMware Virtual Machine Backup Guide (Update 2 and later for ESX Server3.5, ESX Server 3i version 3.5, VirtualCenter 2.5).

33Notes and prerequisitesCreating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer

Notes and prerequisitesCreating a helper virtual machine for hotadd transfer

34

Configure NetBackupaccess to VMware


■ NetBackup for VMware environment diagrams

■ Adding the VMware backup host to NetBackup

■ Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware

■ Changing the host name of a VMware server in NetBackup

■ Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources

NetBackup for VMware environment diagramsThis chapter explains how to add a backup host to NetBackup, and how to addNetBackup credentials for VMware servers. For perspective, the following diagramshows the components of a NetBackup for VMware environment.

4Chapter

Figure 4-1 NetBackup for VMware environment

LAN / WAN

VMware datastore(Must be available toVMware backup host)

vCenterserver

ESXservers

Virtual machinesVM VM VM

VM VM VM

SAN

NetBackup media serverUNIX, Linux, or Windows

NetBackup master serverUNIX, Linux, or Windows

Backup hostNetBackup Windows client.(Can be combined with aWindows master/media server)

Adding the VMware backup host to NetBackupYou must add the VMware backup host to your NetBackup configuration.

In the NetBackup Administration Console, do the following.

To add the VMware backup host

1 Click Host Properties > Master Servers, double click the NetBackup masterserver, and click VMware Access Hosts.

2 Click Add.

3 Enter the fully qualified domain name of the VMware backup host, and clickAdd.

4 When you are finished adding hosts, click Close.

5 Click Apply and then OK.

Adding NetBackup credentials for VMwareTo back up or restore virtual machines, the NetBackup server requires logoncredentials to access the VMware ESX servers or the VMware vCenter servers. Inthe NetBackup Administration Console, do the following.

Configure NetBackup access to VMwareAdding the VMware backup host to NetBackup

36

To add NetBackup credentials

1 Click Media and Device Management > Credentials > Virtual MachineServers.

2 Click Actions > New > New Virtual Machine Server.

3 On the Add Virtual Machine Server dialog, enter the name of a virtualmachine server (vCenter server or ESX server).

Note: Enter the server name in the same format in which it is registered inDNS and in the VMware server (whether short or fully-qualified).

NetBackup needs access to this server for either of the following reasons:

■ To browse the server's virtual machines and back them up.

■ To use the server as a target for restoring virtual machines.Use the next dialog to identify the type of this server (vCenter, ESX, orESX for restore only).

4 In the Credentials pane of the Virtual Machine Server dialog, enter thefollowing:

Virtual machine server type

Select the type of VMware server that NetBackup needs to access:

■ VMware VirtualCenter serverDesignates a vCenter (or VirtualCenter) server that manages ESX servers.When you create a policy to back up this server's virtual machines,NetBackup can browse this server and list its virtual machines. If thecredentials provide full access privileges to the vCenter server, you canrestore virtual machines to this server.Note: Do not enter logon credentials for the individual ESX servers thatthis vCenter server manages. NetBackup needs credentials for the vCenteronly.

■ VMware ESX serverDesignates a standalone ESX server that is not managed by a vCenterserver. NetBackup will be able to browse the ESX server to present a listof its virtual machines for backup. You can also restore virtual machinesto this ESX server. To use the server as a target for restores, enter thecredentials that provide full access privileges to the ESX server.

■ VMware restore ESX server

37Configure NetBackup access to VMwareAdding NetBackup credentials for VMware

Designates an ESX server to which NetBackup can restore virtual machines.You must enter the credentials that provide full access privileges to theserver.

Note: NetBackup accesses this type of server for restores only, not forbackups.

Note: For restore, VMware vStorage cannot communicate with the ESXservers that are earlier than version 3.5 update 2. To restore the virtualmachines that were backed up with vStorage: the target ESX server mustbe 3.5 update 2 or later or must be managed by a vCenter server 2.5 update1 or later.

The restore ESX server type has the following advantages:

■ For large environments with hundreds of hosts, NetBackup may notneed full access to the vCenter server. With the restore ESX servertype, you can give NetBackup full access to a single ESX server that isdedicated to restore.

■ SAN-based restores that go directly to a restore ESX server are fasterthan restores that go through the vCenter server.

For further information on the restore ESX server, refer to the followingSymantec tech note:http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH128513

User name

Enter the user name for the virtual machine server. Note that spaces in usernames are not allowed.

Password

Enter the password (and confirm it) for the virtual machine server.

Validate Credentials

Select this box to have the credentials verified.

You can use the Forbackuphost pull-down to select a particular backup hostfor which to validate the credentials. Note that a backup host appears in thepull-down list if it was added to the master server's Host Properties dialog.


If For backup host is set to <Any> (the default), NetBackup attempts tovalidate the credentials using each backup host in turn. NetBackup continues

Configure NetBackup access to VMwareAdding NetBackup credentials for VMware

38

checking only until validation succeeds for a particular backup host or thelist of backup hosts is exhausted.

During validation: An invalid user name or password is deleted if you haveentered it for the first time and you do not select a backup host.

If your VMware backup host is running a version of NetBackup that is earlierthan 6.5.4, the credentials cannot be validated. An error message is displayed.You must verify that the credentials you entered are correct for the VMwareserver. If the credentials are correct, you can ignore the error message.

Connect using port number

If the default port number has not been changed on the VMware server, noport specification is required. In that case, make sure that the Connectusingport number box is not checked.

If the VMware server has been configured to use a different port, click theConnect using port number box and specify that port number.

5 Click OK.

6 If your site has multiple standalone ESX servers, use the Virtual MachineServer dialog to enter credentials for each ESX server.

See “Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources” on page 40.

Changing the host name of a VMware server inNetBackup

Use the following procedure if you need to change a VMware server's host nameas it is stored in NetBackup.

Example reasons for changing the VMware server name are the following:

■ You used a short host name for the server for its NetBackup credentials, andneed to replace that name with the fully qualified host name.

■ Two hosts currently resolve to the same IP address, and one of them must berenamed and assigned a new IP address.

To change the host name of a VMware host in NetBackup

1 Remove the current credentials that were entered for the VMware host.

Do the following:

■ In the NetBackup Administration Console, click on Media and DeviceManagement > Credentials > Virtual Machine Servers.

39Configure NetBackup access to VMwareChanging the host name of a VMware server in NetBackup

■ Right-click on the credentials definition for the VMware server and selectDelete (or press the Delete key).

2 Remove the VMware host from the NetBackup EMM database.

Enter the following command:

nbemmcmd -deletehost -machinename VMware_server_name

-machinetype virtual_machine

3 In the NetBackup Administration Console, re-enter NetBackup's credentialsfor the VMware server.


Make sure to enter the correct host name for the VMware server.


Setting global limits on the use of VMware resourcesYou can use the Resource Limit dialog to control the number of simultaneousbackups that can be performed on a VMware resource type. The settings apply toall policies.

For example, to avoid overloading the ESX server, you can place a limit on thenumber of concurrent backup jobs per ESX server. To control I/O overhead on thedatastore's array, you can limit the number of concurrent backups per datastore.

Note: The Resource Limit screen applies only to policies that use automaticselection of virtual machines (Query Builder). If virtual machines are selectedmanually on the Browse for Virtual Machines screen, the Resource Limit settingshave no effect.

In the NetBackup Administration Console, do the following.

Configure NetBackup access to VMwareSetting global limits on the use of VMware resources

40

To set limits on the use of VMware resources

1 Click Host Properties > Master Servers and double click the NetBackupmaster server.

2 In the Properties screen, scroll down in the left pane and click ResourceLimit.

41Configure NetBackup access to VMwareSetting global limits on the use of VMware resources

3 Click in the Resource Limit column to set the maximum NetBackup usagefor the resource type.

These settings apply to all policies.

A Resource Limit of 4 for Datastore means that NetBackup policies canperform no more than 4 simultaneous backups on any particular datastore.

The Resource Limit column sets the following limits (the default is 0, NoLimit):

The maximum number of simultaneous backups per vCenterserver.

vCenter

The maximum number of simultaneous snapshot operations(create or delete) per vCenter.

snapshot

The maximum number of simultaneous backups per VMwarecluster.

Cluster

The maximum number of simultaneous backups per ESXserver.

ESXserver


42

The maximum number of simultaneous backups per VMXdatastore.

See “NetBackup for VMware terminology” on page 19.

VMXDatastore

The maximum number of simultaneous backups perdatastore.

Datastore

Other resource-related considerations may be of interest.

See “NetBackup for VMware best practices” on page 143.

To limit the number of simultaneous backups per policy, use the Limit jobsper policy setting on the policy Attributes tab.

43Configure NetBackup access to VMwareSetting global limits on the use of VMware resources


44

Configure NetBackuppolicies for VMware


■ Configuring a VMware policy from the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard

■ Configuring a VMware policy from the Policies utility

■ Configuration parameters for VMware

■ Browse for VMware Virtual Machines screen

■ Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing forvirtual machines

■ Virtual machine host names and display names must be unique in a masterserver's policies

■ Client Name Selection parameter and manual selection of virtual machines

■ About incremental backups of virtual machines

■ Configuring incremental backups

■ Volume Manager volumes in the virtual machine

■ Recovery options related to policy selections

■ About older policies and pre-7.x backup hosts

5Chapter

Configuring aVMwarepolicy fromtheSnapshotPolicyConfiguration wizard

Use the following procedure.

To create a backup policy by means of the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard

1 In the NetBackup Administration Console (on the NetBackup master server),click on the name of the master server.

2 Click Create a Snapshot Backup Policy.

3 Click Next.

4 On the Select Client screen, enter a name for the policy.

5 For Virtual Machine Type, select VMware.

6 Enter the name of the VMware backup host.

7 Follow the remaining screens in the wizard.

The wizard creates the policy according to your selections.

Configuring a VMware policy from the Policies utilityYou can create a policy (full or incremental) to back up the virtual machine ineither of two ways:

■ Use the Policies utility of the NetBackup Administration Console (describedin this topic).

■ Use the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard.See “Configuring a VMware policy from the Snapshot Policy Configurationwizard” on page 46.

To configure a policy for backup of individual files, see the appendix titled"File-level backup of Windows virtual machines."

To configure a policy to back up the virtual machine

1 In the NetBackup Administration Console, click Policies and select Actions> New > New Policy.

2 Select the FlashBackup-Windows policy type.

The FlashBackup-Windows policy type is recommended for mostenvironments. Use it to back up the entire virtual machine.

Note the following about the FlashBackup-Windows policy type:

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring a VMware policy from the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard

46

■ Increases the backup speed as compared to standard file-order backupmethods, if the virtual machine is heavily populated with small files.

■ Can create a backup from which you can restore selected files or the fullvirtual machine.

For UNIX and Linux virtual machines, FlashBackup-Windows is the onlysupported policy type.

3 Select a policy storage unit or storage unit group.

Storage unit groups are described in the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide,Volume I.

4 Note that the FlashBackup-Windows policy type automatically selects Performsnapshot backups.

The following is the Snapshot Client pane on the lower left of the policyattributes tab:

Make sure that CollectdisasterrecoveryinformationforBareMetalRestoreis not selected.

5 Select Perform off-host backup.

6 From the pull-down list for the Use field, select VMware backup host.

7 In the Machine field, specify the name of the VMware backup host.

If the VMware backup host does not appear in the Machine pull-down list,make sure that it was added to the Host Properties setting.


You may have to close and reopen the policy for the added VMware backuphost to appear in the list.

47Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring a VMware policy from the Policies utility

8 For block-level backups of the virtual machine, select Perform block levelincremental backups.

This option reduces the backup size. To enable this option, you must firstselect Perform off-host backup and VMware backup host.

See “Block-level backup (BLIB): full vs incremental” on page 108.

9 Click Options.

The following is the upper half of the Snapshot Options dialog box(Configuration Parameters). The lower portion (Snapshot Resources) is notused.

See “Configuration parameters for VMware” on page 51.

10 To save these settings, click OK and then Apply.

11 Use the Schedules tab to define a schedule.

On the attributes tab, you can select Full backup, Differential IncrementalBackup, or Cumulative Incremental Backup.

Incremental backups require one of the following policy configurations:

■ For the Virtual machine backup parameter on the Snapshot Optionsdialog, select Mapped full VM backup.

■ Or, select Perform block level incremental backups on the policyAttributes tab. For the Virtual machine backup parameter, select FullVM backup or Mapped full VM backup.BLIB requires an ESX server 4.0 and a virtual machine at vmx-07 or later.The following topics contain additional information.See “Recovery options related to policy selections” on page 66.See “About incremental backups of virtual machines” on page 63.

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring a VMware policy from the Policies utility

48

12 Use the Clients tab to specify the virtual machines to back up.

You can specify virtual machines in either of two ways:

The Browse for VMware Virtual Machinesscreen appears. You can type the host name inthe EntertheVMwarehostname field, or clickBrowse and select virtual machine.

See “Browse for VMware Virtual Machinesscreen” on page 57.

Use Select manually, and click New.

With this option, NetBackup can automaticallyselect virtual machines for backup based onthe filtering criteria that you enter. Thefollowing topics explain how to specify thecriteria:

See “About automatic virtual machineselection for NetBackup” on page 70.

See “Configuring automatic virtual machineselection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)”on page 79.

Use Select automatically throughquery

Note: In the NetBackup Java Administration Console, the Install Softwareoption is for installing NetBackup client software on trusting UNIX clients.This option does not apply to virtual machines.

13 If you used Select manually on the Clients tab, you can use the BackupSelections tab to specify the virtual machine drives to back up.

Note: If you used Selectautomatically throughquery on the Clients tab, theBackupSelections tab is automatically filled in with the filtering rules fromthe query. NetBackup uses the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive to back up all thevirtual machines. You cannot make any selections on the BackupSelectionstab.

If you used Select manually on the Clients tab, click New. You can makeentries manually, or click on the pull-down (UNIX) or hand icon (Windows)to select from available directives.

For VMware backup, the System_State directive (Windows 2000) and theShadowCopy Components directive (Windows 2003) are not supported.

49Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring a VMware policy from the Policies utility

Enter either of the following and then click Add (on UNIX) or press Enter(Windows):

■ Individual drive letters. (For Windows virtual machines only. Requiresthe File level snapshot using VCB backup option.)Enter the drive letter as follows (for example):

\\.\E:

The drive must be designated exactly as shown (E:\ is not correct).

■ ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES

The ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive backs up all local drives on the virtualmachines that are selected on the Clients tab. This entry is the only onesupported for UNIX and Linux virtual machines.Note the kinds of files that are included in an ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES backup:

The ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive backs up all data fileson the virtual machines.

ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES also backs up the following, if thesnapshot option is Full VM backup, Mapped full VM backup,or Full backup with file level incremental:

■ Windows System State files

■ Windows OS partitions that contain the Windowssystem files (usually C:)

■ VMware virtual disk files

Note: If you chose Full VM backup or Mapped Full VMbackup for the Virtual Machine Backup parameter,ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES is the only entry allowed for backupselections.

FlashBackup-Windowspolicy

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring a VMware policy from the Policies utility

50

To back up individual files or folders instead of a drive, you must configurea file-level backup. See the appendix titled "File-level backup of Windowsvirtual machines." Note that VCB is required.

14 If you click Apply or OK on the policy Attributes tab, a validation processchecks the policy and reports any errors. If you click Close, no validation isperformed.


Configuration parameters for VMwareThe following parameters apply to the VMware snapshot method:

Client name selectionSpecifies the type of name by which NetBackup recognizes a virtual machine.

The network host name for the virtual machine. (This optionis the default.) NetBackup obtains the host name by meansof a reverse lookup on the virtual machine's IP address. Ifno host name can be found, the IP address is used as thehost name.

VM hostname

The name of the virtual machine as displayed in the VMwareinterface. For example, you provide a display name to thevirtual machine when the virtual machine is created.

Note the following:

■ When virtual machines are included in a NetBackuppolicy, restrictions apply to the characters that areallowed in the virtual machine display name.

See “NetBackup character restrictions for virtualmachine display names” on page 30.

Note: The character restrictions apply even if you donot select VMware display name as the Client nameselection type. The restrictions also apply to othervSphere objects, such as floppy image name, parallelport or serial port file name, and CD-ROM ISO name.

■ Each display name must be unique in your VMwareenvironment.

■ See “VMware notes and restrictions” on page 28.

■ See “Restoring individual files” on page 135.

VMware display name

51Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguration parameters for VMware

The unique ID assigned to the virtual machine when thevirtual machine was created.

VMware UUID

The VMware "DNS Name" of the virtual machine. In vSphereClient, this name appears on the virtual machine's Summarytab.

Note: This name may or may not be associated with thevirtual machine’s IP address. VMware Tools obtains thisname from the host name that is configured in the virtualmachine. For further information on this name, refer to thedocumentation for the guest operating system.

VM DNS Name

A change to the Client Name Selection value can affect backups, depending onhow the policy is configured on the Clients tab. Refer to the following topics formore information:

See “Client Name Selection parameter and manual selection of virtual machines”on page 63.

See “Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in Test Queryresults” on page 102.

Note: When creating virtual machines, use the same name for both host nameand display name. If the Client Name Selection is changed, the existing entrieson the Clients tab still work.

Virtual machine backup

Backs up either of the following:

■ Individual folders and files, individual drives, or all local drives,with the MS-Windows policy type.

■ Individual drives or all local drives, with theFlashBackup-Windows policy type.

FilelevelsnapshotusingVCB cannot be used to back up Windowssystem files or VMware virtual disk files.

FilelevelsnapshotusingVCB requires VCB on the VMware backuphost.

See “About file-level backup of Windows virtual machines”on page 187.

File level snapshotusing VCB

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguration parameters for VMware

52

Backs up the entire virtual machine. From the backup, you canrestore the entire virtual machine but not individual files. Youcan also use this option to make incremental backups: in the policyschedule, select differential incremental backup or cumulativeincremental backup.

To back up a virtual machine that contains Veritas StorageFoundation Volume Manager volumes, use the Full VM backupoption. Make sure that the Exclude unused and deleted blocksoption is disabled.

Note: Restore of individual files from a Full VM backup is notsupported if the virtual machine contains Storage FoundationVolume Manager volumes.

Full VM backup

Backs up the entire virtual machine. (This option is the default.)

Two kinds of restore are possible from a mapped full backup:restore of the entire virtual machine or of individual folders andfiles. You can also use this option to make incremental backups:in the policy schedule, select differential incremental backup orcumulative incremental backup.

This option is the default.

To perform a VMware backup to a deduplication storage unit,select the Mapped full VM backup option. This option providesthe best deduplication rates. Use of the Full VM backup optionresults in a lower rate of deduplication.

Mapped full VMbackup

This option is intended for pre-7.x versions of NetBackup forVMware. This option backs up the entire virtual machine for fullbackups. It also backs up individual files, folders, or drives forincremental backups, by means of the file-level snapshot capabilityof VCB.

Choose this option in either of the following cases:

■ You have not upgraded your backup host to NetBackup 7.x.

■ Your VMware environment still requires VCB.


Note: For 7.x systems with VMware ESX 3.5 update 2 or later orVirtualCenter 2.5 update 1 or later, use Mapped full VM backupor FullVMbackup instead. Then set up an incremental schedule.

Full backup with filelevel incremental

Transfer typeIf you use VCB for the backup, these options require ESX server 3.5 or later andVCB 1.1 or later.


The transfer types determine how the snapshot data is sent from the VMwaredatastore to the VMware backup host. The appropriate option depends in part onthe type of network that connects the VMware datastore to the VMware backuphost.

For unencrypted transfer over Fibre Channel (SAN) or iSCSI.san

For unencrypted transfer over a local network that uses theNetwork Block Device (NBD) driver protocol. This type oftransfer is usually slower than Fibre Channel.

nbd

For encrypted transfer (SSL) over a local network that usesthe Network Block Device (NBD) driver protocol. This typeof transfer is usually slower than Fibre Channel.

nbdssl

Provides transfer flexibility if the VMware datastore isavailable on both a SAN and a local network. NetBackupattempts an unencrypted transfer over Fibre Channel (SAN)or iSCSI. If that fails, it transfers the snapshot data usingthe Network Block Device (NBD) driver protocol over thelocal network.

try san then nbd

Provides transfer flexibility if the VMware datastore isavailable on both a SAN and a local network. NetBackupattempts an unencrypted transfer over Fibre Channel (SAN)or iSCSI. If that fails, it transfers the snapshot data with SSLencryption using the Network Block Device (NBD) driverprotocol over the local network.

try san then nbdssl

Lets you run the VMware backup host in a virtual machine.This feature requires ESX 3.5 Update2 or later.

See “Notes on the hotadd transfer type” on page 31.

For instructions on this transport mode and on installingthe backup host in a VMware virtual machine, refer to yourVMware documentation.

hotadd

NetBackup tries each transfer type in this order: san, hotadd,nbd, nbdssl. It uses the first type that succeeds for all disksin the virtual machine. For example: if one of the disks cannotbe accessed using san, the san transfer type is not used forany of the virtual machine’s disks. NetBackup then tries touse the hotadd type for all the disks. NetBackup continuesto try each type until it finds one that succeeds for all thedisks.

This option is the default.

try all types


54

Virtual machine quiesceThis option is enabled by default. In the great majority of cases, you should acceptthe default.

I/O on the virtual machine is quiesced before NetBackup creates the snapshot.Without quiescing file activity, data consistency in the snapshot cannot beguaranteed. If not consistent, the backed up data may be of little or no value.

If this option is disabled, the snapshot is created without quiescing I/O on thevirtual machine. In this case, you must perform your own checks for dataconsistency in the backup data.

Caution: Symantec does not recommend that you disable quiesce. In most cases,this option should be enabled.

Note: To use this option, VMware Tools must be installed on the virtual machine.

Note: To use this option with Linux virtual machines, you must also install theSYMCquiesce utility.

See “Installing the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 184.

Exclude unused and deleted blocksThis option reduces the size of the backup image by excluding any unused ordeleted blocks within the file system on the virtual machine. (This option is enabledby default.)

Note the following:

■ This option applies only to backups of an entire virtual machine (it does notapply to backups that specify individual files only).

■ This option supports the following file systems: Windows NTFS, and Linuxext2 and ext3.

■ This option uses proprietary mapping technology to identify vacant sectors(allocated but empty) within the file system.

See “About reducing the size of backups” on page 107.


Existing snapshot handling

Note: This option applies only to backups that use VMware vStorage. It does notapply to backups that use VMware VCB.

After it creates a snapshot, NetBackup usually deletes the snapshot when thebackup has succeeded. If snapshots are not automatically deleted (whether createdby NetBackup or not), the performance of the virtual machine may eventually beaffected.

Note also that the existence of undeleted snapshots can cause restore failures dueto lack of disk space. If the virtual machine was configured on multiple datastoresand a leftover snapshot existed on the virtual machine when it was backed up,NetBackup tries to restore all .vmdk files to the snapshot datastore. As a result,the datastore may not have enough space for the .vmdk files, and the restore fails.(For a successful restore, you can restore the virtual machine to an alternatelocation. Use the Storage Destination dialog in the Virtual Machine Recoverydialogs to select a datastore for the .vmdk files.)

The Existingsnapshothandling parameter specifies what action NetBackup takeswhen a snapshot is discovered before it creates a new snapshot for the backup.

NetBackup ignores any existing virtual machine snapshots(including snapshots previously created by NetBackup) andproceeds with snapshot creation and the backup.

Ignore

If any snapshot exists on the virtual machine, NetBackup abortsthe job for that virtual machine only.

Abort

If a virtual machine snapshot exists that a NetBackup backuppreviously created: NetBackup removes the old snapshot, createsan updated snapshot, and proceeds with the virtual machinebackup. (This option is the default.)

Remove NBU

Monolithic export (VCB only)This option applies only to backups that use VCB.

When NetBackup backs up a virtual machine, it copies the virtual machine .vmdkfiles from the VMware datastore to the VMware backup host. Note that NetBackupcan copy a large vmdk file to the VMware backup host as 2GB files instead of asa larger file. Sending a large vmdk file in smaller (2GB) units can improve transferspeed.


56

This option is disabled by default: the vmdk file is transferred to the VMwarebackup host in 2GB chunks.

Enabled means that the vmdk file is transferred to the VMware backup host as asingle file, regardless of how large the vmdk file is. In some cases, transferring avery large vmdk file may result in a slower transfer speed.

Snapshot mount point (VCB only)Specifies a folder on the VMware backup host. This option applies only to backupsthat use VMware VCB on the backup host.

