Forum Discussion

Sacha_Brown's avatar
Sacha_Brown
Level 5
14 years ago

VMWare ESX Host and VM backup using Netbackup

I recently implemented NBU 7.1 to a VMWare ESX host machine and also backup the Virtual Machines within the host. I am aware that the NBU Enterprise client license is required. We have this already. I followed the steps in the link provided below:

http://www.symturk.com/symlog/?p=114

 

My concern here is, I'm backing up the Virtual Machines inside the host but I'm not able to do a restore since the agent wasnt installed. Where am I going wrong. Do I have to install the agent on the client in order for me to do a restore? What about the Host? How do I back up and restore the Host.

 

This is my first with VMWare Host and VM backups.

 

Any help would be appeciated.

 

Thanks

7.1.x and Earlier
Agents
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Configuring
NetBackup
Restore
Virtualization
  • austin_lazanows's avatar
    austin_lazanows
    14 years ago

    So When you say restore - are you saying an individual file you want to place back inside the VM? Or are you referring to restoring the VM entirely? 

     

    So the quick answer on this is:

    • VMWare VSphere API backups with Netbackup do not require a netbackup agent to perform the backup or to perform a VM-level restore.
    • VMWare VSphere API backups with Netbackup REQUIRE an agent to restore an individual files from the backup, back inside the VM guest itself.

    The alternative is to restore the individual files to a different client (or your media server is a good choice) and then move the file via network file protocols instead.

  • austin_lazanows's avatar
    austin_lazanows
    Level 4
    14 years ago

    So When you say restore - are you saying an individual file you want to place back inside the VM? Or are you referring to restoring the VM entirely? 

     

    So the quick answer on this is:

    • VMWare VSphere API backups with Netbackup do not require a netbackup agent to perform the backup or to perform a VM-level restore.
    • VMWare VSphere API backups with Netbackup REQUIRE an agent to restore an individual files from the backup, back inside the VM guest itself.

    The alternative is to restore the individual files to a different client (or your media server is a good choice) and then move the file via network file protocols instead.

  • pikachu's avatar
    pikachu
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    or restore back to a UNC path on the VM, which requires the client through which you restore back to be running as an ad admin account.

  • Lee_C's avatar
    Lee_C
    Level 5
    14 years ago
    Admins tend not to backup the Esx hosts themselves. They are normally easy to rebuild and are considered somewhat disposable.
  • pikachu's avatar
    pikachu
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    We only support installing the NBU 6.5.x client on the ESX server. We dropped the support for 7 on the ESX server.

  • Sacha_Brown's avatar
    Sacha_Brown
    Level 5
    14 years ago

    Ok...so my question is..do I have to install NBU client on the Virtual Machines to restore files?

  • Mark_Solutions's avatar
    Mark_Solutions
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    If you want to restore individual files or folders directly to a client hosted with a VMWare environment then you would need a NetBAckup client to be installed on it

    As other have mentioned you can restore it elsewhere and copy it across to the original host or restore it to the Media Server but use a UNC path which will direct it to the original client as long as the client service account on the Media Server has sufficient rights to copy the file across.

    Usually easiest to restore elsehwre and copy across

  • Lee_C's avatar
    Lee_C
    Level 5
    14 years ago

    I'm not sure if I understand your question, but you might want to investigate capacity based licensing.  For us it's cheaper than licensing per client.

  • Mark_Solutions's avatar
    Mark_Solutions
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    Just noticed that this thread is still open ....

    The vSphere API allows host servers to be backed up and as well as the vmdk's the individual files can also be backed up in a single granular backup.

    However, the same api does not allow the individual files to be restore to the client that they came from

    You can restore an entire servers (vmdk files) no problem but individual file restores need to be directed using traditional NetBAckup processes, so you need a client somewhere to direct them to

    This doesn't have to be on the original server - it can be another client or even the Media or Master Server, but once restored you will need to copy then back to the priginal server manually

    You can of course install a client on the original server but it will only be used for restores, not during backups

    Hope this clarifies things for you