Netbackup Backup of VM

[ScottDavis]

 Issue:  Some VM's will backup (3) the rest are erroring out with error 156.

The following has not resolved the issue:

1) Reboot of backup

2) Reboot of VMWare Controller

3) Rescanned Disks on backup

4) Restarted VMOUNT2 Service on backup

5) Reinstalled backup framework

6) Created new job

Folowing tested on 2 boxes - not successful fixes

1) VMWare Tools update

2) Windwos Update

3) Verified vss installed

4) Reinstall VMWare Tools

5) Verify cache settings are correct (same as working boxes)

6) Restarted Workstations/Servers

Support Docs Reviewed:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/292765.htm

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/276739.htm

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/293910.htm

Running out of options:

1) Update NetBackup (Current 6.5.3)
         2) Update VMWare (Current 2.5.0)

[CRZ]

This one was very recently published:

NetBackup for VMware: VCB backup fails with Status 156: Snapshot creation failed: system error 
 http://support.veritas.com/docs/327507

It DOES give you an error to check for in the bpfis log, though.

Unfortunately, the resolution (reinstall VMware Tools) is on your list of "already tried" tasks.  The TechNote also says you might want to get VMware technical support involved if you're seeing the errors described and a reinstall doesn't fix it.

Good luck!

[ScottDavis]

 Thank you CRZ, I am reviewing that document more in depth trying to resolve this.

[Anonymous]

Are the failing VM's disks set to independent. And or Mapped Raw Luns. This will prevent snapshotting.?
If this isnt the case, can you snapshot the failing VM's using the VI Client.?
Is there enough space on the datastore to hold the delta files written to while the VM is in snapshot mode.?
In VI Client:
Does the VCB user/VMware Credentials have permissions to snapshot those failing VM's?
Look at the Events of each of the failing VM's vs those that work. You should see Disk Lease and Releases taking place.
Does the VCB proxy have access to the datastores the VM's are stored on?
Check your SAN zoning/presentation.
Can you run a successful test vcbmounter command from the VCB proxy against those failing VM's.
Reduce the number of Jobs in NetBackup for this policy.