An example mount point is:

G:\mnt

If the folder does not exist on the VMware backup host, NetBackup creates it.

This folder is used in one of two ways, depending on the parameter value that youchoose:

■ For file-level backups (File level snapshot using VCB), the VMware backup hostmounts snapshots of individual virtual disk volumes in this folder. Thesesnapshots are links to the virtual datastore. No virtual machine data is copiedto this folder.

■ For full virtual machine backups, the VMware backup host creates a snapshotof the entire virtual machine in this folder. This snapshot contains copies ofall virtual disk files on the virtual datastore that constitute a point-in-timeimage of the entire virtual machine. Enough space must be available in thisfolder to contain the snapshot.For Windows virtual machines, the mount point must be a local drive, notnetwork mounted. Also, do not set compression or encryption on the mountpoint.See “Troubleshooting notes for VMware” on page 152.

Browse for VMware Virtual Machines screenUse this screen to select a vCenter server (VirtualCenter), ESX server, or individualvirtual machines. You can enter the host name manually or browse and selectfrom a list.

57Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareBrowse for VMware Virtual Machines screen

■ Enter the VM hostnameClick this option if you want to manually enter the name of a virtual machine.The format of the name depends on your system. It may be the fully qualifiedname or another name, depending on your network configuration and howthe name is defined in the guest OS. If NetBackup cannot find the name youenter, policy validation fails.To enter a host name, make sure that Browse and select Virtual Machine isnot selected.

■ Browse and select Virtual MachineClick this option to discover vCenter servers, clusters, datacenters, vApps, andESX servers (shown in the left pane). You can select virtual machines from alist (in the right pane).NetBackup uses the following icons for vSphere objects:

vCenter server

Datacenter

Cluster

vApp

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareBrowse for VMware Virtual Machines screen

58

ESX server

Virtual machine

The virtual machines that are contained in a VMware vApp are displayed inthe right pane along with other virtual machines.The virtual machine names that are listed may be derived from a cache file.Use of the cache file is faster than rediscovering the virtual machines on thenetwork if your site has a large number of virtual machines.If NetBackup cannot obtain the IP address of the virtual machine, the hostname and IP address are displayed as NONE.Note that virtual machine host names or display names must be unique withina master server's policies:See “Virtual machine host names and display names must be unique in a masterserver's policies” on page 62.

■ Last UpdateTo update the cache file and re-display virtual machines, click the refresh iconto the right of the Last Update field. This field shows the date and time of themost recent cache file that contains the names of virtual machines.

For NetBackup to access the virtual machines, note the following:

■ For older virtual machines, VMware VCB must be installed on the VMwarebackup host.

■ The NetBackup master server must have credentials for the VMwareVirtualCenter or ESX server(s).See “Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware” on page 36.

■ DNS problems may prevent or slow down discovery of the virtual machines.See “Preventing browsing delays caused by DNS problems” on page 150.

■ To limit the search to particular vCenter or ESX servers, you can create aBACKUP registry entry as an exclude list. Excluding unneeded servers candramatically speed up the search for virtual machines.See “Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsingfor virtual machines” on page 61.

■ The browsing timeout value must not be set too low.See “Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery”on page 151.

■ VM Host Name, Display Name, UUID, etc.

59Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareBrowse for VMware Virtual Machines screen

When you select an ESX server in the left pane, information about its virtualmachines appears in columns in the right pane. You can change the settingsand arrangement of these columns by right-clicking on any of the columnheaders.The columns are the following:

The host name of the virtual machine.VM Host Name

The display name of the virtual machine.Display Name

The UUID of the virtual machine.UUID

The VMware "DNS Name" of the virtual machine. InvSphere Client, this name appears on the virtual machine'sSummary tab.


VM DNS Name

The IP address of the virtual machine.IP Address

The guest OS system as defined when the virtual machinewas created.

OS

The datastore where the virtual machine configurationfiles are stored.

Data Store

The power on/off status of the virtual machine when itwas last discovered.

Power

Shows whether the virtual machine has a physical disk inraw device mapping mode (RDM) or has an independentdrive.

RDM Status

The VMware release version of the virtual machine(vmx-04 or vmx-07).

Platform

The time and date at which the virtual machine's UUIDwas initially discovered and cached.

Discovered Timestamp

Shows whether the virtual machine supports the VMwareChanged Block Tracking feature (for BLIB). Changed BlockTracking requires ESX server 4.0 and a virtual machineat vmx-07 or later.

Change Tracking Support

The ESX server in which the virtual machine resides (alsoappears in the left pane).

ESX Host

The datacenter that contains the virtual machine (alsoappears in the left pane).

Data Center

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareBrowse for VMware Virtual Machines screen

60

The vCenter server that manages the ESX server (alsoappears in the left pane).

Virtual Center Name

The virtual machines you selected are listed in the Clients tab.

Limiting theVMware servers thatNetBackupsearcheswhen browsing for virtual machines

As part of creating a NetBackup policy, you must specify which virtual machinesto back up. One approach is to let NetBackup search the network and list allavailable virtual machines. However, if your VMware environment contains manyVMware servers and virtual machines, it may take too long to search and list allof them. For example, consider an environment with 10 vCenter servers. To backup the virtual machines on one of the 10 vCenter servers, browsing virtualmachines on all 10 servers is unnecessary.

To speed up browsing, you can exclude particular VMware servers from the search.When it probes the network for virtual machines, NetBackup queries only theVMware servers that are not named in the exclude list for the backup-host.

To limit the VMware servers that NetBackup discovers, per backup host

1 On the Windows desktop of the backup host, click Start > Run and enterregedit.

2 To be on the safe side, make a backup of the current registry (File > Export).

3 Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup >CurrentVersion > Config and create a key called BACKUP.

4 Right-click in the right pane and click New > String Value. EnterexcludeVMservers as the name.

61Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareLimiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing for virtual machines

5 Right-click the excludeVMservers name and click Modify.

6 In the EditString dialog, enter a comma-delimited list of the VMware serversthat are NOT to be queried when NetBackup browses the network. Do notenter spaces. You can enter vCenter servers and individual ESX servers.

The exclude list applies only to this backup host. The servers are not queriedwhen NetBackup browses for virtual machines to list on the policy's Browsefor Virtual Machines dialog of the NetBackup Administration Console.

Virtual machine host names and display namesmustbe unique in a master server's policies

Certain VMware environments do not require unique names for virtual machines.For instance, virtual machines within a vCenter server can have the same host ordisplay names as virtual machines in another vCenter server. The same is true ofdatacenters, which are logical groupings of virtual resources within a vCenterserver. Virtual machine host names or display names must be unique within adatacenter, but need not be unique between two datacenters on the same vCenter.A virtual machine named VM1 can exist in datacenter A. Another virtual machine(also named VM1) can exist in datacenter B, on the same vCenter server.

Identically named virtual machines however present a problem in the followingcase: the same NetBackup master server is configured to back up the virtualmachines by means of the same host name or display name. The virtual machinesthat are backed up by a particular NetBackup master server must be uniquelyidentified across all of its policies.

To back up the two virtual machines named VM1, do one of the following:

■ Change their VMware names so they are unique in the master server's policies.

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareVirtual machine host names and display names must be unique in a master server's policies

62

■ Configure the policies to identify the virtual machines by their UUIDs. (Notethat UUIDs are always unique.)

Client Name Selection parameter and manualselection of virtual machines

This topic applies to the manual selection of virtual machines on the Browse forVMware Virtual Machines screen.

A change to the policy's Client Name Selection value can affect backups. If youchange this parameter, you may have to delete the virtual machine selections onthe Clients tab and re-enter them. Otherwise, NetBackup may no longer be ableto identify the virtual machines to back up.

For example, the host names in the Clients tab cannot be used and the virtualmachines are not backed up in the following case:

■ If you change the Client Name Selection from VM hostname to VM displayname, and

■ The display names of the virtual machines are different from the host names.

In this case, delete the host name entries on the Clients tab and browse the networkto select the virtual machines by display name.

See “Browse for VMware Virtual Machines screen” on page 57.

Note: When creating virtual machines, use the same name for both host nameand display name. If the Client Name Selection is changed, the existing entrieson the Clients tab still work.

If the policy selects virtual machine automatically, refer to the following topic:


About incremental backups of virtual machinesNetBackup provides a flexible approach to incremental backups, as follows:

■ For vStorage, NetBackup enables full virtual machine and file-levelincrementals in the same backup (the Mapped full VM backup option).

■ For VCB, NetBackup enables file-level incrementals (the Full backupwith filelevel incremental option).

63Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareClient Name Selection parameter and manual selection of virtual machines

Note the following about incremental backups of virtual machines:

■ Incremental backups must be based on timestamps.See “Incremental backups must be based on timestamps ” on page 65.

■ With VCB, the only backup option that supports incrementals is Full backupwithfilelevel incremental. BLIB is not available. Operating system files cannotbe restored from the incremental backups that use this option.

■ Better support for incremental is available when you use vStorage and BLIB(Performblocklevel incrementalbackups). BLIB requires ESX 4.x and virtualmachines at vmx-07 or later.

Configuring incremental backupsUse one of the following procedures, depending on the type of virtual machinebackup (vStorage or VCB). Note that BLIB cannot be used with VCB.

To configure incremental backup of a virtual machine (vStorage)

1 In the NetBackup policy Attributes tab, select the FlashBackup-Windowspolicy type.


3 For Use, select VMware backup host.

4 For Machine, select a VMware backup host.

5 Optional: for BLIB, select Perform block level incremental backups. Thisoption is at the top of the Snapshot Client pane.

6 Click Options.

7 On the Snapshot Client Options dialog, click in the Value column to selectMapped full VM backup for the Virtual machine backup parameter.

If you selected BLIB, you can choose FullVMbackup instead of Mapped fullVM backup.

More information is available on the restore options that require BLIB:

See “Recovery options related to policy selections” on page 66.

More information is available on the configuration parameters.


8 Click OK.

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareConfiguring incremental backups

64

9 On the Schedules tab, select DifferentialIncrementalBackup or CumulativeIncremental Backup.

10 Fill in the Clients tab and Backup Selections tab.

To configure incremental backup of a virtual machine (VCB)

1 In the NetBackup policy Attributes tab, select the FlashBackup-Windowspolicy type.


3 For Use, select VMware backup host.

4 For Machine, select a VMware backup host.

5 Click Options.

6 On the Snapshot Client Options dialog, click in the Value column to selectFull backup with file level incremental for Virtual machine backup.


See “vStorage vs VCB” on page 15.

Incremental backups must be based on timestampsIncremental backups of virtual machines must be based on timestamps, not onarchive bit. You must configure the NetBackup client on the VMware backup hostas described in this section.

To configure the client on the VMware backup host for incremental backups

1 Start the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface from theNetBackup client that is installed on the VMware backup host.

2 Click File > NetBackup Client Properties.

3 On the General tab, make sure Perform incrementals based on archive bitis clear (unchecked).

Volume Manager volumes in the virtual machineTo back up a virtual machine that contains Veritas Storage Foundation VolumeManager volumes, use the Full VM backup option. Make sure that the Excludeunused and deleted blocks option is disabled.

Note: Restore of selected files from a backup of the full virtual machine is notsupported if the virtual machine contains Storage Foundation Volume Managervolumes.

65Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareVolume Manager volumes in the virtual machine

See “VMware notes and restrictions” on page 28.

Recovery options related to policy selectionsThis topic compares the NetBackup restore options available with vStorage vsVCB, depending on the policy's Virtual machine backup option and scheduletype.

Table 5-1 describes the recovery features that are available from vStorage basedbackups. The first two columns (Virtual machine backup and Schedule) are backupoptions; the other columns describe the recovery options.

These features require the FlashBackup-Windows policy type.

Table 5-1 Recovery features with vStorage

CommentsCan recoverindividualfiles

Canrecovervirtualmachine

ScheduleVirtualmachinebackup

NoYesFullFull VMbackup

Requires BLIB.NoYesIncrementalFull VMbackup

YesYesFullMapped fullVM backup

For virtual machinerecovery, BLIB is required.

YesYesIncrementalMapped fullVM backup

NetBackup uses vStorage.YesYesFullFull backupwith file levelincremental

Requires VCB.YesNoIncrementalFull backupwith file levelincremental

Table 5-2 describes the recovery features that are available from VCB-basedbackups. Note that BLIB cannot be used with VCB.

Because it pertains only to Windows file-level backups, the File level snapshotusing VCB backup option is not included in this table.

See “About file-level backup of Windows virtual machines” on page 187.

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareRecovery options related to policy selections

66

Table 5-2 Recovery features with VCB (note: BLIB is not supported)

Comments (BLIB is notsupported)

Canrecoverfiles

Canrecovervirtualmachine

ScheduleVirtualmachinebackup type

For VCB-based backups, the FullVM backup option does notsupport incrementals.

NoYesFullFull VMbackup

Incremental backup is notavailable with VCB and Full VMbackup. Use Full backup withfile level incremental instead.

N/AN/AIncrementalFull VMbackup

YesYesFullMapped fullVM backup

Incremental backup is notavailable with VCB and MappedfullVMbackup. Use Fullbackupwith file level incrementalinstead.

N/AN/AIncrementalMapped fullVM backup

This backup option providessupport for NetBackup 6.5.xsystems that are upgraded to 7.x.

YesYesFullFull backupwith file levelincremental

Performs a file-level incrementalbackup only.

This backup option providessupport for NetBackup 6.5.xsystems that are upgraded to 7.x.

YesNoIncrementalFull backupwith file levelincremental

About older policies and pre-7.x backup hostsA NetBackup 7.x master server can use the policies that were created for NetBackup6.5.x. NetBackup however does not convert the 6.5.x options to 7.x options. It usesthe policies as is, without modification or conversion.

Even if the policies are updated to the 7.x options, a 6.5.x backup host ignoresthose options. The backup host must be updated to 7.x to recognize and use the7.x policy options.

67Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareAbout older policies and pre-7.x backup hosts

Configure NetBackup policies for VMwareAbout older policies and pre-7.x backup hosts

68

Configure automaticselection of virtualmachines for backup


■ About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup

■ The basics of a NetBackup query rule

■ Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection

■ NetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine selection

■ Automatic virtual machine selection: Task overview

■ NetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine selection

■ Configuring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

■ Editing an existing query (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

■ Using the Query Builder in Advanced Mode

■ Use of AND vs OR

■ Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder

■ The IsSet operator

■ Multiple policies that work together

■ Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)

■ Parentheses in compound queries

6Chapter

■ Query rules for resource pools

■ Query rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder)

■ Query Builder field reference

■ Test Query screen

■ Test Query: Failed virtual machines

■ Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in Test Queryresults

■ Effect of Client name selection parameter on VM Name column in Test queryresults

About automatic virtual machine selection forNetBackup

Instead of manually selecting the virtual machines for backup, you can configureNetBackup to automatically select virtual machines based on a range of criteria.You specify the criteria (rules) in the Query Builder on the NetBackup policyClients tab. NetBackup creates a list of the virtual machines that currently meetthe rules and adds those virtual machines to the backup.

This feature is called the Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy.

Automatic selection of virtual machines has the following advantages:

■ Simplifies the policy configuration for sites with large virtual environments.You do not need to manually select virtual machines from a long list of hosts:NetBackup selects all the virtual machines that meet the selection rules in thepolicy's Query Builder.

■ Allows the backup list to stay up-to-date with changes in the virtualenvironment.Eliminates the need to revise the policy client list whenever a virtual machineis added to or removed from your host.

■ Virtual machine selection takes place dynamically at the time of the backup.

Examples of automatic virtual machine selection are the following:

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupAbout automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup

70

Table 6-1 Examples for automatic virtual machine selection

DescriptionExample

At the next backup, the policy can automaticallydiscover the virtual machines that have recentlybeen added to the environment. If the virtualmachines match the query rules that youconfigure in the policy, they are automaticallybacked up.

Add new virtual machines

If some of your virtual machines are occasionallypowered off, NetBackup can be configured toautomatically exclude those from the backup list.Among the virtual machines it discovers,NetBackup backs up only the virtual machinesthat are powered on.

Limit the backup list to the virtualmachines that are currently poweredon

Examples of physical boundaries are vCenterservers, ESX servers, datastores, and clusters. Forexample, a query rule can select all the virtualmachines in a particular ESX server, so the policybacks up only those virtual machines.

Back up virtual machines based onphysical boundaries

Examples of logical boundaries are folders, vApps,templates, and resource pools. For example, aquery rule can select all the virtual machines ina particular folder, so the policy backs up onlythose virtual machines.

Back up virtual machines based onlogical boundaries

The basics of a NetBackup query ruleFor automatic virtual machine selection, NetBackup uses one or more query rulesto determine which virtual machines to select for backup. You create the rules inthe Query Builder, on the Clients tab of the policy.

A query rule consists of the following:

■ A keyword, such as Displayname or Datacenter (many keywords are available).For example: For automatic selection of the virtual machines with the displaynames that contain certain characters, you need the Displayname keywordin the rule.

■ An operator, such as Contains, StartsWith, or Equal.The operator describes how NetBackup analyzes the keyword. For example:Displayname StartsWith tells NetBackup to look for the display names thatstart with particular characters.

71Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupThe basics of a NetBackup query rule

■ Values for the keyword.For the Displayname keyword, a value might be "prod". In that case, NetBackuplooks for the virtual machines that have the display names that include thecharacters prod.

■ An optional joining element (AND, AND NOT, OR, OR NOT) to refine or expandthe query.

The policy uses these elements to discover and select virtual machines for backup.

Table 6-2 contains examples of rules.

Table 6-2 Examples of rules

DescriptionRule

NetBackup selects the virtual machines that have thecharacters vm anywhere in their display names.

Displayname Contains "vm"

NetBackup selects the virtual machines that have thecharacters vm at the end of their display names.

Displayname EndsWith "vm"

NetBackup selects the virtual machines that usedatacenter1 or datacenter2.

Datacenter AnyOf"datacenter1","datacenter2"

NetBackup selects only the virtual machines that arecurrently powered on.

Powerstate Equal poweredOn

Important notes on automatic virtual machineselection

The Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy feature in NetBackup 7.1 is a new approachto virtual machine selection in the policy. It represents a paradigm shift in theway you select virtual machines for backup. As with all major changes, the effectiveuse of this feature requires forethought, preparation, and care.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupImportant notes on automatic virtual machine selection

72

Table 6-3 Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection!

ExplanationNote!

Instead of manually selecting virtual machines for backup, you create guidelines forautomatic selection of virtual machines. The guidelines are called rules; you enterthe rules in the policy's query builder.

You make the rules, and NetBackup follows them.

If the rules state: Back up all virtual machines with a host name that contains "prod",NetBackup does that. Any virtual machine that is added to the environment with ahost name containing "prod" is automatically selected and backed up when the policyruns. Virtual machines with the names that do not contain "prod" are not backed up.To have other virtual machines automatically backed up, you must change the queryrules (or create additional policies).

Create rules carefully....

If many virtual machines are temporarily added to your environment and happen tofall within the scope of the query rules, they are backed up. The backups can thereforerun much longer than expected.

Changes to the virtualenvironment can affectbackup times.

Test the query rules ahead of time. The policy includes a Test Query function for thatpurpose. It's important to verify that your query operates as expected. Otherwise,the query may inadvertently select too many or too few virtual machines.

Note also: The policy's Client name selection parameter can affect the automaticselection process.


Test the query rules.

73Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupImportant notes on automatic virtual machine selection

Table 6-3 Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection! (continued)

ExplanationNote!

The automatic selection process is dynamic. Changes in the virtual environment mayaffect which virtual machines the query rules choose when the backup runs.

Note: If virtual machine changes occur, the virtual machines that are selected forbackup may not be identical to those listed in your query test results.

A query test does not createthe backup list. NetBackupcreates the backup list whenthe backup runs.

Backuplist

Backuplist

Query test

Backupexecution

If you select virtual machines manually (with the Browse for Virtual machines screen),the selected virtual machines are listed on the policy Clients tab. But when you usethe query builder for automatic selection, the selected virtual machines are not listedon the Clients tab.

For a list of the virtual machines that were backed up, use the NetBackup ActivityMonitor or the OpsCenter web interface.

See “Using the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups” on page 115.

See “Using OpsCenter to report on virtual machine backups” on page 117.

The policy does not display alist of the virtual machinesthat are to be backed up.

Use the Activity Monitor orOpsCenter.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupImportant notes on automatic virtual machine selection

74

Table 6-3 Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection! (continued)

ExplanationNote!

When you save a policy, policy validation does not consult the query rules and selectvirtual machines for backup. Because of the potential for changes in the virtualenvironment, virtual machine selection must wait until the backup runs. As a result,when you save the policy, NetBackup does not check the policy attributes against abackup list. If the query rules select the virtual machines that are incompatible witha policy attribute, policy validation cannot flag that fact. The incompatibility becomesapparent when NetBackup determines the backup list at the time of the backup.

Take for example a policy that is configured for Perform block level incrementalbackup (BLIB). BLIB works only with ESX 4.0 virtual machines at version vmx-07 orlater. If the query rules select a virtual machine at a version earlier than vmx-07, thepolicy cannot back up that virtual machine. The mismatch between the policy andthe virtual machine is revealed when the backup runs, not when the policy is validated.The Activity Monitor's job details log indicates which virtual machines can or cannotbe backed up.

When you save the policy,the query rules are notvalidated.

Policy

NetBackup requirements for automatic virtualmachine selection

Note the following requirements:

■ NetBackup 7.1 is required for the master server, media server, and the backuphost.

■ vStorage is required for automatic discovery of virtual machines.If you have vStorage and VCB, you can set up a policy for file-level backup andautomatic virtual machine selection.

■ Automatic virtual machine selection requires no additional license beyond theNetBackup Enterprise Client license.

■ Refer to the following Symantec document for updates on NetBackup supportrequirements:Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

Automatic virtual machine selection: Task overviewThis topic is a high-level overview of how to set up a policy for automatic selectionof virtual machines. Follow the links in the table for more details.

75Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupNetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine selection


Table 6-4 Automatic selection of virtual machines: overview of the tasks

Description and notesSteps to configure automaticselection

Use the policy Attributes tab.


Configure a FlashBackup-Windowspolicy with a VMware backup host

On the policy Clients tab, click Select automatically through query.

Choose a host for virtual machine selection (default is the VMware backuphost).

Use the Query Builder drop-down fields to add rules.

See “Configuring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in BasicMode)” on page 79.

See “ NetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine selection”on page 76.

Set rules for virtual machineselection in the policy Query Builder

Click Test Query in the Query Builder on the Clients tab. Virtual machinesare labeled as included or excluded, based on the rules.

Note: The list of virtual machines is not saved in the Clients tab.

Note: The query rules are also displayed in the Backup Selections tab. Thebackup selections are pre-set to All_LOCAL_DRIVES (not displayed).

Test the rules

When the policy executes, NetBackup consults the rules in the Query Builder,creates a list of virtual machines, and backs them up.

Execute a backup

To see which virtual machines were backed up, use the Activity Monitor, orrun a Virtual Client Summary report in OpsCenter.

See “Using the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups”on page 115.


Check the backup

NetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtualmachine selection

Use this dialog to configure NetBackup to automatically select virtual machinesfor backup. You specify the selection criteria (rules) in the Query Builder. Whenthe backup job runs, NetBackup creates a list of the virtual machines that currentlymeet the criteria and backs them up.

A procedure is available.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupNetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine selection

76


Table 6-5 Virtual machine selection options on the policy Clients tab

DescriptionOption

Use this option to manually enter virtual machines names or browse and select them froma list.


Note: The rest of the fields and options are for automatic selection of virtual machines.

Select manually

Click this option to allow NetBackup to automatically select virtual machines for backupbased on the rules that you enter in the Query Builder.

Select automaticallythrough query

Table 6-6 Host for automatic virtual machine selection, and Query Builder

DescriptionOption

This host discovers virtual machines and automatically selects them for backup based onyour query rules. You should change this setting only if Symantec Technical Supportinstructs you to do so.

The default is the first host in the list of VMware backup hosts in HostProperties>MasterServers > VMware Access Hosts.

NetBackup host toperform automaticvirtual machineselection

Use these pull-down fields to define rules for automatic selection of virtual machines. Fromleft to right, each pull-down refines the rule.

Click the plus sign to add the rule to the Query pane.

Click the reset icon (curved arrow) to blank out the pull-down fields.

See “Query Builder field reference” on page 93.

See “Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder” on page 86.

Query Builder (Join,Field, Operator,Values)

Places the Query Builder in Advanced Mode for manual entry of rules.

