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NetBackup™ for VMware Administrator's Guide
Last Published:
2024-09-30
Product(s):
NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.5)
- Introduction
- About NetBackup for VMware
- About the virtual machine backups that include database data
- About the NetBackup appliance as a VMware backup host
- NetBackup for VMware components
- Appliance as backup host: component overview
- Media servers as backup or discovery hosts
- Overview of the VMware backup process
- NetBackup for VMware terminology
- Required tasks: overview
- Configuring RBAC roles for VMware administrators
- RBAC roles for the VMware administrator
- Assigning permissions at specific VMware object levels
- Create a custom role for a VMware server or datacenter
- Create a custom role for an Organization VDC administrator
- Create a custom role to manage specific VMs
- Manage permissions for a datacenter
- Manage permissions for a single VM
- Apply RBAC role permissions for a VM to other VMs
- Notes and prerequisites
- NetBackup for VMware: notes and restrictions
- Notes on VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)
- NetBackup IPv6 parameter required for backups in VMware IPv6 environments
- NetBackup for VMware: notes on Linux virtual machines
- Notes on the NetBackup appliance as a VMware backup host
- NetBackup for VMware support for SAN multi-pathing
- NetBackup for VMware support for fault tolerant VMs
- NetBackup character restrictions for the Primary VM identifier
- In the policy Query Builder, display names, resource pool names, and vApp names are case-sensitive
- Notes on the hotadd transport mode
- Notes and limitations for tag usage in VMware Intelligent Policy queries
- Notes and limitations for the backup and restore of VMware tag associations
- Notes and limitations for the backup and restore of VMware storage policies
- Support for LVM thin pool based volumes
- VMware vSphere privileges
- About VMware vSphere privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for virtual machine backups
- VMware vSphere privileges for a full VM restore
- VMware vSphere privileges to create an instant access VM
- VMware vSphere privileges for NetBackup plug-in operations
- VMware vSphere privileges for instant rollback
- VMware vSphere privileges for agentless SFR privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for individual vmdk restore privileges
- VMware vSphere privileges for vApp restore and vApp restore to template
- Optional permissions for better integration with VMware vSphere
- Managing VMware servers
- About VMware discovery
- Add VMware servers
- Validate and update VMware server credentials
- Browse VMware servers
- Remove VMware servers
- Create an intelligent VM group
- Remove an intelligent VM group
- Add a VMware access host
- Remove a VMware access host
- Change resource limits for VMware resource types
- Setting privileges for posting events to vCenter
- Authentication token for the NetBackup vSphere plug-ins
- Validating VMware virtualization server certificates in NetBackup
- Configuring backup policies for VMware
- Configure a VMware policy
- Limit jobs per policy on the Attributes tab (for VMware)
- Backup options on the VMware tab
- Exclude disks tab
- Browse for VMware virtual machines
- Limiting the VMware servers that NetBackup searches when browsing for virtual machines
- Virtual machine host names and display names should be unique if VMs are selected manually in the policy
- Primary VM identifier option and manual selection of virtual machines
- About incremental backups of virtual machines
- Configuring incremental backups
- Storage Foundation Volume Manager volumes in the virtual machine
- Configuring a VMware Intelligent Policy
- About automatic virtual machine selection for NetBackup for VMware
- Support and use of VMware tag associations
- The basics of a NetBackup query rule
- Important notes on automatic virtual machine selection
- NetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine selection
- Automatic virtual machine selection: Task overview
- Options for selecting VMware virtual machines
- About the Reuse VM selection query results option
- Configure automatic virtual machine selection
- Editing an existing query in Basic mode
- Using the Query Builder in Advanced mode
- AND vs. OR in queries
- Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder
- The IsSet operator in queries
- About selecting virtual machines by means of multiple policies
- Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)
- Parentheses in compound queries
- Query rules for resource pools
- Query rules for datacenter folders (host folder)
- Query rules for duplicate names
- Query rules for tags
- Query Builder field reference
- Test Query screen for VMware
- Test Query: Failed virtual machines
- Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on Selection column in Test Query results
- Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on VM Name column in Test query results
- Refreshing the display of virtual environment changes in the Query Builder
- Reducing the time required for VM discovery in a large VMware environment
- Use Accelerator to back up virtual machines
- About the NetBackup Accelerator for virtual machines
- Accelerator: full vs. incremental schedules
- How the NetBackup Accelerator works with virtual machines
- Accelerator notes and requirements for virtual machines
- Accelerator forced rescan for virtual machines (schedule attribute)
- Accelerator requires the OptimizedImage attribute
- Accelerator backups and the NetBackup catalog
- Accelerator messages in the backup job details log
- About reporting the amount of Accelerator backup data that was transferred over the network
- Replacing the Accelerator image size with the network-transferred data in NetBackup command output
- Configuring protection plans for VMware
- Malware scan
- Instant access
- Instant rollback
- Continuous data protection
- About continuous data protection
- CDP terminology
- CDP architecture
- Prerequisites
- Capacity-based licensing for CDP
- Steps to configure CDP
- Removing VMs from the CDP gateway
- Defining the CDP gateway
- Sizing considerations
- Limiting concurrent CDP backup jobs
- Controlling full sync
- Monitoring CDP jobs
- Using accelerators with CDP
- Recovering CDP protected VMs
- Some limitations of CDP
- Troubleshooting for CDP
- Backing up virtual machines
- VM recovery
- VMware agentless restore
- Restoring Individual files and folders from VMware backups
- Using NetBackup to back up Cloud Director environments
- About NetBackup for vCloud Director
- Notes on creating a NetBackup policy for vCloud
- Notes on restoring virtual machines into vCloud Director
- Recover VMware Cloud Director virtual machines
