NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide
- Introduction
- About NetBackup for VMware
- 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 terminology
- Required tasks: overview
- Configuring RBAC roles for VMware administrators
- RBAC roles for the VMware administrator
- Assigning permissions at specific VMware object levels
- Create a custom role for a VMware server or datacenter
- Create a custom role for an Organization VDC administrator
- Create a custom role to manage specific VMs
- Manage permissions for a datacenter
- Manage permissions for a single VM
- Apply RBAC role permissions for a VM to other VMs
- Notes and 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
- Notes and limitations for the backup and restore of VMware storage policies
- Support for LVM thin pool based volumes
- VMware vSphere privileges
- About VMware vSphere privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for virtual machine backups
- VMware vSphere privileges for a full VM restore
- VMware vSphere privileges to create an instant access VM
- VMware vSphere privileges for NetBackup plug-in operations
- VMware vSphere privileges for instant rollback
- VMware vSphere privileges for agentless SFR privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for individual vmdk restore privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for vApp restore and vApp restore to template
- Optional permissions for better integration with VMware vSphere
- Managing VMware servers
- About VMware discovery
- Add VMware servers
- Validate and update VMware server credentials
- Browse VMware servers
- Remove VMware servers
- Create an intelligent VM group
- Remove an intelligent VM group
- Add a VMware access host
- Remove a VMware access host
- Change resource limits for VMware resource types
- Setting privileges for posting events to vCenter
- Authentication token for the NetBackup vSphere plug-ins
- Validating VMware virtualization server certificates in NetBackup
- Configuring backup policies for VMware
- Configure a VMware policy
- Limit jobs per policy on the Attributes tab (for VMware)
- Backup options on the VMware tab
- 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
- Configuring 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
- About the Reuse VM selection query results option
- Configure 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
- Reducing the time required for VM discovery in a large VMware environment
- 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
- 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
- Configuring protection plans for VMware
- Malware scan
- Instant access
- Instant rollback
- Continuous data protection
- About continuous data protection
- CDP terminology
- CDP architecture
- Prerequisites
- Capacity-based licensing for CDP
- Steps to configure CDP
- Removing VMs from the CDP gateway
- Defining the CDP gateway
- Sizing considerations
- Limiting concurrent CDP backup jobs
- Controlling full sync
- Monitoring CDP jobs
- Using accelerators with CDP
- Recovering CDP protected VMs
- Some limitations of CDP
- Troubleshooting for CDP
- Backing up virtual machines
- VM recovery
- VMware agentless restore
- Restoring Individual files and folders from VMware backups
- Using NetBackup to back up Cloud Director environments
- About NetBackup for vCloud Director
- Notes on creating a NetBackup policy for vCloud
- Notes on restoring virtual machines into vCloud Director
- Recover VMware Cloud Director virtual machines
- Restore a vApp template that has multiple virtual machines
- Reducing the time required for VM discovery in a large vCloud environment
- 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
- Protecting VMs using hardware snapshots and replication
- About virtual machines and hardware snapshots
- Deployment and architecture
- Features and applications supported
- Prerequisites for hardware snapshot and replication
- Operations supported with hardware snapshot
- Configuring a VMware policy to use hardware snapshots
- Configuring a VMware policy to use NetBackup snapshot manager replication
- Jobs in the Activity Monitor that use hardware snapshot for VMs
- Notes and limitations
- Troubleshooting with VMware hardware snapshot and replication operations
- Best practices and more information
- Troubleshooting VMware operations
- NetBackup logging for VMware
- Troubleshooting VMware backups
- Troubleshooting the restore of VMware and restores of files
- Troubleshooting the adding of VMware servers
- Troubleshooting the browsing of VMware servers
- Troubleshooting the status for a newly discovered VM
- Troubleshooting policy configuration
- Troubleshooting the download of files from an instant access VM
- Troubleshooting backups and restores of excluded virtual disks
- How to determine the ESX network that NetBackup used for the backup or restore
- 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)
- Conflict between NetBackup and VMware Storage vMotion with vSphere 5.0 or later
- Backup or restore job hangs
- VMware SCSI requirements for application quiesce on Windows
- 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
- 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
- Troubleshooting backups of virtual machines on Virtual Volumes (VVols)
- Issues with the CA certificate during installation of the NetBackup client on VMware Cloud (VMC)
- Appendix A. 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)
- 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 B. Backups of VMware raw devices (RDM)
Restoring individual files with Instant Recovery for VMware while the current virtual machine is running
You can use instant recovery to restore files individually from a virtual machine backup. You can restore the virtual machine from its backup image and mount it on a private network (such as a sandbox). This approach avoids the potential for network conflicts with the virtual machine in your production environment. Another virtual machine on a public network can be used as an intermediary, to copy the files from the virtual machine on the private network.