See “Using the Query Builder in Advanced Mode” on page 83.



Advanced

Returns the Query Builder from Advanced Mode to Basic Mode.


Basic

77Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupNetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine selection

Table 6-6 Host for automatic virtual machine selection, and Query Builder(continued)

DescriptionOption

Use this option to change an existing query rule when in Basic Mode, as follows:

■ Click the rule and then click Edit.

■ Make new selections in the Query Builder pull-down fields.

■ Click the save option (diskette icon).

Edit

Use this option to delete a query rule when in Basic Mode. Click on the rule and then clickRemove.

Remove

Click this option to test which virtual machines NetBackup selects based on the rules inthe Query Builder.

Note: This test option does not create the backup list for the policy. When the next backupruns from this policy, NetBackup re-discovers virtual machines and consults the queryrules. At that time, NetBackup includes in the backup list the virtual machines that matchthe rules and backs them up.

See “Test Query screen” on page 100.

Test Query

The refresh rate of an internal cache of the query results. NetBackup uses the cache todetermine which virtual machines to select at the time of the backup. The cache speeds upthe selection of virtual machines without burdening the vCenter server at each scheduledbackup.

A faster cache refresh rate synchronizes the cache with the changes recorded in vCenter,such as the addition or removal of virtual machines. However, each cache refresh consumesvCenter resources.

With a slower refresh rate, new virtual machines may not be included immediately in thenext backup. New or changed virtual machines are included when the cache is refreshed.Note that fewer vCenter resources are consumed with a slower refresh rate.

The default is eight hours. For eight hours, NetBackup uses the cache and does not attemptto rediscover virtual machines. Changes to the virtual environment do not affect the cacheduring that period. After eight hours, the next execution of the policy causes NetBackupto rediscover virtual machines. If any changes match a rule in the query, the list of selectedvirtual machines is modified accordingly.

Note: The cache is refreshed before the next scheduled backup whenever the policy ischanged and saved.

More information is available on the Reuse VM selection query results for: option:

See “About the Reuse VM selection query results option” on page 165.

Reuse VM selectionquery results for:

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupNetBackup policy Clients tab: automatic virtual machine selection

78

Configuring automatic virtual machine selection(Query Builder in Basic Mode)

NetBackup can automatically select virtual machines for backup based on thecriteria that you enter. You specify the criteria (rules) in the Query Builder on theNetBackup policy Clients tab. You can set up rules to include certain virtualmachines for backup, or to exclude virtual machines.

When the backup job runs, NetBackup creates a list of the virtual machines thatcurrently meet the query rules and backs them up.

The following is an initial view of the policy Clients tab with Selectautomaticallythrough query selected.

Figure 6-1 Policy Clients tab for automatic selection of virtual machines

To configure automatic virtual machine selection

1 On the policy Attributes tab, specify the following:

■ FlashBackup-Windows for the policy type.

■ Perform snapshot backups.

■ Perform off-host backup.

79Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupConfiguring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

■ For Use and Machine, specify a VMware backup host.

2 Click Options to change parameter settings, if needed.


3 Make other policy selections as needed (for example, create a Schedule).

4 Click the Clients tab, and click Select automatically through query.

If you selected virtual machines in the Browse for Virtual Machines dialog,those virtual machines are removed from the policy.

5 To use the Query Builder in Basic Mode, make selections from the pull-downmenus.

For the first rule, you can start with the Field pull-down, depending on thetype of rule. For the first rule, the only selections available for the Join fieldare blank (none), or NOT.

Make a selection in each field.

For the Value(s) field: you can click the folder icon to browse for values, enterthe value manually, or in some cases use the Value(s) drop-down. Thecharacters you enter in the Values field must be enclosed in single quotes ordouble quotes. Note that browsing for values may take some time in largevirtual environments.


Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupConfiguring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

80

6 Click the plus sign to add the rule to the Query pane.

7 Create more rules as needed.



81Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupConfiguring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

8 To see which virtual machines NetBackup currently selects based on yourquery, click Test Query.

The Virtual machines in your current environment that match the rules forselection in the policy are labeled INCLUDED. Note however that the TestQuery option does not create the backup list for the policy. When the nextbackup runs from this policy, NetBackup re-discovers virtual machines andconsults the query rules. At that time, NetBackup includes in the backup listthe virtual machines that match the rules and backs them up.

The list of virtual machines is saved but the virtual machines are not displayedin the policy's Clients tab.

See “Test Query screen” on page 100.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupConfiguring automatic virtual machine selection (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

82

9 You can specify how long NetBackup uses the latest query results as thebackup list for future executions of the policy. Set the time period in ReuseVM selection query results for.

The default is eight hours.

More information is available on this setting:

See “About the Reuse VM selection query results option” on page 165.

10 To create queries manually instead of using the pull-down fields, clickAdvanced.


Editing an existing query (Query Builder in BasicMode)

To edit an existing query in Basic Mode

1 Click on the query rule you want to change and click Edit.

2 Make selections in the pull-down fields.

3 Click the save option (diskette icon).

4 To delete a rule, click on it and click Remove.

Using the Query Builder in Advanced ModeThe Query Builder's Advanced Mode provides more flexibility in crafting rulesfor virtual machine selection, including the use of parentheses for grouping.

To use the Query Builder in Advanced Mode

1 Set up a FlashBackup-Windows policy and specify a VMware backup host.

For assistance, you can refer to the first few steps of the following procedure:


2 Click the Clients tab.

3 Click Select automatically through query.

83Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEditing an existing query (Query Builder in Basic Mode)

4 Beneath the Query Builder pane, click Advanced.

Note that the following appears at the start of the query:

vmware:/?filter=

This string must be the first entry in the query. It should appear only once,no matter how many rules are added in the Query pane.

5 You can use the Query Builder drop-down fields to add query rules. You canalso type in rules manually.

6 To insert a rule between existing rules, place the cursor where you want thenew rule to start and type it in.

Or, you can use the drop-down fields to create the rule and cut and paste itinto the proper location. When you create a rule with the drown-down fields,it appears at the end of the query.

7 To establish the proper order of evaluation in compound queries, useparentheses to group rules as needed. Compound queries contain two or morerules, joined by AND, AND NOT, OR, or OR NOT.

More information is available on the use of parentheses and on the order ofprecedence.

See “Use of AND vs OR” on page 84.

See “Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)” on page 89.

See “Parentheses in compound queries” on page 90.

Use of AND vs ORThe Join field in the Query Builder provides connectors for joining rules (AND,AND NOT, OR, OR NOT). The effect of AND versus OR in the Query Builder maynot be obvious at first glance.

In essence, AND and OR work in this way:

■ AND limits or restricts the scope of the query.

■ OR opens up the query to an additional possibility, expanding the scope of thequery.

Note: Do not use AND to join the rules that are intended to include additionalvirtual machines in the backup list. For instance, AND cannot be used to mean"include virtual machine X AND virtual machine Y."

For example: To include the virtual machines that have either "vm1" or "vm2" intheir names, use OR to join the rules:

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupUse of AND vs OR

84

Displayname Contains "vm1"

OR Displayname Contains "vm2"

If you use AND to join these rules:


AND Displayname Contains "vm2"

the result is very different: the only virtual machines that are included in thebackup are those that have both vm1 and vm2 in their names (such as"acmevm1vm2"). A virtual machine with a name such as "acmevm1" is not includedin the backup list.

Table 6-7 provides examples with AND and OR.

Table 6-7 Queries with AND, OR

DescriptionQuery

This query selects any virtual machine that has either vm1 or vm2 in itsdisplay name. For example, this query selects both "seabizvm1" and"seabizvm2" for backup.


OR Displayname Contains "vm2"

This query is very specific. Virtual machines with the host names thatcontain "manu" are included in the backup only if: they reside in vCenterserver "vCenterServer_1", datacenter "dc_A", and ESX server "prod".

The virtual machines that do not reside in that hierarchy are not included.For example: if a virtual machine resides in "vCenterServer_1" anddatacenter "dc_A", but not in ESX server "prod", that virtual machine isnot included.

vCenter Equal "vCenterServer_1"

AND Datacenter Equal "dc_A"

AND ESXserver Equal "prod"

AND VMHostName Contains "manu"

This query uses the same keywords and values, but combines them withOR. The result may be a much larger list of virtual machines

A virtual machine that meets any of these rules is included:

■ Any virtual machines in vCenter "vCenterServer_1". Their host names,datacenter, or ESX server do not matter.

■ Any virtual machines in datacenter "dc_A". Their host names or serverdo not matter.

■ Any virtual machines in ESXserver "prod". Their host names, datacenter,or vCenter server do not matter.

■ Any virtual machines with a hostname that contains "manu". Theirserver or datacenter do not matter.


OR Datacenter Equal "dc_A"

OR ESXserver Equal "prod"

OR VMHostName Contains "manu"

85Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupUse of AND vs OR

Examples for the NetBackup Query BuilderThis topic provides example query rules, in Basic mode.

To use the Query Builder, you must click Select automatically throughquery onthe Client tab.

Table 6-8 Query Builder examples: Basic Mode

Query result when backup job executesExample query

All virtual machines are added to the backup list. Exceptions arethose that do not have a host name, or that have invalid charactersin the display name.

See “Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection columnin Test Query results” on page 102.

No query rules specified (Query pane is empty)

All virtual machines with the display names that contain the string"prod" are added to the backup list.

See “Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection columnin Test Query results” on page 102.

Displayname Contains "prod"

Any virtual machine that is powered on is added to the backup list.powerstate Equal "poweredOn"

All virtual machines with a guest OS of Windows 7 are added tothe backup list.

VMGuestOS Equal "windows7Guest"

The virtual machines named "grayfox7”and "grayfox9" are addedto the backup list. (Note that each value must be enclosed in itsown quotes, with a comma in between.)

DisplayName AnyOf "grayfox7”,"grayfox9"

In datastore Storage_1: any virtual machine that is powered on andhas a guest OS of Red Hat Linux 4 is added to the backup list.

powerstate Equal "poweredOn"

AND Datastore Equal "Storage_1"

AND VMGuestOS Equal "rhel4Guest"

In the vCenter server vCenterServer_1, virtual machines that arein ESX servers with names containing "prod" are added to thebackup list.


AND ESXserver Contains "prod"

In cluster VMcluster_1, all virtual machines with the host namesthat contain "Finance", in ESX servers ESX_1, ESX_2, ESX_3, areadded to the backup list.

Cluster Equal "VMcluster_1"

AND ESXserver AnyOf"ESX_1","ESX_2","ESX_3"

AND VMHostName Contains "Finance"

In any folder whose name starts with "Prod" or whose name is not"VM_test", add its virtual machines to the backup list.

VMFolder StartsWith "Prod"

OR VMFolder NotEqual "VM_test"

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupExamples for the NetBackup Query Builder

86

Table 6-8 Query Builder examples: Basic Mode (continued)

Query result when backup job executesExample query

See “The IsSet operator” on page 87.Examples with IsSet

Click Advanced to see the query rule in Advanced Mode. Only Advanced Modesupports the use of parentheses for grouping sets of rules.


The IsSet operatorIn a query, you can use the IsSet operator to ensure that certain virtual machinesare included or excluded from the backup.

For example: if the Client name selection parameter is set to VM hostname,NetBackup is unable to identify virtual machines for backup that do not have ahost name. You can use IsSet to exclude such virtual machines from the backuplist.

Table 6-9 Examples of queries with the IsSet operator

Effect of the query on virtual machine selectionQuery rules with IsSet operator

INCLUDED: Any virtual machine in a cluster that has a name that containsthe string "dev" if the virtual machine also has a VMware DNS name.

EXCLUDED: Any virtual machines that do not have a VMware DNS Name.

Without VMDNSName IsSet in this query, virtual machines without a DNSname cannot be excluded. They would be listed as FAILED.

Cluster Contains "dev"

AND VMDNSName IsSet

INCLUDED: Any virtual machine with a display name that contains thestring "prod" if the virtual machine also has a host name.

EXCLUDED: Any virtual machines that do not have host names.

Without VMHostName IsSet in this query, virtual machines without a hostname cannot be excluded. They would be listed as FAILED.

Displayname Contains "prod"

AND VMHostName IsSet

The policy's Client name selection parameter has an important effect on whichvirtual machines NetBackup can back up. This parameter affects the test queryresults.


87Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupThe IsSet operator

Multiple policies that work togetherIf your virtual environment has many virtual machines with inconsistent namingconventions, you may need multiple policies working in tandem. That is, it maybe difficult to create a single policy that automatically selects all the virtualmachines that you want to back up.

For this situation, configure several policies such that each policy backs up aportion of the environment. One policy backs up a particular set or group of virtualmachines, such as those that have host names. A second policy backs up a differentgroup of virtual machines that were not backed up by the first policy, and so forth.When all the policies have run, all the virtual machines are backed up.

The following table describes three policies that are designed to back up the virtualenvironment in three phases. Note that each policy relies on a different settingfor the Client name selection parameter.

Table 6-10 Three policies that back up virtual machines in phases

Backup resultQuery Builder rulesPolicy

This policy backs up all virtual machines that have ahostname. Any virtual machines that do not have ahost name are excluded from the backup.

VMHostName IsSetFirst policy

Client name selectionparameter: VM hostname

This policy backs up all virtual machines that do nothave a host name but that do have a valid display name.Any virtual machines that do not have a host name ora valid display name are excluded from the backup.

See “NetBackup character restrictions for virtualmachine display names” on page 30.

NOT VMHostName IsSet

AND VMHasVDSName Equal'TRUE'

Second policy

Client name selectionparameter: VMware displayname

This policy backs up all virtual machines that do nothave a host name or a valid display name, but that dohave a UUID.

NOT VMHostName IsSet

AND NOT VMHasVDSNameEqual 'TRUE'

Third policy

Client name selectionparameter: VMware UUID

More information is available on the Client name selection parameter and itseffect on virtual machine selection.


Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupMultiple policies that work together

88

Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)The information in this topic is for advanced users who understand precedencein programming languages. In the Query Builder, the order in which operationsare evaluated can determine which virtual machines are selected and backed up.

The following table lists the order of operations, or precedence, from highest tolowest (7 is the highest). For example, an operation with a precedence of 6 (suchas Contains) is evaluated before an operation with a precedence of 5 (such asGreater).

Table 6-11

PrecedenceDescriptionOperation

7Produces the value 0 if x is true (nonzero) andthe value 1 if x is false (0).

!x

6Does y exist somewhere in xx Contains y

6Does x start with yx StartsWith y

6Does x end with yx EndsWith y

6Does x appear in listx AnyOf list

5Is x greater than yx Greater y

5Is x greater than or equal to yx GreaterEqual y

5Is x less than yx Less y

5Is x less than or equal to yx LessEqual y

4Is x equal to yx Equal y

4Is x not equal to yx NotEqual y

3operator produces the value 0 if x is true(nonzero) and the value 1 if x is false (0).

Not x

2True if both x and y are truex And y

1True if either x or y are truex OR y

Note the following:

■ AND has a higher precedence than OR.In the Query Builder's Advanced Mode, you can use parentheses to change theorder of evaluation in the rules that use AND or OR.See “Parentheses in compound queries” on page 90.

89Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupOrder of operations in queries (precedence rules)

■ In the Query Builder's Advanced Mode, you can combine two or more operationsin a single rule without AND or OR to join them. Precedence determines theorder in which the operations are evaluated within the rule.Example of a rule that includes three operations:

Displayname StartsWith “L” NotEqual Displayname contains “x”

This rule selects the following virtual machines:Virtual machines with the names that start with L.Virtual machines with the names that do not start with L but that do containx.Explanation: The StartsWith and Contains operations have a precedence of 6,whereas NotEqual has a lower precedence of 3. Starting on the left, theStartsWith operation is evaluated first and the Contains operation is evaluatednext. The last operation to be evaluated is Not Equal.


Parentheses in compound queriesYou can use the Query Builder to make precise queries containing as many rulesas necessary to identify the appropriate virtual machines. In a query such aspowerstate Equal "poweredOn", the result of the query is easy to predict: only thevirtual machines that are powered on are included in the backup. But if severalrules are combined with AND and OR, the result may not be obvious. This kind ofquery is called a compound query. Compound queries contain two or more rules,joined by AND, AND NOT, OR, or OR NOT.

The order in which the Query Builder evaluates compound rules affects theoutcome of the query. Grouping the rules with parentheses can change the orderof evaluation and thus the outcome of the query.

The examples in the following table demonstrate how the Query Builder evaluatescompound queries with and without parentheses.

Note: Only the Query Builder's Advanced Mode supports the use of parentheses.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupParentheses in compound queries

90

Table 6-12 Examples of compound queries with and without parentheses forgrouping

The following virtual machines are selectedExample query

All virtual machines under ESX001 (regardless of power state), and virtualmachines under FolderEngA that are powered on.

To select only the virtual machines that are powered on in the ESX serverand in the folder, use parentheses (see next example).

ESXServer Equal "ESX001" OR FolderEqual "FolderEngA" AND powerstateEqual ON

All the virtual machines that are powered on in ESX001 and in FolderEngA.(ESXServer Equal "ESX001" OR FolderEqual "FolderEngA") AND powerstateEqual ON

Query rules for resource poolsIf the resource pool that you query is nested, the choice of Operator determineswhich virtual machines in the resource pool hierarchy are discovered.

For example, assume the following hierarchy of resource pools that contain virtualmachines:

Res/ResourcePool_1

VM1

VM2

/ResourcePool_2

VM3

VM4

/ResourcePool_3

VM5

VM6

where ResourcePool_1 contains virtual machines VM1 and VM2, and so forth.

The following table shows the query results with the Contains, Equal, StartsWith,and EndsWith operators. (Other operators can be used.)

Note: If you want the query to include all virtual machines in a hierarchy of nestedresource pools, do not use Equal as the Operator.

91Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupQuery rules for resource pools

Table 6-13 Example rules for nested resource pools

Included virtual machinesQuery rule

Includes all the virtual machines in the three resourcepools (VM1 through VM6).

Resourcepool Contains "Res/ResourcePool_1"

Includes only the virtual machines that are inResourcePool_1 (VM1, VM2). Virtual machines in thesub-pools are not included (VM3 through VM6).

Resourcepool Equal "Res/ResourcePool_1"

Includes only the virtual machines that are inResourcePool_2 (VM3, VM4).

Resourcepool Equal "Res/ResourcePool_1/ResourcePool_2"

Includes all the virtual machines in the three resourcepools (VM1 through VM6).

Resourcepool StartsWith "Res/ResourcePool"

Includes only the virtual machines that are inResourcePool_2 and 3. Virtual machines inResourcePool_1 are not included.

Resourcepool StartsWith"Res/ResourcePool_1/ResourcePool_2"

Includes the virtual machines in ResourcePool_2 (VM3,VM4) but not in ResourcePool_1 or 3.

Resourcepool EndsWith "ResourcePool_2"

These examples also apply to host folders.

See “Query rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder)” on page 92.

Query rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder)In NetBackup terminology, a host folder is a folder that has been defined withina VMware datacenter. A host folder can contain ESX servers or clusters, as wellas other folders. For example:

Folder_1

ESX1

ESX2

subfolder_A

ESX3

ESX4

subfolder_B

ESX_5

ESX_6

If you want NetBackup to select all the virtual machines within the top-level folderand any subfolders, use the Contains or StartsWith operator. For example:

HostFolder Contains "Folder_1

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupQuery rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder)

92

Note: If you want the query to include all virtual machines in the hierarchy offolders, do not use Equal as the Operator.

If you want NetBackup to select the virtual machines within a subfolder only (suchas subfolder_A), use the Contains or Equal operator. For example:

HostFolder Equal "Folder_1/subfolder_A"

In this case, NetBackup includes only the virtual machines that reside on serversESX3 and ESX4.

For host folders, these operators work the same as they do for resource pools. Forfurther query builder examples, refer to the following topic (substitute host folderfor resource pool in the examples):

See “Query rules for resource pools” on page 91.

Query Builder field referenceTable 6-14 describes the drop-down fields and options for creating rules in theQuery Builder.

Table 6-14 Query Builder drop-down options: Join, Field, Operator, Value(s)

DescriptionQuery Builderdrop-down fields

Selects a connector to join rules.

For the first rule, choices are blank (none) or NOT. After you add arule, the available connectors are AND, AND NOT, OR, OR NOT.

Join

Selects a parameter on which to build the rule. Select one from thelist (scroll down for additional parameters).

You can type the first character to speed up selection. For example,on entering “d”, the list moves to first entry starting with "d". Anotherentry of "d" moves through the list to the next entry starting with "d".The selected entry is automatically filled in.

See Table 6-15 on page 94.

Field

Selects an operator. The available operators depend on the parameterthat is selected for Field.


Operator

93Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupQuery Builder field reference

Table 6-14 Query Builder drop-down options: Join, Field, Operator, Value(s)(continued)

DescriptionQuery Builderdrop-down fields

Specifies a value for the Field parameter.

The Value field allows manual entry. It may also be a drop-down,depending on the selections that are made in the other fields.

For manual entry, you can specify multiple comma-separated values.


Value(s)

Allows browsing for specific values, depending on the selections thatare made in the other drop-down fields.

Adds the current drop-down selections to the Query pane as a newrule.

Blanks out the drop-down fields.

Field (keywords)

Table 6-15 describes the keywords available in the Field drop-down. The tablealso indicates whether the values for each keyword (in the Values field) arecase-sensitive.

Note that the inclusion or exclusion of virtual machines is not determined by theField keyword alone, but depends on the rule you construct: the combination ofJoin, Field, Operator, and Value(s).

Table 6-15 Keywords in the Field drop-down

DescriptionData typeField keyword

The text that is added to virtual machine annotations in vSphere Client.

Values are case-sensitive.

Alphanumericstring

Annotation

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupQuery Builder field reference

94

Table 6-15 Keywords in the Field drop-down (continued)


The name of the cluster (a group of ESX servers) that the virtual machine isconfigured in.

Values are not case-sensitive.

Note: A virtual machine may be assigned to an ESX server that is not in acluster.

Note also that in VMware, a cluster name need only be unique within adatacenter path.

Alphanumericstring

Cluster

The name of the VMware datacenter.


Alphanumericstring

Datacenter

The folder structure that defines the path to a datacenter. Use this option ifthe datacenter name that you want to filter on is not unique in yourenvironment.


Alphanumericstring

DatacenterPath

The name of the datastore.


Note: Multiple ESX servers can share access to the same datastore. Also, adatastore name can be duplicated between multiple ESX servers. UseDatacenterPath or ESXserver to uniquely identify the datacenter.

Alphanumericstring

Datastore

The virtual machine's display name.


Alphanumericstring

Displayname

The name of the ESX server.


The ESX host name must match the name as defined in the vCenter server.

Alphanumericstring

ESXserver

The folder path between the datacenter level and a cluster, ESX hosts, or asubfolder.


See “Query rules for datacenter folders (HostFolder)” on page 92.

Alphanumericstring

HostFolder

The name of the network switch (on an ESX server) or distributed switch.


Alphanumericstring

Network




The power state of the virtual machine.

Values are poweredOff, poweredOn, suspended.

AlphabeticPowerstate

The name of the resource pool. (A resource pool is similar to a vApp.)


If a resource pool contains other resource pools (sub-pools), the choice ofOperator determines whether virtual machines in the sub-pools are included.

See “Query rules for resource pools” on page 91.

Alphanumericstring

Resourcepool

TRUE if the virtual machine is a virtual machine template.BooleanTemplate

The name of the vApp.


A vApp is a collection of virtual machines. vApps can also contain resourcepools and other vApps. vApps are components of standalone ESX servers orof clusters.

Like vSphere Client, NetBackup refers only to the top level of a vApp thatcontains sub vApps.

For the following rule:

vApp Equal "vapp1"

if vapp1 has a sub vApp named "vapp2", any virtual machines in vapp1 orvapp2 are included. You cannot make a rule that refers specifically to vapp2.

Alphanumericstring

vApp

The name of the vCenter server.


The vCenter name that is specified in the Query Builder must match the nameas entered in the Administration Console for NetBackup credentials. (Mediaand Device Management > Credentials > Virtual Machine Servers.)

Note that a fully qualified domain name is recommended.

Alphanumericstring

vCenter

The virtual machine DNS name in vSphere Client.


Alphanumericstring

VMDNSName


96



The folder structure (within a datacenter) to a virtual machine folder,including all subfolders.


Examples are:

/clusters/discovered virtual machine

/standalone/folder1/folder2

Alphanumericstring

VMFolder

The virtual machine guest OS type that is recorded in vSphere Client.


