Forum Discussion

_Jacob_'s avatar
_Jacob_
Level 2
7 years ago

BUExec15 withj HyperV - Migrated VMs, How to reflect in BUExec

I'm running Backup Exec 15 on Windows Server2012 R2, which was once a Hyper-V host, but is now only the Backup Exec 15 Host. I have two Hyper-V hosts (also Server 2012R2) that are not clustered but I...
15
Backup Exec 15
Hyper-V
Server 2012 r2
Server 2012r2
Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Stephen_Kent's avatar
    Stephen_Kent
    7 years ago

    The short of it is that Backup Exec will actually dynamically add and remove servers from the selection list, BUT it depends on how you make the backup selections. It's really the same way that Backup Exec works with backing up files and folders. So I'm going to explain it as if we're just talking about file and folder selections in a backup job.

    If you, for instance, select the root of the C: on a server (or in your case select the hyperV host), it will naturally include all of the subfolders and files (or all of the VM's), and it will do so dynamically. So now say I want to exclude C:\temp from my backup of the C: drive. The way you'd want to do that would be to still select the root of the C: and then deselect the temp folder. This way it would still dynamically select any new folders added under the root of C. If you were to instead NOT select the root of C: and just go and select all of the subfolders except for Temp, this tells Backup Exec to always specifically backup these folders. It would not dynamically add and remove folders under C: from the selection list.

    To expand upon this and to get into how to fix this, what you want to do at this point is to go into your backup job that is trying to backup the VM's that are no longer and click edit on the left pane. This will bring up your selections. Now on the right pane, click on the Selection Details tab. This might help illustate what I was talking about. You will see Include selections/entries for each invidual VM. You can simply highlight the VM's that have been removed from the host and click delete at the bottom.

    That view helps understand how the selection list is built, too. If you would have an Include for the top of the tree and Excludes for VM's you didn't want backed up, it would have dynamically added and removed VM's as they are added and removed from the host. In your case, though, you selected just the VM's that you did want backed up, so it always wants to try to backup those specific VM's.

    And I want to add that there's nothing really wrong with they way you are doing it, but I'm just trying to explain throughly what happened and why. I hope this helps you and any others that come across this. Let me know if you have any further questions or need more clarity.

Stephen_Kent's avatar
Stephen_Kent
Level 4

The short of it is that Backup Exec will actually dynamically add and remove servers from the selection list, BUT it depends on how you make the backup selections. It's really the same way that Backup Exec works with backing up files and folders. So I'm going to explain it as if we're just talking about file and folder selections in a backup job.

If you, for instance, select the root of the C: on a server (or in your case select the hyperV host), it will naturally include all of the subfolders and files (or all of the VM's), and it will do so dynamically. So now say I want to exclude C:\temp from my backup of the C: drive. The way you'd want to do that would be to still select the root of the C: and then deselect the temp folder. This way it would still dynamically select any new folders added under the root of C. If you were to instead NOT select the root of C: and just go and select all of the subfolders except for Temp, this tells Backup Exec to always specifically backup these folders. It would not dynamically add and remove folders under C: from the selection list.

To expand upon this and to get into how to fix this, what you want to do at this point is to go into your backup job that is trying to backup the VM's that are no longer and click edit on the left pane. This will bring up your selections. Now on the right pane, click on the Selection Details tab. This might help illustate what I was talking about. You will see Include selections/entries for each invidual VM. You can simply highlight the VM's that have been removed from the host and click delete at the bottom.

That view helps understand how the selection list is built, too. If you would have an Include for the top of the tree and Excludes for VM's you didn't want backed up, it would have dynamically added and removed VM's as they are added and removed from the host. In your case, though, you selected just the VM's that you did want backed up, so it always wants to try to backup those specific VM's.

And I want to add that there's nothing really wrong with they way you are doing it, but I'm just trying to explain throughly what happened and why. I hope this helps you and any others that come across this. Let me know if you have any further questions or need more clarity.

_Jacob_'s avatar
_Jacob_
Level 2
7 years ago

The way you've explained it indicates that the issue is implicit vs explicit inclusion on the selection list. I understand that part (although its good to actually see someone put it in words).

I just entered the Backup Definitions for the VMs and as I touched each Hyper-V host, BUExec prompted me about being unable to find the resources and asked to remove them from the job.

I guess the long and short of it is that you need to check your Backup Definitions after changing your VM Host configurations.

Thanks for the info and the help.

 

  • Ben-Veritas's avatar
    Ben-Veritas
    Level 4
    7 years ago

    Are you hyper-v hosts part of a cluster?  If so, select them from the cluster level instead of the host level.  The cluster name should be available from the servers list.

    If the servers are not clustered if you move a VM from host to host you'll have to adjust the selection list each time.