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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 13.1.2 - User Guide

Introducing NetVault Plug-in for VMware Installing the plug-in Configuring the plug-in Defining a backup strategy Using the image-level backup method Using the file-level backup method Restoring image-level backups Restoring file-level backups Troubleshooting

Performing file-level backups

The following procedure describes how to back up files using the built-in Plug-in for FileSystem.

 
* 
NOTE: Due to a limitation in the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) 7.0, Plug‑in for VMware may not support browsing Resilient File System (ReFS) volumes on guest operating systems when the VMware proxy server uses Windows 2019.
To perform file-level backups
1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Backup Job to start the configuration wizard.
— or —
In the Navigation pane, click Guided Configuration, and then on the NetVault Configuration Wizard page, click Create Backup Jobs.
2
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job for monitoring its progress or restoring data. A job name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms.
3
In the Selections list, select an existing Backup Selection Set, or complete the following steps to create a set:
a
To open the NetVault Selections page, click .
b
Open the NetVault Client on which the plug-in is installed, and then open VMware Plugin.
c
Open the applicable VMware ESXi or VMware vCenter Server.
Depending on your inventory view type, do the following:
•
Hosts and Clusters Inventory View: To display the available virtual machines, open the Datacenter, Cluster, Resource Pool, and other nodes.
•
VMs and Templates View: To display the available virtual machines, open the Datacenter and folder nodes.
d
Click the target virtual machine, and select Mount from the context menu.
The plug-in tries to obtain a snapshot of the virtual drive files and mount it on the NetVault Client. Depending on the file size of the virtual machine disk files, the mount operation can take a few minutes to complete. When the snapshot is mounted successfully, the following changes occur:
•
A folder is created in the Working Directory (set in the Configure dialog box). This folder is assigned the same name as the selected virtual machine.
•
A Drives node is added to the selections tree. This node is displayed under selected virtual machine.
 
* 
NOTE: If the boot disk is not the first disk among the disks attached to a virtual machine when they are arranged in the controller:device order (that is, ide0:0, ide0:1, scsi0:0, scsi0:1, and so on), the mounting operation might fail for the virtual machine.
e
To display the available drives, open the Drives node.
f
Select the drives, or open the nodes further to display the directory tree, and select the files and directories that you want to back up.
 
* 
IMPORTANT: After mounting a virtual machine, if you select the virtual machine node, the job fails. To include all drives in a job, you must select each drive individually.
g
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set.
A set name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.
h
To close the dialog box, click Save.
4
In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or complete the following steps to create a set:
 
* 
IMPORTANT: On Windows, when you create a Backup Options Set for file-level backups, you must use the default set “Default Backup Options for 'File System' — VMware Plugin - Windows” as the template. If you use any other set as the template, the backup may fail.
a
To open the File System Plugin Backup Options page, click .
b
Configure the following settings:
 
Option
Description

Backup Type

Select the applicable option from the following:

•
Full
•
Incremental
•
Differential

For more information about file-level backup types, see File-level backups.

Create Dump Type Backup

To create Dump Type Incremental or Differential Backups, select this check box. With these backups, you can only restore those files that were backed up in a particular Incremental or Differential Backup.

Check For Files Being Modified During Backup

To mark the files that are being modified during a backup as “in flux,” leave this check box selected. During restore, these files are not restored by default. To restore these files, you must set the option Restore Files Modified During Backup on the Restore Options Set.

If you do not want to check for files that are being updated during backup, clear this check box.

Enable Restartable Backup

To add the ability to stop a job and resume it later from that point, select this check box.

When you stop the job, the plug-in generates an index for all items that have been processed up to that point and writes the index to the backup media and NetVault Database. When you restart the job later, the plug-in runs an Incremental Backup job to back up the remaining files and folders.

You can stop and resume a job from the Job Status page. For more information, see the Quest NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem User’s Guide.

Path to Backup Log

To generate a backup log file, type the filename. The log provides a list of files that are selected for the backup. The files that are backed up successfully are marked with an “o” and the others are marked with an “x.” You can use this option with an Incremental Backup to determine which new or changed files have been backed up. If you specify an existing filename, the plug-in overwrites the file. The log file is created in CSV file format, and includes details such as file size, date modified, and file type.

c
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set.
A set name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.
d
To close the dialog box, click Save.
5
Select or create the Schedule Set, Target Set, and Advanced Options Set.
For more information about these sets, see the Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.
6
To submit the job for scheduling, click Save & Submit.
To save the job definition without scheduling it, click Save. You can view, edit, or run this job from the Manage Job Definitions page. This job is not displayed on the Job Status page until you submit it.
You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page.
For more information about Job Status, View Logs, and Manage Job Definitions, see the Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.