Note:
This procedure lets you restore files into a running VM. You do not need to shut down the current virtual machine in your production environment before you start this procedure.
Before you start this procedure, you need an intermediary virtual machine that has a network connection to the public network or production network. In this procedure you connect the intermediary to the private network where the restored virtual machine is to be mounted.
At the end of the procedure, you can copy files from the restored virtual machine to the intermediary virtual machine. Then the virtual machines on the public network can access the files on the intermediary.
To restore individual files using instant recovery
- Use vSphere Client to log on to the vCenter server.
You must use a logon that allows access to the files that you want to recover.
- Create a vSphere standard switch.
This switch is for access to the ESX host from the sandbox or private network where the VM is to be activated from its backup.
Note:
The switch is for internal communication within the ESX host only.
For example, in vSphere Client 5:
Select the ESX host for communication between the restored virtual machine and the intermediary virtual machine.
On the Configuration tab, in the Hardware pane, click Networking.
Click Add Networking.
Select Virtual Machine as the connection type.
Select Create a vSphere standard switch.
For Port Group Properties, Network Label, enter a name for the internal switch (such as NB or NetBackup).
Click Finish.
- On the intermediary virtual machine, add a network card (NIC) to be connected to the vSphere standard switch.
Use this connection to retrieve files from the restored virtual machine that is to be mounted on the private network.
Note:
This intermediary virtual machine must already have a network connection to the public network or production network.
For example, in vSphere Client 5:
Select the intermediary virtual machine.
On the Summary tab, click Edit Settings.
Click Add.
Select Ethernet Adapter.
For the Network label, select the private network that is created in step 2.
Click Finish.
- If the intermediary's guest OS does not automatically assign an IP address for the private network after step 3, note: You must manually configure the IP address, default gateway, and subnet mask.
The intermediary should now be connected to both the public network and to the private network where the virtual machine is to be restored.
- Use the nbrestorevm command to restore the virtual machine.
nbrestorevm -vmw -ir_activate -C virtual_machine -temp_location temporary_datastore -R rename_file_path -vmsn
-vmsn specifies that no network is enabled for the virtual machine when it is activated from the backup image. Without the -vmsn option, network conflicts with the production virtual machine may occur.
The file that is designated by -R rename_file_path specifies a different display name or location for the restored virtual machine. You must change the virtual machine name or location to avoid conflicts with the current virtual machine in production. For example, to rename the virtual machine, the rename file can consist of the following entry (ending with a carriage return):
change vmname to acme_vm5
Note:
The words
change vmname toare literals, followed by the actual name to change to (such asacme_vm5).See Instant Recovery options on the nbrestorevm command.
For other nbrestorevm options, see the man page or the NetBackup Commands Reference Guide.
- Add a network card (NIC) to the restored virtual machine and connect the NIC to the vSphere standard switch from step 2.
- Turn on the restored virtual machine.
- If the guest OS does not automatically assign an IP address for the private network, configure the IP address, default gateway, and subnet mask.
- Set up file sharing (such as through FTP, NFS, or CIFS) between the restored virtual machine and the intermediary virtual machine.
Then copy the files from the restored virtual machine to the intermediary virtual machine. The current virtual machine in production can access the files.
- If you do not want to keep the restored virtual machine, enter the following:
nbrestorevm - ir_listvm
In the -ir_listvm output, find the VM Instant Recovery ID for the restored virtual machine.
To remove the restored virtual machine:
nbrestorevm - ir_deactivate instant recovery ID
where instant recovery ID is the virtual machine's numeric identifier from the -ir_listvm output.