Veritas NetBackup™ for Hyper-V Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.3.0.1, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1.2, 8.1.1)
  1. Introduction
    1.  
      About Hyper-V
    2.  
      NetBackup for Hyper-V environment
    3.  
      Hyper-V terminology related to backup
    4.  
      Basic phases in a NetBackup backup of a Hyper-V virtual machine
    5.  
      NetBackup administrator tasks for Hyper-V
    6.  
      Quick reference for troubleshooting
  2. Notes and prerequisites
    1.  
      NetBackup for Hyper-V prerequisites
    2.  
      NetBackup for Hyper-V notes and restrictions
    3.  
      NetBackup character restrictions for Hyper-V virtual machine display names
    4.  
      NetBackup character restrictions for vhd or vhdx names and the VM path when the Enable file recovery from VM backup option is used
    5.  
      Notes on Linux virtual machines
  3. Configure NetBackup communication with Hyper-V
    1.  
      Changing the NetBackup Legacy Network Service logon (vnetd.exe) to the domain user account
    2.  
      Setting global limits on the use of Hyper-V resources
  4. Configure NetBackup policies for Hyper-V
    1.  
      Creating a Hyper-V policy from the Policy Configuration Wizard
    2.  
      Creating a Hyper-V policy from the NetBackup Policies utility
    3.  
      Limit jobs per policy on the Attributes tab (for Hyper-V)
    4.  
      Virtual machine host names and display names should be unique if VMs are selected manually in the policy
    5. Backup options on the Hyper-V tab
      1.  
        Optimization options (Hyper-V)
      2.  
        Primary VM identifier option (Hyper-V)
      3.  
        Enable offline backup of non-VSS VMs (Hyper-V with VSS)
      4.  
        Cluster shared volumes timeout (Hyper-V with VSS)
    6. Hyper-V - Advanced Attributes
      1.  
        Provider Type configuration parameter (VSS)
      2.  
        Snapshot Attribute configuration parameter (VSS)
      3.  
        Virtual disk selection parameter (WMI)
      4.  
        Existing snapshot handling parameter (WMI)
      5.  
        Consistency level parameter (WMI)
      6.  
        About the exclude disk options for virtual disk selection
      7.  
        Virtual disk selection options: an example to avoid
      8.  
        Restoring data from the backups that excluded the boot disk or data disks
    7. Browse for Hyper-V virtual machines
      1.  
        About cached names for virtual machine backup
    8.  
      Prerequisites for alternate client backup of a virtual machine (VSS)
    9.  
      Configuring alternate client backup of virtual machines
    10.  
      Requirements for a NetBackup client inside the virtual machine
  5. Configure Hyper-V Intelligent Policies
    1.  
      About Hyper-V Intelligent Policy (automatic selection of virtual machines for backup)
    2.  
      The basics of a NetBackup query rule
    3.  
      Important notes on Hyper-V Intelligent Policy
    4.  
      NetBackup requirements for Hyper-V Intelligent Policy
    5.  
      Setting up Hyper-V Intelligent Policy: Task overview
    6.  
      Options for selecting Hyper-V virtual machines
    7.  
      Creating a Hyper-V policy for automatic virtual machine selection
    8.  
      Editing a query in Basic Mode
    9.  
      Using the Query Builder in Advanced Mode
    10.  
      AND vs. OR in queries
    11.  
      Examples for the NetBackup Query Builder
    12.  
      The IsSet operator in queries
    13.  
      About selecting virtual machines by means of multiple policies
    14.  
      Order of operations in queries (precedence rules)
    15.  
      Parentheses in compound queries
    16.  
      Query rules for virtual machine Notes that contain a newline character
    17.  
      Query Builder field reference
    18.  
      Test Query screen for Hyper-V
    19.  
      Test Query: Failed virtual machines
    20.  
      Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on Selection column in Test Query results
    21.  
      Effect of Primary VM identifier parameter on VM Name column in Test query results
    22.  
      Restoring a VM that was backed up with a Hyper-V Intelligent Policy and that has a pass-through disk
  6. NetBackup Hyper-V for SCVMM
    1.  
      About backup of virtual machines in an SCVMM environment
    2.  
      Notes on NetBackup for Hyper-V with SCVMM
    3.  
      Creating a query to back up VMs in a localized SCVMM environment
  7. Windows Server failover cluster support
    1.  
      About virtual machines on Windows 2008, 2012, and 2016 failover clusters
    2.  
      Notes on CSV backup and restore
    3.  
      Creating a policy for virtual machines in a cluster
    4.  
      Location of the restored virtual machine in a cluster
    5. Virtual machine maintenance after a restore
      1.  
        Removal of cluster resources during restore
    6.  
      Hyper-V restore may fail if the VM was created on a CSV and the CSV is a reparse point on the destination drive
  8. Back up and restore Hyper-V
    1.  