Alphanumericstring

VMGuestOS

TRUE if the virtual machine has IDE drives.BooleanVMHasIDE

TRUE if the virtual machine has multiple datastores.

You can use this keyword to select any virtual machine that is configured touse more than one datastore.

BooleanVMHasMDS

TRUE if the virtual machine uses Raw Device Mapping (RDM).BooleanVMHasRDM

TRUE if a VMware snapshot of the virtual machine is currently active.BooleanVMHasSnap

TRUE if the virtual machine has a display name that is valid for use as thehost name.

BooleanVMHasVDSName

The virtual machine name that is derived from a reverse lookup of its IPaddress.


Alphanumericstring

VMHostName

TRUE if the virtual machine is connected and available.

For example: If a virtual machine's ESX server is down, that virtual machineis not connected.

BooleanVMIsConn

The VMware version of the virtual machine.


For example: vmx-04, vmx-07

Alphanumericstring

VMVersion

The name of the vmx datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory orconfiguration datastore).


More information on the vmx datastore is available.

See “NetBackup for VMware terminology” on page 19.

Alphanumericstring

VMXDatastore


Operators

Table 6-16 describes the operators available in the Operator drop-down.

Table 6-16 Operators in the Operator drop-down

DescriptionOperator

Matches any of the specified values in the Value(s) field.

For example: If the ESX servers in the Value(s) field are "ESX01","ESX02,"ESX03", AnyOf matchesany ESX server that has one of those names. If the names of your servers are not identical toany of the specified values, no match occurs. A server named ESX01A is not a match.

AnyOf

Matches the value in the Value(s) field wherever that value occurs in the string.

For example: If the Value(s) entry is "dev", Contains matches strings such as "01dev", "01dev99","devOP", and "Development_machine".

Contains

Matches the value in the Value(s) field when it occurs at the end of a string.

For example: If the Value(s) entry is "dev", EndsWith matches the string "01dev" but not"01dev99", "devOP", or "Development_machine".

EndsWith

Matches only the value that is specified in the Value(s) field.

For example: If the display name to search for is "VMtest27", Equal matches virtual machinenames such as VMTest27 or vmtest27 or vmTEST27, and so forth. The name VMtest28 is notmatched.

Equal

Matches any value that is greater than the specified Value(s), according to the ASCII collatingsequence.

Greater

Matches any value that is greater than or equal to the specified Value(s), according to the ASCIIcollating sequence.

GreaterEqual

Determines whether a value is returned for the Field keyword. Use IsSet with another rule asa condition, to ensure that the query selects the appropriate virtual machines.

Note that you do not make an entry under Value(s) for a rule that uses IsSet.

See “The IsSet operator” on page 87.

See “Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in Test Query results”on page 102.

See “Test Query: Failed virtual machines” on page 101.

IsSet

Matches any value that is less than the specified Value(s), according to the ASCII collatingsequence.

Less

Matches any value that is less than or equal to the specified Value(s), according to the ASCIIcollating sequence.

LessEqual


98

Table 6-16 Operators in the Operator drop-down (continued)

DescriptionOperator

Matches any value that is not equal to the value in the Value(s) field.NotEqual

Matches the value in the Value(s) field when it occurs at the start of a string.

For example: If the Value(s) entry is "box", StartsWith matches the string "box_car" but not"flatbox".

StartsWith

Value(s)

Table 6-17 describes the characters that can be entered in the Value(s) field. TheField keyword determines case sensitivity.

Note: The character string you enter in the Value(s) field must be enclosed insingle quotes or double quotes.

Table 6-17 Characters you can enter for Value(s)

String characters allowedCharacter types

A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, - (minus sign), and special characters.

Note: Decimal numbers only.

Alphanumerics

* (asterisk) matches everything.

For example: "*prod*" matches the string "prod" preceded or followed by any characters.

? (question mark) matches any single character.

For example: "prod??" matches the string "prod" followed by any two characters.

Wildcards

\ (backslash) escapes the wildcard or meta-character that follows it.

For example: To search for a string that contains an asterisk (such as test*), enter "test\*"

Escape character

Note: The characters you enter in Value(s) must be enclosed in single or double quotes.

To search for a string that contains quotation marks, either escape each quote (\") or enclosethe entire string in the opposite type of quotes.

For example: To search for a string that includes double quotes (such as "name"), enter'"name"' (enclosing it in single quotes) or "\"name\""

Quotation marks


Test Query screenThis screen lists the virtual machines that NetBackup discovered in your virtualenvironment when you clicked Test Query. Later changes in the virtualenvironment may affect which virtual machines match the query rules. Forexample: if virtual machines are added, the test results may not be identical tothe virtual machines that are selected for backup when the backup runs.

When the next backup runs from this policy, the following occur: NetBackupre-discovers virtual machines, consults the query rules, and backs up the virtualmachines that match the rules.

Note: The list of backed up virtual machines is saved but the virtual machines arenot displayed in the policy's Clients tab. You can use the Activity Monitor to viewthe virtual machine jobs, or you can run a Virtual Client Summary report inOpsCenter.



The Test Query function runs in the background. You can continue to configurethe policy while the test runs. Any changes you make in the Query Builder howeverare not included in the currently running test. You must re-initiate the test to seethe results of your Query Builder changes.

Lists the rules in the Query Builder that were used in this test. The rules are specified in the QueryBuilder on the policy Clients tab.

Testing queryfor policy

VM Name: Shows the display name of all discovered virtual machines.

Selection: Lists the virtual machines that were discovered, as follows:

■ INCLUDED: The virtual machine matches the rules in the query.

■ EXCLUDED: The virtual machine does not match the rules in the query.

■ FAILED: The virtual machine cannot be selected for backup because of a host name problemor other error. Also, the query cannot exclude the virtual machine. An explanation appears atthe bottom of the Test Query screen. For example:

VM does not have a host name to use as aclient name, display name =

See “Test Query: Failed virtual machines” on page 101.

The operator IsSet can be used to filter out such virtual machines. More information is availableon IsSet.



Test queryresults

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupTest Query screen

100

The bottom of the screen gives a tally of how many virtual machines were included, excluded, orfailed in the test.

Included:

Excluded:

Failed:


See “About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup” on page 70.


Test Query: Failed virtual machinesIf the query rules cannot exclude a virtual machine, and that virtual machinecannot be selected for backup, it is marked as FAILED. The virtual machine islisted as not run in the job details log.

For example: the virtual machine does not have the type of name specified by theClient name selection parameter (such as host name or display name). Or thevirtual machine name contains invalid characters. In any case, a virtual machinethat is listed as FAILED should be investigated: it may be one that you want toback up.

To see the reason for the failure, click on the virtual machine in the query testresults. An explanation appears at the bottom of the screen.

For example:

101Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupTest Query: Failed virtual machines

Explanation: The virtual machine that is listed as New Virtual Machine in theexample does not have a VMware host name. In the NetBackup policy, on theSnapshotOptions dialog, the Clientnameselection parameter may be set to VMhostname. In that case, NetBackup cannot refer to the virtual machine by its hostname and thus cannot back it up.

You can fix this problem in a couple of ways:

■ Use vSphere Client to configure a host name for the virtual machine.

■ To exclude the virtual machines that have no host name, construct a querywith the IsSet operator.


Effect of Client name selection parameter onSelection column in Test Query results

The policy's Client name selection parameter tells NetBackup how to identifyvirtual machines. For example, if the parameter is set to VMhostname, NetBackup

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEffect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in Test Query results

102

identifies virtual machines by their host names. If they do not have a host name,the policy cannot back them up.

The Clientnameselection parameter has a direct effect on the query test results.Note that for each virtual machine, the query test result is one of three possibilities:INCLUDED, EXCLUDED, or FAILED.

If NetBackup cannot identify a virtual machine according to the Client nameselection parameter, one of two test results can occur:

■ If the virtual machine is filtered out by the query rules, it is listed asEXCLUDED.

■ If the virtual machine is not filtered out by the query rules, it is listed asFAILED.The following table gives the test query results from example combinationsof the Client name selection parameter and a query rule.

Table 6-18 Effect of Client name selection parameter and query rules on testquery results

Test query resultQuery rule in QueryBuilder

Client nameselection setting onSnapshot ClientOptions dialog

INCLUDED: Any virtual machines with hostname thatcontains "VM". Since the Client name selection parametertells NetBackup to select the virtual machine by host name,it can back up the virtual machines.

EXCLUDED: All other virtual machines.

VMHostName Contains "VM"VM hostname

INCLUDED: Any virtual machines that have a hostname andthat have a display name that contains "VM".

EXCLUDED: Any virtual machines that have a hostname, butthat do not have a display name containing "VM".

FAILED: Any virtual machines that do not have a hostname.Since the Client name selection parameter is set to VMhostname, NetBackup cannot select the virtual machine forbackup.

Displayname Contains "VM"VM hostname

INCLUDED: Any virtual machines that have a hostname andthat have a display name that contains "VM".

EXCLUDED: All other virtual machines. The IsSet rule meansthat if a virtual machine does not have a host name, it isexcluded.

Displayname Contains "VM"


VM hostname

103Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEffect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in Test Query results

Table 6-18 Effect of Client name selection parameter and query rules on testquery results (continued)

Test query resultQuery rule in QueryBuilder

Client nameselection setting onSnapshot ClientOptions dialog

INCLUDED:

■ Any virtual machines that have a hostname and that havea display name that contains "VM".

■ Any virtual machines without a host name that have anannotation that contains "test".


Displayname Contains "VM"


OR Annotation Contains"test"

AND NOT VMHostNameIsSet

VM hostname

INCLUDED: Any virtual machines with the display namesthat contain "VM". Since the Client name selection parametertells NetBackup to select the virtual machine by display name,it can back up the virtual machines.


Displayname Contains "VM"VM display name

INCLUDED: Any virtual machines that have a display nameand that have a host name that contains "VM".

EXCLUDED: Any virtual machines that have a display name,but that do not have a host name containing "VM".

FAILED: Any virtual machines that do not have a displayname. Since the Client name selection parameter is set toVM display name, NetBackup cannot select those virtualmachines for backup.

VMHostName Contains "VM"VM display name

Effect of Client name selection parameter on VMName column in Test query results

The Client name selection parameter affects the type of virtual machine namethat appears in the VM Name column of the Test Query screen, as follows:

■ If a virtual machine is EXCLUDED or FAILED, it is listed according to its virtualmachine display name. The Clientnameselection parameter does not matter.

■ But if a virtual machine is listed as INCLUDED, note: The name that appearsunder VM Name is the type of name that is specified on the Client nameselection parameter.

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEffect of Client name selection parameter on VM Name column in Test query results

104

For example: If the Client name selection parameter is VM hostname, theincluded virtual machine is listed according to its host name. Even if the queryrule specified Display name (such as Displayname Equal "vm1"), the virtualmachine appears on the Test Query screen by its host name.


105Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEffect of Client name selection parameter on VM Name column in Test query results

Configure automatic selection of virtual machines for backupEffect of Client name selection parameter on VM Name column in Test query results

106

Reduce the size of backups


■ About reducing the size of backups

■ Block-level backup (BLIB): full vs incremental

■ Deleting a vSphere Client snapshot

■ Using VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only

About reducing the size of backupsNetBackup provides the following options for reducing backup size:

7Chapter

BLIB reduces the size of backups (full and incremental) by tracking block-level changes.Only the blocks that have changed since the last full or incremental are included in thebackup. For incremental backups, this option applies to cumulative and to differentialbackups.

BLIB works with VMware’s Changed Block Tracking in vSphere to track block-level changesin the virtual machine.

To enable BLIB, click Perform block level incremental backup in the NetBackup policyAttributes tab. NetBackup uses BLIB for storage optimization when the backup runs.

Note: The first backup you run with BLIB must be a full backup.

See “Block-level backup (BLIB): full vs incremental” on page 108.

Note the following about block level incremental backups:

■ Works only with ESX 4.0 virtual machines at version vmx-07 or later.

■ Requires the FlashBackup-Windows policy type.

■ Works only with backups of the entire virtual machine (does not apply to backups thatspecify individual files).

■ Requires vStorage (cannot be used in VCB-based backups).

Note: If you have used the vSphere Client interface to manually create a snapshot of thevirtual machine and that snapshot is currently active, you may have to delete the snapshot.

See “Deleting a vSphere Client snapshot” on page 109.

See “Using VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only” on page 110.

Block levelincremental backup(BLIB)

Reduces the size of virtual machine backups by excluding any unused or deleted sectors inthe file system on the virtual machine.

To enable this option, click Exclude unused and deleted blocks on the Snapshot Optionsdialog from the policy Attributes tab.

Note the following:

■ Supports the Windows NTFS and Linux ext2 and ext3 file systems only.

■ Requires the FlashBackup-Windows policy type.

■ Works only with backups of the entire virtual machine (does not apply to backups thatspecify individual files).

■ Requires vStorage (cannot be used in VCB-based backups).

See “Exclude unused and deleted blocks” on page 55.

Exclusion of unusedand deleted blocks.

Block-level backup (BLIB): full vs incrementalWhen you enable Perform block level incremental backup in the policy,NetBackup uses VMware's Changed Block Tracking feature to reduce the backupsize. Since this option works at the block level (not at the file level), it applies only

Reduce the size of backupsBlock-level backup (BLIB): full vs incremental

108

to backups of the entire virtual machine. It cannot be used when the policy backupselections list specifies individual files.

This option reduces the size of full backups as well as the size of incrementalbackups, as follows.

Table 7-1 Block-level backup of the virtual machine: full vs incrementalschedule

Optimization that is used in backupType of backup

Backs up only the blocks that have changed since the.vmdk was created.

Backup of entire virtual machine,with full schedule

Backs up only the blocks that have changed since thelast backup, as follows:

■ For cumulative incrementals, BLIB backs up onlythe blocks that changed since the last full backup.

■ For differential incrementals, BLIB backs up onlythe blocks that changed since the previous backupof any kind.

Backup of entire virtual machine,with incremental schedule

Deleting a vSphere Client snapshotTo use BLIB with NetBackup for VMware, you must delete an existing vSphereClient snapshot if both of the following are true:

■ You used the vSphere Client interface to manually create a snapshot of thevirtual machine and that snapshot is currently active.

■ A NetBackup policy with the Performblocklevel incrementalbackup featurehad never been used to back up the virtual machine before you started thevSphere Client snapshot.

In this case, NetBackup cannot enable BLIB for the virtual machine. You mustdelete the vSphere Client snapshot. Then, when the NetBackup policy runs, BLIBis enabled.

More information is available on NetBackup block-level backups:

109Reduce the size of backupsDeleting a vSphere Client snapshot

To delete a vSphere Client snapshot

1 In the vSphere Client interface, right-click on the virtual machine and selectSnapshot > Snapshot Manager.

2 Select the snapshot and click Delete.

3 To back up the virtual machine with BLIB, you can now run a NetBackuppolicy that has Perform block level incremental backup enabled.

NetBackup backups from this policy continue to use storage optimization,even if you decide to manually create a snapshot of the virtual machine usingthe vSphere Client interface.

Using VMware's Changed Block Tracking for fullbackups only

The Perform block level incremental backup option (BLIB) in the NetBackuppolicy applies to full backups and incremental backups. BLIB skips blocks on thevirtual disk that are unmodified since the last backup. If you want to skipunmodified blocks during full backups but not incrementals, do not configure thepolicy for BLIB. Instead, enable changed block tracking by means of the vSphereClient interface.

To enable changed block tracking for full backups only (vSphere Client interface)

1 In the vSphere Client interface, power off the virtual machine.

2 Select the virtual machine, then click Edit settings.

3 Obtain the hard drive controller and disk numbers (SCSI and IDE) for eachvirtual drive on the virtual machine.

To find the controller number and disk numbers, do the following:

■ Click the Hardware tab.

■ Click on each hard disk. Its controller number and disk number (SCSI orIDE) appear under Virtual Device Node, in the form SCSI(X.X) orIDE(X.X). Make a note of each.

Reduce the size of backupsUsing VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only

110

4 Click the Options tab. Under Advanced, General, click ConfigurationParameters.

5 On the Configuration Parameters screen, click Add Row.

6 Enter ctkEnabled in the Name column and enter true for the Value.

7 For each virtual drive on the virtual machine, enter a Name in the form:

scsiX:X.ctkEnabled

or

ideX:X.ctkEnabled

where X:X represents the controller number and disk number of each disk asfound on the Hardware tab.

For example: scsi0:0.ctkEnabled for the first disk and scsi0:1.ctkEnabled

for the second disk. (The numbers for your disks may be different.)

8 Enter true for the Value of each disk entry.

9 Click OK.

10 Power on the virtual machine.

Now you can use vSphere Client to take a snapshot of the virtual machine.NetBackup can apply vStorage optimization (changed block tracking) to futurebackups of the virtual machine.

111Reduce the size of backupsUsing VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only

Reduce the size of backupsUsing VMware's Changed Block Tracking for full backups only

112

Back up virtual machines


■ Backing up virtual machines

■ Further information on NetBackup policies

■ Using the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups

■ Using OpsCenter to report on virtual machine backups

Backing up virtual machinesVirtual machine backups initiate from a NetBackup policy. You can start thebackup manually from a policy, or have it run automatically according to a schedulethat is defined in the policy.

To create the policy, you can use the Policies utility in the NetBackupAdministration Console, or the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard.


See “Configuring a VMware policy from the Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard”on page 46.

8Chapter

To back up a virtual machine manually from an existing policy

1 Click on Policies in the NetBackup Administration Console, select the policy,and click Actions > Manual Backup.

The Manual Backup dialog appears.

Back up virtual machinesBacking up virtual machines

114

2 Select the type of schedule for the backup.

3 Select the clients (virtual machines) to back up.

If the policy was configured for automatic selection of virtual machines, theClients pane shows the VMware backup host rather than the virtual machines.

4 Click OK to start the backup.

5 To see the job progress, click Activity Monitor in the NetBackupAdministration Console.

It may take a few moments for the job to appear in the Activity Monitor. Donot start another backup if a job does not immediately appear. If the job doesnot show up after a few moments, close and restart the NetBackupAdministration Console.

Note that your VMware backup request launches more than one job. The firstjob automatically creates and deletes snapshots. This job has a dash (-) in theSchedule column. The second job backs up the virtual machine files from thesnapshot.

Further information on NetBackup policiesFor further information on policies and backup schedules, see the "Creating backuppolicies" chapter of the NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I.

Using the ActivityMonitor tomonitor virtualmachinebackups

You can use the NetBackup Activity Monitor to keep track of the virtual machinesthat a policy backs up.

To monitor the virtual machines that a policy backs up

1 Click Activity Monitor in the left pane of the Administration Console.

2 Note each job as it appears by row.

A backup of a virtual machine consists of three generations of jobs:

■ The first job is the discovery of the virtual machines.

■ The discovery job starts one or more child jobs to take a snapshot of eachvirtual machine.

■ Each snapshot job starts a child job to back up each virtual machine.So the job flow is as follows:

115Back up virtual machinesFurther information on NetBackup policies

discovery job --> snapshot job --> backup job

3 To trace the discovery job to the virtual machine backup jobs, note the JobID and the Parent Job ID columns.

In this sample screen, job 113 is a virtual machine backup (grandchild). (Notethat each virtual machine backup job includes the name of its schedule in theSchedule column.) Its parent job was 106, the snapshot job. Job 101 (thediscovery job) was the parent of 106.

In this example, any job with a parent ID of 101 is a snapshot job for 101. Jobs109 through 115 are the virtual machine backups that originated from 101.

4 Right-click on the job row and click Details.

On the Job Details screen, click the DetailedStatus tab for more informationon the job.

5 If the Job ID or the Parent Job ID column is not displayed in the ActivityMonitor, display them as follows:

■ Right click anywhere in the column header row and click Columns >Layout.

■ Click the row for the heading that you want to display (such as Job ID).

■ Use the following icons at the top of the screen to show the heading:

Sets the State to Show.

Moves the row up or down in the list (farther to the left orright in the Activity Monitor).

Back up virtual machinesUsing the Activity Monitor to monitor virtual machine backups

116

■ Click OK. The Job ID and Parent Job ID columns should now be visible inthe Activity Monitor.

UsingOpsCenter to report on virtualmachinebackupsTo use OpsCenter to obtain a backup report on virtual machines

1 Start the OpsCenter console in a Web browser.

On a system that has a network connection to the OpsCenter server, enterthe following in a browser:

http://host.domain/opscenter

where host.domain is the fully qualified domain name or IP address of theOpsCenter server.

2 Click the Reports tab.

3 Click Client Reports > Virtual Client Summary.

The Virtual Client Summary report is described in the Symantec OpsCenterAdministrator's Guide.

117Back up virtual machinesUsing OpsCenter to report on virtual machine backups

Back up virtual machinesUsing OpsCenter to report on virtual machine backups

118

Restore virtual machines


■ Restoring the full VMware virtual machine

■ About restore of individual files

■ Restoring individual files

■ Restore notes and restrictions

■ Restore notes and restrictions on Linux

■ About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux

■ If the recovery host is not at the same NetBackup release level as the backuphost

Restoring the full VMware virtual machineIf the VMware backup was made with both of the following, you can restore theentire virtual machine:

■ A FlashBackup-Windows policy.

■ The Virtual Machine Backup parameter was set to any of the following:

■ Full VM backup

■ Mapped full VM backup

■ Full backupwith file level incremental, and the policy schedule was a fullbackup type.

More detail is available on restore options.See “Recovery options related to policy selections” on page 66.

9Chapter

To restore the full virtual machine

1 Start the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.

2 Specify the source client and destination client and type of policy:

For UNIX systems, on the Restore Files tab, click the restore icon.

For Windows systems: Click Files>SpecifyNetBackupMachinesandPolicyType.

3 Specify the following:

The NetBackup master server that directed the backupServer to use forbackupandrestores

The VMware virtual machine that was backed upSource client forrestores

This field is ignored. The destination for the restore is specifiedin a different screen as explained in a later procedure.

Destination clientfor restores

FlashBackup-WindowsPolicy type forrestores

4 Select the type of restore:

For UNIX systems, on the Restore Files tab, select Restore type > VirtualMachine Backups.

For Windows systems, click the down arrow on the Select forRestore option.Select RestorefromVirtualMachineBackup. A restore window displays thebackups available for restore.

5 Select the virtual machine backup to restore.

For UNIX systems, do the following:

■ On the RestoreFiles tab, specify the Startdate and Enddate within whichto search for the backup. Click either of the calendar options.

■ Specify root (/) in the Browse directory field and press Enter.

■ Click on the root directory that is displayed under Directory Structure.

Restore virtual machinesRestoring the full VMware virtual machine

120

For Windows systems, in the NetBackupHistory pane, click on the VMwarebackup. Then click on the item that is displayed under AllFolders. You cannotselect individual files. You must select the entire virtual machine.

121Restore virtual machinesRestoring the full VMware virtual machine

6 Select restore options.

For UNIX systems, click Restore.

For Windows systems, click Actions > Restore.

The type of dialog that appears next depends on how NetBackup performedthe backup (by means of vStorage or VCB).

See “ Virtual Machine Recovery dialog boxes (restore to original location)”on page 122.

See “Virtual Machine Recovery dialogs boxes (restore to alternate location)”on page 125.

See “About restore of the virtual machine from a VCB backup” on page 131.

See “ Restore Marked Files dialog box (VMware with VCB)” on page 131.

Virtual Machine Recovery dialog boxes (restore to original location)If NetBackup used VMware vStorage to back up the virtual machine, the VirtualMachine Recovery dialog boxes appear when you start the restore.

Recovery Destination dialog boxSelect the type of destination for the recovery: the original location or alternatelocation.

■ Original settings of the virtual machine when it was backed upShows the configuration of the virtual machine at the time of the backup.When you restore the virtual machine to its original location, theseconfiguration settings are used and cannot be changed.

■ Recover virtual machine toSelect Original location or Alternate location.


122

Recovery Options dialog boxSelect the recovery host, transfer type, and other options, as follows:

■ Destination settings of the virtual machine to be recoveredShows the configuration of the virtual machine at the time of backup. Thesesettings are applied to the virtual machine when it is restored.

■ NetBackup Recovery HostThe host that performs the recovery. The default is the host that performedthe backup (the backup host).In most cases, you can use the host that performed the backup. Selecting adifferent host as the recovery host can result in a slow restore or a failedrestore, depending on the transfer type. For example, if the host that performedthe backup used a SAN connection to access the datastore, but the host youselect as recovery host does not have SAN access to the datastore, the restorefails if you select the SAN transfer type.

