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Need clarification on VM agent and VCB Framework

DillonConsultin
Level 3
I have a BE12.5 SP3 running with VMWare's VCB. Running the vcbMounter program with the appropriate switches I am able to backup one of the Virtual machines to disk on my SAN. I am attempting to setup a backup job using BE12.5 using the VMWare agent. When I run the job it fails indicating I need to add in the -m nbd switches, which I do when I run it manually from a DOS prompt. How does one add these switches into BE? I am using the pre-backup and post-backup batch files as suggested. I am new to all of this so any assistance would be appreciated. I am somewhat unclear on the process.

D
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

teiva-boy
Level 6
Since this is SAN based..  You need to do the following first..  Now this is off the top of my head, so I may be missing something.

1.  go to diskpart and type disable automount
This will turn off that feature when Windows sees a new HDD and wants to write a disk signature to it.

2.  Share the SAN LUN with your VMFS to be also visible by your WIndows host that has VCB installed.

3.  Verify that BE can see in disk amanger an "unknown volume."  This is normal, as WIndows cant natively read VMFS.  

From there, try again.  When I do the above on most installations, it just works for me.  This on iSCSI and FC SAN's.  With only VCB installed on the media server, running Win2k3 SP2

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5 REPLIES 5

teiva-boy
Level 6
 If you are really using the Agent for Vmware Virtual Machines, an add-on for BE 12.5, you do NOT need any scripts or pre/post commands.

The beauty to the agent is that is eliminates all the scripting needed to leverage VCB.  It's all managed through the GUI in BE.  You choose SAN/NBD/NBDSSL through the job setup window.


DillonConsultin
Level 3
If this is the case, when I select the VM to backup, and start the job I get the following error.

Media Label: IMG000026
GRT backup set folder: E:\BackupToDisk\Backup-to-Disk Folder 1\IMG000026
VMware vcbMounter job started to export virtual machine 'DCLVMCANON'. Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 8:22:13 AM
VMware vcbMounter job to export virtual machine 'DCLVMCANON' failed to execute or complete. Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 8:22:32 AM
V-79-57344-38220 - Backup of the virtual machine 'DCLVMCANON' failed. VMware VCB framework reported the following er...

teiva-boy
Level 6
Since this is SAN based..  You need to do the following first..  Now this is off the top of my head, so I may be missing something.

1.  go to diskpart and type disable automount
This will turn off that feature when Windows sees a new HDD and wants to write a disk signature to it.

2.  Share the SAN LUN with your VMFS to be also visible by your WIndows host that has VCB installed.

3.  Verify that BE can see in disk amanger an "unknown volume."  This is normal, as WIndows cant natively read VMFS.  

From there, try again.  When I do the above on most installations, it just works for me.  This on iSCSI and FC SAN's.  With only VCB installed on the media server, running Win2k3 SP2

DillonConsultin
Level 3
Ah....you nailed it. I never thought about presenting the LUN's to the media server, I assumed since the agent could see the ESX Hosts and VM's I was fine. I did what you suggested, disabled the automount, added the LUN's to the iSCSI initiator and the server to the LeftHand SAN and it works great. I am doing backup to disk for now just to get the process down before we do a final design. I am to assume though that the VCB is still required at least to be installed and configured on the media server.

Thanks so much,
D

teiva-boy
Level 6
 To your last question, yes VCB on the media server for easiest install.  But you can move it to it's own box for more performance at a later date.  Or just move to vSphere4 to get rid of VCB. ;)