      Backing up Hyper-V virtual machines
    2.  
      WMI backup method: State of the virtual machine before and after restore
    3.  
      Notes on individual file restore
    4.  
      Notes on full virtual machine restore
    5.  
      About restoring individual files
    6.  
      Restoring individual files to a host that has a NetBackup client
    7.  
      Restore Marked Files dialog for restore of individual files
    8. Restoring individual files to a shared location on the virtual machine
      1.  
        Setting up NetBackup Client Service for restore to a shared location on the virtual machine
    9.  
      Restoring the full Hyper-V virtual machine
    10.  
      Restore Marked Files dialog for restore of the Hyper-V virtual machine
    11.  
      About restoring common files
    12.  
      The BAR interface may list Hyper-V snapshot files when you browse to restore Hyper-V VM files
  9. Use Accelerator to back up Hyper-V
    1.  
      About the NetBackup Accelerator for virtual machines
    2.  
      Accelerator: full vs. incremental schedules
    3.  
      How the NetBackup Accelerator works with virtual machines
    4.  
      Accelerator notes and requirements for virtual machines
    5.  
      Accelerator forced rescan for virtual machines (schedule attribute)
    6.  
      Accelerator requires the OptimizedImage attribute
    7.  
      Accelerator backups and the NetBackup catalog
    8.  
      Accelerator messages in the backup job details log
    9.  
      NetBackup logs for Accelerator with virtual machines
    10.  
      About reporting the amount of Accelerator backup data that was transferred over the network
    11.  
      Replacing the Accelerator image size with the network-transferred data in NetBackup command output
  10. Best practices and more information
    1.  
      Best practices
  11. Troubleshooting
    1. NetBackup logs for Hyper-V and how to create them
      1.  
        Enabling VxFI logging
      2.  
        Configuring VxMS and vhd logging
      3.  
        Format of the VxMS core.log and provider.log file names
    2. Errors during policy creation
      1.  
        NetBackup policy validation failed
    3. NetBackup status codes related to Hyper-V
      1.  
        Snapshot error encountered (status code 156)
    4.  
      Backup job hangs for multiple virtual machines
    5.  
      Viewing or resizing Windows NTFS shadow storage
    6.  
      The Hyper-V integration component is not installed
    7.  
      LDM volumes and status code 1
    8.  
      Hyper-V snapshots (avhd or avhdx files) and status code 1
    9.  
      Unable to log in to the NetBackup Administration Console
    10.  
      When backing up the virtual machines that reside on the same CSV, Windows warning 1584 can be ignored
    11.  
      Problems with alternate client backup
    12.  
      Restored virtual machine fails to start
    13.  
      Problem with a restart of a restored virtual machine: Why did the computer shut down unexpectedly?
    14.  
      Problems with restore of individual files
    15.  
      Problems with restore of the full virtual machine
    16.  
      Unable to change virtual disk settings for a VM after restore if the VM had user checkpoints during a backup that used the WMI method
    17.  
      Increasing the WMI create disk time-out value
    18.  
      Linux VMs and persistent device naming
  12. Appendix A. VSS backup method: Hyper-V online and offline backups
    1.  
      About Hyper-V online and offline backups for VSS
    2.  
      Conditions that determine online vs. offline backup for VSS
    3.  
      Additional notes on offline backups with VSS
    4.  
      Hyper-V 2012 R2 virtual machines may be in the Off state when restored
  13. Appendix B. Hyper-V pass-through disks
    1.  
      About Hyper-V pass-through disks with NetBackup
    2.  
      Configurations for backing up pass-through disks
    3.  
      Requirements for backing up Hyper-V pass-through disks
    4.  
      Restrictions for Hyper-V pass-through disks
    5.  
      Configuring a local snapshot backup of Hyper-V pass-through disks
    6.  
      About alternate client backup of pass-through disks
    7.  
      Configuring an alternate client backup of Hyper-V pass-through disks
    8.  
      Important note on VSS and disk arrays
  14. Appendix C. NetBackup commands to back up and restore Hyper-V virtual machines
    1.  
      Using NetBackup commands to create a Hyper-V policy
    2.  
      Using NetBackup commands to create a Hyper-V Intelligent Policy
    3.  
      The bpplinfo options for Hyper-V policies
    4.  
      bpplinclude options for modifying query rules in Hyper-V policies
    5. Examples of nbrestorevm for restoring VMs to Hyper-V
      1.  
        Hyper-V examples of restore to original location
      2.  
        Hyper-V examples of restore to alternate locations
    6.  
      The nbrestorevm -R rename file for Hyper-V
    7.  
      Notes on troubleshooting the nbrestorevm command for Hyper-V
    8.  
      Logs for troubleshooting the nbrestorevm command