Performing file-level continuous backups

The following procedure describes how to back up files continuously using the built-in Plug-in for FileSystem.

 
* 
NOTE: Due to a limitation in the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) 7.0, Plug‑in for VMware may not support browsing Resilient File System (ReFS) volumes on guest operating systems when the VMware proxy server uses Windows 2019.
To perform file-level backups
1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Continuous Backup Job to start the configuration wizard.
2
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job for monitoring its progress or restoring data. A job name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms.
3
In the Selections list, select an existing Backup Selection Set, or complete the following steps to create a set:
a
To open the NetVault Selections page, click .
b
Open the NetVault Client on which the plug-in is installed, and then open VMware Plugin.
c
Open the applicable VMware ESXi or VMware vCenter Server.
Depending on your inventory view type, do the following:
•
Hosts and Clusters Inventory View: To display the available virtual machines, open the Datacenter, Cluster, Resource Pool, and other nodes.
•
VMs and Templates View: To display the available virtual machines, open the Datacenter and folder nodes.
d
Click the target virtual machine, and select Mount from the context menu.
The plug-in tries to obtain a snapshot of the virtual drive files and mount it on the NetVault Client. Depending on the file size of the virtual machine disk files, the mount operation can take a few minutes to complete. When the snapshot is mounted successfully, the following changes occur:
•
A folder is created in the Working Directory (set in the Configure dialog box). This folder is assigned the same name as the selected virtual machine.
•
A Drives node is added to the selections tree. This node is displayed under selected virtual machine.
 
* 
NOTE: If the boot disk is not the first disk among the disks attached to a virtual machine when they are arranged in the controller:device order (that is, ide0:0, ide0:1, scsi0:0, scsi0:1, and so on), the mounting operation might fail for the virtual machine.
e
To display the available drives, open the Drives node.
f
Select the drives, or open the nodes further to display the directory tree, and select the files and directories that you want to back up.
 
* 
IMPORTANT: After mounting a virtual machine, if you select the virtual machine node, the job fails. To include all drives in a job, you must select each drive individually.
g
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set.
A set name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.
h
To close the dialog box, click Save.
4
In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or complete the following steps to create a set:
 
* 
IMPORTANT: On Windows, when you create a Backup Options Set for file-level backups, you must use the default set “Default Backup Options for 'File System' — VMware Plugin - Windows” as the template. If you use any other set as the template, the backup may fail.
a
To open the File System Plugin Backup Options page, click .
b
Configure the following settings:
 
Option
Description

Create Dump Type Backup

To create Dump Type Incremental or Differential Backups, select this check box. With these backups, you can only restore those files that were backed up in a particular Incremental or Differential Backup.

Check For Files Being Modified During Backup

To mark the files that are being modified during a backup as “in flux,” leave this check box selected. During restore, these files are not restored by default. To restore these files, you must set the option Restore Files Modified During Backup on the Restore Options Set.

If you do not want to check for files that are being updated during backup, clear this check box.

Enable Restartable Backup

To add the ability to stop a job and resume it later from that point, select this check box.

When you stop the job, the plug-in generates an index for all items that have been processed up to that point and writes the index to the backup media and NetVault Database. When you restart the job later, the plug-in runs an Incremental Backup job to back up the remaining files and folders.

You can stop and resume a job from the Job Status page. For more information, see the Quest NetVault Plug-in for FileSystem User’s Guide.

Path to Backup Log

To generate a backup log file, type the filename. The log provides a list of files that are selected for the backup. The files that are backed up successfully are marked with an “o” and the others are marked with an “x.” You can use this option with an Incremental Backup to determine which new or changed files have been backed up. If you specify an existing filename, the plug-in overwrites the file. The log file is created in CSV file format, and includes details such as file size, date modified, and file type.

c
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set.
A set name can contain alphanumeric and nonalphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.
d
To close the dialog box, click Save.
5
Select or create the Schedule Set, Target Set, and Advanced Options Set.
For more information about these sets, see the Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.
6
To submit the job for scheduling, click Save & Submit.
To save the job definition without scheduling it, click Save. You can view, edit, or run this job from the Manage Job Definitions page. This job is not displayed on the Job Status page until you submit it.
You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page.
For more information about Job Status, View Logs, and Manage Job Definitions, see the Quest NetVault Administrator’s Guide.

