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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 11.2 - User Guide

Introduction 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

Prerequisites

Before you start the restore procedure, verify that the following requirements are met:

•
When restoring a virtual machine, the target virtual machine should not exist in the inventory. If the virtual machine that you want to restore still exists in the inventory, delete it. Alternatively, rename the virtual machine during restore.
When restoring individual virtual disks, the target virtual machine and virtual disks should exist in the inventory. If the virtual machine or virtual disks are unavailable, use the Rename option.
•
Before you start the restore procedure on Windows® 2008, clear the read-only attribute for the target disk. If you fail to do so, the restore job completes successfully, but no data is restored; when you power on the restored virtual machine, it fails to boot.
To clear the read-only attribute for the target disk:
1
Start the diskpart utility, and list the disks:
Diskpart
list disk
2
Select the target disk, and display the disk details:
Select disk <X>
detail disk
3
If the read-only attribute is set to Yes, type:
attribute disk clear readonly

Restoring data

To restore a full virtual machine or individual virtual disks, use the following procedure.

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, saveset size, and saveset status.
The saveset status is indicated using the following icons.
 
Table 11. Saveset status icons
Icon
Description

Saveset is online (all segments are online).

Saveset is partially online (some segments are online).

Saveset is offline (all segments are offline).

The saveset list is sorted alphabetically by saveset name. You can sort the list by a different column or reverse the sort order by clicking the column heading. The arrowhead next to the column name indicates the sort order.
2
To filter the saveset list, use the following filter options:
 
Table 12. Saveset filters
Filter
Description

Client

Displays savesets created for particular clients. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Client box.
2
In the Choose Client dialog box, select the clients.
3
To close the dialog box, click OK.

Plugin Type

Displays savesets created using a particular plug-in. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Plugin Type box.
2
In the list, select the plug-in.

Date

Displays savesets created during a specified period. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Date box.
2
In the list, select the option that you want to use.
The available options are Last 24 hours, Last Week, Last Month, Last 6 Months, Last Year, and Any.

Job

Displays savesets created for particular jobs. The default selection is Any.

1
To use this filter, click the Job box.
2
In the Choose Job dialog box, select the jobs.
3
To close the dialog box, click OK.
3
Select the saveset that you want to use, and click Next.
When you select a saveset, the following details are displayed in the Saveset Information area: Job ID, job title, tag, server name, client name, plug-in name, saveset date and time, retirement setting, Incremental Backup or not, archive or not, and saveset size.
Backup tags indicate the type of image-level backup. The image-level backups use the following tags or backup-type identifiers:
•
BACKUP IMAGE FULL
•
BACKUP IMAGE INCREMENTAL
•
BACKUP IMAGE DIFFERENTIAL
4
On the Create Selection Set page, select the images that you want to restore.
You can also open the images, and select the individual virtual disks that you want to restore.
 
* 
NOTE: If you select an Incremental or a Differential Backup, the plug-in automatically restores all savesets in the backup sequence up to the selected saveset. The plug-in does not perform any unnecessary steps to read, send, or write disk sectors that have changed in a later backup. Each sector is restored only once.
5
Click Edit Plugin Options.
6
Depending on your VMware environment, configure the applicable options in the Plug‑in for VMware Restore Options dialog box.
•
Cluster setup: In a cluster setup managed by a VMware® vCenter™ Server, configure the following options on the Restore virtual machine under vCenter tab.
 
Table 13. Options for restoring a full virtual machine in a cluster setup
Option
Description

Recover virtual machine under vCenter

To restore a full virtual machine or one or more virtual disks, select this option.

Allocate Resource Pool Path

A resource pool represents the CPU and memory resources that are available to an ESXi Server Host or a cluster of hosts. These resources are made available to the individual virtual machines controlled by the host. Resource pools can be configured in terms of absolute minimum and maximum quantities or relative shares. To run a virtual machine, it must be allocated a resource pool.

By default, a virtual machine is allocated to its original resource pool during restore. To allocate a virtual machine to an alternate resource pool, specify the target resource pool in this box. Use the following format to specify the resource pool:

/Pool-A/Pool-B/.../Pool<n>

Here, Pool<n> is the target resource pool, Pool-A is the child of the root resource pool, Pool-B is the child of Pool-A, and so on. This format allows you to specify a resource pool at any arbitrary depth within the hierarchy. To allocate the virtual machine to the root resource pool, type the “/” character.

