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FlashBackup of VM Templates failing with status 156

MikeM11
Level 4

Hi,

I have a Windows 2008 NetBackup 7.1.0.3 environment with a FlashBackup policy protecting our VM estate.  We are performing an off-host backup with the SAN LUNs presented to the media server and the Clients are populated automatically via a query looking for a phrase in the annotation field.  All works well except that the VM Templates fail each day with Status 156, snapshot creation failed.

Does anyone have any idea why these would be failing as they are powered off and should just be backing up the vmdx files?

Thanks, Mike

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

As per my original post - they dont work over the SAN - plus other restrictions - from the Admin Guide:

VMware virtual machine templates are for cloning virtual machines: They
cannot be powered on and used as functioning VMs. As a result, VMware has
imposed the following restrictions on backup and restore of virtual machine
templates:
■ Avirtual machine template cannot be captured in a snapshot.ANetBackup
backup of the template skips the snapshot portion of the job and backs up
the template to the designated storage unit.
■ Block level incremental backup (BLIB) cannot be used when backing up a
virtual machine template.
■ A virtual machine template cannot be backed up over a SAN. You must
configure the NetBackup policy to use a local network transfer type, such
as nbd. Likewise, the restore of a template must be conducted over a local
network.

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

I believe that Templates can only be backed up over the network - you cannot use the SAN - you will need an extra policy for those

Tim_Hansen
Level 5
Certified

If I recall, the vStorage API calls attempt to take a snapshot of your templates, and since they are powered down, the snapshot attempt fails and the job errors out with a 156.

chack22
Level 4

I didn't check the actual fix, but the description fits.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH184533

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

As per my original post - they dont work over the SAN - plus other restrictions - from the Admin Guide:

VMware virtual machine templates are for cloning virtual machines: They
cannot be powered on and used as functioning VMs. As a result, VMware has
imposed the following restrictions on backup and restore of virtual machine
templates:
■ Avirtual machine template cannot be captured in a snapshot.ANetBackup
backup of the template skips the snapshot portion of the job and backs up
the template to the designated storage unit.
■ Block level incremental backup (BLIB) cannot be used when backing up a
virtual machine template.
■ A virtual machine template cannot be backed up over a SAN. You must
configure the NetBackup policy to use a local network transfer type, such
as nbd. Likewise, the restore of a template must be conducted over a local
network.

MikeM11
Level 4

Thanks for your assistance.  Here's hoping that another solution appears as we are doing Flashbackups over the SAN due to the sheer volume of machines and cannot afford the delay in not going over SAN.

Many thanks, Mike