Backup selection tree icons

Use the following table as a reference to determine the meaning of each icon the plug-in shows in the backup selection tree.

 
Table 8. Backup selections tree icons
Icon
Description

vCenter Server

Datacenter Server

ESXi Server Cluster

Closed folder

Open folder

ESXi Server

ESXi Server in maintenance mode

Inaccessible ESXi Server

Virtual Appliance (vApp)

Resource pool

Virtual machine (turned on)

Inaccessible virtual machine

Mounted virtual machine

Suspended virtual machine

Turned off virtual machine

Virtual machine (turned on, CBT enabled)

Inaccessible virtual machine (CBT enabled)

Mounted virtual machine (CBT enabled)

Suspended virtual machine (CBT enabled)

Turned off virtual machine (CBT enabled)

Primary virtual machine (turned on) in a Fault Tolerant group

Inaccessible primary virtual machine

Suspended primary virtual machine

Turned off primary virtual machine

Secondary virtual machine in a Fault Tolerant group

Inaccessible secondary virtual machine

Suspended secondary virtual machine

Turned off secondary virtual machine

Removing the snapshot and mount folder manually

When you mount a virtual machine for file-level backup or browse operation, the following events occur:

•
The plug-in creates a snapshot named “BKB_SNAP” on the virtual machine.
•
The plug-in creates a mount folder for the virtual machine in the Working Directory. This folder is assigned the same name as the virtual machine.

When you unmount the virtual machine, the cleanup process automatically removes the mount folder and snapshot. In a normal scenario, do not remove them manually.

If the plug-in fails to remove the mount folder or snapshot for any reason, a subsequent mount operation for the same virtual machine fails and the error message “A stale mount was found” is displayed. For example, if the plug-in exits unexpectedly after mounting a virtual machine, the snapshot and mount folder are not removed. In this scenario, you must manually remove them. You must also complete these steps if a snapshot is deleted manually while a virtual machine is still mounted.

To remove the snapshot and mount folder manually
1
If the Working Directory contains the mount folder for the virtual machine, remove it.
2
If you were using an advanced transport mode, such as san or hotadd, navigate to the <system_drive>/windows/temp/vmware-system directory.
3
If this directory contains any directory named <VM_UUID>-<VMmoref>, delete it.
Here <VM_UUID> is the universally unique identifier (UUID) of the mounted virtual machine and VM_moref is an internal reference that the ESXi or vCenter Server uses to see the virtual machine. To delete this folder, you may be required to set necessary permissions for the folder.
4
If you were using the hotadd transport mode, remove any disks of the target virtual machine — the virtual machine mounted for a backup — that were hotadded to the NetVault Client Virtual Machine — the virtual machine where the Plug‑in for VMware is running.
You can remove the disks from the vSphere Client for the virtual machine where the plug-in or NetVault Client is running.
5
Go to the Snapshot Manager in vSphere Client, and remove the snapshot named BKB_SNAP, if it still exists.
Wait for a few minutes (approximately 2 to 3 minutes) to allow any memory cache to be cleared before performing this step.
If the virtual machine is turned on, an error message — “Unable to access file <unspecified filename> since it is locked” — might display when you try to delete the snapshot, but the snapshot may thereafter disappear from the Snapshot Manager window. If a “Consolidate Helper-0” snapshot is displayed after you remove the snapshot, turn off the virtual machine.
After removing the snapshot BKB_SNAP, VMware recommends that you create and delete a snapshot. You can create and delete snapshots from the Snapshot Manager window in vSphere Client. The server tries to consolidate the redo logs during this operation, and therefore, it may take a few minutes to complete. Delete the Consolidate Helper snapshot, if it exists.
6
If some unwanted redo logs are still present on the datastore, perform Step 5 again.
7
Wait for a few minutes — approximately 2 to 3 minutes — to allow any memory cache to be cleared before performing this step.

 

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