Can't backup powered on virtual machines w/ BE2010 R2

[emorgoch]

I'm having trouble backing up virtual machines that are powered on. If the VM is powered off, the backup proceeds fine. However, if the VM is powered on, I get the following errors in my log:

Backup- VMVCB::\\vcenter.mydomain.com\VCGuestVm\(DC)myDataCenter(DC)\vm\SomeFolder\MyVM
V-79-57344-38277 - Unable to open a disk of the virtual machine.

VixDiskLib_Open() reported the error: You do not have access rights to this file

I've checked and the backup service has administrator rights in virtual center. System versions:

Media Server: Backup Exec 2010 R2 (13.0 Rev 4164)

VM Host software: vSphere 4.1 Update 1 (both vCenter Server and ESX)

VM Guest: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Any help would be appreciated.

[ZeRoC00L · Accepted solution]

I would suggest to install BE 2010R3 first. You can do an inplace upgrade, and dont require new license keys. Lots of updates are applied to R3.

[VJware]

Is the remote agent installed on the VMs ? Also, what transport mode are you using ?

[pkh]

Are you using RDM, passthru or dynamic disks?  These are not supported.  To back them up, you need to backup the VM as a physical machine.

[emorgoch]

1) The remote agent is not installed on the VMs. Didn't think it had to be, even if I want to do a GRT backup of the files (GRT disabled for AD, SQL, and Exchagne though)

2) All transport modes are enabled (SAN, Hotadd, NBD, NBDSSL in that order). Also tried with SAN mode disabled.

3) No RDM, passthru or dynamic disks on this VM. Straight up VMDKs.

[VJware]

Install the Remote Agent on the VM, as this would install the Backup Exec VSS Provider ( a reboot would be required as this would uninstall the VMWare VSS Provider ) and re-attempt the backup when the VM is powered on....could try this on one VM as a test

[emorgoch]

I did this on a test machine, and it worked. However, I thought one of the benefits of backing up the VM as a VM was that I would not need to install the remote agent on the VM for backup purposes (only if trying to restore a single file directly to the vm).

I also tried to backup my target VM (wo/ agent installed) with GRT completely disabled, and I still got the same error. SAN transport mode disabled.

I'd have to schedule downtime for the target VM to install the remote agent since the reboot is required.

[Lesta_G]

Things I would do first

1)upgrade BE media server to R3 with latest hotfixes

2) login to vcenter as the service account that BE uses and check you can snapshot the machine. This eliminates Be from the equation 

3) VMWare tools needs to be installed on the VM