Chat now with support
Chat with Support

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

Restoring data

To select data for a restore
1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Restore Job.
2
In the saveset table, select the saveset that you want to use, and click Next.
The table displays the saveset name (Job Title and Saveset ID), creation date and time, and saveset size. Note the following:
•
The 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.
•
You can use one or more filters to display specific savesets on this page. You can also search for a data item in savesets and view the media list for a saveset. For more information about the additional features, see Using additional features available on the Choose Saveset page.
•
When you select a saveset, the following details are displayed in the Saveset Information area: Job ID, Job Title, name of the NetVault Backup Server, name of the client from which the data was backed up, plug‑in used to create the saveset, saveset creation date and time, saveset retirement setting, whether Incremental Backup or not, whether Archive or not, and saveset size.
3
On the Create Selection Set page, select the files and directories that you want to restore.
 
 
*NOTE: For a regular Incremental or Differential Backup, the selection tree displays all files that were included in the backup sequence (the initial Full Backup and subsequent Incremental or Differential Backups), but for a Dump Type Incremental or Differential Backup, the plug-in only displays those files that were backed up in the selected saveset.
4
Click Edit Plugin Options, and configure the applicable settings. For more information, see Plug-in for FileSystem restore options.
5
Click Save to save the settings, and then click Next.
6
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. 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
7
In the Target Client list, select the target virtual machine.
 
 
*IMPORTANT: If you do not select the virtual machine in the Target Client list, the data will be restored to the client on which the plug-in is installed.
8
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.
9
Click Submit to submit the job for scheduling.
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

Using additional features available on the Choose Saveset page

This section describes how to use the additional features available on the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page. These features are common to all NetVault Backup plug-ins.
Filtering the saveset list
By default, the saveset table on the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page lists all available savesets. You can use the following filters to display specific savesets on this page.
 
Table 2. Saveset filters
Filter
Description
Client
Displays savesets created for particular clients.
To use this filter
•
Click the Client box, and in the Choose Client dialog box, select the applicable clients. Click OK to close the dialog box.
The default selection is Any.
Plugin Type
Displays savesets created using a particular plug-in.
To use this filter
•
Click the Plugin Type box, and in the list, select the applicable plug-in.
The default selection is Any.
Date
Displays savesets created during a specified period.
To use this filter
•
Click the Date box, and 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.
The default selection is Any.
Job
Displays savesets created for particular job IDs.
To use this filter
•
Click the Job box, and in the Choose Job dialog box, select the applicable jobs. Click OK to close the dialog box.
The default selection is Any.
Searching for files in savesets
The Search option on the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page allows you to find specific files or data items without opening a saveset or browsing through its contents. You can use filenames or regular expressions to find the data items that you want to restore.
To search for data items in savesets
1
On the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page, click Search.
2
In the Search for files in savesets dialog box, configure the following options:
•
Search String: Type the search string.
•
Regular expression search: To use POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for Unix) regular expressions in the Search String box, select this check box.
•
Case sensitive: To perform a case-sensitive search, select this check box.
3
Click Search.
On the Search Results page, you can view the savesets that contain the specified files or data items. Select the items you want to restore. You can only restore items from one saveset.
Viewing media list
To view media list for a saveset
1
On the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page, select the applicable saveset.
2
In the Saveset Information area, click Media List.
3
In the dialog box that appears, you can view the data and index segment details. For each data segment, you can view the media label, media group, offset, segment size, and media location. For index segments, you can view the media label, media group, and media location.
4
Click Close to close the dialog box.
 

Troubleshooting

•
Common errors
•
SOAP messages
•
VDDK logs

Common errors

The following is a list of some common errors and their solution.
 
Table 1. Common errors and their solution
Description
Symptom
Solution
The NetVault Backup Service fails to start on a Windows-based NetVault Backup Server.
Check the Windows Event Viewer to see if it displays the following message:
PDT FATAL: lock file "postmaster.pid" already exists
 
NetVault Backup cannot start if the PostgreSQL database that is used to store the system data does not start.
To correct this issue, delete the “postmaster.pid” file from the location referenced in the log and restart the NetVault Backup Server. For more information, see https://support.quest.com/netvaultbackup/kb/122475.
After restarting the machine, the NetVault Backup Service sometimes fails to start on a Windows-based NetVault Backup Server.
Check the Windows Event Viewer to see if it displays the following message:
FATAL: could not create any TCP/IP sockets " for a PostgreSQL source
 