■ Transfer TypeDetermines how the restore data is sent from the recovery host to the VMwaredatastore. The appropriate option depends in part on the type of network thatconnects the VMware datastore to the recovery host.The default is the type that the backup used.

For unencrypted transfer over Fibre Channel (SAN) or iSCSI.san

For unencrypted transfer over a local network that uses theNetwork Block Device (NBD) driver protocol. This type oftransfer is usually slower than Fibre Channel.

nbd

For encrypted transfer (SSL) over a local network that usesthe Network Block Device (NBD) driver protocol. This typeof transfer is usually slower than Fibre Channel.

nbdssl

Provides transfer flexibility if the VMware datastore isavailable on both a SAN and a local network. NetBackupattempts an unencrypted transfer over Fibre Channel (SAN)or iSCSI. If that fails, it transfers the snapshot data usingthe Network Block Device (NBD) driver protocol over thelocal network.

Try san then nbd

Requires that the recovery host is in a virtual machine. Thisfeature requires ESX 3.5 Update2 or later.

For instructions on this transport mode and on installingthe recovery host in a VMware virtual machine, refer to yourVMware documentation.

hotadd


NetBackup tries each transfer type in this order: san, hotadd,nbd, nbdssl. It uses the first type that succeeds for all disksin the virtual machine. For example: If one of the diskscannot be accessed using san, the san transfer type is notused for any of the virtual machine’s disks. NetBackup thentries to use the hotadd type for all the disks. NetBackupcontinues to try each type until it finds one that succeedsfor all the disks.

Try all types

■ Overwrite the existing virtual machineIf a virtual machine with the same UUID or display name exists at thedestination, that virtual machine must be deleted before the restore begins.Otherwise, the restore fails. Select this option to have the virtual machinedeleted.

■ Restore UUIDRetains the UUID of the original virtual machine (note that the UUID is aglobally unique identifier). The virtual machine is restored with the same UUIDthat it had before the restore.This option requires that the virtual machine has been deleted on thedestination server, so that the UUID is free. Otherwise, you must selectOverwrite the existing virtual machine.

Note the following:

■ If a virtual machine with the same display name but with a different UUIDexists at the target restore location, the restore fails. You must either deletethe existing virtual machine and run the restore, or keep the existing virtualmachine and abandon the attempt to restore.

■ If a virtual machine with a different display name but with the same UUIDexists at the target restore location: You must either delete the existingvirtual machine and run the restore, or select RestoreUUID and Overwritethe existing virtual machine. In the latter case, NetBackup deletes theexisting virtual machine and restores the original virtual machine.

■ If you do not want to keep the existing virtual machine, you can do one ofthe following: Remove the existing virtual machine, or log into the ESXserver and remove the directory where the virtual machine resides.

■ Remove network interfacesRemoves any network interfaces from the restored virtual machine. Selectthis option if the network connections on the destination virtual machine havechanged since the backup was made.

■ Power on virtual machine after recovery


124

Select this option to have the recovered virtual machine automatically poweredon when the recovery is complete.

■ Create thin provisioned disksThis option configures the restored virtual machine with thin provisioneddisks, even if the original virtual machine used thick provisioning.Thin provisioning saves disk space through dynamic growth of the vmdk file.The vmdk files are no larger than the space that the data on the virtual machinerequires. The virtual disks automatically increase in size as needed.Refer to the following Symantec document for more support details on thinprovisioned disks:Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

■ Override default job priorityPlace a check mark in this box to override the default priority.

■ Job PriorityUse this field to set a higher priority.

Perform Recovery dialog boxReview the settings that are to be applied to the restored virtual machine.

■ Recovery settingsLists several settings that are used for the recovery.

■ Run Pre-Recovery CheckClick this option to verify credentials, available space on the datastore, andother important requirements.

■ Start RecoveryStarts the recovery of the virtual machine.

Virtual Machine Recovery dialogs boxes (restore to alternate location)If NetBackup used vStorage to back up the virtual machine, the Virtual MachineRecovery dialog boxes appear when you start the restore.

Recovery Destination dialog box (restore to alternate location)■ Original settings of the virtual machine when it was backed up

Shows the configuration of the virtual machine at the time of the backup.When restoring to an alternate location (not to the original location), you canchange these settings after you click Next.

■ Recover virtual machine toSelect Alternate location.



Recovery Options dialog box (restore to alternate location)This dialog initially displays the original virtual machine settings that wererecorded in the NetBackup catalog when the virtual machine was backed up. Beforeaccepting any default values, you may have to verify that the original hosts orservers are still available.

This dialog contains the following fields:

■ NetBackup Recovery HostThe recovery host transfers the virtual machine files to the VMware destinationthat is specified in other fields on this dialog. The default for the recovery hostis the backup host that backed up the virtual machine.

Consider the following when selecting a recovery host:

■ To use the original VMware backup host for the recovery, verify that thebackup host still exists. The original backup host may have been removedor reconfigured after the backup occurred.

■ The current processing load on the host that you want to use may be afactor. The recovery host undergoes significant I/O activity when it restoresa virtual machine.

■ The network connection between the recovery host and the destinationdatastore may limit the type and speed of data transmission. For example,to use the SAN transfer type, the recovery host must have access to theappropriate luns in the datastore.

■ vCenter ServerSpecifies the vCenter server for the restored virtual machine. To use theoriginal vCenter Server (the default), verify that the original vCenter serverstill exists.To use a different vCenter Server, make sure that it is compatible with thevirtual machine you want to restore. Note that a vmx-07 virtual machine canbe restored only to a vSphere 4.0 or later server.The restore may finish faster if you use the SAN transfer type with a restoreESX server (bypassing any vCenter servers).

When choosing a target host for the restore, note the following:

■ If NetBackup has credentials to access a vCenter server (but does not havecredentials to access a VMware restore ESX server), note: You can restorethe virtual machine through the vCenter server. In this case, the datamovement for the restore passes through the vCenter server. Passing thevirtual machine data through the vCenter server may increase the amountof time that is needed to complete the restore.The credentials must give NetBackup full access privileges to the vCenterserver.


126


■ If NetBackup has credentials to access a vCenter server as well as a VMwarerestore ESX server, the restore may complete faster. In this case, by defaultNetBackup passes the virtual machine data directly to the restore ESXserver, bypassing the vCenter server. You can select a vCenter folder inwhich to place the restored virtual machine.The credentials must give NetBackup full access privileges to the restoreESX server.

■ If NetBackup has credentials to access an ESX server, you can designatethat server as the target for the restore. The credentials must giveNetBackup full access privileges to the ESX server.Select None for the vCenter Server, and click Search to select the ESXserver.

Note:Due to VMware limitations, NetBackup cannot restore a vStorage virtualmachine backup directly to an ESX server that is earlier than version 3.5.

■ ESX ServerSpecifies the ESX server on which the restored virtual machine is to reside.To use the original ESX server (the default), verify that the original ESX serverstill exists.Click the Search option to browse for a different ESX server.See “Select ESX server dialog box (restore to alternate location)” on page 128.

■ DatacenterShows the VMware datacenter containing the selected ESX server.

■ FolderA folder is a logical entity within the vCenter that contains VMware objects,such as datastores, networks, and virtual machines.By default, this field shows the VMware folder that contained the virtualmachine when the virtual machine was backed up. If you select a different ESXserver to which to restore the virtual machine, this field changes to None. Youmust then click Browse to select a folder within the datacenter for the restoredvirtual machine.See “Select Folder dialog box (restore to alternate location)” on page 129.

■ Display NameSpecifies the VMware display name for the restored virtual machine. Thedefault is the display name that the virtual machine had when it was backedup.


The display name must be unique for the vCenter Server where the virtualmachine is restored.

Note: If a virtual machine with this display name already exists at this location(or at the original location), you are prompted to click Overwrite the existingvirtual machine. You cannot restore the virtual machine if the result is twovirtual machines with the same display name on the same vCenter server.

■ Resource PoolUse this option to have the restored virtual machine assigned to either aVMware resource pool or to a vApp. Resource pools manage the host's CPUand memory. vApps are logical containers for virtual machines, and also sharesome functionality with virtual machines.

■ DatastoreSpecifies the VMware datastore that contains the virtual machine configurationfiles.This datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory) contains the configurationfiles that describe the virtual machine, such as *.vmx files. Active snapshotsof vmdk files are also stored on this datastore.

■ Transfer TypeDetermines how the data is sent from the recovery host to the VMwaredatastore. The appropriate type depends on the type of connection betweenthe NetBackup recovery host and the VMware datastore.More information is available about these options.See “Recovery Options dialog box” on page 123.

■ Overwrite the existing virtual machineSelect this option to overwrite an existing virtual machine that has the samedisplay name or UUID as the virtual machine to be restored.If a virtual machine with the same display name or UUID exists at thedestination vCenter, NetBackup deletes the virtual machine before the restorebegins.

Select ESX server dialog box (restore to alternate location)You can enter the name of the ESX server, or drill down in the list to select aserver.

■ Specify ESX serverEnter the fully qualified name of the ESX server in this field.

■ Search


128

Click Search to display a list of available ESX servers that are on the vCenterserver. Drill into the list and place a check mark beside an ESX server.

Note: Some older ESX servers may not support the version of the virtualmachine that you want to restore. Verify that the ESX server is compatiblewith the virtual machine.

Select Folder dialog box (restore to alternate location)This dialog shows the vCenter folders that exist on the datacenter that is shownin the Datacenter field.

Pick a folder from the list of available folders. The restored virtual machine isplaced in this folder.

If two datacenters of the same name exist in the vCenter server, all folders for theidentically named datacenters are displayed. After you select a folder and clickOK, verify that the folder on the RecoveryOptions dialog contains the destinationESX server. If the selected folder is on the wrong datacenter, the restore fails.

Storage Destination dialog box (restore to alternate location)Select the datastores where the .vmdk files are to be restored.

■ Source VMDK File NameShows the names of the virtual machine .vmdk files that were backed up.

■ DatastoreShows the VMware datastore where the .vmdk files are restored. Click in thisfield for a pull-down to select another datastore available to the ESX server.

■ Datastore StatusIndicates whether the datastore has enough space to contain the selected.vmdk file.

The datastore has enough space to contain the selected.vmdk file of the virtual machine that you restore.

OK

The datastore does not have enough space to contain theselected .vmdk file of the virtual machine that you restore.

Insufficient space

■ Create thin provisioned disksThis option configures the restored virtual machine with thin provisioneddisks. It does so even if the original virtual machine used thick provisioningat the time of the backup.


Thin provisioning saves disk space by means of dynamic growth of the vmdkfile. The vmdk files are no larger than the space that the data on the virtualmachine requires. The virtual disks automatically increase in size as needed.Refer to the following Symantec document for support details on thinprovisioned disks:Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

Network Connections and other options dialog box (restore toalternate location)■ Select/unselect all network names

This box selects or unselects all the networks that are listed under NetworkNames. If a network is selected, the restored virtual machine is automaticallyconnected to that network.Place a check mark in this box if you want to select all network connectionsfor the restored virtual machine.

■ Network NamesSelect the networks that you want the restored virtual machine to be connectedto. Note that virtual networks are displayed in addition to physical networks.When the virtual machine is backed up, its network connections (physical orvirtual) are recorded in the NetBackup catalog.

For the restore, NetBackup determines what networks currently exist, andlists the network names as follows:

■ If a network that was recorded in the backup catalog for the virtual machinestill exists, it is listed on this screen and automatically selected.

■ If a network is available that was not listed in the NetBackup catalog, it islisted on this screen but not selected.

■ If a network was recorded in the backup catalog but is not currentlyavailable, it is not listed.

■ Power on virtual machine after recoveryPowers on the virtual machine after it is restored.

■ Override default job priorityPlace a check mark in this box to override the default priority.

■ Job PriorityUse this field to set a higher priority.

Perform Recovery dialog box (restore to alternate location)■ Recovery settings


130


Lists the settings that are used for the recovery.

■ Run Pre-Recovery CheckVerifies the credentials, determines whether the datastore has available space,and reviews other important requirements. You must run this check at leastonce. You can proceed with the restore even if the check fails.

■ Start RecoveryStarts the recovery of the virtual machine.

About restore of the virtual machine from a VCB backupTo restore a virtual machine from a backup that was made with VCB, restore allvirtual machine files to the VMware recovery host. The recovery host is used asa staging host. You must use this approach if NetBackup 6.5.x made the backup.

After you restore the virtual machine files to the VMware recovery host, do oneof the following:

■ Use VMware automated restoreNetBackup integrates with VMware vCenter Converter to restore the virtualmachine to a designated ESX server. The virtual machine files are then removedfrom the staging host.See “ Restore Marked Files dialog box (VMware with VCB)” on page 131.Certain compatibility issues exist between newer and older versions of VMwareESX server and VMware Converter. Refer to the Support for NetBackup 7.x invirtual environments tech note for more information:http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127089

■ Use the VMware Converter application to restore the virtual machine fromthe staging host to the virtual machine server.

Restore Marked Files dialog box (VMware with VCB)If the backup was made with VCB, the RestoreMarkedFiles dialog appears whenyou click Restore in the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.

See “Restoring the full VMware virtual machine” on page 119.



The Restore Options are as follows:

■ Restore all virtual machine files to a virtual machine server automaticallyusing VMware ConverterRestores all virtual machine files to the staging area that you specify on thisdialog box. NetBackup then issues a VMware-provided script to restore thevirtual machine to the virtual machine server you specify. After the restore iscomplete, the restored virtual machine is powered off. The virtual machinefiles are then removed from the staging machine.If the virtual machine display name already exists on the Virtual machineserver, the restore fails.Note the following options:


132

Retains the UUID of the original virtual machine (note that theUUID is a globally unique identifier). The virtual machine isrestored with the same UUID that it had before the restore. Thisoption requires that the previous virtual machine (the one thatwas backed up) has been deleted, so that the UUID is free.

Note: If the UUID exists, the restore fails.

The default (no identify restore) makes sure that the displayname of the new virtual machine (created by the restore) doesnot already exist. The virtual machine that the restore createsis given a new UUID.

Perform identityrestore to restoreUUID (UniversalUnique Identifier)

Verifies that the virtual machine that the restore creates doesnot have the same IP address as the virtual machine that wasbacked up. The network information is deleted at the time ofthe restore.

The default is to retain the IP information. Use the default if:

■ You have already deleted the virtual machine that was backedup, and

■ You want the restored virtual machine to keep the same IPinformation as the original virtual machine.

Strip networkinformation fromthe virtual machinethat has beenrestored

Does not restore hardware backing information from the originalimage. Default settings are substituted.

Remove backinginformation fordevices likeDVD/CD-ROMdrives, serial orparallel ports

■ Restore all virtual machine files to the staging machineRestores all virtual machine files to the staging host. NetBackup does notrestore the files to the virtual machine server. If not restoring to the originallocation, you can use the VMware Converter to restore the virtual machinefrom the staging host to the Virtual machine server.See your VMware documentation.

The Restore Destination Choices are as follows:

■ Virtual machine serverBy default, this field shows the server that was stored in the backup imageinformation. You can use that server as the restore destination, or enter adifferent virtual machine server as the destination.

■ Staging machine for restorationSelect or enter the recovery host to which the VMware files are temporarilyrestored. If you chose Restore all virtual machine files to a virtual machine


server automatically using VMware Converter, the files are restored to theVirtual machine server and deleted from this staging server.The default is the backup host that was used for the backup. The name of thatbackup host is stored in the backup image information. On this dialog box, thepull-down list for staging hosts includes the VMware backup hosts that aredefined in existing NetBackup policies.Restore staging locationEnter a Windows file path on the staging host to which the virtual machinefiles are temporarily restored. The default is the VMware backup host mountpoint that was stored in the backup image information.

The Override default priority options are the following:

■ Override default priorityPlace a check mark in this box to override the default priority.

■ Job priorityUse this field to set a higher priority.

About restore of individual filesYou can use either of the following procedures to restore files individually.

Restore individual files to the virtual machine by restoring to therecovery host. The virtual machine drives that are the destinationfor the restore must be configured in one of the following ways:

■ Windows only: The virtual machine drives must be sharedthrough the guest operating system on the virtual machine.

See “Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to aWindows shared virtual machine drive” on page 137.

■ NetBackup client software must be installed on the VMwarevirtual machine.

One-stage process

Restore individual files from the VMware recovery host to aNetBackup client (not to the virtual machine). See the NetBackupBackup,Archive,andRestoreGettingStartedGuideon how to restoreto different locations.

Then manually copy the restored files to the virtual machine.(NetBackup does not perform this step.)

Two-stage process

Restore virtual machinesAbout restore of individual files

134

Restoring individual filesIf the VMware backup was made with either of the following, you can restoreindividual files:

■ An MS-Windows policy that uses VCB.

■ A FlashBackup-Windows policy with a Virtual Machine Backup parameterset to any of the following:

■ File level snapshot using VCB

■ Mapped full VM backup

■ Full backup with file level incremental

To restore individual files

1 In the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface, specify the sourceclient and destination client and the type of policy:

For UNIX systems, on the Restore Files tab, click the Restore icon:

For Windows systems, click Files>SpecifyNetBackupMachinesandPolicyType.

2 Specify the following:

The NetBackup master server that directed the backup.Server to use forbackupandrestores

The VMware virtual machine that was backed up.

Note: If the policy identified the virtual machine by its VMwaredisplay name or UUID (not by host name), specify that displayname or UUID.

Source client forrestores

135Restore virtual machinesRestoring individual files

Specify one of the following:

■ The host name of the VMware virtual machine that wasbacked up, if NetBackup client software has been installedon the virtual machine.

Specify the host name even if the policy identified thevirtual machine by its VMware display name or UUID. Donot enter the VMware display name or UUID.

■ The NetBackup recovery host.

Note: The NetBackup Client Service must be logged on asAdministrator.

See “Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to aWindows shared virtual machine drive” on page 137.

Destination clientfor restores

The type of policy that made the backup: MS-Windows orFlashBackup-Windows.

Policy type forrestores

3 Select the type of restore, as follows:

■ For UNIX systems, on the Restore Files tab, select Normal Backups.

■ For Windows systems, click Files > Select Files and Folders to Restore >from Normal Backup

4 For UNIX systems enter the Browse directory that contains the directoriesor files to restore.

See “About restore of individual files” on page 134.

5 Click the files you want to restore.

6 Start the restore, as follows:

■ On UNIX systems: Click Restore.

■ On Windows systems: Click Actions > Restore....

7 For Windows systems, if NetBackup client software is not installed on thedestination virtual machine, select one of the following:

■ Restore everything to a different location

■ Restore individual folders and files to different locationsDestinations must be entered as UNC path names that refer to shareddrives on the virtual machine.

For example, to restore the file E:\folder1\file1 on virtual machine vm1,enter the following destination:

\\vm1\e$\folder1\file1

Restore virtual machinesRestoring individual files

136

The NetBackup Client Service must be logged on under an account that hasAdministrator privileges.

See “Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to a Windows sharedvirtual machine drive” on page 137.

See “About restore of individual files” on page 134.

Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to a Windows sharedvirtual machine drive

To restore individual files to a Windows virtual machine that has a shared drive,note: the NetBackup Client Service must be logged on under an account that hasAdministrator privileges (not as the Local System account). An account withAdministrator privileges lets NetBackup write to the directories on the virtualmachine to which the data is restored.

If you try to restore files while the NetBackup Client Service is logged on as theLocal System account, the restore fails.

To log on the NetBackup Client Service as Administrator

1 In Windows Services on the VMware recovery host, double-click theNetBackup Client Service.

2 Check the Log On tab: if the service is not logged on under an account thathas Administrator privileges, stop the service.

3 Change the logon to the Administrator account, or to an account that hasAdministrator privileges.

The account must have Administrator privileges in the domain in which boththe virtual machine and the VMware backup host reside.

4 Restart the service.

5 Retry the restore.

Restore notes and restrictionsBefore you begin the restore, note the following:

■ Unless a NetBackup client is installed on the virtual machine, you must do therestore from the NetBackup master server.

■ To restore files to the original virtual machine location, the destination mustbe specified as the virtual machine's host name (not display name or UUID).

137Restore virtual machinesRestore notes and restrictions

■ Cross-platform restore is not supported. You can restore Windows files toWindows guest operating systems but not to Linux. You can restore Linux filesto supported Linux guest operating systems but not to Windows.

■ If the virtual machine was backed up by its display name or UUID, and thedisplay name differs from the host name, note: You must specify the correctdestination client for the restore. Use the Specify NetBackup Machines andPolicy Type dialog in the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.See “Invalid client error when you restore files using NetBackup BAR interfaceinstalled on the virtual machine” on page 163.

■ Restore of individual files from a backup of the full virtual machine is notsupported if the virtual machine contains Storage Foundation Volume Managervolumes.

■ To restore Windows NTFS-encrypted files individually, you must install aNetBackup client on the virtual machine.See “NetBackup for VMware best practices” on page 143.

■ For virtual machine restores, VMware supports the NBDSSL transfer type onlyfor vStorage backups of vSphere 4.1 and later environments. Backups ofVMware systems that are earlier than vSphere 4.1 cannot be restored usingthe NBDSSL transfer type.

■ If the attempt to restore a full virtual machine fails while using the SANtransport type, try the NBD transport type instead.

■ For the SAN transfer type, the job may be slow when you restore to a vCenterServer. For greater speed, designate an ESX server as the destination for therestore.Note that you can set up an ESX server to be used for restores. You can addNetBackup restore credentials for that ESX server by means of the VMwarerestore ESX server server type.See “Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware” on page 36.

■ If the restore host is on Windows Server 2008 and you use the SAN transfertype for the restore, the SAN luns must be online. Refer to the information onstatus code 5 in the following section:See “NetBackup status codes related to VMware” on page 154.

■ When restoring large files, make sure that no snapshots are active on thedestination virtual machine. Otherwise, the files are restored to the VMwareconfiguration datastore, which may be too small to contain the files you wantto restore. In that case, the restore fails.The configuration datastore (sometimes called the vmx directory) containsthe configuration files that describe the virtual machine, such as *.vmx files.

Restore virtual machinesRestore notes and restrictions

138

Note that active snapshots of vmdk files are also stored on the configurationdatastore.

■ If you cancel the virtual machine restore before it completes, thenot-fully-restored virtual machine remains at the target location. NetBackupdoes not delete the incomplete virtual machine when the restore job is canceled.You must manually remove the incomplete virtual machine.

■ If the virtual machine display name contains non-ASCII characters, the backupmay succeed but the restore fails. To restore the virtual machine, you mustchange the display name to contain ASCII characters only and retry the restore.

■ See “VMware notes and restrictions” on page 28.

Restore notes and restrictions on LinuxBefore you begin the restore, note the following:

■ Cross-platform restore is not supported. You can restore Linux files tosupported Linux guest operating systems but not to Windows.

■ If the Linux file system was not quiesced before the snapshot, some files maybe inconsistent. Such files can be recovered from the NetBackup.lost+founddirectory.See “About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux” on page 140.See “About the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 183.

■ For Linux virtual machines, NetBackup cannot restore individual files fromsoftware RAID volumes. The files are restored when you restore the entirevirtual machine.

■ NetBackup supports backup and restore of Linux LVM2 volumes, includingindividual file restore from an LVM2 volume. Note however that NetBackupdoes not support individual file restore from a snapshot that was created bymeans of the snapshot feature in LVM2. If an LVM2 snapshot exists at thetime of the backup, the data in the snapshot is captured in the backup. Thedata can be restored along with the rest of the virtual machine data when yourecover the entire virtual machine.

■ NetBackup supports backup of Linux FIFO files and socket files. NetBackupdoes not support restoring FIFO files and socket files individually. FIFO filesand socket files can be restored along with the rest of the virtual machine datawhen you recover the entire virtual machine.

■ For Linux virtual machines, only the ext2 and ext3 file systems are supportedfor individual file restore. If a partition uses some other file system, the backupsucceeds but files in that partition cannot be individually restored. Note: The

139Restore virtual machinesRestore notes and restrictions on Linux

"/" (root) partition must be formatted with ext2 or ext3 to allow NetBackup topresent mount points for restore in the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.See “Mount points not available when restoring files from a Linux virtualmachine” on page 162.

■ When you restore Linux files individually to an NFS shared device on a Linuxvirtual machine, NetBackup for VMware cannot restore the files’ extendedattributes. You can restore the files and their attributes to a Linux virtualmachine if its file system supports extended attributes. You cannot restore toan NFS share.Note: If you restore the files to an NFS share, the file data is restored alongwith any Access Control Lists (ACLs). Extended attributes are not restored.The NFS share must be mounted with write access.

