Slow backup and restore after upgrading to Vmware plugin 2.0 (4043440)

Date - 07/2010
Affected Product & Version - NetVault: Backup 8.5.1
Affected Module & Version - Vmware Plugin 2.0
OS Version - Any

Symptom description:

After an upgrade to the Vmware plugin 2.0 users will notice slower backup and restores.
The reason for this is that the transport mode has been defaulted to “nbd" although the plugin is configured to use SAN. This can be verified in the log where the following message is displayed:
VM disk '[vmfs1] SMALLWIN2008VM/SMALLWIN2008VM-000001.vmdk' opened in 'nbd' mode


Explanation and workaround:

NVBU Vmware plugin uses the Vmware Virtual Disk API, or VixDiskLib, On a ESX 3.5 and/or Virtual Center Server 2.5 Vmware VDDK do not support advanced transport modes.
http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/VDDK-1.2-Relnotes.html#knownissues

Unfortunately, to get around this issue, users will have to upgrade the ESX version and the Virtual Center Server or simply use the older Vmware plugin.