Note the following:

•
If you do not specify any resource pool, the virtual machine is allocated to its original resource pool (as at the time of backup).
•
If you specify an invalid or inaccessible resource pool, the plug-in follows the path hierarchy backwards to find a valid resource pool. It allocates the virtual machine to the first valid ancestor pool in the path and logs an error message.

Alternate Datastore

A datastore represents a storage location for virtual machine files. It can be a VMFS volume, directory on Network Attached Storage, or local file system path. A datastore is platform- and host-independent.

To change the datastore for a virtual machine, specify the destination datastore name for the virtual machine. You can use this option when the original datastore is unavailable, inaccessible, or cannot hold the virtual machine due to lack of space. Verify that the name is correct and the datastore is accessible to the ESXi Server Host. When you configure an alternate datastore, all virtual disk and configuration files associated with a virtual machine are restored to a single datastore. Verify that the target datastore has sufficient disk space to hold the virtual machine files.

Restore fails if the datastore is invalid or inaccessible or does not have sufficient space to store virtual machine files.

•
Standalone ESXi Server setup: In a standalone ESXi Server setup, click the Restore virtual machine to standalone ESXi host tab, and configure the following options.
 
Table 14. Options for restoring a full virtual machine in a Standalone ESXi Server setup
Option
Description

Recover virtual machine to standalone ESXi host

To restore a full virtual machine or one or more virtual disks, select this option.

Alternate Datastore

To change the datastore for a virtual machine, specify the destination datastore name for the virtual machine. For more information about this option, see Alternate Datastore.

7
To save the settings, click Save, and then click Next.
8
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job for monitoring its progress. A 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 on all platforms
9
In the Target Client list, verify that the client from which data was backed up is selected.
This client is selected by default. Do not change this setting.
10
Select or create the Schedule Set, Restore Source Set, and Advanced Options Set.
For more information about these sets, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.
11
To submit the job for scheduling, click Submit.
You can monitor the job progress from the Job Status page and view the logs from the View Logs page. For more information about these functions, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Important notes

•
If you select the virtual machine node, or select the virtual machine node and exclude one or more virtual disks, the plug-in creates a virtual machine and restores the contents of the selected disks.
When performing this type of restore, the target virtual machine should not exist in the inventory; otherwise, the restore job reports an error (“Found identical UUID”) and fails.
•
If you select one or more virtual disks instead of the virtual machine, the plug-in overwrites the contents of the existing “.vmdk” file.
When restoring individual virtual disks, the target virtual machine and the selected virtual disks must exist in the inventory. If the virtual machine is removed from the inventory, the job reports an error (“Could not locate the VM”) and fails. The plug-in also reports an error if the target “.vmdk” file does not exist in the inventory.
•
While restoring one or more virtual disks to an existing virtual machine, the plug-in tries to locate the virtual machine using its UUID. If the plug-in finds more than one virtual machine sharing the UUID, the following error message is logged and the job fails:
Failed to uniquely locate VM in server inventory because its uuid 'xxxx' is in use by one or more other VMs.
When this error occurs, you must change the UUID for the virtual machines in the inventory so that each virtual machine has a unique UUID. You can use the following procedure to locate virtual machines that use the same UUID.
To find virtual machines that share a UUID:
1
Open a browser window, and in the address bar, type the following URL.
https://<server_address>/mob/?moid=SearchIndex&method=findAllByUuid
Provide the login information for the server.
(<server_address> must be the address of the target vCenter or ESXi Server on which you want to restore the virtual disks.)
2
In the uuid box, type the UUID for the virtual machine that you want to restore.
3
In the vmSearch box, type true.
4
Leave the remaining options blank, and start the search.
5
The virtual machines that share the given UUID are displayed in the val list. Click the link for managed object reference of each virtual machine to view the name and other details.
6
Change the UUID so that each virtual machine has a unique UUID.
For more information about this procedure, see the relevant VMware documentation.

Restore selection tree icons

 
Table 15. Restore selection tree icons
Icon
Description

Virtual machine

Failed virtual machine (appears in a saveset for stopped job)

Configuration file

NVRAM file

Virtual machine disk file

Disk extent information file

Log file

Catalog file

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