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Veritas NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide
Last Published:
2018-02-16
Product(s):
NetBackup (8.1.1)
- Introduction
- About NetBackup for VMware
- Updates to this guide for NetBackup 8.1.1
- About the virtual machine backups that include database data
- About the NetBackup appliance as a VMware backup host
- NetBackup for VMware components
- Appliance as backup host: component overview
- Media servers as backup or discovery hosts
- Overview of the VMware backup process
- NetBackup for VMware license requirement
- NetBackup for VMware terminology
- Required tasks: overview
- Notes and prerequisites
- NetBackup for VMware prerequisites
- NetBackup for VMware: notes and restrictions
- Notes on VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)
- NetBackup IPv6 parameter required for backups in VMware IPv6 environments
- NetBackup for VMware: notes on Linux virtual machines
- Notes on the NetBackup appliance as a VMware backup host
- NetBackup for VMware support for SAN multi-pathing
- NetBackup for VMware support for fault tolerant VMs
- NetBackup character restrictions for the Primary VM identifier
- In the policy Query Builder, display names, resource pool names, and vApp names are case-sensitive
- Notes on the hotadd transport mode
- Notes and limitations for tag usage in VMware Intelligent Policy queries
- Notes and limitations for the backup and restore of VMware tag associations
- Configure NetBackup communication with VMware
- Adding the VMware backup host to NetBackup
- Adding NetBackup credentials for VMware
- Changing the host name of a VMware server in NetBackup
- Setting privileges for posting events to vCenter
- Authentication token for the NetBackup vSphere Web Client plug-in
- Setting global limits on the use of VMware resources
- Configure NetBackup policies for VMware
- Configuring a VMware policy from the Policy Wizard
- Configuring a VMware policy from the Policies utility
- Limit jobs per policy on the Attributes tab (for VMware)
- VMware backup options
- VMware backup host
- Optimizations options (VMware)
- Primary VM identifier options (VMware)
- Existing snapshot handling options (VMware)
- Transport modes options (VMware)
- Application protection options (VMware)
- VMware - Advanced Attributes dialog
- About the Post vCenter events option (VMware Advanced Attributes)
- Exclude Disks tab
- Browse for VMware virtual machines
- Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing for virtual machines
- Virtual machine host names and display names should be unique if VMs are selected manually in the policy
- Primary VM identifier option and manual selection of virtual machines
- About incremental backups of virtual machines
- Configuring incremental backups
- Storage Foundation Volume Manager volumes in the virtual machine
- Configure a VMware Intelligent Policy
- About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup for VMware
- Support and use of VMware tag associations
- 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
- Options for selecting VMware virtual machines
- Configuring automatic virtual machine selection
- Editing an existing query in Basic Mode
- Using the Query Builder in Advanced Mode
- AND vs. OR in queries
- Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder
- The IsSet operator in queries
- About selecting virtual machines by means of multiple policies
- Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)
- Parentheses in compound queries
- Query rules for resource pools
- Query rules for datacenter folders (host folder)
- Query rules for duplicate names
- Query rules for tags
- Query Builder field reference
- Test Query screen for VMware
- Test Query: Failed virtual machines
- Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on Selection column in Test Query results
- Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on VM Name column in Test query results
- Refreshing the display of virtual environment changes in the Query Builder
- Reduce the size of backups
- Back up virtual machines
- Use Accelerator to back up virtual machines
- About the NetBackup Accelerator for virtual machines
- Accelerator: full vs. incremental schedules
- How the NetBackup Accelerator works with virtual machines
- Accelerator notes and requirements for virtual machines
- Accelerator forced rescan for virtual machines (schedule attribute)
- Accelerator requires the OptimizedImage attribute
- Accelerator backups and the NetBackup catalog
- Accelerator messages in the backup job details log
- NetBackup logs for Accelerator with virtual machines
- About reporting the amount of Accelerator backup data that was transferred over the network