- Restore a vApp template that has multiple virtual machines
- Reducing the time required for VM discovery in a large vCloud environment
- Restore virtual machines with Instant Recovery
- About Instant Recovery for VMware
- Task overview for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Performance recommendations for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Requirements for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Notes on Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restarting the Client for NFS service on a Windows restore host
- Instant Recovery options on the nbrestorevm command
- Restoring a virtual machine with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restoring a virtual machine to a different location with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Restoring individual files with Instant Recovery for VMware while the current virtual machine is running
- Job types for Instant Recovery for VMware
- Reactivating a restored virtual machine with Instant Recovery for VMware
- Protecting VMs using hardware snapshots and replication
- About virtual machines and hardware snapshots
- Deployment and architecture
- Features and applications supported
- Prerequisites for hardware snapshot and replication
- Operations supported with hardware snapshot
- Configuring a VMware policy to use hardware snapshots
- Configuring a VMware policy to use NetBackup snapshot manager replication
- Jobs in the Activity Monitor that use hardware snapshot for VMs
- Notes and limitations
- Troubleshooting with VMware hardware snapshot and replication operations
- Best practices and more information
- Troubleshooting VMware operations
- NetBackup logging for VMware
- Troubleshooting VMware backups
- Troubleshooting the restore of VMware and restores of files
- Troubleshooting the adding of VMware servers
- Troubleshooting the browsing of VMware servers
- Troubleshooting the status for a newly discovered VM
- Troubleshooting policy configuration
- Troubleshooting the download of files from an instant access VM
- Troubleshooting backups and restores of excluded virtual disks
- How to determine the ESX network that NetBackup used for the backup or restore
- Preventing browsing delays caused by DNS problems
- Changing the browsing timeout for virtual machine discovery
- Changing timeout and logging values for vSphere
- Credentials for VMware server are not valid
- Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)
- Conflict between NetBackup and VMware Storage vMotion with vSphere 5.0 or later
- Backup or restore job hangs
- VMware SCSI requirements for application quiesce on Windows
- VMware virtual machine does not restart after restore
- A restored VM may not start or its file system(s) may not be accessible
- NetBackup job fails due to update tasks on the VMware server
- The vSphere interface reports that virtual machine consolidation is needed
- Linux VMs and persistent device naming
- For a VMware virtual machine with Windows dynamic disks, a restore from incremental backup fails with a Windows restore host and the hotadd transport mode
- Simultaneous hotadd backups (from the same VMware backup host) fail with status 13
- Troubleshooting VMware tag usage
- Ensuring that guest customizations can be restored in vCloud Director
- Troubleshooting vmdk restore to existing VM
- Troubleshooting backups of virtual machines on Virtual Volumes (VVols)
- Issues with the CA certificate during installation of the NetBackup client on VMware Cloud (VMC)
- Appendix A. Configuring services for NFS on Windows
- About installing and configuring Network File System (NFS) for Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
- About configuring services for NFS on Windows 2012 or 2016 (NetBackup for VMware)
- Disabling the Server for NFS (NetBackup for VMware)
- Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server (NetBackup for VMware)
- Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows backup or restore host for Granular Recovery Technology (NetBackup for VMware)
- Configuring a different network port for NBFSD (NetBackup for VMware)
- Appendix B. Backups of VMware raw devices (RDM)
Changing timeout and logging values for vSphere
Table: DWORD keys and defaults for vSphere timeouts lists the vSphere keys and their default values for various timeouts. These values can be changed on the backup host (see the procedure in this topic).
Table: DWORD keys and defaults for vSphere timeouts
DWORD key name | Default value (in seconds) |
|---|---|
jobtimeout | 900 |
poweroptimeout | 900 |
snapshottimeout | 900 |
registertimeout | 180 |
browsetimeout | 180 |
connecttimeout | 300 |
The key and default for the vSphere API logging level are the following.
Table: DWORD key and default for vSphere API log level
DWORD key name | Default value |
|---|---|
vmcloglevel | 0 (no logging) |
Changes to the vSphere API logging level affect the following logs on the backup host:
For backups (snapshot creation): bpfis log
For restores: bpVMutil log
For virtual machine discovery: ncfnbcs log (originator ID 366)
The logs are in the following location on the backup host:
Windows: install_path\NetBackup\logs\
Linux: /usr/openv/netbackup/logs
To change vSphere timeouts and logging values on Windows
- On the Windows desktop of the backup host, click Start > Run and enter regedit.
- To be on the safe side, make a backup of the current registry (File > Export).
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Veritas > NetBackup > CurrentVersion > CONFIG and create a key that is called BACKUP.
- To change a timeout value, create a new DWORD under BACKUP, using the appropriate registry name (such as jobtimeout or poweroptimeout).
Enter a value for the timeout.
- To change the level of vSphere API logging, create a new DWORD called vmcloglevel and enter the new logging value.
The allowed values are 0 through 6, where 0 is no logging and 6 is the highest log level.
To change vSphere timeouts and logging values on Linux
- On the Linux backup host, create (or open) the following file:
/usr/openv/netbackup/virtualization.conf - To change a timeout value, enter a new dword line under [BACKUP], using the appropriate name (such as jobtimeout or poweroptimeout). Include a value for the timeout.
For example:
[BACKUP] "jobtimeout"=dword:60
This example sets the job timeout to 60 seconds.
Note: If the file already contains a [BACKUP] line, do not add another [BACKUP] line. Any other lines that already exist under [BACKUP] should remain as they are.
- To change the level of vSphere API logging, enter a dword line for vmcloglevel with a logging value, under [BACKUP]. For example:
"vmcloglevel"=dword:6
The allowed values are 0 through 6, where 0 is no logging and 6 is the highest log level.