■ For a virtual machine that is running a Linux guest operating system: Whenyou restore a virtual machine (to its original location or different location),the ESX server assigns the virtual machine a new (virtual) MAC address. Afteryou restart the virtual machine, you may have to configure its MAC address.For instance, the original MAC address of the virtual machine may be in aconfiguration file that has to be updated.Refer to your VMware documentation for more details.

■ For Linux, additional notes apply.See “Notes on Linux virtual machines” on page 29.

About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux

Note: You can ignore this section if: you have installed the SYMCquiesce utilityon your virtual machines, and your virtual machines meet the requirements forthe SYMCquiesce utility.

See “About the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 183.

See “Installing the SYMCquiesce utility” on page 184.

Without the SYMCquiesce utility, a snapshot of a Linux virtual machine may bein an inconsistent state (sometimes called crash-consistent). In other words, thesnapshot data is equivalent to the state of a file system after an abrupt,uncontrolled shutdown. When the virtual machine is rebooted, a file systemconsistency check (fsck) reports inconsistencies that need repair.

To handle inconsistent data from backups of crash-consistent Linux virtualmachine snapshots, NetBackup creates a NetBackup.lost+found directory foreach Linux volume. This directory is not a physical directory on the volume but

Restore virtual machinesAbout the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux

140

a virtual directory in the NetBackup catalog. Any inconsistent directories or filesare linked to the NetBackup.lost+found directory. The names of the inconsistentdirectories and files cannot be determined: the items in the NetBackup.lost+founddirectory are therefore assigned the names that represent the inode numbers ofthe original directories or files.

If a NetBackup.lost+found directory already exists on the virtual machine,NetBackup appends numbers to the new NetBackup.lost+found directory names,to keep them unique. The directories are named NetBackup.lost+found.1,NetBackup.lost+found.2, and so forth.

Note: The NetBackup.lost+found directory is not the same as the standard Linuxlost+found directory that Linux maintains in case of an abnormal systemshutdown.

The following Backup, Archive, and Restore screen shows examples of inconsistentdirectories and files in a NetBackup.lost+found directory. This example also showsthe standard Linux lost+found.

In the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface, you can search theNetBackup.lost+found directory for any inconsistent items and restore them.Symantec recommends that you restore them to an alternate location (not to theoriginal virtual machine). You can then examine their contents to determine theiroriginal names. Any metadata that was captured at the time of the backup may

141Restore virtual machinesAbout the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux

be helpful in identifying the inconsistent files or directories. Examples of suchmetadata are file size, file owner, and file creation and modification dates.

If the recovery host is not at the same NetBackuprelease level as the backup host

Note the following about mixed-level backups and restores:

■ To restore from a NetBackup 7.x backupTo restore a virtual machine from a backup that a NetBackup 7.x backup hostperformed, a NetBackup 7.x recovery host is required. You cannot use aNetBackup 6.5.x recovery host to restore a virtual machine that was backedup by a NetBackup 7.x backup host.

■ To restore from a NetBackup 6.5.x backupTo restore a virtual machine (or selected files) from a NetBackup 6.5.x backup,the VMware Converter must be installed on the NetBackup recovery host. Therecovery host can run NetBackup 6.5.x or 7.x. A staging area is required.

Restore virtual machinesIf the recovery host is not at the same NetBackup release level as the backup host

142

Best practices and moreinformation


■ NetBackup for VMware best practices

■ More information on VMware

■ Further assistance with NetBackup

■ Support information on NetBackup for VMware

NetBackup for VMware best practicesThe following are best practices for VMware:

■ For a more efficient backup, the NetBackup media server and the VMwarebackup host should be installed on the same host.

■ When creating virtual machines, use the same name for both host name anddisplay name. If the policy's Client Name Selection is changed, the existingentries on the policy Clients tab still work.

■ VMware recommends that you run no more than four simultaneous backupsof virtual machines that reside on the same datastore.

■ Successful VMware snapshots depend on the following:

■ The amount of I/O that occurs on the virtual machine datastore. Backupsshould be scheduled when relatively little I/O activity is expected. Reducingthe number of simultaneous backups can also help.Limit access to the datastore per policy: Use the Limit jobs per policyattribute in the NetBackup policy.

10Chapter

Limit access to the datastore globally (across all policies): Use the HostProperties Resource Limit screen.See “Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources” on page 40.

■ The design of the I/O substructure that is associated with each virtualmachine datastore. For correct I/O design and implementation, consultyour VMware documentation.

■ Make sure that the VMware backup host has enough memory to handle thenumber of simultaneous backups that occur.

■ Include in a single NetBackup policy those virtual machines that use the samedatastore. This practice lets you control the amount of backup-related I/O thatoccurs per datastore, to limit the backup effect on the target virtual machines.

■ NetBackup supports multiple backup hosts. When a single backup host issaturated with a backup process, another backup host can be added to increasebackup throughput.

■ Upgrade to the latest version of VMware vSphere or Virtual Infrastructure.

■ See the Symantec white paper titled NetBackup for VMware Best PracticesGuide.

For VCB backupsWhen backing up virtual machines with VCB, note the following regarding thesnapshot mount point on the VMware backup host (backup proxy):

■ On the backup host, the file system that contains the snapshot mount pointundergoes extensive I/O during full virtual machine backup. For this reason,the file system should reside on a high performance device.

■ On the backup host, the file system that contains the snapshot mount pointshould be reserved for snapshots only. It should also be on a dedicated SCSIor Fibre Channel bus.

■ The file system that contains the snapshot mount point should be routinelydefragmented. A heavily fragmented file system can adversely affect backupperformance.

■ To increase backup throughput on the backup host, define multiple snapshotmount points. Each mount point should be created on a disk that is connectedon its own disk bus (such as SCSI or IDE). Thus, I/O activity that one policycreates can be isolated from I/O activity that other policies create.

Best practices and more informationNetBackup for VMware best practices

144

VMware with deduplicationFor a VMware backup to a deduplication storage unit, select the Mapped fullVMbackup option for the Virtualmachinebackup parameter on the VMware snapshotmethod. This option provides the best deduplication rates. Use of the Full VMbackup option results in a lower rate of deduplication.

More information is available about VMware configuration parameters.


More information on VMwareVMware Inc. provides an extensive set of manuals on VMware products.

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/

Further assistance with NetBackupFor assistance with Snapshot Client configuration, refer to theNetBackupSnapshotClient Administrator's Guide. The guide contains installation and configurationinstructions on Snapshot Client.

For a list of all supported combinations of platforms and snapshot methods, seethe following document:

NetBackup 7 Snapshot Client Compatibility


Support information on NetBackup for VMwareUp-to-date information on NetBackup support in a virtual environment is availablein the following tech note:

Support for NetBackup 7.x in a virtual environment


This tech note provides a wide range of support information, such as a list ofsupported guest operating systems, file systems, and required VMwarecomponents.

145Best practices and more informationMore information on VMware

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH126901


Best practices and more informationSupport information on NetBackup for VMware

146

Troubleshooting


■ NetBackup logging for VMware

■ VMware environment—important!

■ Why VCB is not used

■ Preventing browsing delays caused by DNS problems

■ Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery

■ Changing timeout and logging values for vSphere

■ Troubleshooting notes for VMware

■ Credentials for VMware server are not valid

■ NetBackup status codes related to VMware

■ Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)

■ Restore fails when you restore individual files to a virtual machine that hasNetBackup client software

■ Backup or restore job hangs

■ Mount point missing on a restored Windows virtual machine

■ Mount points not available when restoring files from a Linux virtual machine

■ Remove the Consolidate Helper snapshot

■ NetBackup catalog information for virtual machine backups made by 6.5.4 orearlier may prevent browsing the imported images for restore

11Chapter

■ Invalid client error when you restore files using NetBackup BAR interfaceinstalled on the virtual machine

■ VMware virtual machine does not reboot after restore

NetBackup logging for VMwareFor log messages about VMware backup or VMware restore, see the followingNetBackup log directories.

Table 11-1 NetBackup logs that pertain to VMware backup and restore

Resides onContains the messageson

Log directory

NetBackup master or media serverBackup and restoreinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\bpbrm

NetBackup media serverBackup and restoreinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\bptm

VMware backup hostSnapshot creation andbackup

install_path\NetBackup\logs\bpfis

VMware backup hostSnapshot creation andbackup

install_path\NetBackup\logs\bpcd

VMware backup hostBackupinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\bpbkar

NetBackup master serverRestoreinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\bprd

VMware recovery hostRestoreinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\tar

VMware backup or recovery hostPolicy configuration and onrestore

install_path\NetBackup\logs\bpVMutil

The client where the Backup, Archive,and Restore interface is running.

Restoreinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\bpVMreq

VMware backup hostPolicy configurationinstall_path\NetBackup\logs\nbproxy

VMware backup host.Automatic virtual machineselection

install_path\NetBackup\logs\ncfnbcs(originator ID 366)

ncfnbcs uses unified logging. See theNetBackup Troubleshooting Guide forinformation on how to use unified logs.

Note: Except for ncfnbcs, these log directories must already exist in order forlogging to occur. If these directories do not exist, create them.

TroubleshootingNetBackup logging for VMware

148

To create the log directories, run the following command on the NetBackup serversand backup host:

Windows:

install_path\NetBackup\logs\mklogdir.bat

UNIX (on master or media servers):

/opt/openv/netbackup/logs/mklogdir

More detail is available on snapshot logs and logging levels.

See the NetBackup Snapshot Client Administrator’s Guide.

A broader discussion of NetBackup logging is available.

See the NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.

Other logs for troubleshootingThe following may also contain valuable backup information.

Table 11-2 Other logs for VMware

Resides onContains themessages onLog directory

VMware backup host

See “Enabling VxMS logging”on page 149.

Note: The use of VxMSlogging can reduce theperformance of the backuphost.

File mapping during backup\Program Files\CommonFiles\VERITAS\VxMS\Logs

Enabling VxMS loggingVxMS logging may require significant resources on the VMware backup host.

To enable VxMS logging



3 Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > VxMS.

4 Change the Logging DWORD value to 0x7580.

149TroubleshootingNetBackup logging for VMware

VMware environment—important!Unsupported equipment can cause many problems. Ensure that your VMwareenvironment (including ESX servers, SAN devices, and backup host) conforms toall requirements and recommendations that are spelled out by VMware. Forinstance, if VMware does not support your HBAs, device drivers, or guest operatingsystems, NetBackup cannot work.

For support details, see VMware documentation at the VMware support site (forexample, the VMware compatibility guides).

Why VCB is not usedWhen possible, NetBackup automatically uses vStorage instead of VCB, even whenbacking up certain VMware environments that are older than vSphere. If the ESXserver is at least 3.5, or the VirtualCenter is at least 2.5, NetBackup uses vStorage.Even if VCB is installed, NetBackup does not use VCB in these environments.

NetBackup uses VCB for VMware environments that are older than ESX 3.5 orVirtualCenter 2.5. It also uses VCB if the policy is configured for Windows file-levelbackups. See the appendix titled "File-level backup of Windows virtual machines."

Preventing browsing delays causedbyDNSproblemsNetBackup may be unable to identify virtual machines when you use the Browsefor Virtual Machines dialog. Virtual machine host names may not be properlyconfigured in your Domain Name Server system (DNS), or the DNS system maybe slow. A timeout message may appear, or messages similar to the following mayappear in the NetBackup detailed status log:

17:25:37.319 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: Processing vm 002-wcms

17:25:37.319 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: uuid

421a8b46-063d-f4bd-e674-9ad3707ee036

17:25:37.319 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: vmxdir [san-05] 002-wcms/

17:25:37.319 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: datastore san-05

17:25:37.319 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: IpAddress 172.15.6.133

17:25:41.866 [12452.10360] get_vSphere_VMs: retry_gethostbyaddr for

172.15.6.133 failed with The requested name is valid, but no data of

the requested type was found.

Note: NetBackup may be unable to determine the host names of the virtualmachines from their IP addresses (reverse lookup may fail).

TroubleshootingVMware environment—important!

150

To prevent browsing delays caused by DNS problems



3 Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup >CurrentVersion > Config and create a key called BACKUP.

4 Create a new DWORD under BACKUP, called disableIPResolution.

This registry key causes NetBackup to use the virtual machine's IP addressas the virtual machine's host name.

5 Use the NetBackup Browse for Virtual Machines screen to rediscover thevirtual machines to show the host names set to the IP addresses.


Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machinediscovery

In the NetBackup Administration Console on Windows, you can adjust the timeavailable for browsing for virtual machines in the NetBackup policy.

To change the browsing timeout value

1 In the NetBackup Administration Console on Windows, click on Policies.

2 From the main menu, click View > Options, then click the Policies tab.

3 Adjust the VMware connect timeout value.

4 Click OK.

Changing timeout and logging values for vSphereThe following are vSphere registry keys and their default values for varioustimeouts.

Table 11-3 Registry keys and defaults for vSphere timeouts

Default value (in seconds)DWORD registry key name

900jobtimeout

900poweroptimeout

151TroubleshootingChanging the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery

Table 11-3 Registry keys and defaults for vSphere timeouts (continued)

Default value (in seconds)DWORD registry key name

900snapshottimeout

180registertimeout

180browsetimeout

300connecttimeout

The registry key and default for the vSphere API logging level are the following.

Table 11-4 Registry key and default for vSphere API log level

Default valueDWORD registry key name

0 (no logging)vmcloglevel

To change vSphere timeouts and logging values



3 Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup >CurrentVersion > CONFIG and create a key called BACKUP.

4 To change a timeout value, create a new DWORD under BACKUP, using theappropriate registry name (such as jobtimeout or poweroptimeout).

Enter a value for the timeout.

5 To change the level of vSphere API logging, create a new DWORD calledvmcloglevel and enter the new logging value.

The allowed values are 0 through 6, where 0 is no logging and 6 is the highestlog level.

Troubleshooting notes for VMwareNote the following:

■ For incremental backups, make sure that the VMware backup host is correctlyconfigured. Otherwise, NetBackup performs full backups only.See “Incremental backups must be based on timestamps ” on page 65.

TroubleshootingTroubleshooting notes for VMware

152

■ You cannot restore Windows operating system files from a file-level backupof a virtual machine. You can restore standard data files only. A restore of theoperating system requires a full virtual machine backup.

■ Make sure that the VMware Tools are installed on each virtual machine.Otherwise, communication problems and other issues can result.

■ You cannot restore individual VMware files onto the virtual machine itself,except under certain conditions.See “About restore of individual files” on page 134.

■ (This item applies to VCB backups only.) For the Full VM backup, Mapped fullVM backup, or Full backup with file level incremental options: Backups arenot supported if the snapshot staging area in the VMware backup host hascompression or encryption enabled.

■ (This item applies to VCB backups only.) For the Full VM backup, Mapped fullVM backup, or Full backup with file level incremental options: Backups arenot supported if the snapshot mount point on the VMware backup host hascompression or encryption enabled. For the backup, the VMware backup hostcopies the space-optimized VMware virtual machine images to its snapshotmount point. The Windows NTFS file system that is allocated for the snapshotmount point should not have the Compression or Encryption attribute set. Ifeither attribute is configured, backups succeed but single file restores cannotbe performed from the backups.

■ For VMware environments that require VCB: Make sure that you have thelatest VCB version on the VMware backup host.See “When VCB is required” on page 16.

■ NetBackup for VMware does not work with the VMware NetBackup IntegrationModule (VNIM).

Note the following:

■ If VNIM is installed, do not configure a NetBackup for VMware policy (withthe VMware snapshot method) to call any scripts that use VNIM. Such apolicy results in a backup that fails.

■ Do not run any NetBackup for VMware policy at the same time as ascript-based policy that calls VNIM. If the two policies require access tothe same virtual machine, a conflict may result and the backup may fail.

Credentials for VMware server are not validA number of possible problems can prevent NetBackup from gaining access tothe ESX server or VirtualCenter. NetBackup’s AddVirtualMachineServer dialoghas a Validate Credentials box that directs NetBackup to verify the credentials

153TroubleshootingCredentials for VMware server are not valid

when you click OK. If the credentials do not pass validation, a pop-up messageappears.

Problems can result for a variety of reasons, including the following:

■ An incorrect virtual machine server name. Make sure that the server name isentered correctly.More information is available about changing the server name that is storedin NetBackup.See “Changing the host name of a VMware server in NetBackup” on page 39.

■ An invalid user name or password. Make sure that a valid user name andpassword were entered correctly.

■ An incorrect port number. Make sure that the port number is correct on theNetBackup ChangeVirtualMachineServer dialog. If the VMware server usesthe default port, no port specification is required. You can uncheck the Connectusing port number box.

■ You do not have enough privileges to perform backups or restores. (Notehowever that lack of sufficient privileges may not cause the credentialvalidation to fail.)For general guidelines for permissions, see the following:http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH128513For the minimum permissions needed to back up and restore with vStorage,see the following:http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH130493

NetBackup status codes related to VMwareThis topic provides assistance for NetBackup status codes.

TroubleshootingNetBackup status codes related to VMware

154



Table 11-5 NetBackup status codes related to VMware

Explanation and recommended actionNetBackup statuscode

This error can occur for the following reasons:

■ Taken together, the virtual machine and the alternate client virtual machine may containtoo many disks. If the total is too great for the alternate client's SCSI controllers to handle,a backup or restore using the hotadd transfer type fails. The following message appearsin the job's detailed status log:

ERR - Error opening the snapshot disks usinggiven transport mode: Status 23.

Add more SCSI controllers to the alternate client virtual machine.

■ For vStorage backups: If the VMware backup host cannot access the VMware datastoreby means of the transfer type that was selected for the job, the backup fails.

The job's detailed status log on the backup host may contain messages such as thefollowing:

12/4/2009 1:12:34 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=21376) fromclient moneevm4_clone: ERR - Error opening the snapshotdisks using given transport mode: Status 23.12/4/2009 1:12:39 PM - Error bpbrm(pid=21376) could notsend server status message12/4/2009 1:12:40 PM - end writing; write time: 00:00:28the backup failed to back up the requested files(6)

Select a different transfer type and retry the backup.

■ For the backups that use the hotadd transfer type: If the virtual machine to back up andthe virtual machine that contains the hotadd backup host do not reside in the same VMwaredatacenter, the backup fails. For a successful hotadd backup, the two virtual machinesmust be in the same VMware datacenter.

■ A previous hotadd backup of the virtual machine may have failed. Certain mount directoriesor cloned disks must be manually removed to allow hotadd backups to succeed, as follows:

■ During a hotadd backup, VMware creates a linked clone of the virtual machine's disksand attaches the cloned disks to the backup host. (The attached disks can be seen inthe vSphere Client interface.) If a hotadd backup of the virtual machine fails, NetBackupmay be unable to remove the cloned disks from the backup host. In the backup host,the presence of the cloned disks prevents subsequent backups from completing.

Remove the cloned disks from the VMware backup host and retry the backup.

■ During a virtual machine backup, VMware creates mount directories in theC:\Windows\Temp folder on the backup host. After the backup, VMware automaticallyremoves the mount directories. In some cases, such as when the backup uses the hotaddtransfer type, NetBackup may be unable to remove the mount directories.

Remove the mount directories from the \Temp folder and retry the backup. The foldername contains a string such as VMware-System.

6, the backup failedto back up therequested files

155TroubleshootingNetBackup status codes related to VMware

Table 11-5 NetBackup status codes related to VMware (continued)


A number of different issues can cause this error.

See “Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)” on page 158.

156, snapshot errorencountered

To restore selected files (not the entire virtual machine) to the original location, you mustspecify the host name of the virtual machine. Do not specify the display name or UUID asthe destination.

227, no entity wasfound

TroubleshootingNetBackup status codes related to VMware

156

Table 11-5 NetBackup status codes related to VMware (continued)


A virtual machine restore may fail in the following cases:

■ If an .ISO file was presented to a virtual machine as a virtual CD or DVD during backup,the ISO file must be available on the destination host. If the ISO file is not available onthe host where you restore the virtual machine, the restore fails. Note that the VirtualInfrastructure interface on the VirtualCenter may include the following message:

Invalid configuration for Device '1'

■ The VMware restore host is on Windows Server 2008 but the SAN LUNs are offline.

The detailed status log that is in the NetBackup Activity Monitor includes the messageVirtual machine restore: file write failed.

If the restore host is on Windows Server 2008 and you use the SAN transfer type, youmust manually change the SAN LUNs to be online.

■ For restores that use the hotadd transfer type: If the virtual machine to restore and thevirtual machine that contains the hotadd restore host do not reside in the same VMwaredatacenter, the restore fails. For a successful hotadd restore, the two virtual machinesmust be in the same VMware datacenter.

■ For vStorage restores: The restore host cannot access the VMware datastore by means ofthe transfer type that was selected for the job. The job's detailed status log on the restorehost may contain messages such as the following:

3:26:43 INF - Beginning read-blockmap on server luebeckof client moneevm4, reading file h:\dstu\moneevm4_1259284475_C1_F1.13:27:21 (19400.001) INF - TAR STARTED13:27:23 (19400.001) INF - Beginning restore from server lubto client lub.13:27:36 (19400.001) FTL - Virtual machine restore: VxMS initializationfailed13:27:37 (19400.001) FTL - Virtual machine restore: file create failed13:28:42 (19400.001) INF - TAR EXITING WITH STATUS = 513:28:42 (19400.001) INF - TAR RESTORED 0 OF 1 FILES SUCCESSFULLY13:28:42 (19400.001) INF - TAR KEPT 0 EXISTING FILES13:28:42 (19400.001) INF - TAR PARTIALLY RESTORED 0 FILES13:29:54 (19400.xxx) INF - Status = the restore failed to recoverthe requested files.

Select a different transfer type and retry the restore.

■ You attempted to restore a file that has a path name longer than 1023 characters.

Note that a backup of a Linux virtual machine backs up all files, including those with pathnames longer than 1023 characters. A restore of the entire Linux virtual machine recoversall files. But you cannot restore the long path-name files individually.

2805 (MS-Windowspolicy restore error),2817(FlashBackup-Windowspolicy restore error)

157TroubleshootingNetBackup status codes related to VMware

Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)This topic describes VMware issues that relate to status code 156.

Table 11-6 Possible causes of status code 156

Description and recommended actionCauses of status code156

NetBackup may not be able to obtain the volume ID of a drive that is listed in the policy’sbackup selections. In that case, none of the drives that are listed in the policy for theclient (virtual machine) are backed up. The backup fails with NetBackup status code 156.

Try one of the following:

Use the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive instead of listing individual drives.

A drive letter that is specified in the policy’s backup selections list may be incorrect, orthe drive may be down. Update the client’s include list (Exceptions to exclude list), andfix or remove the drive entry in the backup selections list.

NetBackup cannot obtainthe volume ID of a drive

You cannot run more than one backup per virtual machine at a time. If you start a secondbackup of the virtual machine while the first backup is active, the second job fails witha status 156.

Recommended action: Wait until the first job completes, then run the second one.

A backup of the virtualmachine is already active

If you cancel a virtual machine backup that uses VMware VCB, NetBackup terminatesthe backup job. But NetBackup may be unable to terminate the VMware vcbmounterprocess that creates the snapshot on the virtual machine. If you then start another backupof the virtual machine, and the previous snapshot is still active, the new job fails withstatus 156.

Recommended action: On the virtual machine, use VMware Virtual Infrastructure orvSphere Client to delete the current snapshot. Then use NetBackup to restart the backup.

A VCB snapshot of thevirtual machine isalready active

If the VMware backup host has insufficient space in which to mount a VCB snapshot ofthe virtual machine, the backup fails with status 156.

The bpfis log on the VMware backup host may contain a message such as the following:

13:35:37.859 [5536.1276] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf: [2007-09-2113:35:34.578 'vcbMounter' 2204 error] Error: Failed to exportthe disk: There is not enough space on the disk

Recommended action: Free up additional space on the backup host and rerun the backup.

VCB only: The VMwarebackup host hasinsufficient space for thesnapshot

TroubleshootingSnapshot error encountered (status code 156)

158

Table 11-6 Possible causes of status code 156 (continued)


If the VMware backup host cannot access the VMware datastore by means of the transfertype that was selected for the job, the backup fails.

The bpfis log on the backup host may contain messages such as the following:

12:23:29.998 [3892.3332] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf: [2008-05-0712:23:26.279 'App' 3668 trivia] Attempting to openLVID:46a9ed36-ca235c12-1236-00001a1a24e4/46a9ed35-aa804fd4-6b99-00001a1a24e4/1.

