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VMware differential backups

Gonzouk
Level 4

Hello,

We are now using the VMware Infrastructure agent to do full backups of our VM guest servers. Problem is we would like to do full backups at the weekend and differential Mon-Fri, but the differential option isn't available, what can we do?

Thanks

6 REPLIES 6

AmolB
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Refer to  http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO23043

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

the differential option isn't available

Why not?  If you are facing this problem,

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/issue/when-using-backup-exec-avvi-differentials-or-increment...

a fix is available.

Sush---
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

What is the version of Backup Exec?? I guess that VMWare Differential backup using Vmware agent (AVVI) is only possible from Backup Exec 2010 and above.

Backup Exec 12.5 does not have the feature of Differential backups of Vmware.

 

Thanks,

-Sush...

Gonzouk
Level 4

Sorry, we are using 2010 R2 SP1.

Looks like I have to create a policy, but I get confused towards the end as I have to put 2 templates within this 1 policy.  1 template has to have the VMware options set to Full and the other Differential.

1.) Do I have to set the "General > Backup method for files" setting on the left of the menu to Full - using archive bit and for the Full template and Differential for the Differential template?

2.) On each template I have to schedule the time, why?  Am I create the actual backup job here against a VM server or do I assign this template to a list of servers?  Thing is I need to run this backups at different times.

 

Thanks

Sush---
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

1.) Do I have to set the "General > Backup method for files" setting on the left of the menu to Full - using archive bit and for the Full template and Differential for the Differential template?

This option is appplicable only for Files and Folder backups and not for the backups of VMDK files using the AVVI option. So if you are selecting any files and folders in the selection list then only you select this option or else you can ignore it as leave it as default.

 

2.) On each template I have to schedule the time, why?  Am I create the actual backup job here against a VM server or do I assign this template to a list of servers?  Thing is I need to run this backups at different times.

 

Yes you will have to schedule the time in each template. In the first template which is the Full backup template you can select the Days of week as any one day on which you want to perform the Full backup. And in the second template select the remaining days of the week which will run your Differential backups.

Then you can create a selection list and select all the VMs which are required to be backed up using the AVVI option. Assign this selection list to the policy and it will create the jobs as per the number of templates in the Policy.

 

Thanks,

-Sush...

Gonzouk
Level 4

1.) So if I create the Full for Saturday to Sunday from 0:00 to 23:59 and the differential for Monday to Friday again with the same times this should be ok?

2.) Does this mean the backups will only start in these times, how can I then tell BE to do a full backup of a single VM at a certain time over the weekend and the differential at a certain time midweek as I want the backups to start at different times for different VMs.

3.) when creating a template I have to select a VM to backup how do I add another VM to backup using this template?

4.) I guess to recover from a virtual server failure I will have to just run the full the the diff over the top? Thanks