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How to troubleshoot NetBackup for VMWare vSphere backup/restore in NetBackup 8.x, 9.x, 10.x in Windows environment

Article: 100022695
Last Published: 2020-09-07
Ratings: 3 0
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection

Problem

How to troubleshoot NetBackup for VMWare vSphere backup/restore in NetBackup 8.x, 9.x, 10.x  in Windows environment

Solution


NetBackup now uses the vSphere vStorage api to perform backups and restore directly to the ESX or Virtual Center server.  With this new method comes some changes in our troubleshooting procedure which will be seen below.

Here are the logs to review and the event to review them in:

Browsing for Virtual Machine:
 

Create a DWORD (32-bit) with name VERBOSE and value of 5 in 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config

VMWare Backup Host logs:
 

     INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpVMutil\<date>.log

INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpcd\ <date>.log
 
Master Server logs:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bprd\ <date>.log 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\nbproxy\ <date>.log
 
Backup Time:
Parent Job: (Snapshot Job)
 
VMWare Backup Host logs:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpfis\<date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpcd\ <date>.log
 
Media Server side logs:
 
I NSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpbrm\ <date>.log
 
ESX Server side logs:
 
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log
 
 
Virtual Center:
 
Check for Snapshot Errors from the Virtual Machine.

Child Job: (Backup Job)
 
VMWare Backup Host:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpbkar\<date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpcd\ <date>.log 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\VxMS\
(See Additional information on configuring VxMS logging below)
 
Server side logs:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpbrm\<date>.log 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bptm\ <date>.log
 
ESX Server side logs:
 
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log 
 
Restore Time:
 
VMWare Backup Host logs:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\tar\ <date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpcd\ <date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpVMutil\ <date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\VxMS\
(See Additional information on configuring VxMS logging below)
 
see Also:
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/article.100038096.html

TAR is now nbrestore for VMware Restores:
OID 357 - /usr/openv/logs/ncfnbrestore

To configure ncfnbrestore run:
vxlogcfg -a -p NB -o 356 -s DebugLevel=6
vxlogcfg -a -p NB -o 357 -s DebugLevel=6

To view nbrestore for the last 30 minutes run:
vxlogview -p NB -o 356 -i 357 -d all -t 00:30:00 > nbrestore.txt

 
Media Server logs:
 
INSTALL_PATHVeritas\NetBackup\logs\bpbrm\ <date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bptm\ <date>.log 
 
Master Server logs:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bprd\ <date>.log
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\nbproxy\ <date>.log
 
Machine where Backup Archive and Restore( nbwin) is running from:
 
INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\logs\bpvmreq\<date>.log
 
In the previous versions of NetBackup for VMWare, when a VMWare component fails our logs would capture the VMWare logs.  In NetBackup, it will be necessary to increase the vmcloglevel to capture additional information from the VMWare Tools.

Modify the following registry on the VMware Backup Host to gather additional information in the NetBackup log perform the VMWare task.
 
 
Location:
 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config\BACKUP
Value: vmcloglevel
 
Value type: DWORD
 
Unit: second
 
Input range: 1 to 6 (default = 0)
 

Using vmcloglevel 3 will show API errors and 6 is used for debugging the API code.  Level 3 should be sufficient for technical support.
 

Additional information on configuring VxMS logging:

To configure VxMS logging on a Windows backup host

Create the VxMS log directory:
install_path\NetBackup\logs\vxms

Note: For logging to occur, the VxMS folder must exist.

In the Windows registry, create the DWORD registry entry VXMS_VERBOSE in the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Veritas>NetBackup>CurrentVersion>Config

For possible VDDK issues:
VXMS_VERBOSE = 5

For Mapping issues during the VMware Backup, use:
VXMS_VERBOSE = 8

Note: VXMS_VERBOSE = 8 will slow down backups and restore operations.

By default VDDK logs are embedded into VxMS logs.  To collect VDDK logs separately, then add the following registry entry:Add "createVDDKlog" DWORD entry under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VERITAS\VxMS\" and set its value to 1.  This will generate VDDK-*.log files in the VxMS log folder.

 

To change the log location:

Open regedit and go to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Veritas>NetBackup>CurrentVersion

Create the registry entry vxmslogdir with a string value (REG_SZ). For the string value, specify the full path to an existing folder.
Note: You can use NTFS compression on VxMS log folders to compress the log size. The new logs are written in compressed form only.

Logging for Query based policy:

VMware Intelligent Policy query will be logged in the following unified log:

ncfnbcs - OID 366
ncfvmwarepi - OID 386

To enable the logging

 

 INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\vxlogcfg -a -p 51216 -o 366 -s DebugLevel=6

            INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\vxlogcfg -a -p 51216 -o 386 -s DebugLevel=6

 

The following command will return the last 5 minutes of the above logs:

 

INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\vxlogview -p NB -i ncfnbcs -t 00:05:00

NBDISCOVERY will also be logged in the following Unified Log:

ncfnbdiscover - OID 377

 

INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\vxlogcfg -a -p 51216 -o 377 -s DebugLevel=6

 

The following example will return the last 5 minutes of a nbdiscovery command:

 

# INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\vxlogview -i 377 -t 00:05:00 >

 

For Instant Recovery Logging

Enable  bprd logging on Master Server

Create folder bprd in INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\Logs

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config
 
Value: BPRD_VERBOSE
 
Value type: DWORD
 
Value Data = 5
 

They are 3 main steps performed during Instant Recovery:

 - Export a backup image
 - Mount a backup image
 - Activate VM

If any of these steps failed “Activate Instant Recovery” job logs will have details about the failure and error code.

If Export a backup image fails look at INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\nbfsd on media server.
Mount backup image fails look at INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\nbfsd on VM Proxy host and also the Virtual Center Task and Events.
Activate VM fails look at INSTALL_PATH\Veritas\NetBackup\bpVMutil on VM Proxy host and also the Virtual Center Task and Events.

 

 

 

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