Image backups not working

[zak2011]

When backing up Image backups of VMs, I get this error:

Unable to attach to VMVCB::\\SRVSRVXX.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\EBBSRV03. V-79-57344-33899 - The resource could not be backed up because an error occurred while connecting to...
A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRVXX.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\EXCHSRVXX was s... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRV.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\LICSRVXX was skip... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRV.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\NETMNGTXX was ski... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRV.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\SERVERX was skipp... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRV.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC)Drift AS(DC)\vm\TRMSRVXX was skipp... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SRVSRV.COMPANY.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) Drift AS(DC)\vm\WebhostX was skip...

The selection list for this job contains almost 22 VMs.

Thanks!

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi

Please check the link below

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH124283

Thanks

[pkh]

Did you push out the remote agents to the individual VM's?

[zak2011]

Hmm..i didnt do that.I haven't pushed out the remote agents to the individual VMs.i have just installed the agent on the Vcenter server. Is that mandatory to install individual agents on each VM even if you need to take only image backups?

Thanks!

[pkh]

Without installing the RAWS in the VM, you would not be able to do GRT restores of individual objects like files/folders, Exchange mailboxes, etc.

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi

Please check the Best practisces link below for BE 2012 vmware agent which would answers your questions

 http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO74443

THanks

[zak2011]

Ok, for a GRT restore its fine. But if i just need to do an image backup without having to do a GRT restore of individual objects, would it be essential to have the agents installed individually for each VM. Some of the VMs  in my environment do not require GRT restores and require only an image backup.

Thanks!

[zak2011]

Do i need to install the agent on each VM inorder to do a proper Image backup of all the VMs. Also is it okay to have one job for the vcenter server and include all the required VMs in the selection list or should a job be created for each VM individually.

Thanks!

[pkh]

If you do not install the RAWS in the VM, you are going to get the error messages.  You say that you do not require GRT.  Are you going to restore the entire VM if you need to restore a single file?

You can just run one job to backup all your VM's through vCentre.

[zak2011]

I have installed the RAWS in the VM and still getting many errors when backing Images.

Unable to attach to VMVCB::\\SERVER.company.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC) company(DC)\vm\NETMNGTXX. V-79-57344-33899 - The resource could not be backed up because an error occurred while connecting to...
A selection on device VMVCB::\\SERVER.company.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DCcompany(DC)\vm\SERVERX was skipped ... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SERVER.company.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC)company(DC)\vm\TRMSRVXX was skippe... A selection on device VMVCB::\\SERVER.company.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC)company(DC)\vm\WebhostX was skippe...

I wouldnt require GRTs on all VMs as some of the VMs are ADs and DNS servers.

Also getting this error for the incremental image backuos.

WEBHOSTXX Backup-Incremental Backup-Daily -- The job failed with the following error: Incremental\\Differential backup methods are not supported for this VM. The backup job failed, since the option 'to fall back to a full backup' was not selected.

This error seems to be a bit misleading. I checked the options in my backup definition for VM backups and the option \to fall backup to a full backup' is selected.

All  image backups are directed to be backed up to a Backup NAS device.

The

Thanks!

[zak2011]

Today Symantec Advanced technincal support contacted me for this issue . One thing that has been cleared out is that there is no need to install separate Backup agents on each VM to takea  full image backup. It would be required only for a GRT restore. However, to do an incremental backup, the disks for the VM should be a thin disk and not a thick disk. I guess almost all the disks are provisioned as thick disks in our case.

He said for incremental backups to work, the disks should be provisioned to thin disk.

So unless the disks are thin and the hardware version for the VMs is 7, changed block tracking for incremental dont work.

Is there a way to change back to thin disks.

Thanks!

[Lesta_G]

Doing a migrate of a VM to another dastastore or cloning the VM (and then delete the old VM) gives you the option to thin provision

[zak2011]

Thanks Lesta,

I will try this out. However i got this some errors when i did a full image backup this time.

For a particular VM i got the error below

Unable to copy the virtual machine disk using the VMware VixDiskLib. VixDiskLib_Read() reported the error: One of the parameters supplied is invalidWARNING: "VMVCB::\\SERVER.company.LOCAL\VCGuestVm\(DC)Company (DC)\vm\WebhostX\WebhostX\Webhost X.vm...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

And for the other VMs i get an exception

V-79-57344-38730 - Backup Exec failed to authenticate with virtual machine '\(DC)company(DC)\vm\ADSR... V-79-8192-38331 - The backup has detected that both the VMware VSS Provider and the Symantec VSS Pro...

From the posts i have read regarding this error, once the RAWs agent is installed on the VM, it will automatically remove the Vmware VSS driver. Only if the VMware VSS drivers are updated through Vmware tools, both drivers remain. However the VMware tools have not been updated after the RAWS agent was installed.

Is there anything esle that is causing this?

Thanks