- Replacing the Accelerator image size with the network-transferred data in NetBackup command output
- Restore virtual machines
- Restore notes and restrictions
- Restore notes and restrictions on Linux
- Restoring the full VMware virtual machine
- Virtual Machine Recovery dialog boxes (restore to original location)
- Virtual Machine Recovery dialogs boxes (restore to alternate location)
- Recovery Destination dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Recovery Options dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Select ESX server dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Select Folder dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Select Datastore or Datastore Cluster dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Storage Destination dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Network Connections and Other Recovery Options dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Perform Recovery dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- About VMware virtual machine disk restore
- Restoring VMware virtual machine disks by using Backup, Archive, and Restore
- Restoring VMware virtual machine disks by using NetBackup commands
- Determining the backup image ID from which to restore a VMware virtual machine disk
- Creating the VMware virtual machine disk restore file
- Modifying the virtual machine disk restore file
- Validating the virtual machine disk restore file
- Restoring the virtual machine disk or disks by using the nbrestorevm command
- VMware virtual machine disk restore file
- About restoring individual VMware files
- Restoring individual VMware virtual machine files
- How NetBackup handles VMware tag associations at restore
- Browse and search virtual machines for restore
- If the recovery host is not at the same NetBackup release level as the backup host
- Restore virtual machines with Instant Recovery
- About Instant Recovery for VMware
- Task overview for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Performance recommendations for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Requirements for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Notes on Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restarting the Client for NFS service on a Windows restore host
- Instant Recovery options on the nbrestorevm command
- Restoring a virtual machine with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restoring a virtual machine to a different location with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restoring individual files with Instant Recovery for VMware while the current virtual machine is running
- Job types for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Reactivating a restored virtual machine with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Use NetBackup for vCloud Director
- About NetBackup for vCloud Director
- Notes on creating a NetBackup policy for vCloud
- Notes on restoring virtual machines into vCloud Director
- Restoring virtual machines into vCloud Director
- Reducing the time required for VM discovery in a large vCloud environment
- Virtual machine recovery dialog boxes for vCloud Director
- Recovery Destination dialog box (vCloud Director)
- Recovery Options dialog box (vCloud Director)
- Recovery vApp Options for vCloud Director dialog box (restore to original location)
- Virtual Machine Options dialog box for vCloud Director
- Perform Recovery dialog box for vCloud Director
- Recovery Options dialog box for vCloud Director (restore to alternate location)
- Recovery vApp Options for vCloud Director dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Select a vApp dialog box
- Recovery Destination Options for vCloud Director dialog box (restore to alternate location)
- Virtual Machine Options (restore to alternate location)
- Network connections (restore to alternate location)
- Perform Recovery dialog box for vCloud Director (restore to alternate location)
- Best practices and more information
- Troubleshooting
- Notes on troubleshooting NetBackup for VMware
- Beware of unsupported backup host
- How to determine the ESX network that NetBackup used for the backup or restore
- NetBackup logging for VMware
- Configuring VxMS logging
- Format of the VxMS core.log and provider.log file names
- Configuring the VDDK logging level
- Preventing browsing delays caused by DNS problems
- Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery
- Changing timeout and logging values for vSphere
- Credentials for VMware server are not valid
- Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)
- The origin of the snapshot failure: NetBackup or VMware?
