Sanity Check - VCB + Veritas Netbackup

[admin]

Just checking if I'm going mad, but guys am I correct in making the following statement,

"VCB needs to be installed on the Veritas Netbackup Server instance, not a server with a Varitas Netbackup Agent Server instance installed?"

If the Varitas main Backup Server is not a Windows 2000/2003 Server does this mean VCB is not possible.

Regards

:smileywink:

[esiebert7625]

Check these out....

http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9912.pdf

http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4540.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf

[admin]

So the VCB Porxy needs to be Windows 2003 and the "main" backup server, not a server running unix with an agent or windows running a backup agent?

[esiebert7625]

Yes the VCB proxy must be a Win2003 server with a FC card that has access to the VMFS volumes. In addition you install the VCB software and then install a special backup integration module specific to your backup software. There is nothing you need to do to your VM's beside having Vmware tools installed.

[dinny]

Hiya,

Your VCB server does not need to be a Netbackup master[/b] server.

You can use a Unix netbackup master server.

Then configure VCB on a W2003 server acting as a Netbackup media[/b] server.

Dinny

[admin]

What about a solaris net backup server can you do the media server here also?

[GlenC]

Hiya,

Your VCB server does not need to be a Netbackup

master[/b] server.

You can use a Unix netbackup master server.

Then configure VCB on a W2003 server acting as a

Netbackup media[/b] server.

Dinny

It does not even to need to be a media server. I found out after

speaking with VmWare and Symantec that all you need on the VCB is the Administration console. The integration agent uses "bpplinclude" in admincmd to get a list of files/vm's to be backed up. The ONLY issue is, you need a license to instal it. UGLY!

After 1.5 weeks I was able to get to backup a VM at the file level. I am REALLY disappointed though I cannot do differential backups at the "letters" level. It means I have to verify each and every VM to make sure no one has added an additional drive letter to the mix. Way too much administration!!!

[dinny]

Hi Glen,

I agree it doesn't need to be a master or media server to run backup jobs on - as long as the admin console is installed.

But I think NB master and media server are the only levels of NB server at which the timeouts can be set.

Our NB administrator was certainly not impressed when I suggested setting the timeouts on the master to an hour or two. However he was quite happy to set those timeouts at at the media server level - which in my case is the VCB server - as the only backup jobs that would affect were my VM jobs.

Dinny

[GlenC]

Hi Glen,

I agree it doesn't need to be a master or media

server to run backup jobs on - as long as the admin

console is installed.

But I think NB master and media server are the only

levels of NB server at which the timeouts can be

set.

Our NB administrator was certainly not impressed when

I suggested setting the timeouts on the master to an

hour or two. However he was quite happy to set those

timeouts at at the media server level - which in my

case is the VCB server - as the only backup jobs that

would affect were my VM jobs.

Dinny

Hi Dinny,

If I remember correctly that's only required for FULL backups of the VM's. If you are doing file level backups you are okay. I'd have to look again though. I have VMWARE readme issues.

Does everyone agree this is NOT ready for primetime? I'm the NB administrator at my site and it's really become ugly. I'm becoming more of a expert at their integration agent then their support engineers. More

than I ever wanted to be. :smileywink:

Message was edited by:

GlenC

[dinny]

Hi Glen,

You could well be right?

All my testing with file level backups was done after I'd increased the timeouts.

Though it may well be that if you mounted a large enough partition it could still exceeed the default 5 mins timeout?

I haven't found it to be too bad once you actually have it working - but the documentation could certainly be far more detailed.

I have the opposite problem to you - I suspect I'm starting to know far more about Netbackup than our Netbackup administrator. I guess it's something else for the CV though :smileyhappy:

Dinny

[GlenC]

Hi again Dinny,

Though it may well be that if you mounted a large

enough partition it could still exceeed the default 5

mins timeout?

I mounted a 104GB partition along with the 20GB "C" drive and backed up at file level without issues. Keeping the timeouts at their default 300. :smileywink:

[seniord]

If the VCB proxy is not a NetBackup Media or Master server then you need to make sure that the VCB server is listed in the 'bp.conf' file on the Master server.

