VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘vcb’

Looking for a comparison of VM backup solutions? PHD Technologies, makers of esXpress, have put together a matrix of features comparing how their product stacks up to VMware’s VCB, Vizioncore’s vRanger, and even vRanger integrated with VCB.

Check it out online in original form here.

I have saved the matrix as a stand alone page as well.

updated 12-11-07 *****

After reading comments from readers I realized Read the rest of this entry »

Live Demonstration of VCB and Netbackup

The link above is a recorded demo of using VCB integrated with Netbackup. It’s a great 15 minute recording that demonstrates how to run full VM backups and file level restores using the familiar Netbackup interface.

The demo also covers how to set up a special Virtual Center user and role in order to avoid compromising the password of an administrator account in the vcb configuration file. The presenter also covers the use of a network share to get the restored files to the original source VM.

If a picture is worth a thousand words then at 25 frames per second …. well, you do the math!

It’s always an afterthought. The client bought VI3 Enterprise so they know they have VCB. Everybody is talking about live VM backups so what’s the big deal? Sounds like it’s simple to start backing up VMs and maybe even reducing the cost of your backup agent licensing, right? Well, if you haven’t planned for it, then not really.

It’s not that it’s difficult to install VCB. It’s understanding what is needed to use it. I’ve heard VMware themselves say it’s not the whole solution. It’s just a framework of scripts to help integrate the enterprise backup solution with the virtual environment. Here’s how VMware’s Virtual Machine Backup Guide puts it:

Consolidated Backup consists of a set of utilities and scripts that work in conjunction with a third party backup software. To ensure that Consolidated Backup works with specific backup software, either VMware or your backup software vendor provide integration modules containing any required pre backup and post backup scripts. The third party software, integration module, and Consolidated Backup run on the VCB proxy, a physical machine that has Microsoft Windows 2003 installed.

Here’s what you need to configure before you install VCB.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently installed the latest version of Vizioncore’s vRangerPro and ran into an issue where 2 of the VMs would not complete a backup. All of the other VMs would complete without issue. Both backup jobs would stall at the “Acquiring VM Lock. This may take many minutes!” message in the job console window. I had to manually cancel the first stalled job (using CTRL + C) before the second job would begin and eventually stall in the same spot.

I was using vRanger installed with VCB 1.0.3 on the same server. The backup was going to a local NTFS drive. The job was configured with VCB integration.

I was able to get the jobs to work by

1. Canceling the stalled active backup job (Ctrl + C)
2. Deleting the job’s leftover VM’s snapshot (and committing the changes). BE SURE TO DO THIS BEFORE CONTINUING!!!!
3. removing the .vzmutex file from the VM’s volume folder. (using WinSCP)
4. I also removed all of the .log files (except for the active one) and .vzsnp files as well. (This step was just folder cleanup and not necessary to get the jobs working)

The file attached to this post is the VMWorld 2007 “Leveraging VMware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery” lab materials. I am posting this for those that did not get to go to VMWorld and do not have an ID to log on to the VMWorld site.

This .pdf illustrates the requirements for VCB as well as the step by step technical details of using the VCB framework for backing up VMs, restoring VMs, and restoring files.

VCB for DR VMworld 2007 Lab

updated 01.29.08 – You can also download this lab from my Files Page.

These are my notes I used to prepare for a discussion with a client about implementing a secondary site for DR fail over. The client has already virtualized their production data center and is wanting to leverage VI for DR. The point of my discussion is that VI is too often viewed as a “silver bullet” for tough projects like back up and fail over. Yes, there are some specific areas that are easier to implement with VI, but careful consideration and planning must be executed if the overall DR plan is to be successful.

Goals and Objectives – the customer must make important decisions first !

· Recovery Time Objectives – acceptable time to start up systems and allow user access

requires server by server analysis

· Recovery Point Objectives – acceptable point in time recovery or start up at secondary site

requires application by application analysis

· Mission Critical Services

which applications & services must be available first.

Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t have the budget for the required infrastructure of VCB backups? Try esXpress from PHD technologies. I mean literally, try their free 30 day, fully functioning, fully supported demo that can back up live VMs to a dedicated VMFS partition, an FTP server, or both! After the 30 days you can continue to perform daily full backups for FREE!

Once you install it on all your ESX hosts, you can configure the backups from a basic console GUI or integrated within the VI client connected to the VC2 server.

Read the rest of this entry »