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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 10.0.5 - 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

Using the file-level backup method

•
Performing file-level backups
•
Additional notes

Performing file-level backups

To perform a file-level backup
1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Backup Job.
— or —
In the Navigation pane, click Guided Configuration, and then on the NetVault Configuration Wizard page, click Create Backup Jobs.
2
In Job Name, specify a name for the job.
Assign a descriptive name that allows you to easily identify the job for 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 on all platforms.
3
In the Selections list, select an existing Backup Selection Set, or complete the following steps to create a set.
a
Click Create New to open the NetVault Backup Selections page.
b
Open the NetVault Backup Client on which the plug-in is installed, and then open VMware Plugin
c
Open the applicable ESX/ESXi or vCenter Server. Depending on your inventory view type, do the following:
•
Hosts and Clusters Inventory View: Open the Datacenter, Cluster, Resource Pool, and other nodes to display the available virtual machines.
•
VMs and Templates View: Open the Datacenter and folder nodes to display the available virtual machines.
d
Select the target virtual machine, and in the Actions list, click Mount.
The plug-in tries to obtain a snapshot of the virtual disk files and mount it on the NetVault Backup Client. Depending on the file size of the virtual machine disk files, the mount operation can take a few minutes to complete. When the snapshot is mounted successfully, the following changes occur:
•
A folder is created in the Working Directory (set in the Configure dialog box). This folder is assigned the same name as the selected virtual machine
•
A Drives node is added to the selections tree. This node is displayed under selected virtual machine.
 
 
*NOTE: If the boot disk is not the first disk among the disks attached to a virtual machine when they are arranged in the controller:device order (that is, ide0:0, ide0:1, scsi0:0, scsi0:1, and so on), the mounting operation might fail for the virtual machine.
e
Open the Drives node to display the available drives. Select the drives, or open the nodes further to display the directory tree, and select the files and directories that you want to back up.
 
 
*IMPORTANT: After mounting a virtual machine, if you select the virtual machine node, the job fails. To include all drives in a job, you must select each drive individually.
f
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set. Click Save to close the dialog box.
 
 
*NOTE: A set name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot include non- English characters. On Linux OS, the names can have a maximum of 200 characters. On Windows OS, there is no length restriction. However, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended on all platforms.
4
In the Plugin Options list, select an existing Backup Options Set, or complete the following steps to create a set.
a
Click Create New to open the File System Plugin Backup Options page.
 
 
*IMPORTANT: On Windows, when you create a Backup Options Set for file-level backups, you must use the default set “Default Backup Options for 'File System' - VMware Plugin - Windows” as the template. If you use any other set as the template, the backup may fail.
b
Configure the following settings.
 
Table 1. Backup options for Plug-in for FileSystem
Option
Description
Backup Type
Select the applicable option from the following:
•
Full
•
Incremental
•
Differential
For more information about file-level backup types, see File-level backups.
Create Dump Type Backup
To create Dump Type Incremental or Differential Backups, select this check box. With these backups you can only restore those files that were backed up in a particular Incremental or Differential Backup.
Check For Files Being Modified During Backup
To mark the files that are being modified during a backup as “in flux,” leave this check box selected. During restore, these files are not restored by default. To restore these files, you must set the option Restore Files Modified During Backup on the Restore Options Set.
If you do not want to check for files that are being updated during backup, clear this check box.
Enable Restartable Backup
To add the ability to stop a job and resume it later from that point, select this check box.
When you stop the job, the plug-in generates an index for all items that have been processed up to that point and writes the index to the backup media and NetVault Database. When you restart the job later, the plug-in runs an Incremental Backup job to back up the remaining files and folders.
You can stop and resume a job from the Job Status page. For more information, see the Dell NetVault Backup Plug-in for FileSystem User’s Guide.
Path to Backup Log
To generate a backup log file, type the filename. The log provides a list of files that are selected for the backup. The files that are backed up successfully are marked with an “o” and the others are marked with an “x.” You can use this option with an Incremental Backup to determine which new or changed files have been backed up. If you specify an existing filename, the plug-in overwrites the file. The log file is created in CSV file format, and includes details such as file size, date modified, and file type.
c
Click Save, and in the Create New Set dialog box, type a name for the set.
5
Select or create the Schedule Set, Target Set, and Advanced Options Set. For more information about these sets, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.
6
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.
To save the job definition without scheduling it, click Save. You can view, edit, or run this job from the Manage Job Definitions page. This job is not displayed on the Job Status page until you submit it.
For more information about Job Status, View Logs, and Manage Job Definitions, see the Dell NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Backup selection tree icons

 
Table 2. Backup selections tree icons
Icon
Description
vCenter Server
Datacenter Server
ESX or ESXi Server Cluster
Closed folder
Open folder
ESX or ESXi Server
ESX or ESXi Server in maintenance mode
Inaccessible ESX or ESXi Server
Virtual Appliance (vApp)
Resource pool
Virtual machine (powered on)
Inaccessible virtual machine
Mounted virtual machine
Suspended virtual machine
Powered off virtual machine
Virtual machine (powered on, CBT enabled)
Inaccessible virtual machine (CBT enabled)
Mounted virtual machine (CBT enabled)
Suspended virtual machine (CBT enabled)
Powered off virtual machine (CBT enabled)
Primary virtual machine (powered on) in a Fault Tolerant group
Inaccessible primary virtual machine
Suspended primary virtual machine
Powered off primary virtual machine
Secondary virtual machine in a Fault Tolerant group
Inaccessible secondary virtual machine
Suspended secondary virtual machine
Powered off secondary virtual machine

Additional notes

Manually removing the snapshot and mount folder
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” for the virtual machine.
•
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, 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 manually remove the snapshot and mount folder
1
If nvvmwmount.exe is running, unmount the virtual machines that are currently mounted for browse or backup operations. Stop the NetVault Backup Service. This step is only applicable to 2.1.55 and earlier versions of the Plug‑in for VMware.
2
If the Working Directory contains the mount folder for the virtual machine, remove it.
3
If you were using an advanced transport mode, such as san or hotadd, navigate to the <system_drive>/windows/temp/vmware-system directory. If this directory contains any subdirectory named <VM_UUID>-<VMmoref>, delete it. Here <VM_UUID> is the UUID of the mounted virtual machine and VM_moref is an internal reference that the ESX 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 powered on, an error message (“Unable to access file <unspecified filename> since it is locked”) may be displayed when you try to delete the snapshot, but the snapshot may thereafter disappear from the Snapshot Manager window. If a “Consolidate Helper-0” snapshot appears after you remove the snapshot, power off the virtual machine.
6
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.
7
If some unwanted redo logs are still present on the datastore, perform step 6 again. Wait for a few minutes (approximately 2 to 3 minutes) to allow any memory cache to be cleared before performing this step.
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