12:23:29.998 [3892.3332] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf: [2008-05-0712:23:26.279 'App' 3668 error] No path to deviceLVID:46a9ed36-ca235c12-1236-00001a1a24e4/46a9ed35-aa804fd4-6b99-00001a1a24e4/1 found.

Recommended action: Select a different transfer type and retry the backup.

VCB only: The selectedtransfer type cannot beused

NetBackup cannot find the host name or VMware display name of a virtual machine thatis listed in the backup policy. The detailed status log may include the following errormessage:

Critical bpbrm (pid=<pid number>) from client <client name>:FTL - snapshot creation failed, status 156.)

If the virtual machines do not have static IP addresses, you can configure NetBackup toidentify virtual machines by their VMware display names or UUIDs. Examples of theenvironments that do not use static IP addresses are clusters, and the networks thatassign IP addresses dynamically.

Note that NetBackup may have been configured to identify virtual machines by theirVMware display names. In that case, make sure that the display names are unique andthat they do not contain special characters.


Cannot find virtualmachine name

159TroubleshootingSnapshot error encountered (status code 156)

Table 11-6 Possible causes of status code 156 (continued)


For versions of VCB earlier than 1.5: A disk was mounted on a virtual machine but thedisk is assigned to the virtual machine in raw mode (RDM). As a result, the attempt tocreate a snapshot of the virtual machine fails.

The bpfis log on the backup host may contain a message such as the following:

12:46:27.175 [2636.5628] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf: [2007-10-1712:46:27.019 'App'1976 verbose] Fault Msg: "Virtual machine is configured to use adevice that prevents the snapshot operation: Device '' is a rawdisk, which is not supported."

For VCB 1.5 update 2 and for vStorage, the RDM is ignored (not backed up) and anyindependent disk is recreated but empty.

See “Configurations for backing up RDMs” on page 178.

The virtual machine diskis in raw mode (RDM)

If the attempt to create a snapshot of the virtual machine exceeds the VMware timeoutof 10 seconds, the snapshot fails with NetBackup status 156. This timeout may occur ifthe virtual machine is configured with a large number of volumes. Note that the timeoutmay be encountered even if the Virtual machine quiesce option was disabled.

Do one of the following:

■ Reduce the number of volumes within the virtual machine.

■ Install a NetBackup client on the virtual machine and select another backup methodfor the policy (not the VMware snapshot method).

The attempt to create asnapshot exceeded theVMware timeout

For the Full VM backup, Mapped full VM backup, or Full backup with file level incrementaloptions: Backups are not supported if the snapshot staging area in the VMware backuphost has compression or encryption enabled.

VCB only: compressionor encryption is enabledon the snapshot stagingarea in the VMwarebackup host

Restore fails when you restore individual files to avirtual machine that has NetBackup client software

When you restore individual files to a virtual machine that has a NetBackup client,make sure that a firewall does not interfere with the restore. If a firewall stopsthe restore, turn off the firewall and retry the restore.

TroubleshootingRestore fails when you restore individual files to a virtual machine that has NetBackup client software

160

Backup or restore job hangsNetBackup may have exceeded the maximum number of allowed VMware NFCconnections to the ESX server when it used the transfer types nbd or nbdssl. Notethat NetBackup uses one NFC connection per virtual disk on the ESX or ESXiserver.

If NetBackup is configured to access the ESX server directly (not through a vCenteror VirtualCenter server), fewer connections are allowed. The following are themaximum connections as set by VMware:

Table 11-7 VMware NFC connection limits

Maximum NFCconnections allowed

Type of access to the ESXserver

ESX version

9Directly to ESX serverESX 3.5

27Through vCenterESX 3.5

9Directly to ESX serverESX 4

27Through vCenterESX 4

11Directly to ESX serverESXi 4

23Through vCenterESXi 4

Try a different transport type (such as SAN or hotadd). If a different transporttype is not available and NetBackup accesses the ESX servers directly, set upaccess through a vCenter (or VirtualCenter) server. Use of a server increases themaximum number of allowed connections. For example: With 27 connections,NetBackup can access a virtual machine that has up to 27 disks, if the ESX serveris behind a vCenter server.

Note that the connection limits are per-host (that is, per vCenter or ESX server).

For example, assume the following environment:

■ An ESX 4.0 server with three virtual machines.

■ Each virtual machine has 10 virtual disks.

■ The virtual machines are behind a vCenter 4.0 server.

For a simultaneous backup of the three virtual machines, NetBackup requires 30NFC connections. With a limit of 27 NFC connections per vCenter server, any ofthe three backup jobs may hang.

These limits are described in the VMware Virtual Disk API Programming Guide:

161TroubleshootingBackup or restore job hangs

VMware Virtual Disk API Programming Guide

Mount point missing on a restored Windows virtualmachine

A Windows virtual machine may fail to write its mount point configuration todisk (the mount point configuration remains in RAM). In that case, the mountpoint information cannot be backed up. When the virtual machine is restored,the data from the mounted volume is restored, but the mount point is absent fromthe restored virtual machine.

Reassign the mount point on the restored virtual machine. To make sure themount point is correctly configured, restart the virtual machine.

Mount points not available when restoring files froma Linux virtual machine

For Linux virtual machines, only the ext2 and ext3 file systems are supported forindividual file restore. If a partition is formatted with some other file system, thebackup succeeds but NetBackup cannot map the file system addresses of the files.As a result, NetBackup cannot restore individual files from that partition. Onlythe files that were on ext2 or ext3 partitions can be individually restored.

Note also: to restore individual files from their original mount points, the "/" (root)partition must be formatted as ext2 or ext3. If the "/" (root) partition is formattedwith a different file system (such as ReiserFS), the mount points cannot be resolved.In that case, you can restore ext2 or ext3 files from the /dev level (such as/dev/sda1) but not from their original mount point level.

Remove the Consolidate Helper snapshotIf a datastore is out of space when you attempt to delete snapshots, VMwarecreates a snapshot named Consolidate Helper. You should manually delete thissnapshot before the next backup. Otherwise, change files may accumulate on thedatastore. The accumulation of such files can affect both the backup performanceand the I/O performance of the virtual machine.

For more information, see the following VMware knowledge base article aboutdeleting the Consolidate Helper snapshot:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003302

TroubleshootingMount point missing on a restored Windows virtual machine

162

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/vddk11_api_programming.pdf

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003302

NetBackup catalog information for virtual machinebackups made by 6.5.4 or earlier may preventbrowsing the imported images for restore

If you import a NetBackup 6.5.4 or earlier virtual machine backup image to aNetBackup 7.x system, note: the catalog header file of the imported image mayhave the wrong value for VM_TYPE. The value of the imported image may beincorrectly reported as 0 even for type 1 (Full VM) and type 2 (Mapped full VM)backups. As a result, you cannot use the Backup, Archive, and Restore interfaceto browse and restore the virtual machine image.

You must change the VM_TYPE value in the header file of the imported image tocorrect this problem. For the backups that were made with the Full VM backupoption, set VM_TYPE to 1. For the backups that were made with the Mapped fullVM backup option, set VM_TYPE to 2.

For instructions, see the following tech note:


Invalid client error when you restore files usingNetBackup BAR interface installed on the virtualmachine

If the virtual machine was backed up by display name or UUID, and the displayname is not the same as the host name, note: You cannot restore individual filesby means of the Backup, Archive, and Restore (BAR) interface if the interface isinstalled on the virtual machine itself. The files can be restored if BAR is installedon the master server or media server. In this case, BAR must not be installed onthe virtual machine that you want to restore to.

To restore files, the Destination client for restores field in the BAR interfacemust have a valid host name or IP address.

VMware virtualmachine does not reboot after restoreThe virtual machine may have had SCSI and IDE drives at the time of backup andthe guest OS resided on a SCSI drive. In that case, the virtual machine whenrestored may attempt to boot from the IDE drive. The boot attempt fails with themessage "Operating system not found." This problem occurs when NetBackupuses the VMware vStorage APIs.

163TroubleshootingNetBackup catalog information for virtualmachine backupsmadeby6.5.4 or earliermayprevent browsing the imported

images for restore

VMware has identified this problem and will address it in a future release.

As a workaround, you can reconfigure the BIOS on the virtual machine to bootfrom the correct SCSI device.

TroubleshootingVMware virtual machine does not reboot after restore

164

The Reuse VM selectionquery results option

This appendix includes the following topics:

■ About the Reuse VM selection query results option

About the Reuse VM selection query results optionThe NetBackup Test Query screen lists the virtual machines that NetBackupdiscovered in your virtual environment. Because the automatic selection featureis dynamic, later changes in the environment may affect which virtual machinesmatch the query rules. For example: if virtual machines are added, the test resultsmay not be identical to the virtual machines that are selected for backup whenthe backup runs.

NetBackup caches the current Test Query results for a designated period ratherthan rediscovering virtual machines at every backup. The option is called ReuseVM selection query results for. During the period you specify on this option,NetBackup reuses the current list of virtual machines as the backup list. It doesnot consult the query builder or rediscover virtual machines.

The less often your virtual machine environment undergoes changes, the moreadvantageous it may be to reuse the cached list of virtual machines for backups.Note that in large environments, discovery of virtual machines takes time andconsumes resources on the vCenter server.

Note the following about the Reuse VM selection query results option:

■ Determines how long the query results are reused (that is, how often the cacheis refreshed).

■ Controls how often NetBackup performs discovery on the vCenter server.

AAppendix

For the environments that contain many virtual machines, the discoveryprocess may place a significant load on the vCenter server.

■ Has no effect on the NetBackup policy execution schedule.

■ Is invalidated if the query rules are changed or if the policy attributes thataffect discovery are changed. In that case, NetBackup rediscovers virtualmachines the next time the policy runs, and the cache is refreshed.The following topic describes the policy attributes that affect discovery:See “Effect of Client name selection parameter on Selection column in TestQuery results” on page 102.

For example: assume that the ReuseVMselectionquery results for option is setto eight hours. If additional virtual machines are powered on during the eighthour period, they are not added to the policy's backup list. The policy backs upthe virtual machines that were last added to the list (such as when the policy wascreated). After eight hours, at the next execution of the policy, the recently poweredon virtual machines are discovered and added to the backup list.

Note: The virtual machines that have been selected for backup are not displayedon the policy Clients tab. To see which virtual machines NetBackup has selectedand backed up, refer to the following topics.



The Reuse VM selection query results optionAbout the Reuse VM selection query results option

166

The Symantec VSS Providerfor VMware


■ About the Symantec VSS provider for VMware

■ Notes on the Symantec VSS provider for VMware

■ Installing the Symantec VSS provider

■ How to use the Symantec VSS provider

■ Symantec VSS provider logs

About the Symantec VSS provider for VMwareBy default, during NetBackup for VMware backups, the VSS provider in VMwareTools quiesces the file systems on Windows virtual machines.

Although the VSS provider in VMware Tools is suitable in many cases, it has thefollowing deficiencies:

■ In VMware 4.1 and earlier, the VMware VSS provider initiates the backupsthat use the VSS_BT_COPY type of backup only. VSS_BT_COPY does not supportlog truncation for Microsoft Exchange.

■ In VMware 4.0 Update 2 and earlier, the VMware VSS provider does not supportapplication consistent backup in Windows Vista and 2008 guest operatingsystems.

■ In VMware 3.5 Update 1 and earlier, the VMware VSS provider does not supportapplication consistent backup for several versions of Windows, such asWindows 2003.

BAppendix

The Symantec VSS provider is recommended instead of the VMware VSS providerin the following cases:

■ Your version of VMware Tools does not support application consistent backupfor your Windows virtual machines.The Symantec VSS provider performs application consistent backups forvirtual machines in VMware 3.5 through 4.x, for all versions of Windowssupported by NetBackup.

■ You want VMware backups to truncate the logs on Microsoft Exchange virtualmachines.The Symantec VSS provider truncates logs for Microsoft Exchange, by meansof the VSS_BT_FULL type of backup.

You can uninstall the VMware VSS provider and install the Symantec VSS provider,as described in this appendix.

When the Symantec VSS provider is installed and NetBackup starts a virtualmachine snapshot, the following occur: VMware Tools calls the Symantec VSSprovider to quiesce the file system, for a file-level consistent backup. On the virtualmachines that run Exchange, the Exchange VSS writer truncates the transactionlogs when the VMware snapshot is complete.

CAUTION! Please note the following:

Caution: When using the Symantec VSS provider, do not use the NetBackup forExchange Agent to perform incremental backups of the same virtual machine.The log truncation function that the Symantec VSS provider supports may deletethe logs before an Exchange incremental backup can back them up. As a result,the Exchange incremental backup cannot succeed.

Notes on the Symantec VSS provider for VMwareNote the following about the Symantec VSS provider:

■ The Symantec VSS provider has been tested and certified for VMware backupswith the following combination: NetBackup 7.1, VMware vStorage, andMicrosoft Exchange 2003 and 2007.Up-to-date support information on the Symantec VSS provider is available inthe following tech note:Support for NetBackup 7.x in a virtual environment

■ Symantec recommends the Symantec VSS provider for the virtual machinesthat host Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007. To use the Symantec VSS provider,the Exchange virtual machines should not have other VSS-compliant

The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareNotes on the Symantec VSS provider for VMware

168


applications: For example, Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle with the OracleVSS writer.

■ The Symantec VSS provider cannot co-exist with the VMware VSS provider.The VMware VSS provider must be uninstalled before you install the SymantecVSS provider.

■ For Exchange recovery, you must recover the entire virtual machine. (Use theNetBackup VirtualMachineRecovery screens from the Backup, Archive, andRestore utility.) The restored Exchange server is transactionally identical tothe virtual machine at the time it was backed up. Note that object level restores,such as restoring a specific storage group or database, are not supported.

■ Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) configurations and Single Copy Clusters(SCC) are not supported.

■ Local Continuous Replication (LCR) configurations are supported.

■ Do not use NetBackup for Exchange to make incremental backups of the guestOS if the Symantec VSS provider is in use. The Exchange VSS writer maytruncate (delete) the logs before the incremental backups can back them up.In that case, the incremental backup cannot succeed.

■ NetBackup for VMware does not support raw device mapping (RDMs) withExchange. Make sure that the Exchange virtual machine does not use RDM asstorage for databases and transaction logs.

■ NetBackup for VMware skips the vmdk files that are marked as independent.Make sure that the databases and transaction logs are not stored onindependent disks.

■ For application consistent backup of Exchange, the Symantec VSS provider isdesigned for small to medium Exchange deployments.

Instead of using the Symantec VSS provider, Symantec strongly recommendsthat you install NetBackup for Exchange in the virtual machine in the followingcases:

■ For large deployments with a complex infrastructure (such as CCR or SCC).

■ For large deployments where the service level agreement (SLA) requiresobject level restores.

Installing the Symantec VSS providerThe Symantec VSS provider is available on CD-ROM image files (*.iso) withNetBackup for Windows. You can copy or upload the CD-ROM image files to avSphere datastore and mount them on VMware virtual machines for installation.

169The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareInstalling the Symantec VSS provider

The install procedure has three phases: upload the VSS provider files to a VMwaredatastore, uninstall the VMware VSS provider, and install the Symantec VSSprovider.

Caution: The Symantec VSS provider should not co-exist with the VMware VSSprovider. The VMware VSS provider must be uninstalled before you installSymantec VSS provider.

Note:Uninstalling the VMware VSS provider requires a reboot in most cases. Youshould shut down Microsoft Exchange before you start the following procedures.

To upload the Symantec VSS provider files to the datastore

1 Start vSphere Client and log on to an ESX server that has access to theappropriate datastore.

2 Click on the ESX server and click the Configuration tab.

3 Click Storage in the Hardware panel.

4 Right click on the datastore and select Browse Datastore.

The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareInstalling the Symantec VSS provider

170

5 Browse to select the appropriate VSS ISO file (x86 or x64) from a NetBackup7.1 installation.

The Symantec VSS provider .iso files are in the following location:

install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\goodies\SYMCVSSProviderx86.iso

install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\goodies\SYMCVSSProviderx64.iso

6 Click the upload icon to begin the upload (the disk icon with the greenup-arrow).

When the upload is complete, the .iso image is displayed in the DatastoreBrowser screen.

To uninstall the VMware VSS provider

1 Log on to vSphere Client and click the Console tab of the virtual machinewhere Symantec VSS provider needs to be installed.

2 From the virtual machine console, log on as Administrator.

3 In vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Guest >Install/Upgrade VMware tools.

4 If you are prompted to choose the type of upgrade, select Interactive ToolsUpgrade and click OK.

The VMware Tools ISO image is mounted on the guest operating system.

5 If Autoplay is enabled, select Run Setup.exe when prompted. Otherwise,manually run Setup.exe from the mounted CD Drive.

The VMware Tools installation wizard appears.

6 Click Next.


7 In the Program Maintenance screen, select Modify and click Next.

8 In the Custom Setup screen, expand VMware Device Drivers and deselectVolume Shadow Copy Services Support.

To deselect it, click This feature will not be available in the drop-down listfor Volume Shadow Copy Services Support. Click Next.

9 In the Ready to Modify the Program screen, click Modify.

10 When you are prompted, click Finish.

11 Reboot if prompted.

To install the Symantec VSS provider

1 Log on to vSphere Client.

2 Click the Console tab of the virtual machine where the Symantec VSS providerneeds to be installed.

3 From the virtual machine console, log on as Administrator.

4 In vSphere Client (not in the virtual machine), right-click the virtual machineand click Edit Settings.

5 In the Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive X, where X is typically 1.

6 Under Device Status, click Connected. Under Device Type, click DatastoreISO File.

7 Click the Browse option and double click on the datastore.

Select SYMCVSSProviderx86.iso or SYMCVSSProviderx64.iso, based on yourguest operating system.

8 Click OK.

The Symantec VSS provider image is mounted as a DVD drive on the guestoperating system.

The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareInstalling the Symantec VSS provider

172

9 On the virtual machine, select the DVD drive and double click the WindowsInstaller Package for the VSS provider:

BEVSSProviderx86.msi or BEVSSProviderx64.msi

10 When the installation is complete, configure VMware Tools on the virtualmachine to use the Symantec VSS provider as follows.

■ If you do not have pre-freeze-script.bat or post-thaw-script.bat files inyour system root directory on the virtual machine:Copy the following .bat files to the system root directory:C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BE VSS

provider\pre-freeze-script.bat

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BE VSS

provider\post-thaw-script.bat

■ If you have pre-freeze-script.bat or post-thaw-script.bat files in yoursystem root directory on the virtual machine:


Merge the contents of the scripts from the C:\Program

Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BE VSS provider directory into yourexisting scripts in the system root directory.

11 Copy the following file:

C:\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BE VSS provider\freeze.bat

to:

install_path\Program Files\VMware\VMware

Tools\backupscripts.d\freeze.bat

where install_path\Program Files is the folder of the Windows systeminstallation on the virtual machine.

Note: Create a backupscripts.d folder if it does not already exist.

How to use the Symantec VSS providerAfter the Symantec VSS provider is installed on an Exchange virtual machine,protect the virtual machine with a NetBackup for VMware policy. Configure thepolicy to use the FullVMbackup option. No special action is needed in NetBackupto use the Symantec VSS provider in the virtual machine.


See “Virtual machine backup” on page 52.

Symantec VSS provider logsThe Symantec VSS provider records its activities in Windows event logs. A debuglog is also available at the following location:

\Program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\BE VSS provider\logs

You can increase the log debug level by modifying the pre-freeze-script.bat orpost-thaw-script.bat file. Add the -log parameter to the script, at the line whereBeVssRequestor.exe is called.

To increase the debug level, change the following line:

BeVssRequestor.exe -pre2 -logscreen

to:

BeVssRequestor.exe -pre2 -logscreen -log

More information is available on these .bat files:

The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareHow to use the Symantec VSS provider

174

See “To install the Symantec VSS provider ” on page 172.

175The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareSymantec VSS provider logs

The Symantec VSS Provider for VMwareSymantec VSS provider logs

176

Backup of VMware rawdevices (RDM)


■ About VMware raw device mapping (RDM)

■ NetBackup support details for RDMs

■ Configurations for backing up RDMs

■ About alternate client backup of RDMs

■ Requirements for alternate client backup of RDMs

■ Configuring alternate client backup of RDMs

About VMware raw device mapping (RDM)VMware raw device mapping mode (RDM) allows a virtual machine to directlyaccess physical disks. With raw device mapping, a VMware virtual machine canuse large storage devices such as disk arrays. Access to the data on an RDM diskis faster than to a fully virtualized disk (vmdk file). An RDM disk can be locallyattached to the ESX server or configured on a Fibre Channel SAN.

NetBackup supports the disk arrays that are configured on a virtual machine asRDMs.

Note: NetBackup cannot back up the RDM by means of a VMware backup host.

CAppendix

NetBackup support details for RDMsFor notes and restrictions on NetBackup support for VMware RDM (such as therequired version of VCB), see the following Symantec tech note:

Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

Configurations for backing up RDMsYou can use either of the following NetBackup configurations to back up diskarrays as RDMs:

■ Without Snapshot Client: Install a NetBackup client on the virtual machine.You can configure NetBackup to back up the virtual machine and any RDMsas if the client was installed on a physical host. Without Snapshot Clientsoftware on the virtual machine, the features of Snapshot Client are notavailable. (This configuration is not discussed in this NetBackup for VMwareguide.)

■ With Snapshot Client: Install a NetBackup client and Snapshot Client softwareon the virtual machine. Configure an alternate client backup.

About alternate client backup of RDMsAlternate client backup of an RDM consists of the following:

■ The RDM disk array contains the data to be backed up. Another host containingNetBackup client software and Snapshot Client software must have access tothe disk array. This host is the alternate client. In this configuration, the virtualmachine is called the primary client.

■ A snapshot of the data is created on the disk array and is mounted on thealternate client. The alternate client creates a backup image from the snapshot,using original path names, and streams the image to the NetBackup mediaserver.

■ The alternate client handles the backup I/O processing; the backup has littleor no effect on the virtual machine. The media server reads the snapshot datafrom the alternate client and writes the data to storage.

■ The virtual machine and alternate client must be running the same operatingsystem, volume manager, and file system. For each of these I/O systemcomponents, the alternate client must be at the same level as the primaryclient, or higher level.For complete requirements on alternate client backup, refer to the Policyconfiguration chapter of theNetBackupSnapshotClientAdministrator'sGuide.

Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)NetBackup support details for RDMs

178


Requirements for alternate client backup of RDMsTo use Snapshot Client to back up an RDM, note the following:

■ RDM devices must be configured in physical compatibility mode. You selectthis mode when you create the RDM. Physical compatibility mode is notconfigured in NetBackup.For an introduction to RDM, refer to your VMware documentation. For example,see the following VMware document:ESX Server 3 Configuration Guide

■ NetBackup may require certain OS and array configuration, depending on theguest OS and the array. For details, see the disk arrays chapter of theNetBackupSnapshot Client Administrator's Guide.

■ NetBackup client software must be installed on the virtual machine.

■ The requirements for the NetBackup for VMware feature (a backup host andthe VMware snapshot method) do not apply to backups of RDM disk arrays.To back up RDM disk arrays, you must configure a Snapshot Client alternateclient backup.

Configuring alternate client backup of RDMsThe following procedure highlights key points in creating an alternate clientbackup of a disk array that is configured as an RDM. For broader details on diskarray configuration, refer to theNetBackupSnapshotClientAdministrator'sGuide.

179Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)Requirements for alternate client backup of RDMs

To create an alternate client policy for a disk array that is configured as an RDM

1 Select a policy type that is appropriate for the OS of the virtual machine andfor the type of data to back up.

Refer to the Policy configuration chapter of the NetBackup Snapshot ClientAdministrator's Guide.

2 On the policy Attributes tab in the Administration Console, click Performsnapshot backups and Perform off-host backup.

The following is a detail from the Attributes tab.

3 Select AlternateClient from the Use pull-down. Do not select VMwarebackuphost.

In the Machine field, enter the name of the host that is configured as anoff-host backup computer (the alternate client).

4 Click Options.

5 Select a snapshot method.

The VMware method does not apply to alternate client backup and is notavailable in the list.

Select a snapshot method that is appropriate for the volume or array. Forexample:

■ The HP_EVA_Snapclone method or other EVA method for an HP EVAarray.

■ The EMC_CLARiiON_Snapview_Clone or other CLARiiON method for anEMC CLARiiON array.

Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)Configuring alternate client backup of RDMs

180

■ FlashSnap.For FlashSnap, the following must be installed: VxVM 3.2 or later forUNIX, VxVM 4.0 or later for Linux and AIX, or VxVM 3.1 or later forWindows. Also, volumes must be configured over the primary host’s disks.The VxVM FlashSnap license must also be installed.

■ VSS (for Windows guest operating systems only).

The array may require additional OS and NetBackup configuration asdescribed in the disk arrays chapter of the NetBackup Snapshot ClientAdministrator's Guide. The same guide contains more details on snapshotmethods.

6 If required by an array snapshot method that you selected in the previousstep, specify the Snapshot Resources.

7 In the policy’s Clients list, select the virtual machine on which the array isconfigured as an RDM.

8 In the policy’s Backup Selections list, specify the disk that you want to backup, or the files or volumes that reside on the disk.

181Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)Configuring alternate client backup of RDMs

Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)Configuring alternate client backup of RDMs

182

SYMCquiesce utility forLinux virtual machines


■ About the SYMCquiesce utility

■ Requirements for the SYMCquiesce utility

■ Installing the SYMCquiesce utility

■ Configuration options for the SYMCquiesce utility

■ SYMCquiesce logging and troubleshooting

About the SYMCquiesce utilityThe SYMCquiesce utility allows NetBackup to quiesce the Linux file system.Without this utility, NetBackup cannot guarantee that all required data has beenflushed to disk when the snapshot occurs. Any data that has not been flushed todisk (still in memory) is not included in a snapshot. In that case, the data that iscaptured in the snapshot is incomplete.

The SYMCquiesce utility quiesces the Linux file system, to guarantee that all datahas been flushed from memory to disk. Quiescing the file system allows anypending data changes to finish before the snapshot occurs. The data in thesnapshot is complete.

The latest information on supported platforms and file systems is available in aseparate document, Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments:


DAppendix


Note: The SYMCquiesce utility is not required for Windows virtual machines.

Requirements for the SYMCquiesce utilityNote the following requirements:

■ The SYMCquiesce utility supports the following Linux operating systems:

■ Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5.4 and later.

■ SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Update 2 and later.

■ The SYMCquiesce utility supports the ext3 file system and the LVM2 volumemanager.

■ VMware Tools must be installed in the virtual machine.

■ The VMware Tools services must be running during the backup.

■ The NetBackup Virtual machine quiesce parameter must be enabled.This option is in the NetBackup policy, Snapshot Client Options dialog, underConfiguration parameters.

■ The SYMCquiesce utility must be installed in the virtual machine.

Installing the SYMCquiesce utilityTo install SYMCquiesce in Linux virtual machines

1 Make sure that VMware Tools are installed and that the VMware Tools servicesare running in the virtual machine.

On the virtual machine, run the ps command as follows:

ps -e | grep vmtoolsd

If VMware Tools are running, the command returns something similar to thefollowing:

3068 ? 00:00:00 vmtoolsd

For assistance with installation of VMware Tools, refer to your VMwaredocumentation.

2 Copy the SYMCquiesce ISO image into the virtual machine's ESX datastore.

On the NetBackup packages for Windows (master server or client), the ISOimage is located in the following folder:

\NetBackup\bin\goodies

SYMCquiesce utility for Linux virtual machinesRequirements for the SYMCquiesce utility

184

3 Attach the SYMCquiesce ISO as a CD-ROM device on the virtual machine.

The guest OS should mount the CD-ROM automatically.

4 From the mounted CD-ROM, install the SYMCquiesce rpm version that isappropriate for the virtual machine platform.

The SYMCquiesce utility is installed in /opt/SYMCquiesce/.

5 In the NetBackup policy for the virtual machine, make sure that the Virtualmachine quiesce parameter is enabled.

On the policy Attributes tab, in the Snapshot Client area, click Options.

If the Virtualmachinequiesce parameter is not enabled, NetBackup cannotquiesce the file system before the snapshot occurs. As a result, the data thatis captured in the snapshot may not be complete.

See “Virtual machine quiesce” on page 55.


Configuration options for the SYMCquiesce utilityThe SYMCquiesce utility includes a configuration file (/opt/SYMCquiesce/config)that contains the following options. By default, the options are commented outwith a # character at the start of the line.

Table D-1 SYMCquiesce configuration options

DescriptionConfiguration option

By default, this option is disabled. The snapshot does not fail even ifquiescence fails on a volume in the virtual machine. Enable this option tocause the snapshot job and the backup job to fail if quiescence fails.

fail_snapshot_on_failure=true/false

By default, this option is disabled. The SYMCquiesce utility keeps the virtualmachine volumes frozen for three seconds during the snapshot. Enablethis option to change the timeout period.

You may need to change this timeout if the virtual machine snapshot onthe ESX server does not complete within the three-second window.

timeout=timeout value in seconds

For example:

#fail_snapshot_on_failure=true

timeout=20

In this example, the fail_snapshot_on_failure option is commented out(disabled), and the timeout is set to 20 seconds.

185SYMCquiesce utility for Linux virtual machinesConfiguration options for the SYMCquiesce utility

SYMCquiesce logging and troubleshootingSYMCquiesce logs indicate whether quiescence of the Linux virtual machinevolumes was successful. SYMCquiesce logs are written to/opt/SYMCquiesce/logs.Logging is enabled by default (no configuration step is required) and cannot bedisabled.

Log file names are of the form mmddyy.log. When a backup runs, a new log iscreated if one does not already exist for that date. A backup that runs on the 22ndof October 2010 creates a log named 102210.log.

An example from a SYMCquiesce log:

Stats - Thu Oct 28 18:51:58 2010

Freeze of volume [/] returned status [0]

Thaw of volume [/] returned status [0]

Freeze of volume [/boot] returned status [0]

Thaw of volume [/boot] returned status [0]

Where:

Stats : shows the time of the log entry when volumes where being quiesced.

status [0]: no error. The freeze operation or the thaw operation completedsuccessfully.

status [-1]: error. The freeze operation or the thaw operation did not completesuccessfully.

If the freeze and the thaw completed successfully, the volume was successfullyquiesced.

Note the following:

■ You can use the logs with the fail_snapshot_on_failure option in/opt/SYMCquiesce/config file. If that option is enabled and snapshots fail,consult the SYMCquiesce logs to see which volume’s quiescence fails.

■ If the virtual machine has both ext2 and ext3 volumes and thefail_snapshot_on_failure option is enabled, the snapshot fails. ext2 filesystems do not support quiescence. You must disable thefail_snapshot_on_failureoption to get a successful snapshot of the volumes.Note however that the ext2 volume cannot be quiesced. As a result, any datachanges to that volume that had not been flushed to disk before the snapshotare not included in the snapshot.See “About the NetBackup.lost+found directory on Linux” on page 140.

SYMCquiesce utility for Linux virtual machinesSYMCquiesce logging and troubleshooting

186

File-level backup ofWindows virtual machines


■ About file-level backup of Windows virtual machines

■ File-level backup with automatic virtual machine selection

■ Configuration tasks for file-level backup

■ File-level backup options

■ Configuring a policy for Windows file-level backup

■ What you can restore from a file-level backup

About file-level backup ofWindows virtual machinesIf you use VMware VCB, you can back up individual Windows files instead of drivesor the entire virtual machine. This appendix describes how to configure such abackup.

In most cases, it may be better to schedule full and incremental backups of theentire virtual machine with the NetBackup MappedfullVMbackup option. Froma mapped virtual machine backup, you can restore the virtual machine or individualfiles. To set up such a policy, see the "Configure NetBackup for VMware" chapterin this guide.

To back up individual files from a Windows virtual machine, you can use eitherof these approaches:

■ Install the NetBackup client software in the virtual machine. NetBackupconducts the backup as though the client is installed in a physical host. Mostof the features that NetBackup supports on physical hosts are also supported

EAppendix

when the client is installed on the virtual machine. (This configuration is notdescribed in this appendix or in this guide.)For further support details on this configuration, see "General NetBackupsupport in a virtual environment" in the following Symantec tech note:Support for NetBackup 7.x in virtual environments

■ Set up a backup host that includes VCB and a NetBackup client. This appendixdescribes how to configure this kind of backup.

Note: File-level backup as described in this appendix requires VMware VCB. Notethat VMware intends to phase out support for VCB in favor of VMware vStorageAPIs for data protection.

File-level backup with automatic virtual machineselection

If you have both vStorage and VCB, you can set up a policy that selects virtualmachines automatically and does file-level backup. Automatic selection of virtualmachines requires vStorage, and file-level backup requires VCB.

A few pointers:

■ To back up individual Windows files, select MS-Windows as the policy type.For most aspects of the policy, follow the directions in the topics on file-levelbackups.See “Configuring a policy for Windows file-level backup” on page 190.

■ To configure automatic virtual machine selection in the policy, see the topicsin the chapter titled "Configure automatic selection of virtual machines forbackup."

Configuration tasks for file-level backupThe following table summarizes the tasks for setting up file-level backup.

Table E-1 Configuration tasks for file-level backup

TasksSequence

Install VMware components.

See “Overview of VMware tasks” on page 23.

Phase 1

File-level backup of Windows virtual machinesFile-level backup with automatic virtual machine selection

188


Table E-1 Configuration tasks for file-level backup (continued)

TasksSequence

Install the NetBackup 7.1 master server and media server.

See the NetBackup Installation Guide.


Phase 2

Install the NetBackup 7.1 Enterprise Client license on the master server,and install NetBackup client 7.1 software on the VMware backup host.

Phase 3

Add the VMware backup host to your NetBackup configuration.


Phase 4

Set NetBackup access credentials for the VMware vCenter or VirtualCenter(if any), or for VMware ESX servers.


Phase 5

Configure incremental backups for VMware.

See “Incremental backups must be based on timestamps ” on page 65.

Phase 6

Create a NetBackup policy.

See “Configuring a policy for Windows file-level backup” on page 190.

Phase 7

File-level backup optionsTable E-2 describes the backup options and recovery options for file-level backup.

Table E-2 Options for file-level backups (MS-Windows policies)

What can be restoredWhat is backed upVirtual machinebackupparameter

Backup Selectionsentry

Individual directories and filesSpecified directories and files only,excluding Windows system files


Individual directoriesand files

Individual directories and filesAll data files and directories inspecified drives, excludingWindows system files


Individual drives

For example: E:\

Individual directories and filesAll data files and directories on alllocal virtual machine drives,excluding Windows system files


ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES

directive

189File-level backup of Windows virtual machinesFile-level backup options

Configuring a policy for Windows file-level backupUse the following procedure to make file-based backups of Windows drives,directories, or files. Requires the VCB software on the VMware backup host.

To configure a policy for file-level backup

1 In the NetBackup Administration Console, create a new policy.

2 For the policy type, select MS-Windows.

3 Select a policy storage unit or storage unit group.

4 Select Perform snapshot backups.


6 From the pull-down list for the Use field, select VMware backup host.

7 In the Machine field, specify the name of the VMware backup host.

If the backup host does not appear in the Machine pull-down list, make surethat it was added to the Host Properties setting.


You may have to close and reopen the policy for the VMware backup host toappear in the list.

8 Click Options.

Select the following:

■ For the Virtual machine backup option, select File level snapshot usingVCB.

■ For the Snapshot mount point (VCB only) option, specify a directory onthe VMware backup host. For example:G:\mnt

The VMware backup host mounts snapshots of individual virtual diskvolumes in this directory. The snapshots are links to the virtual machinedatastore. No virtual machine data is copied to this directory.

More information is available about the other configuration parameters.


9 To save these settings, click OK and then Apply.

10 Use the Schedules tab to define a schedule.

Full backups and incremental backups are supported.

File-level backup of Windows virtual machinesConfiguring a policy for Windows file-level backup

190

11 On the Clients tab, click New to specify virtual machines to back up.

You can type the host name in the EntertheVMwarehostname field, or clickBrowse and select virtual machines.


12 Use the Backup Selections tab to specify the files to back up.

Click New. You can make entries manually, or click on the pull-down (UNIX)or hand icon (Windows) to select from available directives.

For VMware snapshot backup, the System_State directive (Windows 2000)and the ShadowCopy Componentsdirective (Windows 2003) are not supported.

Enter any of the following and then click Add (on UNIX) or press Enter(Windows):

■ Individual folders and files.

■ Individual drive letters.Enter the drive letter as follows (for example):

E:\

The drive letter must not be a network (shared) drive: It must specify adrive on the virtual machine.

■ The ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive.

This directive backs up the data files on all local drives on the virtualmachines that are selected on the Clients tab.

File-level backup as described in this procedure cannot back up the following:

■ Windows System State

■ Windows system files (such as on C:)

■ VMware virtual disk files

A procedure is available for backing up these files.


13 If you click Apply or OK on the policy Attributes tab, a validation processchecks the policy and reports any errors.

If you click Close, no validation is performed.

What you can restore from a file-level backupYou can use file-level backup to back up ordinary files and directories on thevirtual machine. The backed up files and directories can be individually restored.

191File-level backup of Windows virtual machinesWhat you can restore from a file-level backup

Important note: File-level backup does not support restore of the following:

■ The VMware virtual disk files that define the virtual machine.

■ Windows system protected files (System State).

■ Windows system directories such as the following:

C:\WINDOWS\system

C:\WINDOWS\system32

■ Windows system database files (such as RSM Database and Terminal ServicesDatabase)

To back up the virtual disk files and operating system files, use theFlashBackup-Windows policy type and the Full VM backup or Mapped full VMbackup options. These options are described in another chapter of this guide.


File-level backup of Windows virtual machinesWhat you can restore from a file-level backup

192

Symbols156 (status code) 158–159227 (status code) 1562805 (status code) 1572817 (status code) 1575 (status code) 1576 (status code) 155

AActivity Monitor

to monitor VM backups 115Advanced Mode

Query Builder 83ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES 50, 158alternate client backup

configure for RDM 179of RDM 178

alternate location for restore 125AND vs OR 89

Join field in Query Builder 84archive bit 65automatic selection of virtual machines 49

about 70Advanced Mode 83Basic Mode 79cache file for 165Clients tab 76examples 70, 86notes on 72Query Builder f ields 93requirements 75task overview 75testing 100with multiple policies 88

Bbackup

file-level 187host 17

adding to configuration 36

backup (continued)host (continued)

how to enter in policy 47how to configure 46how to perform 113job hangs 161monitoring with Activity Monitor 115monitoring with OpsCenter 117off-host

configuration 47process overview 18reduce size of 107throughput 144

Backup Selections list 49Bare Metal Restore 47Basic Mode

edit rule in Query Builder 83Query Builder 79

best practices 143BeVssRequestor.exe 174BIOS

reconfigure for booting 163BLIB 48, 64, 108–109block level incremental backup. See BLIBblocks

exclude unused and deleted 55browse virtual machines 57browsing timeout 151

Ccache file

for browsing virtual machines 59for Query Builder results 165

catalog header filewrong value for VM_TYPE 163

catalog information in 6.5.x 163CD-ROM image files

for Symantec VSS provider 169change VMware hostname in NetBackup 39Changed Block Tracking 108–109

how to enable 110

Index

clientinstalled in virtual machine 188

Client name selection parameterand IsSet operator 87and multiple policies 88and testing query rules 101, 103and VM Name column in Test query 104setting 51

Client Reportsusing OpsCenter 117

Clients tabautomatic selection of virtual machines 76description of fields for queries 93

code 156 error 158–159code 227 error 156code 5 error 157code 6 error 155compound query rules 90configuration

of auto selection of virtual machines 76, 79overview for backup of VMs 23

configuration datastore 139Consolidate-Helper snapshot 162Converter

VMware 18crash consistent snapshot 140credentials

adding for VMware 36troubleshooting 154

cross-platform restore 137ctkEnabled 110Cumulative Incremental Backup 48

Ddatacenter

for restore 127datacenter folders

rules in Query Builder 92datastore

out of space 162deduplication 145delete

vSphere Client snapshot 109Differential Incremental Backup 48disable virtual machine quiesce 55Discovered Timestamp 59disk array

configured as RDM 179display name 51, 59

drivesand reboot failure 163

Eedit rules in Query Builder 83EMM database

remove VM host name from NetBackup 39encrypted drives 28encryption of snapshot data transfer 54Enterprise Client license 19environment

importance to performance 150equipment 150escape character

use of in Query Builder 99ESX server 18, 36Exchange

about the Symantec VSS provider 167and object level restore 169installing Symantec VSS provider 169notes on Symantec VSS provider 168Symantec VSS provider logs 174VSS provider for 167VSS writer 168–169

exclude listspeed up discovery of virtual machines 59

Exclude unused and deleted blocks option 55Existing snapshot handling option 56ext file systems, Linux 139, 186extended attributes, restore of 139

Ffailed virtual machines

in test query 101FIFO files, Linux 139File level snapshot using VCB 52, 187file system

Linux, restore of 139file-level backup

about 187configuration tasks 188policy for 190

files list. See Backup Selections listFlashBackup-Windows policy 46Full VM backup 53

Ggrouping rules in Query Builder 83, 90

Index194

Hheader file

VM_TYPE value 163helper virtual machine

for hotadd transfer type 32host name 51, 59

changing in NetBackup 39host properties

for VMware 36hotadd transfer type 54, 123, 155

notes on 31hypervisor 20

Iimported image

trouble restoring 163incremental backup 53

about 63requirements 48setting up 64timestamp setting 65

incremental backups for Exchangeand Symantec VSS provider 168

independent disk 20, 60, 160individual file backup 187Install Software option 49installing

Symantec VSS provider 169Instant Recovery not supported 28Intelligent Policy 70invalid client 163ISO file 157IsSet operator examples 87

Jjob hangs 161Join field in Query Builder 84

Kkeywords

in Query Builder 94

LLast Update 59license requirements 19Linux

and SYMCquiesce utility 30

Linux (continued)install SYMCquiesce utility 184NetBackup lost+found directory 140notes on 30notes on restore 139requirements for SYMCquiesce 184SYMCquiesce utility for 183

log truncation for Exchange 167logging

for SYMCquiesce utility 186how to create folders for 149VMware 148vSphere 151VxMS 149

logsfor Symantec VSS provider 174

lost+found directory 140LVM2 volume 30, 139

MMAC address 139manual backup 113Mapped full VM backup 53monitor backups

with Activity monitor 115with OpsCenter 117

Monolithic export option 56mount point

for snapshot (VCB) 57missing 162snapshot 144VMware 51

multiple policiesfor auto selection of VMs 88

Nnbd 54nbdssl 54nbemmcmd 39NetBackup for Exchange 168–169NetBackup.lost+found 140Network Block Device (NBD) transfer 54Network Block Device (NBD) transfer with SSL 54Network Connections dialog 130NFC connections 161NFS share, Linux 139NTFS file system

for USB drives 28

195Index

Oobject level restore

and Exchange 169off-host backup 47operators

in Query Builder 98OpsCenter

to monitor VM backups 117optimized storage 107order of operations

Query Builder 89rules in Query Builder 83

overviewconfiguration steps 23of backup process 18restore procedure 134

overwrite virtual machine 124

Pparentheses

for grouping rules in Query Builder 83for rules in Query Builder 90

path lengthmaximum for Linux/UNIX files 30

Perform block level incremental backup 48, 108Perform Recovery dialog 130Perform snapshot backups option 47policy

and cache file for auto selection of VMs 165configure for auto VM selection 79for file-level backup 190for full virtual machine backup 46multiple, for auto VM selectionn 88types 46wizard for creating 46

port number 39, 154precedence 89prerequisites 27privileges 154

QQuery Builder

and Client name selection parameter 103cache file for results 165configuration in Advanced Mode 83configuration in Basic Mode 79description of fields 93edit rule in 83

Query Builder (continued)enter rules manually 83escape character 99examples 86IsSet operator examples 87keywords 94operators 98order of operations 89quotation marks 99testing rules for 100–101to select virtual machines for backup 70values 99wildcards 99with multiple policies 88

query builderto filter virtual machines for backup 49

quiesce 183install SYMCquiesce utility 184Linux file system 139–140Linux, notes on 30

quiesce virtual machine 55quotation marks

use of in Query Builder 99

RRDM 21, 160

about 177alternate client backup of 178–179and Exchange 169configurations supported 178

reboot failure 163Recovery Destination dialog 122recovery host 17, 123recovery options 66

vStorage vs VCB 66Recovery Options dialog 123, 126recovery wizard. See restore from vStorage backupreduce size of backup 107release level

using mixed levels 142remove VMware host name from NetBackup EMM

database 39reports on backups

using OpsCenter 117resource pool

for virtual machine restore 128resource pools

rules in Query Builder 91

Index196

restoreand catalog information 163from VCB backup 131from vStorage backup 122individual files 135job hangs 161maximum path length for Linux/UNIX files 30notes on 137procedure overview 134virtual machine 119

Restore Marked Files dialog 131Reuse VM selection query results 165rules in Query Builder

about 71configuring 79editing 83examples 71examples with parentheses 90for datacenter folders 92for resource pools 91IsSet operator examples 87manual entry of 83order of evaluation 83order of operations 89testing 100testing failued 101

run a backup 113

SSAN luns 157SAN transfer type 54SCSI drives

and reboot failure 163scsiX:X.ctkEnabled 110Select automatically through query 49select automatically through query

virtual machines 70Select ESX server dialog 128Select Folder dialog 129server name

changing in NetBackup 39size of backups

reducing 107snapshot

how to enable Changed Block Tracking 110in inconsistent state 140mount point 57, 144removing leftover 56

snapshot (continued)vSphere Client

how to delete 109Snapshot Policy Configuration wizard 46socket files, Linux 139SSL encryption of snapshot data 54start a backup 113status code 156 158–159status code 227 156status code 2805 157status code 2817 157status code 5 157status code 6 155Storage Destination dialog 129storage optimization 28, 107

enable Changed Block Tracking 110how to delete snapshot for 109

Symantec VSS provider 167CD-ROM image files 169installing 169logs 174notes on 168

SYMCquiesce utility 140about 183configuration of 185installing 184logging 186requirements 184

Tterminology 19Test Query screen 82, 100

and Client name selection parameter 103–104failed virtual machines 101

thin provisioned disks 125timeout

browsing 151timeouts

vSphere 151timestamps

for incrementals 65transfer types 53

and hung job 161for restore 123hotadd 31

troubleshootingtips 152

197Index

UUSB drives

as the snapshot mount point 28UUID 51, 59

Vvalidate

credentials 36values

in Query Builder 99vApp

browsing virtual machines within 59for virtual machine restore 128

VCB 15, 18, 21and file-level backup 187incrementals 65port number 39recovery options 66restore from backup 131snapshot mount point 57when required 16why not used 150

VCB-HELPER suffix 32vcbmounter

NetBackup cannot terminate 158vCenter Converter 131vCenter server 18Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy 70Virtual machine quiesce option 55Virtual Machine recovery wizard

restore to alternate location 125virtual machines

auto selection from cache file 165backup options 52browsing 57configure backup policy for 46configure for auto selection of 79how to back up 113monitor backups of 115, 117notes on query builder 72requirements for auto selection 75Select automatically through query 49select automatically through query 70testing auto selection of 100

virtual networkselect for restore 130

VirtualCenter server 18VM Name column in Test Query screen 104VM_TYPE value in header file 163

vmdk file 21transferring to backup host 56

VMwareand Linux 47backup environment 16backup host 36, 47backups 113configuration overview 23Converter 18credentials 36ESX server 18, 36host properties 36introduction 13logging 148main features 13policy configuration 46

file-level backup only 190required components 16snapshot mount point 51terminology 19troubleshooting 148

VMware Consolidated Backup. See VCBVMware NetBackup Integration Module (VNIM) 18VMware Tools 21VMware VSS provider 167–169VMX directory 139vmx-07 48vNetwork Distributed Switch 130VNIM 18, 153volume ID of drive

troubleshooting 158Volume Manager volumes 65vSphere Client

enable Changed Block Tracking 110vSphere Client snapshot

how to delete 109VSS provider

CD-ROM image files 169installing 169logs 174notes on 168Symantec 167VMware 167

vStorage 15, 21incrementals 64–65minimum VMware levels required 16recovery options 66restore from backup made by 122

VxMS logging 149

Index198

Wwildcards

use of in Query Builder 99wizard

to create backup policy 46to recover virtual machine 122

199Index

NetBackup Admin Guide VMware

Documents

program files symantec backup exec

symantec vss provider

ascii collating sequence

raw device mapping

mount point missing

vmware vss provider

commercial computer software

device management