NetVault Backup cannot start if the PostgreSQL database that is used to store the system data does not start.
To correct this issue, start the Task Manager, and click Show processes from all users. You can see multiple instances of postgres32.exe running on the system. Select any one instance of this process, and click End Process to remove all instances of postgres32.exe. Then, start the NetVault Backup Service from the Configurator.
The NetVault Backup Service starts, and then stops immediately on a Linux-based machine.
No error messages are displayed.
This issue can occur if the Postgres service cannot resolve the host name localhost, and fails to start.
Check the /etc/hosts file, and if the file does not contain an entry for localhost, add the entry.
The Linux Hybrid version of the plug-in does not run on pure 64‑bit operating system.
The plug-in fails to open and displays the message “No Error.”
Pure 64-bit operating systems do not install some common 32-bit libraries the plug-in requires.
To correct this problem, do the following:
1
Start a terminal session, and go to /usr/netvault/bin.
2
Run the following command to list the missing libraries:
ldd nvvmware | egrep -i “missing|not found”
3
Install the missing 32-bit libraries using the applicable package manager.
NOTE: Some libraries are dynamically loaded from the path $NV_HOME/dynlib/vddk/. If these libraries are listed as missing, no action is required.
The plug-in crashes during a backup.
During a backup, the plug-in crashes with the following error in the NetVault Backup logs:
Backing up data of VM disk [XXXXXXX]xxx/xxxxxxxxx. vmdk' to media : “Job manager lost message channel unexpectedly.”
The trace logs include the following message:
Cannot open library: libexpat.so.0: cannot open shared object file in vixDiskLib-16642.log.
To correct this problem, navigate to the /usr/lib directory, and create the following symbolic link:
ln -s /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 libexpat.so.0
CBT-based image-level backup fails.
An image-level backup for which CBT has been enabled reports the following error and fails:
Failed to get changed disk areas.
 
This issue occurs when a snapshot exists on a virtual machine when CBT is enabled. For snapshots that exist before enabling CBT, the changeId parameter is not set. So, when the QueryChangedDiskAreas API is invoked, it returns an error. For more information, see http:// kb.vmware.com/kb/1033816.
To correct this problem, do either of the following:
•
Ensure that no snapshots exist on the virtual machine before selecting the Enable Changed Block Tracking for VM check box.
 
 
•
Alternatively, use the Reset Change Block Tracking option if you are using Plug‑in for VMware 2.7 or later.
This option reconfigures CBT on a virtual machine and allows you to run CBT-enabled backup that failed previously. For more information about this option, see Resetting CBT on a virtual machine.
A Linux-based client may fail to read the contents of a virtual disk using the SAN transport mode if multiple backup processes are accessing the same datastore.
During a backup using the SAN transport mode, the following errors are reported:
San transport error: I/O Operation failed.
Error: One of the parameters supplied is invalid.
These errors are caused by a fault in the Linux kernel when handling SCSI reservation conflicts.
The errors are encountered on the following systems:
•
RHEL 6.1 and earlier versions
•
SLES 11.1 and earlier versions
To correct this issue, upgrade to kernel version 2.6.32-220 or later on RHEL and kernel version 3.0.13 or later on SLES.
The file-level backup method does not back up data through a reparse point.
When a disk mounted as a reparse point on a Guest OS is included in a file-level backup, the backup completes without any errors or warnings. However, the plug-in does not back up any data for a reparse point. It is listed as an empty node on the Create Selection Set page.
The VMware API does not support this type of backup.
Workaround:
•
Install NetVault Backup Client on the Guest OS, and perform a backup using the Plug-in for FileSystem to include the reparse point directory.
•
Alternatively, mount the disk as drive letter instead of a reparse point. Then, create a backup job to include the new drive letter.
Restore job fails.
A restore job fails with the following error:
Log Message:
Failed to restore VM disk data.
Log Context:
Failed to open vmdk VDDK error encountered: code 13
Retrieving error message text VDDK error message is ‘You do not have access rights to this file’
Disk data restore failed for ‘[datastore]VirtualMachineName/ VitrualDiskName.vmdk’
The NetVault Backup Client running the Plug‑in for VMware may not have access to the SAN. To verify, try using the NBD transport mode. If the restore completes successfully with this mode, it indicates SAN connectivity issues.
To use the SAN transport mode, the NetVault Backup Client must have SAN connectivity to the VMFS LUN. Ensure that the LUN is accessible and the SAN is configured correctly.
Restore job fails.
A restore job fails with the following error:
Log message:
Failed to add VM to target server's inventory.
Log context:
Fault string is 'Invalid configuration for device '3'.
When this error occurs, enable trace and run the restore job again. When the job completes, open the file named vmw<nnn>_soaprecv.log, and check if it contains an XML message <WaitForUpdatesExResponse> with contents similar to the following:
<val
xsi:type="LocalizedMethodFault">
<fault
xsi:type="InvalidDeviceSpec">
<property>deviceChange[3].
device.backing.fileName
</property>
<deviceIndex>3</deviceIndex>
</fault>
<localizedMessage>Invalid configuration for device &apos;3&apos;.</localizedMessage>
</val>
If yes, it indicates that the backup contains an invalid configuration for a CD or DVD drive.
To correct this problem
1
Open the file vmware.cfg in a text editor. You can find this file in <NetVault Backup home>\config on Windows and <NetVault Backup home>/config on Linux.
2
Set the value for the following entry to True:
[Custom:ReconfigureVirtualCdromDevices]
Value=True
(The default value for this entry is False.)
Save the file.
3
Run the restore job again. The job completes successfully. If a CD or DVD drive was set to “Host Device” or “Datastore ISO File” type during the original backup, it is reconfigured as “Client Device” type. A warning message in the logs provides a list of reconfigured devices. The log context includes their original configuration. To view the log context, click the More Info button.
4
After restoring the virtual machine, reset [Custom:ReconfigureVirtual CdromDevices] to False.
Related Documents

The document was helpful.

Select Rating

I easily found the information I needed.

Select Rating