vRanger 7.8 - User Guide

Performing vRanger sweep-to-tape using Quest NetVault Backup

Sweeping vRanger backups to tape using NetVault Backup lets you combine the vRanger high-speed backup and recovery capabilities with the NetVault Backup inexpensive, long-term offsite-storage technology.

To configure the vRanger sweep-to-tape feature, both vRanger and NetVault Backup must point to a common vRanger repository folder located locally on the vRanger server.

The vRanger backup administrator creates an on-demand (not scheduled), incremental job with a specific name, appending -Tape as a case-sensitive suffix — for example, any-jobname-Tape. The -Tape suffix can be changed by editing the Windows PowerShell® script if you prefer something else. There should be a dedicated repository for each on-demand job.

The tape backup software administrator schedules a recurring incremental backup job whose PRE field calls a .cmd file containing the PowerShell script that searches for and then starts the vRanger on-demand jobs with the -Tape suffix.

The vRanger on-demand job performs the incremental backup, placing the savepoint files in the repository and updating the repository’s global manifest file.

After the vRanger job completes — for example, the job status equals either success or failure — the PowerShell script exits, thus completing the PRE command.

With the PRE command of the tape backup software completed, the tape backup software, which is also pointing to the vRanger repository folder, runs its scheduled incremental job, backing up the vRanger savepoints and global manifest file to tape.

To perform vRanger sweep-to-tape using NetVault Backup, complete the following tasks:

•	Ensuring that system requirements are met

•	Checking the list of prerequisites

•	Preparing the systems

•	Preparing for vRanger sweep-to-tape using NetVault Backup

•	Performing backup operations

•	Performing restore operations

Ensuring that system requirements are met

For vRanger:

•	vRanger on Windows Server® 2008, 2008 R2, or 2012.

•	Virtual or physical machines protected by vRanger.

For NetVault Backup:

•	A properly configured NetVault Backup Server.

•	Single Stand-Alone External Tape Drive or a Single Internal Tape Drive in a Library. For example, Quest PowerVault LTO standalone and library-based tape devices are ideal for this solution.

•	Windows Server 2008, 2008R2, or 2012.

Checking the list of prerequisites

This document assumes that both vRanger and NetVault Backup have been installed and configured, and does not cover the installation or the configuration of these applications. For guidance on proper installation and configuration of the items identified in the following list, see the applicable documentation for NetVault Backup and vRanger.

•	vRanger installed and properly configured.

•	Location to store the vRanger repository, accessible by both vRanger and NetVault Backup.

•	NetVault Backup installed and properly configured with a tape device or library.

•	Blank tapes with enough storage to contain the vRanger repository.

Supported devices

Most existing tape libraries and tape formats are supported by NetVault Backup, including stand-alone and library-based tape devices in SAN or shared-SCSI environments. In addition to the line of approved Quest PowerVault tape devices, visit our Supported Devices page for a complete list of supported devices.

Preparing the systems

The following changes need to be made to a default configuration to prepare for the vRanger sweep-to-tape process:

•	Enable remote scripts in vRanger PowerShell Console.

•	Create a vRanger repository dedicated to sweep-to-tape.

•	Download the required vRanger PowerShell scripts from: https://support.quest.com/netvault-backup/kb/141112

•	Copy the vRanger PowerShell scripts to the NetVault Backup folder.

Preparing for vRanger sweep-to-tape using NetVault Backup

The vRanger sweep-to-tape process supports two possible installation scenarios. While both options are similar, the instructions in this documentation are designed for the first scenario and can be adapted to fit scenario 2.

Scenario 1: vRanger and NetVault Backup are on the same server:

•	vRanger resides on the NetVault Backup Server.

•	A local repository shared by vRanger and NetVault Backup.

•	Windows PowerShell® — PowerShell and vRanger must always be installed on the same server.

•	A PowerShell script that finds and starts the vRanger on-demand job.

•	A .bat file designed to start the PowerShell script from NetVault Backup Server.

 

NOTE: When installing vRanger and NetVault Backup on the same server, do not install the Quest NetVault Backup Plug-in for VMware®.

Scenario 2: vRanger and NetVault Backup are running on different servers:

NetVault Backup is installed on its own server. All other components reside on the vRanger server.

•	Server 1-NetVault Backup:

▪	NetVault Backup is installed and configured on a supported operating system.

