VMware and NBU

[Douglas_A]

Looking for tips and tricks to Configuring and backing up Windows and Linux Guests. And If and how to restore linux guests at file level with NBU/VCB

[Varun_nath]

Douglas,

How many VMs are you looking to backup?

[Karthikeyan_Sun]

 http://viops.vmware.com/home/servlet/JiveServlet/download/1125-3-1131/Configuring%20NetBackup%20651%20with%20VCB.pdf;jsessionid=66F71DB6365818F529710CF4C60E769C

http://virtualmachine.searchvmware.com/document;97092/vm-research.htm

[richs24]

be careful about how many vm images you backup at any one time with vcb.  Dont forget, that it will present each image to the proxy server, and you dont want to cause a bottleneck. 

Once you have this configured and working, it is a very neat solution.  (although, there are probably milliions out there who hate it!!)

[schmaustech · Accepted solution]

Symantec recommends 4 concurrent VM's per proxy host.  Environments may vary, but since we are using the nbd (network) option for backing up VM's, we found that 4 was the sweet spot.

-On restores make sure that the VC/ESX user has enough privileges to restore the VM.  I have seen where the user only has enough rights to read and when it comes time to restore, it will fail.  Further, for Windows file restores, make sure the Netbackup Client Service on the proxy server is running as a user that has Domain Admin rights.  That way when you do a file restore for a Windows VM, it can restore it directly to the hidden drive shares on the VM.  If you run the client service as LocalSystem, then the restore will only restore to the MNT directory on the proxy server and you will have to manually copy to the VM.

-Make sure you have VMWare tools installed on your hosts. If not, they will not appear in your client browse list in the policy configuration.

-Make sure your VM's have proper forward and reverse DNS.  If not, they will not show correctly in your client browse list in the policy configuration.

-Linux/Unix only supports full VMDK backups at this time.  Incrementals are suppose to be supported in 6.5.4 (so they say).

-Dynamic disks in Windows VM 's will not work if they are the system disk.

Regards,

Benjamin Schmaus