i have a Netbackup 6.5.4 Master/Media/Emm installed on SUN ultra 25, Solaris 5.10 having 6.5.4 BMR Master Server for LINUX and WINDOWS. Now i want to do backup of virtual machines running ESX 3.5. i was reading a doucment that i should have a Proxy Server VCB. can someone tell me, if i use BMR Master Server Windows 2003 X64 as a Proxy Server. would it works ? or i have to configure a separate machine for Proxy Server ?

with link for NB7 'download' https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/esx-virtual-machine-error-156

NBU Proxy server

10 Replies

Shakil_Qureshi
Level 5
16 years ago

Do i need a separate machine ? or Windows BMR Master Server will be helpful in this regard ?
Marianne
Level 6
16 years ago
First things first:
BMR Master must be installed on the NetBackup Master Server.
Extract from BMR Admin Guide:
"Install the BMR master server on the same system as the NetBackup master server in your environment. Install the same version of BMR as NetBackup. Do not install the BMR master server on a NetBackup media server or on a NetBackup client."

Each O/S version that you protect via BMR needs a BMR Boot server - one for Solaris, one for Windows, one for Linux.

Any Windows system that have access to the disk(s) that will be used to snapshot VMWare machines can be used. The recommendation in the NBU for VMWare Admin Guide is that this Windows server should be a media server.

Full details of requirements for Proxy Server in NBU for VMWare Admin Guide.

This diagram on page 13 of this manual should be useful:
Shakil_Qureshi
Level 5
16 years ago

ooh im so soory , i did not communicated well.

i have one NBU Master Server 6.5.4. which is also a BMR Server (Solaris)
one NBU BMR Server Windows
one NBU BMR Server Linux

and rest are the clients.

now for the ESX , i need to have a Proxy Server. My question is, do i need a separte server for Proxy Server (for ESX) or can i use Windows BMR Server for Proxy Server.
kindly suggest?

Also that Windows BMR Server has access to disk where all data is backing up.
Brian_Smith1
Level 4
16 years ago
The minimum requirement of the "VCB Proxy Server" is that it be a NBU Windows Client. If it's also a Windows media/master is totally up to you. For VCB, it must have a disk staging area to hold VM snapshot copies, large enough to meet your concurrent VM backup requirements (hold your largest VM, or multiple VMs during concurrent backup).

The NetBackup for VMware user guide is a great resource. Also, in NBU7, vStorage APIs will make the VM backups much faster and will eliminate the use of VCB and the disk staging area on the proxy.

Hope this helps!
Christoph_Linde
Level 5
16 years ago

Hi,

as Brian already said, yes this is supported and no problem.

Best Practice is, to attache tapes to your VCB Proxy, so make it a Media Server. In addition to that, if you have PowerPath Mutlipathing software in place on you ESX servers, you have to use a 32Bit Windows 2003 Server as VCB Proxy, as Powerpath is not supported with VMware VCB Framework on 64Bit. Don't ask why.

The last thing you need for best performance is a direct SAN connection to the LUNs of your ESX servers. The VCB Proxy will copy/mount the date directly from SAN. Using local disks inside of the ESX Server is supported and works but you have to push all data through the ESX console Network and that is again not really, why you want to use VCB. The reason for using VCB is simply, to remove the load from the ESX servers, which you cannot achieve if the ESX server still pushes the data to the backup servers.
teiva-boy
Level 6
16 years ago
You need to check out VMware's VCB guidelines, they have some pretty strict hardware and OS requirements. Like ONLY Win2k3 32bit SP2 is supported, nothing else.

It is strongly recommended you look into 3.5U2 or vSPhere with NBU7, to get rid of VCB altogether.
Shakil_Qureshi
Level 5
16 years ago
Dear ,

when i go for downloads of NBU 7 from symantec site, i cannot see any patch/utility to download and update 6.5.4...
or provide me the exact link, from where i can download NBU 7 all (i mean NBU Master/Media/Emm), and 3.5U2

well, now i have an enviroment where
-->NBU Master/media/emm Server 6.5.4 (Solaris 5.10)
-->NBU Media Server (Solaris 5.10) added to existing NBU(Master/media/emm)   working functionally perfect.
-->fullfilled all requirements as Snapshot License etc
now for taking esx virtual machine backups,

-->installed Win Server 2003 (32 bit)
-->Virtual Centre 2.5 (configured datacentre --> esx)    esx running Solaris machines
---->VCB installed
-->NBU Media Server 6.5.4 (same machine installed Win Server 2003, virtual Centre, VCB, and Configured Storage and    working perfect)
-->Configured Storage Unit which is listed in Policies tab and working perfectly.

now, i am facing the error 156 "Snapshot error encountered" when run backup.

-->used policy Flashbackup-windows and followed step listed in the technote 318357.
--> also in policy i can't browse any esx/virtual machine,
-->infact in Policy--> in Client's tab when i click New --> and browse for Virtual machines ---> getting error " System error occured "
-->i have added the ESX (ipaddress and Hostname ) to the /etc/hosts file of Master, 2 Media Servers.    pinging is perffect.

is there something which i missed, or what ? why i am not able to access ESX or Virtual machines ?
StefanosM
Level 6
16 years ago
Error 156 is a generic error regarding snapshots. You have to check again that the configuration of netbackup is right and then you must open the bpfis log.
My suggestion is to stop working with VCB and consider upgrading to netbackup 7. VCB is dropped even from VMware. VCB will not be a part of ESX starting from the next ESX patch. (Not version, patch).
If you have valid support, you can find information how to download netbackup 7 at http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/341272.htm
Shakil_Qureshi
Level 5
16 years ago

Dear all,

will some one provide me the exact path to download NBU 7, as i have stopped doing work on VCB, it's a mess.

i have a support through SUN, not directly to SYMC.

kindly suggest me, how can i upgrade from 6.5.4 to 7 and then i want to take backup of ESX machines.
Andy_Welburn
Level 6
16 years ago
with link for NB7 'download'

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/esx-virtual-machine-error-156

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