Forum Discussion

Arturo_Lopez's avatar
Arturo_Lopez
Level 5
8 years ago

VMWare Virtual Center Server Machine

Hi,

One team of suppport want to configure a Vmware backup with the virtual machine that we have configure as VMWare Virtual Center Server. My doubt is... ¿It's possible to configure backup about this machine and restore her?

Thanks.

7.7
windows server 2012
  • Systems_Team's avatar
    Systems_Team
    8 years ago

    Hi Arturo,

    You should have no issues with backing up your VCenter with that config.  As mentioned, if you put it in its own policy and run it after all your other VMware policies, you should eliminate any issues.

    As far as putting a NetBackup client on your VCenter, if your support won't allow it then the only thing you will lose is the ability to restore individual files quickly.  If say for example you needed to restore one or two files from a previous backup of your VCenter, then you would have to restore the entire VM to an alternate location and then extract the files you need.  With a client installed on VCenter you could restore those files very quickly, just like a normal agent-based restore.

    Hope this helps,

    Steve

  • Systems_Team's avatar
    Systems_Team
    Level 6
    8 years ago

    Hi Arturo,

    Yes, that is possible and pretty easy.  I do that at my sites using VMware VIP policies.

    I am guessing by your tags that your VCenter is Windows Server 2012 correct?  I would install a NetBackup client on it.  This servers two purposes - 1) You can restore individual files if need be and 2) If the database for your VCenter is actually hosted on the VCenter server and it is MS SQL or MS SQL Express then you can use the MSSQL additional options in the VMware policy to backup the SQL database at the same time.  With that method, you get a backup of the VM, filesystems and database in one pass and can restore any one of them from one backup image.

    I would put this in its own policy, and run it later once all your normal VM policies that use VCenter have finished.  That's just a suggestion in case your site is very busy, and to ensure VCenter is not trying to do other VM backups while it also backing itself up :smileylol:

    If memory serves me correctly, in the VMware policy you must use "Select automatically through VMware Intelligent Policy query", not "Select Manually".  If you don't, I think I remember that the Application State Capture which will grab the MS SQL database when you have those options ticked will fail.

    You may also need to have your MS SQL database running under an account that has SA rights to the database, and your NetBackup client services running under the same account.  I have VCenters configued that way but I also have one that has MS SQL Express and that runs fine using default setting for all services.  Of course if your DB is not actually hosted on VCenter then those steps don't apply and you need to backup the DB separately.

    Any problems, pop back here and we should be able to sort them for you.

    Hope this helps,

    Steve

    • Arturo_Lopez's avatar
      Arturo_Lopez
      Level 5
      8 years ago

      Hi, I don't have problem with the SQL because it's allocated in other virtual machine. In this virtual machine we have only the VCenter without client (The support don't want install the client). So, ¿If I configure a vmware policy and add the Vcenter virtual machine we can make a backup and restored without problems with the other virtual machines in the VCenter and without problems with this virtual machines(VCenter)?


      • Systems_Team's avatar
        Systems_Team
        Level 6
        8 years ago

        Hi Arturo,

        You should have no issues with backing up your VCenter with that config.  As mentioned, if you put it in its own policy and run it after all your other VMware policies, you should eliminate any issues.

        As far as putting a NetBackup client on your VCenter, if your support won't allow it then the only thing you will lose is the ability to restore individual files quickly.  If say for example you needed to restore one or two files from a previous backup of your VCenter, then you would have to restore the entire VM to an alternate location and then extract the files you need.  With a client installed on VCenter you could restore those files very quickly, just like a normal agent-based restore.

        Hope this helps,

        Steve