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Backup Exec 2014 VRAY - Granular Restore Problem via Disk Based Backup

Pigeonfarmer
Level 3

Hi there, 

I've read lots of posts on this forum and cannot find a solution to the exact problem I'm having, so I'm hoping someone here can help. I'm not a Backup Expert (clearly Smiley Happy) and I've just run out of ideas. 

I'm using Backup Exec 2014 VRAY with all updates, service packs, hotfixes installed on a Windows Server 2012 R2 Virtual Machine (VMWare 5.5). We run 2 backups on our site - a Tape Based backup where the tape gets taken off site (requirement of management), and a disk based backup. 

I regularly have to restore individual files from one of our file servers (virtual machine) from the disk based backup. I would like to be able to restore the individual files from the disk based backup, rather than having to stage the entire virtual machine somewhere first. As I have understood from what I have read, you should be able to restore at granular level with disk based backups, but not from a tape based backup for obvious reasons. 

I have the following options enabled on the backup that are related to GRT. 


GRToptions.PNG

I have tried two ways of restoring : 

1. Right click on the server in the server view > Restore > Files, Folders or Volumes > File and Folder backups from a backup set > Enter the date range and find the file I want to restore > 

This wants to stage the VM before restore 

2. Click on the VMware Cluster > Right-click on the server in question > Restore GRT-Enabled data for the selected virtual machine > Files, Folders or Volumes > File and folder backups from a backup set > Enter the date range and find the file I want to restore 

Whichever way I try, seems to want to stage the VM first, which takes a huge amount of time.

Apologies if I have not supplied enough information, I am happy to post anything else that is needed to help diagnose this issue. 

Thanks for taking the time to read

Best regards

James 

10 REPLIES 10

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

What sort of device is the disk based backup using i.e. if it is a disk array emulating a library (as a VTL or similar) then it will stage the restores.

 

Also a word of caution (about your environment, not your problem) - if Backup Exec is installed inside a VM then we do not support writting to physical tape via any kind of pass-though operation. While some customers might find that this type of configuration appears to work for them, we are aware of lots of issues with this type of configuration and as such if you are using such a setup then it is at your own risk and we can only offer resoable efforts  based on our definition of alternative configurations should you have issues.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Colin, 

Thanks for your response. Also I appreciate your note on running Backup Exec in a VM, but we are actually running it on a physical server just used for running Backup Exec and connecting to our tape library. 

The backup to disk side of things is using a Synology RS815+ and is connected to the Backup Server via iSCSI target. 

So should I be able to recover individual files? It seems really long-winded to have to restore a stage the entire VM for one file. 

 

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

OK so in the job logs for the disk backups, does it list the media as starting with B2D or IMG?

The media starts with B2D

 

 

 

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

OK so disk based media created by GRT enabled sets should start with IMG (and be folders instead of files) if you only have files that start with BKF it is either not a GRT selection in the job or Backup Exec is being forced to operate the disk system as some form of tape emulation.

Did you install this Backup Exec server, or was a different administrator involved as if you didn't intall it then maybe something has been set in the past that should not have been left enabled.

 

This was installed by another administrator who has left the company, and I'm the one who has to try and solve the problem, and I don't really know anything about Backup Exec, especially when it comes to backing up the VM's. 

Do you have any idea if there's some addtional options I should be checking that might be effecting it?

Really appreciate your help so far. 

Thanks

James 

 

check the actual backup location, does it have IMG folders?

Can you attach a job log from the backup to disk so we can take a look at it?

Hi there, 

Wasn't too sure what BKF files were. I've looked in the location where the B2D files are being saved, and yes they are all .BKF files. 

I have attached the backup log for one of the B2D jobs. 

Really appreciate everyone's help. 

 

 

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

I just spotted something in your job log - I believe Backup Exec does not like the & symbol in the VMware folder name of

File & Print Servers 

Suggest you change this to something like "File Print Servers" , within Vmware, (AND delete and recreate the backup jobs as the selection list will need a reset after changing the folder name.

 

This is loosely covered by the following article (although it almost certainly won't cover the exact symptoms for all versions of VMware ESXi, Backup Exec and the VDDK as the article was initially written some time ago)

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100001629.html

 

 

Normally in the job logs you will see this in the Backup Set information.

"The option to enable the restore of individual files and folders from a virtual machine backup was selected for this backup."

We don't see that in your job log.

As Colin already suggested, you might want to go ahead with re-creating that job and verifing that GRT is enabled even if just for File Level.  Also make sure that the Full and Incremental are going to the same phyical location.