You can confirm communication with the Master server by running 'bppinclude <policy name> -l' on the VCB server. This should list the contents of your backup policy.

Dan.

[korman]

Windows 2003 SP1 is a requirement for the VCB proxy server. A critical step in the setup process is to run the diskpart utility then the the command "automount disable" before[/b] presenting the ESX host LUNS to your server. Diskpart is not available on Windows 2000. The server does not have to be a Netbackup Media Server it can be a Netbackup Client. The client would allow you to use a UNIX, or any other flavor Media Server for that matter but your backup data will transverse your network with a Client only Software configuration. I backup my VMs to a dell MD1000 SATA II Array which is attached to the VCB proxy so my VCB proxy has the Netbackup SAN Media Server license which is less expensive then the full blown Media license and allows the VCB to backup to it's self only. As far as netbackup software is concerned when you backup your VMs you are simply backing up a file system local to the VCB sever. For example you will always brows or search backup history in Netbackup using the client name of the VCB server. There are notes in the readme about using DNS aliases to make this more granular.

Here is my working Setup:

Hardware[/b]

Dell PE1850

Single Emulex HBA (All ESX host luns which are backed up by the VCB proxy must be presented to the VCB's HBA - In storage terms... Zoned, Mapped, Masked, Shared )

MD1000 direct attached SATAII Array 7.0TB (This could be a stand alone tape drive, a Tape library, or a Shared Fibre Drive if you have the Shared Storage option for Netbackup)

Software[/b]

Windows 2003 SP1 Standard

Netbackup 5.0 MP4 SAN Media Server (or Client - again backups traffic will transverse the network with the client only)

VMware Consolidated Backup for ESX Server 3

Integration Module Integration to NetBackup

[padel]

Hi Korman,

i have the same configuration (Unix Netbackup master, W2K3 Mediaserver both in version 6.0 MP4.)

The vcbmounter cmd is ok. the bpbrowse-start script is ok.

A netbackup policiy is configured with "proxy_backup_fqdn" as client and "backup_path\vm_fqdn-Full-VM" as selected files.

But, i don't know why i have to do now. If i run policy backup, the VM is not mounted.

So, is it automatic, or have i to mount vm manually before the backup ?

Did you found a clear documentation about that ?

Thanks for your help.

PS: the scripts were added on netbackup/bin.

Pat

[korman]

The mounting is Automatic. You could be reaching the mount limit for one of your ESX hosts. There are limits when mounting Six or more virtual disk for backup something I also had problems with... Read this Knowledge base document Doc ID: 2185.

For example If you define a single Netbackup policy and set it to backup 4 VMs in the "backup selections" tab of the policy such as...

("c:\mnt" is the default location for the mount point)[/i]

"Backup Selections"

\----

---

C:\mnt\host1.domain.com\letters

C:\mnt\host2.domain.com\letters

C:\mnt\host3.domain.com\letters

C:\mnt\host4.domain.com\letters

\----

---

and each VM has two virtual Disks and alll VMs are on the same ESX host this job will fail with a Netbackup error 73 (i dont remember the exact syntax tot the error). When this Policy runs the VCB proxy will try and mount all of the Virtual disks before it starts writing the backup.

Hope this helps I am running late to meeting and rushing a bit

[padel]

Right,

but currently i'm just trying to backup 1VM full with 2 disks.

Is your VM backup policy launched by the Master (unix) or must be launched by the media (w2k3) ?

There is a special setting to do that on the Netbackup side or just "install" the integration module ?

When i launch the policy, the vm doesn't mount and the backup stop with error (don't found datas).

Thanks for your help.

[roy alexander]

Any luck with this issue?

I am plagued with the same problems. It seems that the bpstart_notify.bat does not do what it is supposed to do.

I have been working on this for three days straight but still no luck!

[GlenC]

Any luck with this issue?

I am plagued with the same problems. It seems that

the bpstart_notify.bat does not do what it is

supposed to do.

I have been working on this for three days straight

but still no luck!

What does the logfiles say in c:\windows\temp? it'll start with pre- and post. I am able to backup at a file level after many hours of debugging!

