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NetVault Plug-in for VMware 10.5 - 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

Disabling CBT on a virtual machine

Once you enable CBT on a virtual machine, all subsequent Full, Incremental, and Differential Backups are performed as CBT-based backups for that virtual machine. To stop using CBT, you must disable this feature.
To disable CBT on a virtual machine
1
Start the Backup Job Wizard, and click Create New next to the Selections list.
2
Open the NetVault Backup Client on which plug-in is installed, and then open VMware Plugin.
3
Open the ESX/ESXi or vCenter Server and the other applicable container nodes (for example, Datacenter, Cluster, Resource Pool, and other nodes) to display the target virtual machine.
4
Select the virtual machine, and in the Actions list, click Disable Change Block Tracking.
This option is available to only those virtual machines on which CBT is enabled.
5
After the virtual machine is reconfigured, a message is displayed. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Manually disabling CBT on a virtual machine

The plug-in versions earlier than 2.7 do not provide an option to disable CBT from the NetVault Backup Console. On such installations, if you want stop using CBT, you must manually disable this feature.
To manually disable CBT on a virtual machine
1
Power off the virtual machine.
2
In the virtual machine's configuration (“.vmx”) file, edit the following entry and set it to False:
ctkEnabled = “False”
3
In the “.vmx” file for each virtual disk, edit the following entry and set it to False:
scsix:x.ctkEnabled = “False”
4
Create and delete a snapshot for the virtual machine to complete a stun and unstun cycle.
The “.ctk” files for the virtual machine are automatically deleted when you power on the virtual machine.

Enabling or disabling quiescing of virtual machines

This section includes the following topics:
•
About quiescing virtual machines
•
Enabling quiescing of virtual machines
•
Disabling quiescing of virtual machines
•
Removing backup preferences for a virtual machine

About quiescing virtual machines

A virtual machine can be quiesced to create consistent snapshots for backups. Quiescing is performed using the VMware VSS component, which is provided with VMware Tools. The VMware VSS component is automatically installed when you install VMware Tools on the virtual machines.
Quiescing is only supported on Windows-based virtual machines. You can enable or disable quiescing of virtual machines.
Depending on the quiescing method used, the plug-in generates the following types of snapshots:
•
Crash-consistent snapshots: Crash-consistent snapshots capture the volume state as it would be after a power outage. Such snapshots are not guaranteed to be free of incomplete I/O operations or data corruption. During a restore, there can be some data loss or corruption that can cause application failure.
 
 
*NOTE: On Linux-based virtual machines, the plug-in always generates crash-consistent snapshots. You can install the VMware SYNC driver on Linux-based systems to freeze and thaw filesystem I/O and obtain a consistent snapshot that reduces the risk of data loss and data corruption after restore. However, creating quiesced snapshots using SYNC driver requires waiting for I/O to drain in the Guest OS. This activity can affect time-sensitive applications.
•
File-system-consistent snapshots: For file-system-consistent snapshots, all file system I/O is temporarily frozen and dirty memory data is flushed to the disk before the snapshot is taken.
To create file-system-consistent snapshots, you must install the VMware VSS component on the virtual machines as part of VMware Tools.
•
VSS-based application-consistent snapshots: For application-consistent snapshots, all application data in memory is written to the disk. Application-consistent snapshots reduce the amount of application crash recovery that you need to be perform for VSS-enabled applications, like SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint, after restoring an image-level backup.
To create application-consistent snapshots, the following requirements must be met:
•
You must install the VMware VSS component on the virtual machines as part of VMware Tools.
•
The virtual machines should only use SCSI disks. Application-consistent snapshots are not supported on virtual machines that use IDE disks or dynamic disks.
•
The virtual machines should have enough free SCSI slots as the number of disks.
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