Linux VMware server backups

[hgraylin]

I've been experimenting with backing up some of our Linux servers using the VMware backup options in Netbackup. As a rule, we've always used the NBU client on Linux servers. The test backups seem to be working fine, but I've noticed something strange when trying to do a restore. I can't see any files to restore that reside on a separate file system. For example, our linux servers have a separate file system called /usr/local/apps. This allows our developers to put anything they want in there without filling up the root file system.

When I attempt the restore, the Policy type is set to VMware and the Restore type is set to Normal Backups. When I traverse the Directory Structure, there are no files listed under /usr/local/apps. When I change the Restore type to Virtual Machine Backups, I can see that both vmdk files were backed up so I know the data is there.  I've tried this with the server powered on and powered off.

Am I missing a setting somewhere that will allow me to see the /usr/local/apps file system so I can do a file level restore?

Any help would be appreciated.

[sdo]

Is this extra file system an NFS import?

[hgraylin]

No, it's a locally attached file system. We use Veritas Storage foundation to create the disk group and volume, format the vmdk file and to set the mount point.

Here's the entry from the fstab file: /dev/vx/dsk/appsdg/apps-v  /usr/local/csapps vxfs _netdev,suid 0 0

[RamNagalla · Accepted solution]

 /usr/local/apps is using the VXFS and it is not support for single file & Direcotry restore in VMware policy type yet..

please check page number 21 from the Netbcakup 7.X support guide from below link for more details

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000006177

if you looking to recovery files from VXFS , below are the options you have

1) backup as normmal agent method using standard policy type

2) backup as Snaphost and follow below steps

1.       Backup one VM(Vm1) with VMware policy
2.       Restore the Full VM with Different name (Vm1_Restore)
3.       Find the VMDK of the Vm1 having the VXFS file system
4.       Attached the VMDK to Vm2
5.       Scan the Vm2, and mount the VXFS,
6.       Look for the files in VXFS and copy them to Vm1
7.       Remove VMDK from Vm2
8.       Delete VM1_Restore from Vcenter.

[hgraylin]

Thanks very much for the link to the article and the suggested backup/restore steps. Looks like we'll stick with agent-based backups for now.