[GlenC]

Any luck with this issue?

I am plagued with the same problems. It seems that

the bpstart_notify.bat does not do what it is

supposed to do.

I have been working on this for three days straight

but still no luck!

Royii,

Here is what I did in my test environment.

I made 2 seperate policies. One to backup the VCB host and one to backup the VMWare VM's. I turned off "cross mount points" and excluded the "C:\mnt" from the policy that just backs up the VCB host. I created a second policy just to backup the VM's and turned on "cross mount points" which is required, else it will not backup anything.

I then modified bpstart_notify.bat and bpend_notify.bat to only run when the policy for backing up the VM's is run. I did this by renaming them to "bpstart_notify..bat". They will now only run when the policy for the VM's is run and in turn calls the integration agent.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Message was edited by:

GlenC

[roy alexander]

I've been having to spend time on another project but appreciate everyones input. So far, I have tested both full and file backups with no luck.

I add the server line to the bp.conf but no luck ... yet.

GlenC - Can you show me your modified bpstart and end files? That may be my problem if I am supposed to edit them. Or did you just rename them?

Thanks again.

[GlenC]

I've been having to spend time on another project but

appreciate everyones input. So far, I have tested

both full and file backups with no luck.

I add the server line to the bp.conf but no luck ...

yet.

GlenC - Can you show me your modified bpstart and end

files? That may be my problem if I am supposed to

edit them. Or did you just rename them?

Thanks again.

Oops! Sorry bout that. I meant rename them. I would also check to make sure the CR's are in the config.js file. I noticed then when the agent was installed on our system here we had to go back in and use wordpad and put CR's back in there.

[geckman]

Make sure you modify the bpstart_notify.bat and bpend_notify.bat names in the "\Program Files\VERITAS\NetBackup\bin" folder; not the "\Program Files\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework" folder. You can copy the batch file as many times as you want and rename it for new policies if you have multiple. NetBackup checks for any bpstart_ and bpend_ files when it runs its policies. That is how the call to the VCB utilities is made.

[bellopao]

Hello,

Seems that VMware Consolidated Backup integration module for NetBackup do not work.

I have a customer that had same problem, he start backup but Netbackup 6.0 do not backup VM.

This problem was with ESX 3.0.1, VC 2.0.1, VCB 1.0.2 and also with ESX 3.0.2, VC 2.0.2, VCB 1.0.3.

My customer says that he have solved modifying the file <vcb-framework-path>\netbackup\command.js

open file command.js find BACKUPROOT, you will find this line:

data = data[1].split(BACKUPROOT);

so change it with your VM mount point path, example:

data = data[1].split("C: \ \ MNT"); <----- ( type your path without spaces and with double backslash )

Let us know if it works

Bye

[korman]

I am launching my policy from the Admin console.

Can you mount the VMs disks with bpbrowse-start.bat?

[korman]

If you monitor your mount point on the VCB proxy, the default is "c:\mnt" do you see dynamic creation of the directories relevant to the VMs you are trying to backup?

[roy alexander]

Not when submitting a backup job from Veritas Admin console.

I can manually run the bpbrowse-start.bat file from the VCB server and see the mount point create.

I'm expecting this to happen when submitting a job from Veritas.

[korman]

How many VMs are yout trying to back up in each policy?

Correct - you will see the folder creation under the mount point when scheduling or running the backup from teh Admin console.

Message was edited by:

korman

[roy alexander]

I'm only trying to backup one vm.

[dinny]

Hiya,

I don't think the bpbrowse-start.bat actually references your netbackup policy - where as the bpstart_notify.bat does.

So I would double check your Netback policy.

Check out the following things:

Set your backup selection is set to a local area on the VCB server - just something like c:\windows[/b] does it work?

If not then it is failing with a Netbackup problem not specifically related to VCB.

Fix that first...

If that does work - then you know it is just the VM/VCB side of things...

Confirm you have a NB schedule set up with a valid time window.

Confirm the sysntax of your backup selection statement is correct.

Confirm that the client on the NB policy is set to be the VCB server.

