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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 11.4.5 - User Guide

Introducing NetVault Backup Plug-in for VMware 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

Removing the snapshot and mount folder manually

When you mount a virtual machine for file-level backup or browse operation, the following events occur:

•
The plug-in creates a snapshot named “BKB_SNAP” on the virtual machine.
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The plug-in creates a mount folder for the virtual machine in the Working Directory. This folder is assigned the same name as the virtual machine.

When you unmount the virtual machine, the cleanup process automatically removes the mount folder and snapshot. In a normal scenario, do not remove them manually.

If the plug-in fails to remove the mount folder or snapshot for any reason, a subsequent mount operation for the same virtual machine fails and the error message “A stale mount was found” is displayed. For example, if the plug-in exits unexpectedly after mounting a virtual machine, the snapshot and mount folder are not removed. In this scenario, you must manually remove them. You must also complete these steps if a snapshot is deleted manually while a virtual machine is still mounted.

To remove the snapshot and mount folder manually:
1
If the Working Directory contains the mount folder for the virtual machine, remove it.
2
If you were using an advanced transport mode, such as san or hotadd, navigate to the <system_drive>/windows/temp/vmware-system directory.
3
If this directory contains any directory named <VM_UUID>-<VMmoref>, delete it.
Here <VM_UUID> is the universally unique identifier (UUID) of the mounted virtual machine and VM_moref is an internal reference that the ESXi or vCenter Server uses to see the virtual machine. To delete this folder, you may be required to set necessary permissions for the folder.
4
If you were using the hotadd transport mode, remove any disks of the target virtual machine — the virtual machine mounted for a backup — that were hotadded to the NetVault Backup Client Virtual Machine — the virtual machine where the Plug‑in for VMware is running.
You can remove the disks from the vSphere Client for the virtual machine where the plug-in or NetVault Backup Client is running.
5
Go to the Snapshot Manager in vSphere Client, and remove the snapshot named BKB_SNAP, if it still exists.
Wait for a few minutes (approximately 2 to 3 minutes) to allow any memory cache to be cleared before performing this step.
If the virtual machine is turned on, an error message — “Unable to access file <unspecified filename> since it is locked” — might display when you try to delete the snapshot, but the snapshot may thereafter disappear from the Snapshot Manager window. If a “Consolidate Helper-0” snapshot is displayed after you remove the snapshot, turn off the virtual machine.
After removing the snapshot BKB_SNAP, VMware recommends that you create and delete a snapshot. You can create and delete snapshots from the Snapshot Manager window in vSphere Client. The server tries to consolidate the redo logs during this operation, and therefore, it may take a few minutes to complete. Delete the Consolidate Helper snapshot, if it exists.
6
If some unwanted redo logs are still present on the datastore, perform Step 5 again.
7
Wait for a few minutes — approximately 2 to 3 minutes — to allow any memory cache to be cleared before performing this step.

 

Restoring image-level backups

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About restoring image-level backups
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Restoring a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives
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Relocating a virtual machine to an alternate ESXi Server
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Restoring a virtual machine to an alternate vCenter Server
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Renaming a virtual machine during restore
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Performing file-level restores from image‑level backups
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Restoring virtual machine disk and configuration files
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Searching for files in savesets
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Viewing media list

About restoring image-level backups

The image-level backups can be used to perform the following types of restores:

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Recover a full virtual machine or specific virtual drives: You can use image-level backups to recover a full virtual machine to a previous known state or to restore one or more virtual drives for a virtual machine. This method is useful when there is data loss due to hardware failure, data corruption, or accidental deletion of virtual machine disk files. The virtual machine can be restored to the same or an alternate VMware ESXi Server Host or VMware vCenter Server.
•
Restore individual files and directories: You can use image-level backups to restore individual files and folders. This method is useful when there is data loss due to user errors, data corruption, or accidental deletion of files. The individual files and directories can be restored to a specified directory on the NetVault Backup Client.
 
* 
NOTE: To use an image-level backup for file-level restores, you must select the Perform File Level Indexing check box during backup. File-level indexing is disabled by default.
File-level restores are supported on the following file systems:
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Windows: NTFS
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Linux and UNIX: EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, XFS v2, XFS v3
The Plug‑in for VMware also supports volumes managed by Logical Volume Manager (LVM) on Linux-based systems and Logical Disk Manager (LDM) on Windows-based systems as single or spanned disks.
The current version of the plug-in does not support Windows Server 2012 ReFS (Resilient File System) and Striped Disks.
•
Restore virtual machine disk and configuration files: You can use the image-level backups to restore the virtual machine disk and configuration files to a specified directory on the NetVault Backup Client. With these restored files, you can then recover a virtual machine with the same or modified settings using Virtual Infrastructure Client or any other utility that lets you create a virtual machine using existing .vmdk files.

Restoring a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives

The procedure for recovering a full virtual machine or individual virtual drives from an image-level backup includes the steps outlined in the following sections:

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Prerequisites
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Restoring data
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Starting a virtual machine
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