•	Server 2-vRanger/PowerShell:

▪	NetVault Backup agent that can run a PRE command script. The agent runs the PowerShell script contained in a .bat file called by using the PRE command option.

▪	vRanger resides on its own server.

▪	A local repository on the vRanger server, and shared by vRanger and NetVault Backup.

▪	Windows PowerShell.

▪	A PowerShell script that finds and starts the vRanger on-demand job.

▪	A command-file script that contains the PowerShell script.

To prepare your environment for vRanger Sweep-to-Tape using NetVault Backup as described in Scenario 1, complete the following tasks:

•	Enabling execution of PowerShell scripts

•	Using vRanger sweep-to-tape scripts

•	Creating a sweep-to-tape vRanger repository

Enabling execution of PowerShell scripts

Windows PowerShell® contains an execution policy that determines whether scripts are allowed to run, and whether they must be digitally signed before they can run. While the default policy is set to block the execution of such scripts, the following topic details the process for enabling this option.

Complete the steps in the following procedure to enable execution of PowerShell scripts.

To enable execution of PowerShell scripts:

1	Click Start > All Programs > Quest > vRanger Backup & Replication > vRanger Console.

This step opens a PowerShell console ready to accept commands. You should expect to see an error message, which can be remedied by enabling remote scripts.

2	Type the following, and then press Enter:

Set-executionpolicy remotesigned

3	To accept the change, type Y and press Enter.

4	To close the vRanger Console, type Exit and press Enter.

5	Reopen the vRanger Console and confirm the proper configuration.

The window scheme changes from red text on a black background to white text on a blue background, and a welcome message appears.

Using vRanger sweep-to-tape scripts

To facilitate starting the vRanger job, Quest has designed scripts that start the vRanger on-demand job from within NetVault Backup.

To use vRanger Sweep-to-Tape scripts:

1	Download the vranger_sweep_to_tape.zip file from: https://support.quest.com/netvault-backup/kb/141112

2	Extract the contents of the zip file to the following folder on your NetVault Backup Server:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Quest\NetVault Backup\scripts

NetVault Backup only runs scripts located in this folder.

Creating a sweep-to-tape vRanger repository

For this scenario, you must create a specific vRanger repository to be captured by the NetVault Backup job. This repository should reside in a shared location where both vRanger and NetVault Backup can access the backups. This repository should be used only for vRanger backups that are expected to be swept-to-tape with NetVault Backup.

To create a Sweep-to-Tape vRanger repository:

1	Click Start > All Programs > Quest > vRanger Backup & Replication > vRanger Backup & Replication.

2	In the navigation pane on the left, click My Repositories.

3	Right-click your preferred target, select Add, and then click the type of storage you want to add.

4	Enter a name for the repository, and then provide the required information and credentials to let vRanger to create and access the repository on this target.

5

Click OK.

vRanger immediately attempts to validate the connection.

Performing backup operations

To sweep backed up data to tape, you need to create both a backup job for vRanger and a backup job for NetVault Backup.

To perform backup operations, complete the following tasks:

•	Creating an on-demand vRanger backup job

•	Creating a NetVault Backup job with pre-command scripts

Creating an on-demand vRanger backup job

You need to create a vRanger backup job that captures a complete backup of the machines you want to sweep to tape.

To create an on-demand vRanger backup job:

1	In the navigation pane on the left, select My Inventory, and then locate the machine or machines you want to include in the backup.

2	Right-click the computer name, and select Backup <machine name> on the context menu.

The Backup Wizard opens.

3	Under Job Name, give the job a name that ends in ‑Tape; for example, vRanger-Sweep-to-Tape, and then click Next.

 

NOTE: The provided script is designed to automatically start any vRanger job where the job name ends with ‑Tape. Use this naming convention to enable Sweep-to-Tape.

4	On the Virtual Machine Hard Disk Inclusion page, select the disks in the machine to include in the backup job, and then click Next.

5	On the repository Selection page, select the target repository created in Creating a sweep-to-tape vRanger repository, and then click Next.

6	If the vRanger Transport Selection page appears, select whether to use Automatic transport or to customize the transport method, and then click Next.

vRanger Transport determines how backup data is sent and where the restore processing activity occurs. The default transport method is Automatic; however, if the server you are backing up is a VMware® VM, you can customize the method as appropriate on the Transport Selection page.