Basic phases in a NetBackup backup of a Hyper-V virtual machine

The following tables describe the phases of the NetBackup backup process for the two Hyper-V backup methods: VSS and WMI.

Table: VSS backup method: Phases of NetBackup for Hyper-V backup

Phase

Description

Phase 1

The NetBackup master server initiates the backup.

Phase 2

The NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host initiates a snapshot.

Phase 3

On Windows 2012 hosts and earlier: The VSS Hyper-V writer quiesces the Windows virtual machine (places the data in a consistent state) and creates the snapshot on the host volume. If the Hyper-V writer cannot quiesce the virtual machine, the virtual machine is placed in the Saved state before creation of the snapshot.

On Windows 2012 R2 hosts and later: The Hyper-V writer quiesces the Windows virtual machine and creates a .avhd or .avhdx snapshot on the host volume. The following Microsoft article contains more details on Hyper-V backup on 2012 R2 hosts:

How Hyper-V Backup Got Better in 2012 R2

Phase 4

On Windows 2012 hosts and earlier: If the virtual machine was placed in the Saved state, Hyper-V returns the virtual machine to its original state.

Phase 5

The NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host reads the data from the snapshot of the virtual machine and transfers the data to the media server. The media server writes the data to the NetBackup storage unit.

Phase 6

The NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host deletes the host volume snapshot.

Table: WMI backup method: Phases of NetBackup for Hyper-V backup

Phase

Description

Phase 1

The NetBackup master server initiates the backup.

Phase 2

The NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host initiates a virtual machine snapshot (checkpoint).

Phase 3

On Windows 2016 hosts or later, the NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host creates a virtual machine snapshot (checkpoint).

  • If the Hyper-V policy Consistency level option is set to Application Consistent or Application Consistent Then Crash Consistent: The VSS integration services component inside the guest OS attempts to quiesce the virtual machine.

  • If the Hyper-V policy Consistency level option is set to Crash Consistent: The virtual machine is not quiesced.

If the backup uses block-level incremental backup (BLIB), the snapshot is converted to a reference point. Resilient change tracking (RCT) is used to perform faster backup of the virtual machines by moving only the blocks that have changed between backups.

As a result of the virtual machine snapshot (checkpoint), the .avhd or .avhdx files are created for the virtual machine. All subsequent writes from the virtual machine go to these files.

Note:

The Consistency level option is set on the policy's Hyper-V tab, under Advanced....

Phase 4

The NetBackup client reads the data directly from the virtual machine files on the Hyper-V host and transfers the data to the media server. The media server writes the data to the storage unit.

Phase 5

The NetBackup client on the Hyper-V host deletes the virtual machine snapshot (checkpoint). As a result, the.avhd or .avhdx files that were created during the backup are merged back into the original virtual machine disks.