BE 12.5 SP2 + VCB v1.5 backup on vSphere 4 environment

[Symanticus]

Hi All,

I've got my Backup Exec 12.5 SP2 installed with VCB framework v1.5 (vCenter mgmt server 4 is installed in different physical server), when i do the backup selection list, i always select from the vCenter node to browse my list of VMs.

but then i was quite confused when the backup file in my Backup2Disk directory is all just a big massive .BKF filetype eventhough i already specify to split to 2 GB with NBD option checked.

what i expected to have is a directory which contains all of the vmname.vmx, vmname.vmdk and so on, so that i can just "play" that VM in the backup server using VMWare player.

Anyone know how to achieve this goal please share your thought and comments here.

Thanks.

[Hemant_Jain]

Please Install VCB on backup Exec server. Make sure Vmware Agent is installed on backup Exec server. Then run a backup of the VM in question and make sure GRT is enabled in the backup job. That should create IMG folder on the backup to disk folder location. You may want to use that.

[Symanticus]

Thanks for the reply hemant, the backup and restore went fine though, but somehow I'm just wondering if in case of I'd like to "extract" that VM so that i can run it without hosting it on the ESXi i used to be able to do it but i couldn't remember now ?

or is it because of the expired AVVI agent ?

[Hemant_Jain]

Hi Albert,
I did not quite understand. You want to run VM without hosting it on ESX? I am not sure, may be you use some other VMware version? Could you detail your question, please?
Thanks
Hemant

[Symanticus]

Hi Hemant,

When you do the backup of a VMWare VM, iwas once did experiment to backup my VM into a backup server and yes i was using BE 12.5 and then in the backup 2 disk directory, the end result is the VMware .VMX,  .VMDK and all of the files inside the VM directory in my ESX. and then i can run the VM using VMWare player directly by clicking on the vmname.VMX file

anyway, after i found out that the backup file ended up in .BKF file, now i found another workaround by restoring it into the "local" temp directory in my backup server.

[Hemant_Jain · Accepted solution]

Hi Albert

Ok, you would get the VMware files on the backup exec side, in the form of IMG folder, if GRT is enabled. After running the GRT enabled backup to backup to disk folder, you can browse the folder and you would see the VMware files under IMG folder which you can use to mount in VM player. Alternatively, you can also use VMware converter to create a new machine out of the ESX VM.
Please mark it a solution, if this helps.

Thanks

[Symanticus]

Hi Hemant,

Thanks for the help it solves my problem.

but I don't know for some reason the VM Backup with GRT always stuck in "Updating the Catalog" stage so i had to stop the backup forcefully, but yes the VM is now backed up the way i wanted.

Cheers.

[Symanticus]

One more update, the Vista VM backup with this GRT enabled backup took very long ~ 5.5 hours just to backup 14.5 GB VM into the backup to disk folder.

It ended up with so many exceptions in the C:\Users\ directory, i think it is because i don't install the backup agent on that VM.

[Hemant_Jain]

Hi Albert,
Consider following the document:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/311227

Thanks

Hemant

[Symanticus]

Hi Hemant,

Does it sounds like a good idea to make the Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 SP2 + VCB v1.5 as a VM inside local ESXi datastore,

and then we can just use -m SAN mode to make the backup process faster, cmiiw ?

The network diagram is something like this: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8875/esxi.jpg