Date: MAY 2011
Product & Version: VMware plugin 2.1
OS Version: all
Application version: Vsphere4
Symptoms:
When restoring VMware backup using the restore to files option the vmx file is not restored.
Unable to use the VMware converter on the files restore because the vmx file is not there
Look at the backup log of the job that the restore comes from and we see the following:
From binary log:
Job Message 2011/04/04 00:31:10 1382 Data Plugin LDNNETVAULT1 Backing up .vmx file to media
Information 2011/04/04 00:31:11 1382 Data Plugin LDNNETVAULT1 Optional vmx file could not be fetched
Binary subtext:
Module/Thread Id Code Time Message
VMWBCKUP:05836 103 0 233110 Added index entry for 'VirtualMachineConfigInfo' of nodetype '1108014' from 34104 to 51241
VMWBCKUP:05836 182 0 233110 Fetch from server and backup file
VMWBCKUP:05836 183 0 233110 File name is '[ldnbgmsa01:vmstore1] KITDEVSQL1/KITDEVSQL1.vmx'
VMWGET :05836 3 0 233111 Considering zero bytes received as an error
VMWBCKUP:05836 122 0 233111 Failed to fetch VM file 'KITDEVSQL1.vmx'
Cause:
At times when backing up the vmx file is locked a ESX server and the VMware backup APM that is used to by netvault to backup the VMware systems is unable to open the file for backup.
1/ If the VM is still present on the Vsphere installation, browse to the VM systems location on the data store using Vshpere client and download the vmx file to the directory of the Files restore.
2a/ If the VM is not present on the Vsphere installation, create a new VMware system with the same machine name as the system you have restored to files, giving the correct operating system, the same hardware configuration but do not install the operating system. This will create a VMX file that can be modified and used by the VMware converter.
2b/ browse to the VM systems location on the data store using Vsphere client and download the vmx file to the directory of the Files restore.
2c/ Edit the vmx file so that the disk vmdk file names in the vmx file match the disk vmdk file names in the directory of the files restore.
Example:
An example of the files generated from Virtual Machine Files Only Restore of
A VADP backup of a machine that did not have any existing snap shots is given below:
MyVirtualMachine.vmx
scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine.vmdk
scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine-s001.vmdk
VirtualMachineConfigInfo
Open the .vmx file.
Modify the relevant entries for the virtual disk(s).
For example, modify the following entry
scsi0:0.fileName = "MyVirtualMachine-000001.vmdk"
So that it matches the .vmdk file generated during the restore
scsi0:0.fileName = "scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine.vmdk"
Note: the directory may contain multiple entries for the one disk as seen below the filename required will be in "scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine.vmdk" because this file links all the vmdk files together when the VMware converter build the disks.
03/05/2011 11:53 2,032,992,256 scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine-s001.vmdk
03/05/2011 11:53 2,013,855,744 scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine-s002.vmdk
03/05/2011 11:49 1,481 scsi0-0-MyVirtualMachine.vmdk
03/05/2011 11:54 2,028,601,344 scsi0-1-MyVirtualMachine_1-s001.vmdk
03/05/2011 11:54 2,124,677,120 scsi0-1-MyVirtualMachine_1-s002.vmdk
03/05/2011 11:53 758 scsi0-1-MyVirtualMachine_1.vmdk
