NetVault Plug-in for VMware 12.3.1 - User Guide

SAN transport reports errors when multiple backups access the same datastore

A Linux-based client may fail to read the contents of a virtual drive using the SAN transport mode if multiple backup processes are accessing the same datastore.

During a backup using the SAN transport mode, the following errors are reported:

San transport error: I/O Operation failed.

Error: One of the parameters supplied is invalid.

These errors are caused by a fault in the Linux kernel when handling SCSI reservation conflicts.

The errors are encountered on the following systems:

To correct this issue, upgrade to kernel version 2.6.32-220 or later on RHEL and kernel version 3.0.13 or later on SLES.

Default SCSI controller type on RHEL 7 and RHEL 6

When you create a virtual machine with RHEL 7 or RHEL 6 as the Guest OS, the SCSI controller type is set to VMware Paravirtual by default. The HotAdd transport mode does not work if either the backup proxy or the backup target uses Paravirtual SCSI controller.

N/A

To use HotAdd transport mode, set the SCSI controller type to LSI Logic Parallel or LSI Logic SAS when you create the virtual machine. For more information about configuring this setting, see the relevant VMware documentation.

Quest does not recommend changing the SCSI controller type for an existing virtual machine without testing to ensure that it operates normally with the new controller type.

File-level backups do not back up data for a reparse point

The file-level backup method does not back up data through a reparse point.

When a disk mounted as a reparse point on a Guest OS is included in a file-level backup, the backup completes without any errors or warnings. However, the plug-in does not back up any data for a reparse point. It is listed as an empty node on the Create Selection Set page.

The VMware API does not support this type of backup.

Workaround:

Restore job fails when using SAN transport

Restore job fails.

A restore job fails with the following error:

Log Message:

Failed to restore VM disk data.

Log Context:

Failed to open vmdk VDDK error encountered: code 13

Retrieving error message text VDDK error message is ‘You do not have access rights to this file’

Disk data restore failed for ‘[datastore]VirtualMachineName/ VitrualDiskName.vmdk’

The NetVault Backup Client running the Plug‑in for VMware may not have access to the SAN. To verify, try using the NBD transport mode. If restore completes successfully with this mode, it indicates SAN connectivity issues.

To use the SAN transport mode, the NetVault Backup Client must have SAN connectivity to the VMFS LUN. Ensure that the LUN is accessible and the SAN is configured correctly.