Backing up .VHD or VHDx files on BE2014

[DASFTP]

Hello,

I have a Virtual Host Server1 at our main site that replicates to Virtual Host Server2 at a remote site. I would like to backup the .VHD files on the remote server so I'm not affecting the production server.  All I currently want to do is backup the local D:drive that the replicated .VHD and .VHDX files existont. The replicated VM are in the "off" state.  Is there a reason BackupExec 2014 will not back up these files?  The backup will show successful with no errors or files skipped, however when looking at restoring the files, the folder tree is there but no .VHD file in the backup. 

The only thing I think could be happening is BackupExec won't backup up a .VHD file that is being replicated and in the OFF state? Can this be confirmed or denied? Is there another possible explanation?

Regards,

DASFTP

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi,

It's called Active File Exclusion and has been a feature of BE for many revisions. It basically skips files like *.edb, *.stl, *.ldf etc that are in use by an application, in favour of you using the agent to do this.

It would do the same with the Hyper-V VM files as you are finding out. When it gets to these files, it simply skips them and never backs them up. You can disable this feature as per the TN below, but read it carefully:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH92375

If you backup the files, there is no way to restore individual items from them, and restoring something like that would end up requiring unnecessary downtime.

Thanks!

[pkh]

To backup VHD files, you need to purchase and install a Hyper-V agent licence for that host.

[DASFTP]

CraigV,

Thanks for the info. I figured it was skipping the files for some reason because they are being used. Thought AOFO would resolve it but understand this is a little different.  If I copy the .VHD to another directory I'm able to back up as it is not being constantly replicated too.  I do you use the Hyper-V agent on other backups and will have to start with this one . 

Thanks

FTPDAS