- Conflict between NetBackup and VMware Storage vMotion with vSphere 5.0 or later
- Incremental backups of the VM may fail if the NTFS file system in the guest OS is corrupted and the backup uses MSDP storage
- The restore fails when you restore individual files to a virtual machine that has NetBackup client software
- Backup or restore job hangs
- VMware SCSI requirements for application quiesce on Windows
- Mount point missing on a restored Windows virtual machine
- Mount points not available when restoring files from a Linux virtual machine
- Invalid client error when you restore files using NetBackup BAR interface installed on the virtual machine
- VMware virtual machine does not restart after restore
- A restored VM may not start or its file system(s) may not be accessible
- NetBackup job fails due to update tasks on the VMware server
- The vSphere interface reports that virtual machine consolidation is needed
- The Enable file recovery from VM backup option does not work if a volume disk set contains a mixture of disk types
- Linux VMs and persistent device naming
- For a VMware virtual machine with Windows dynamic disks, a restore from incremental backup fails with a Windows restore host and the hotadd transport mode
- Simultaneous hotadd backups (from the same VMware backup host) fail with status 13
- Troubleshooting VMware tag usage
- Ensuring that guest customizations can be restored in vCloud Director
- Troubleshooting vmdk restore to existing VM
- Appendix A. NetBackup commands to back up and restore virtual machines
- Using NetBackup commands to create a VMware policy
- Using the nbdiscover command to search the virtual environment
- Using the nbrestorevm command to restore virtual machines into vSphere
- Using the nbrestorevm command to restore virtual machines into vCloud Director
- Using the nbrestorevm command to restore virtual machine disks
- The nbrestorevm -R rename file for restoring virtual machines
- Logs for troubleshooting the nbrestorevm command
- Query format and examples for searching virtual machine backups
- Allowing other servers or clients to restore virtual machines
- Appendix B. Configuring services for NFS on Windows
- About installing and configuring Network File System (NFS) for Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
- About configuring services for NFS on Windows 2012 or 2016 (NetBackup for VMware)
- About configuring services for NFS on Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 (NetBackup for VMware)
- Disabling the Server for NFS (NetBackup for VMware)
- Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server (NetBackup for VMware)
- Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows backup or restore host for Granular Recovery Technology (NetBackup for VMware)
- Configuring a different network port for NBFSD (NetBackup for VMware)
- Appendix C. The Reuse VM selection query results option
- Appendix D. Backup of VMware raw devices (RDM)
Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing for virtual machines
As part of creating a NetBackup policy, you must specify which virtual machines to back up. One approach is to let NetBackup search the network and list all available virtual machines. However, if your VMware environment contains many VMware servers and virtual machines, it may take too long to search and list all of them. For example, consider an environment with ten vCenter servers. To back up the virtual machines on one of the ten vCenter servers, browsing virtual machines on all ten 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 the VMware servers that are not named in the exclude list for the backup-host.
Use one of the following procedures, depending on the platform of the backup host (Windows or Linux).
To limit the VMware servers that NetBackup discovers, per Windows backup host
- On the Windows desktop of the backup host, click Start > Run and enter regedit.
- To be on the safe side, make a backup of the current registry (File > Export).
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup > CurrentVersion > Config and create a key called BACKUP.
- Right-click in the right pane and click New > String Value. Enter excludeVMservers as the name.
- Right-click the excludeVMservers name and click Modify.
- In the Edit String dialog, enter a comma-delimited list of the VMware servers that are NOT to be queried when NetBackup browses the network. Do not enter spaces. You can enter vCenter servers and individual ESX servers.
Note: The exclude list is used on the next backup. If any bpfis processes are running, the exclude list has no effect on them.
The exclude list applies only to this backup host. The servers are not queried when NetBackup browses for virtual machines to list on the policy's Browse for Virtual Machines dialog of the NetBackup Administration Console.
To limit the VMware servers that NetBackup discovers, per Linux backup host
- On the Linux backup host, create (or open) the following file:
/usr/openv/netbackup/virtualization.conf - Add the following to the file:
[BACKUP] "excludeVMservers"="server1,server2,server3"
where server1,server2,server3 is a comma-delimited list of the VMware servers that are NOT to be queried when NetBackup browses the network. Do not enter spaces. You can enter vCenter servers and individual ESX servers.
Note: If the file already contains a [BACKUP] line, do not add another [BACKUP] line. Any other lines that already exist under [BACKUP] should remain as they are.
- Save the file.
Note: The exclude list is used on the next backup. If any bpfis processes are running, the exclude list has no effect on them.
The exclude list applies only to this backup host. The servers are not queried when NetBackup browses for virtual machines to list on the policy's Browse for Virtual Machines dialog of the NetBackup Administration Console.
As an alternative, NetBackup can automatically select virtual machines based on a range of criteria.
See About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup for VMware.
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