7	On the Options Selection page, select your preferred backup options, and then click Next.

8	On the Retention Policy Selection page, determine how many savepoints to keep, and whether to capture Full, Incremental, or Differential backups; click Next.

 

NOTE: Selecting more savepoints provides additional points-in-time to which you can recover the machine. For more information, see Understanding retention policies and space-saving technologies.

9	On the Recurrence Schedule Selection page, select This will be an on demand job, and click Next.

On-demand jobs are scheduled tasks that are not set to start from a recurring schedule. Because a sweep-to-tape backup job is initiated by script from the NetVault Backup task, you must this job on demand. Doing so saves the job settings but lets the NetVault Backup integration start the job on-demand.

10	On the Email Notifications Selection page, specify who to notify when the job has finished running by entering one or more names and email addresses to be notified, and click Next.

11	On the Summary page, review the Summary window to make sure that your configuration is correct, and then do the following:

▪	Leave the option to Run the job after Finish is clicked cleared.

▪	Click Finish to save the job and close the Backup Wizard.

12	To view or access the job, click My Jobs in the left-pane, and then select On Demand jobs under My Jobs.

Creating a NetVault Backup job with pre-command scripts

Complete the steps in the following procedure to create a NetVault Backup job with pre-command scripts. In the following scenario, most of the default settings are used so that the job captures a full backup each time the job runs. For more information on customizing the available NetVault Backup options, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

To create a NetVault Backup job with pre-command scripts:

1	Ensure that NetVault Backup is properly installed, and your tape drive or library is installed and visible to NetVault Backup.

2	Start the NetVault Backup WebUI, and click Create Backup Job.

3	In Job Name, specify a name for the job; for example, vRanger_Sweep_to_Tape.

Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job when monitoring its progress or restoring data. The job name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction; however, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.

4	In the Selections list, click Create New, select the preferred NetVault Backup machine from the list of servers, and then double-click it to see a list of identified source devices for this server.

5	Navigate to the vRanger repository, and select the files and folders to include in the archive.

 

NOTE: NetVault Backup supports a wide array of sources from which to capture data, including NAS, CIFS, RAW devices, and local devices.

6	In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or click Create New, and configure the options that you want to use.

7	In the Schedule list, select an existing Schedule Set, or click Create New, and configure the schedule type and schedule method.

NetVault Backup provides scheduling options such as immediate, one-time, and triggered.

8	In the Target Storage list, click Create New, and then do the following:

a	On the Create Target Set page, click Device Selection.

b	Select Specify Device for a list of available devices.

c	Select the preferred device in the list to tell NetVault Backup to use this device in the backup.

 

NOTE: Selecting multiple devices lets NetVault Backup use additional devices as required.

d	Select the preferred device in the list to tell NetVault Backup to use this device in the backup.

e	Click Set to save the settings and close the dialog box.

9	On the Create Target Set page, click Media Options, and configure the settings to set specific policies to target specific media, label blank media, or specify whether to reuse media with existing data.

10	Next to the Advanced Options list, Create New, and configure the options that you want to use.

You can select options to customize the backup process; for example, how long to maintain the archive, encryption, and deduplication options; network compression. In this example most of the options remain with their defaults, except for a Pre Script that runs the vRanger On Demand backup.

11	On the Advanced Options page, click Pre & Post Scripts, and select Pre Script, and then enter the following in the entry field:

vranger_sweep.bat

This process initiates the vRanger backup and waits for the job to complete. After the job is finished, NetVault Backup continues and archives the vRanger repository to tape.

12	To submit the job for scheduling, click Save & Submit.

You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page.

 

NOTE: A job that uses the Schedule type of Triggered is only scheduled when you run the script.

This job runs the backup script, which in turn communicates with vRanger and starts the Backup_and_Sweep-Tape job. You can switch back to vRanger to watch the job start and run. After vRanger has finished, NetVault Backup completes the job by capturing the updated repository to tape.

Performing restore operations

There are two available ways to restore your data using vRanger.

To perform restore operations, complete one of the following procedures:

•	Restoring a vRanger repository from tape using NetVault Backup

•	Restoring from a vRanger repository

Restoring a vRanger repository from tape using NetVault Backup

Use the following steps to export a previously captured vRanger repository from tape.