Confirm that the Backup start notify timeout[/b] setting is sufficiently high

Confirm that the Client Read[/b] timeout is sufficiently high.

(both these can be set at the level of the media server as opposed to the master server if you are using VCB as a media server).

Try it with no pre-freeze-script.bat[/b] and post-thaw-script.bat[/b] (If you were using them)

Hopefully these steps will help to narrow down - if not fix - your problem?

Dinny

[roy alexander]

korman - Yes - bpbrowse_start.bat does work when launched manually but i don't see how vertitas calls that batch file. From what i can tell veritas call bpstart_notify.bat which will then call pre-command.bat from the vcb\netbackup folder.

My test of backing up just a directory on the vcb server worked only after i disabled cross mount points, so I know that veritas can see and do backups on the vcb box.

dinny - I have the nb schedule set to be able to run 24x7.

The syntax of my pathname is C:\mnt\ptsvweb1.enipetroleum.pri-FullVM . that is the fqdn of the server I am testing with.

I had the backup start notify timeout set to 1500 but lowered it since i was having to wait 25 minutes for the failure error. Now it is set to 300.

I had the client read timeout also set to 1500 but also lowered it for the same reason.

And lastly I don't use pre_freeze. Never heard of it but maybe towards the end here.

GlenC - you may have something there. My master and media server are both the same and a unix host. my vcb proxy box originally only had the veritas client but since reading some other posts i have installed the admin console which required a key file that somehow I managed to find one. this installed a lot additional files inlcuding the bpplinclude.exe. I did not do anything additional to my master server configuration (ie adding another media server). when i try to run the dos command bpplinclude -l

i get the response 'operation requested by an invalid server'. Don't know if this is key but ... at this point I just don't know.

I 've spent three solid days working on it and made progress but I think i'm finally stumped. So what did it cost to license the bppinclude?

[GlenC]

GlenC - you may have something there. My master and

media server are both the same and a unix host. my

vcb proxy box originally only had the veritas client

but since reading some other posts i have installed

the admin console which required a key file that

somehow I managed to find one. this installed a lot

additional files inlcuding the bpplinclude.exe. I

did not do anything additional to my master server

configuration (ie adding another media server). when

i try to run the dos command bpplinclude -l

i get the response 'operation requested by an invalid

server'. Don't know if this is key but ... at this

point I just don't know.

Royiii,

You need to add the VCB server to the bp.conf on your master. Else

you won't be able to use the bpplinclude command.

Add:

SERVER =

That should fix that problem.

In regards to the license cost...I spoke with your Symantec SE and got a temporary license key. If we end up rolling out the VCB officially then we'll have to take a look at how much it's going to cost us.

Message was edited by:

GlenC

[korman]

Royii,

Try the same backup with the file level option

\----

---

C:\mnt\ptsvweb1.enipetroleum.pri\letters

\----

---

Dont specify the drive letters and it will catch all your virtual hard disks.

The timeout settings are relevant for the Full option when netbackup needs to read the large VMDK files.

Glen-

Good catch with the Admin Console Requirment, I was not aware of that, and I agree 100% this product is not ready for primetime.

[dinny]

Hiya,

My test of backing up just a directory on the vcb

server worked only after i disabled cross mount

points, so I know that veritas can see and do backups

on the vcb box.

I don't understand why you would need to turn off the mountpoints - mine does both OK with that setting on?

I had the backup start notify timeout set to 1500 but

lowered it since i was having to wait 25 minutes for

the failure error. Now it is set to 300.

How big is your VM - if it is small the timeout should be OK - if it is large it would need extending.

If you can use vcbmounter manually - time how long it takes to put all the files under c:\mnt from your snapshot - your timeout will need to be at least that long - plus a bit to allow for a busy LAN maybe?

but since reading some other posts i have installed

the admin console which required a key file that

somehow I managed to find one. this installed a lot

additional files inlcuding the bpplinclude.exe.

I would be temped to un-install then re-install VCB and the NB integration module after doing this - as some of these files may be pre-requisites for the install procedure?

Dinny

[yorkie]

Alrite spud, you are probably way past this now - but for future Searchers...