VCB Will Not Work !!!!! Try'd Everything

[Lunatic]

Hi All
I am trying to get VCB working with 6.5.1
I have try'd all of the advice I can find on this.
I used the doc number 289771 to set it up but I still get :-

Failed to get VM server Info List

I am running Windows 2003 X64 as my backup master and proxy server.
I am Running Windows 2003 X86 as my Virtual Center Server
I have ESX 3.5 Servers
I am using ISCSI to connect to the Netapps 3020 Filer and both the Proxy server and Virtual Center Server are in the same Initiator group and can see the same Luns.
I have VMWare VCB 64559 installed on both Windows machines.
I have increased the GUI Timeout to 300 on the Master/Proxy server

How can I get better logs of whats going on with this and how can i fix it.
I remember seeing in one of the logs a statement like "Cant Find VCB Directory" but I cant find the log again now.

Please help as this is driving me nuts.

Thanks

[Andy_Welburn]

There have been several posts on this forum regarding this - it's something that we were also having issues with, see:

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=21&message.id=39250#M39250

& our issues were sorted allowing successful VM backups. Unfortunately I'm a little rusty on this now as the eval licence we were using expired a while ago, but hope this helps anyway.

Best regards, Andy.

[Lunatic]

Hi Andy

Thanks for the link.
Yours was actually one of the topics I followed as part of this whole fault finding saga.
You mention adding your server name into bp.conf.
I cant find a BP.Conf file on my server.
Did you create this??
I seem to remember creating a few .conf files by hand in older versions but I cant remember where or the syntax.

Thanks

[Andy_Welburn]

Sorry, wasn't looking - I was thinking of our scenario which is with a UNIX master server (/usr/openv/netbackup/bp.conf) unfortunately I'm not sure if there is an equivalent config file on a Windows Master Server.

Anyway, the bp.conf file contains Master Server properties, some of which can be updated via Host Properties on the GUI. Having just checked ours I think the entry I added would be the equivalent of adding the Proxy server to the list of 'Additional Servers (Servers that can access the currently selected host)' via the Master Server Host Properties on the GUI.

I did also find that there were several entries in our bp.conf relating to our Proxy server:
i.e.:
SERVER=<VMPROXYHOSTNAME> (this is what can be added via the GUI)
VM_PROXY_SERVER=<VMPROXYHOSTNAME> (don't remember how this got here - said I was rusty!)
MEDIA_SERVER=<VMPROXYHOSTNAME> (again can be added via GUI - we had SSO tape drives & disk staging 'attached').

Sorry if I got your hopes up, but I'm sure the answer is out there somewhere.

Best regards, Andy

[Andy_Welburn]

---

@Andy Welburn wrote:
Sorry, wasn't looking - I was thinking of our scenario which is with a UNIX master server (/usr/openv/netbackup/bp.conf) unfortunately I'm not sure if there is an equivalent config file on a Windows Master Server.

---

Apparently the bp.conf settings on Windows are stored in the Registry.

[Lunatic]

All I can find relating to this is the following in the bpVMutil Folder log

13:20:58.186 [1432.4080] <2> logparams: E:\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\bpVMutil.exe 0 0 _NONE_
13:20:58.186 [1432.4080] <2> Unable to find VCB directory, exiting: bpVMutil

This happens everytime I attempt to browse for VM instances.

I cant seem to find any information on this problem other than the same 2 suggestions of increasing timeout on the GUI and upgrading to 6.5.1 which I have done both.

Can anyone else shed some light on this ???

[ahlip]

Hi Lunatic,

When I encountered similar problems when browsing, the problem I discovered was that hostname resolution for the VMs were missing.

- The guest VMs need to have IPaddress and VMTools installed so that the ESX/VC can recognise the IP address of a guest VM (check the VI gui).

- This IP address needs to be resolvable to a hostname label by the Proxy server and possibly the Master.

- Without these in place, I wont be able to browse as IP addresses are the unique identifier of guest VMs in this framework.

Hope this may help.

[Lunatic]

WOW
I really hope your wrong about that !!!

I have an ESX farm of 10 and they host about 300 VMs between them.
As far as I was aware the Proxy only needed to be able to see the backend IE the Hosts not the VMs.
If this is the case then VCB is not going to work for me!!

[jm1704]

Hello,
I installed twice but not easy,
first step on master install the virtual machine by remote admin
after go in master properties and configure to have VCB Proxy and restart the master with bp.kill_all and restart
on VCB site you have to configure a file where you have to add the login and password to access the Virtual Machine and add the file where all snapshot are created
sample c:\\mnt
on master create a policy and use flashbackup windows + snapshot (don't forget may be a licence enterprise client )
when you click to have snapshot on right botton you have VCB Proxy and if you go in he will give you the VCB host
after you click up on snapshot client and you have to do 2 choices the kind of backup full, file and the directory c:\\mnt
Close and you have to select client
in client put the name of the VM and click the empty case to search for ESX server.
And after do some test
First time not easy

[ahlip]

Hi Lunatic,

You misunderstood my experience. The Proxy does not need to have network connectivity to every VM. Just that it needs to be able to resolve (hosts file or DNS reverse lookup). This is because it seems that when it browses the VM client list, it talks to the ESX/VC to obtain a list of IP identifiers of the VMs available and then tries to resolve it to a hostname label.

When I did not have a windows hosts file with the VM IP address & hostname label, then I get an error while browsing. I put in the hosts file entries, browsing now ok.

Note that my Proxy cannot ping any of the VMs via IP, they are in different network.

[Lunatic]

Hi
Sorry its taken so long to get back to this but a few problems arose while I looked into this.
I am still in the same position as I was before.
I have added a couple of reverse lookups for some clients but still no joy ?
I have also logged a call but its a different time zone so half my day is wasted while I wait for support!!!!
Stupid system and rubbish customer care.

[sandfox]

I have an identical problem.  Trawled through the documentation with a fine tooth comb.  Tried many different things to get this working.  Installed NB_6.5.1A.winnt.x64_296216 for the sake of it.  Will be interested to know if Lunatic, you get a result from the support call.

[sandfox]

The answer to resolving the error:

09:28:25.586 [6768.6536] <2> logparams: D:\system\veritas\NetBackup\bin\bpVMutil.exe 0 0 _NONE_
09:28:25.586 [6768.6536] <2> Unable to find VCB directory, exiting: bpVMutil

found in bpVMUtil log dir, appears to be this:

I'm also using a x64 box as my 6.5.1 media / vcb server.

To resolve this issue, the install dir for VCB needs to be "C:\Program Files\VMWare\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework"

VCB install defaults to install location "c:\Program Files (x86)\VMWare\VMWare Consolidated Backup Framework", even if you specify "C:\Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Consolidated Backup Framework".  It is necessary to, post install, move the directory and all sub-dirs "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMWare\" to "C:\Program Files\VMWare"  Haven't had to update any registry settings yet and haven't worked out if I need to do the same with VMWare Converter yet.

Hope this is of help.

[BeezSK]

Thanks very much, after moving that directory I can now browse my Virtual Center server