To restore a vRanger repository from tape using NetVault Backup:

1	In the Navigation pane, click Create Restore Job.

On the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page, the saveset table provides a list of available savesets. The table shows the saveset name (Job Title and Saveset ID), creation date and time, and saveset size.

2	Select the saveset that you want to restore, and click Next.

 

NOTE: If the backup index of the selected saveset is offline, the Confirm load dialog box is displayed. Click OK to load the index from the backup media, and then in the Load Index dialog box, type or select the number of days you want to store the index in the NetVault Database.

3	On the Create Selection Set page, select the archive, for example, vRanger_Sweep_to_Tape, that you want to restore, and click Next.

This step restores the entire vRanger repository.

 

CAUTION: It is important that you restore to a new repository and not to an existing repository. Failure to do so can possibly result in corruption of data.

4	On the Create Restore Job page, specify a name for the job.

Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job when monitoring its progress or restoring data. The job name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. There is no length restriction; however, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.

5	In the Target Client list, location to restore the file set from the list of available machines.

6	In the Schedule list, use the default, Immediate, to run the job when it is submitted.

7	In the Source Options list, select the media from which to restore the archive.

8	Click Submit to run the job.

You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page.

Restoring from a vRanger repository

The following steps detail the process of restoring data from a vRanger repository.

To restore from a vRanger repository:

1	Select the vRanger repository that contains the backup of the VM; for example, Repo-001.

vRanger provides options to restore the complete VM, or individual files or folders.

A list of protected VMs display.

2	Select the VM containing the data to restore, and then click File Level Restore in the top menu to start the process.

A file structure view of the selected VM appears.

3	Locate and select the files and folders to restore to the selected machine.

4	On the right side of the window, select the target location; for example, Desktop.

5	Click Restore to start the recovery, which extracts the files from the vRanger repository for immediate access.

After recovery is complete, you have access to the newly restored files.

Using deduplication with Quest NetVault SmartDisk and vRanger

NetVault SmartDisk delivers data de-duplication that significantly reduces storage costs. With powerful, byte-level, variable block de-duplication, and advanced data compression that packs more protected data in the same storage area than competing solutions, you can reduce your disk backup storage footprint by up to 90%.

vRanger versions 5.3 and later support the use of a NetVault SmartDisk server as a repository. Simply by adding a NetVault SmartDisk server to vRanger as a repository, backups written to that repository are automatically de-duplicated.

 

NOTE: NetVault SmartDisk repositories are only supported by the Professional edition of vRanger. If you purchased a vRanger Standard license, you cannot use a NetVault SmartDisk repository.

For more information about integrating vRanger and NetVault SmartDisk, see the Quest vRanger Integration Guide for Quest NetVault SmartDisk.

Using Data Domain and vRanger repositories

vRanger and EMC® Data Domain® appliances provide a simple and efficient method for backing up and recovering VMware® environments. vRanger provides significant enhancements regarding architecture, performance, and communications over traditional backup solutions. Data Domain provides superior data de-duplication capabilities. The combination of vRanger and Data Domain Technology dramatically reduces your backup and recovery time for VMs on VMware® ESXi™ hosts.

For more information about integrating vRanger and Data Domain, see the Quest vRanger Integration Guide for EMC® Data Domain® Boost (DD Boost™).

Monitoring vRanger

vRanger can be configured to log events to the Windows® Event Viewer on the vRanger machine. These events can be filtered and monitored using the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager to monitor replication functions in line with other IT operations. When monitoring is enabled, vRanger creates a vRanger Service node on the local Event Viewer.

The events currently monitored and logged by vRanger include:

•	Replication Events: Reserved ID Range 10000 to 10999

Replication task failure: logged as an error, event ID 10001

•	Virtual Appliance Events: Reserved ID Range 11000 to 11999

VA not powered on: logged as an error, event ID 11001

VA connection failure: logged as an error, event ID 11002

VA credential failure: logged as an error, event ID 11003

VA unknown failure: logged as an error, event ID 11999

VA return to normal: logged as an Information event, ID 11998

•	Datastore Events: Reserved ID Range 12000 to 12999

Datastore threshold exceeded: logged as an error, event ID 12000

Datastore unknown failure: logged as an error, event ID 12099

Datastore return to normal: logged as an Information event, ID 12098