VCB backups 6.5.5 - What is vmmono?

[MattS]

Either I'm not capable of searching the internet today or no information exists anywhere public on this option (see screen shot) i now see after upgrading to NetBackup 6.5.5:



Anyone know what it is?  I've searched the support site, these forums, google and vmware's site... nothing!

Thanks,
Matt

[stu52]

I ran across this while I was working with a problem doing a restore of a virtual system.  Apparently there are different ways to save a vmdk file one is the monolithic (single) vmdk file and the other is a set of 2GB sized sparse files. 

The files are created during the snapshot phase of the VM backup & are only there until the snapshot has been backed up.  Once that happens NetBackup will remove these files.

When I tried using it (version 6.5.3), for some reason it would not restore properly.   We got successful completions of both the backup and the restore, but when the VMware tools were used to restore the VM it failed.  Maybe this has been fixed in 6.5.5.

I would recommend testing it all the way to a restore of a VM. 

[Anonymous]

See my forum post for more information and why you might choose to modify monolithic option if vmdk  is over 50GB
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/vmware-backups-are-too-slow#comment-3022161

[MattS]

So if i'm understanding this correctly 6.5.5's default setting is to NOT use monolithic files (setting 0).  6.5.4 used monothic files by default  and needed an EEB to do the 2GB chunks. 

setting 0 = 2GB chunks
setting 1 = Monolithic

That right?


I only have the 6.5.5 patch applied to my master server and cannot patch the vcb proxy yet because of EEB testing for an exchange granular backup issue.  With that said, would this setting have any affect by not having the media server on the same patch level?

I looked at last nights backups and i only see monolithic vmdk files for this particular server.  Would i even see the 2GB chunks from this console view?



Thanks for the responses!
Matt

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I can tell you that the proxy will most likely need updating to 6.5.5. As the 6.5.4 EEB consisted of two files - one for the master and one for the proxy. So I assume if you are on 6.5.5 on the master that file will be up to date.
You will need to update the proxy as it was a binary file that needed updated there.