Virtual Machine Backup User's Guide Version 5.3

Transcription

1 Virtual Machine Backup User's Guide Version 5.3 Last Revised: January 04, 2016 STORServer, Incorporated 485-B Elkton Drive Colorado Springs, CO

2 January STORServer, Incorporated No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without written permission of STORServer. While STORServer believes the information included in this publication is correct as of the date of publication, it is subject to change without notice. STORServer shall not be liable for technical errors, omissions, or consequential damages. STORServer is a registered trademark of STORServer, Incorporated. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Incorporated. IBM and Tivoli are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

3 Contents ABOUT STORSERVER VMB 1 About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup 1 VMB backup technologies 2 Comparison of TSM for VE and VDDK backup technologies 4 VMB backup types 11 CONFIGURING STORSERVER VMB 15 Post-installation configuration tasks 15 Roadmap for configuring a STORServer VMB server and client 15 Roadmap for configuring a standalone STORServer VMB client 15 Defining or modifying STORServer VMB configuration settings 16 License requirements 17 Configuring VMB servers to use the STORServer License Server 18 Viewing license status 19 Replacing a trial license with a production license 21 Purchasing additional licenses 22 Revoking licenses for reuse 22 Configuring VMB database connections 23 Adding a VMB server and database connection 24 Editing client-side database connections 24 Changing the active VMB server 25 Deleting a VMB server and database connection 25 Editing the VMB server's database connection 25 Restarting the VMB server 27 Configuring TSM servers 28 Adding a TSM server to STORServer VMB 29 Editing a TSM server 29 Setting a default TSM server 30 Enabling and disabling a TSM server 30 Changing the TSM server assigned to a client 30 Deleting a TSM server from STORServer VMB 31 Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE 31 Defining the TSM administrator account for TSM for VE 32 Defining vcenter Server credentials for the backup-archive client 33 Configuring the use of datacenter nodes 34 Configuring automatic notification 35 Defining or editing SMTP server information 36 Defining or editing addresses for schedule completion notifications 37 Defining or editing addresses for client backup completion notifications 37 iii

4 Contents BACKING UP/ARCHIVING VIRTUAL MACHINES 39 Configuring client backups and archives 39 Registering virtual machine clients 40 Configuring server-level settings for client backups 41 Changing the default backup technology 41 Editing client properties 42 Changing the backup technology for individual clients 42 Enabling changed block tracking (CBT) 43 Deleting clients from the VMB database 44 Scheduling client backups and archives 44 Creating a schedule 45 Adding virtual machine clients to a schedule 46 Copying an existing schedule 47 Editing schedule properties 48 Enabling and disabling schedules 48 Removing clients from a schedule 49 Deleting schedules 50 Running on-demand jobs 50 Running a schedule on demand 50 Backing up or archiving individual clients on demand 51 Using client options with STORServer VMB 51 About the dynamic client options files generated by VMB 52 Creating client options files for use with VMB 54 Required file specification syntax for client options (VDDK only) 55 Configuring VMB to use global client options 57 Configuring VMB to use clientspecific client options 57 RESTORING AND RETRIEVING DATA 59 Restoring or retrieving individual files and directories 59 Locating files for restore or retrieval 68 Restoring virtual machines 69 Restoring virtual disks 72 Restoring a deleted virtual machine client 72 Restoring and retrieving from VCB backups and archives 73 MONITORING JOBS AND CHECKING STATUS 77 Getting a quick status of a job 77 Expanding and collapsing entries on the Status tab 78 Filtering status information 78 Checking the status of individual client tasks 79 Changing the final status of a job 79 Adding notes to a job log 80 Changing the refresh frequency for the Status tab 81 iv

5 Contents Disabling the automatic refresh of the Status tab 81 Viewing the Status tab in a separate window 81 Stopping on-demand jobs, schedules, and tasks 81 Stopping a schedule or an ondemand job 82 Stopping individual tasks 82 BACKING UP AND RESTORING VMB'S DATABASE 85 Configuring automatic database backups 85 Disabling automatic database backups 87 Restoring the VMB database 87 TROUBLESHOOTING 89 Error retrieving virtual machines from vcenter Server 89 Disable vmotion task fails during backups 91 No virtual machines/disks listed for restore (proxy access errors) 92 ANS9365E VMware vstorage API error during backups 93 Backups fail or end with a Warning when application protection is enabled 93 Backups fail with "Password file is not available" error 94 Backups fail with "Unable to load DLL SsVmbLog.dll" error 95 Backups for some clients fail with VIX_E_DISK_NOLICENSE exception 96 Problems connecting to the VMB database 97 Schedule shows status of PrecludedRunning 98 ANS1353E Session rejected: Unknown or incorrect ID entered 99 Full machine backups to a single ESX/ESXi host are failing 99 VMB reports that CBT is unsupported and performs full machine backups 100 Help does not always take you back to the previous topic 101 Error logs 101 Viewing a client log 102 Exporting client log messages to a file 103 Viewing a schedule or job log 104 Exporting schedule log messages to a file 105 Changing the log retention period 106 Deleting logs 106 GETTING HELP 107 Documentation for VMB 107 Other related documentation 107 Using the Help system 108 Accessing Help 108 Locating information in Help 109 Showing/hiding additional text and graphics 110 Getting help from STORServer Support 111 v

6 Contents Using the Send Application Information wizard 112 STORServer, Inc. VMware Statement of Support 116 VMB WINDOWS AND DIALOG BOXES 119 Client Information dialog box 119 Clients tab 127 Job Details dialog box 129 Features of the General tab 130 Features of the View Logs tab 131 Job Status window 132 On-Demand Client Backup dialog box 132 On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box 135 Features of the vcenter Server tab 159 Features of the Backups tab 162 Features of the Notification tab 166 Features of the License Server tab 168 STORServer VMB Server Properties dialog box 169 STORServer VMB Servers dialog box 170 Task Details dialog box 171 TSM Server Information dialog box172 GLOSSARY 175 INDEX 179 On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box 137 Reinstate Client dialog box 140 Restore Virtual Disks dialog box 141 Restore Virtual Machines dialog box 142 Schedule Information dialog box 145 Features of the Add/Edit Schedule tab 146 Features of the Add/Remove Clients tab 149 Schedules tab 151 Settings tab 152 Status tab 153 STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box 157 Features of the General tab 157 vi

7 About STORServer VMB About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) lets you back up and archive virtual machines to your IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) server. You can also restore or retrieve virtual machine data without the need for individual backup clients on the virtual machines. STORServer VMB has three components: Server The VMB server manages schedules, commands, and the database, and runs as a service called STORServer VMB Server. A VMB client is always installed with the VMB server. Database The VMB server uses a SQL database to store configuration and internal software settings. Each VMB server has its own database. VMB clients can be configured to connect to multiple VMB server databases. Client The VMB client is the user interface or UI. It is always installed with the VMB server. It can also be installed separately (on a laptop, for example). You can configure the VMB client to manage one or more VMB servers by defining a database connection to each server s database. To back up or archive virtual machine data with STORServer VMB, you can create different schedules and then add virtual machine clients to the appropriate schedules. You can further automate your backups by using default schedules, one for each backup type (full and incremental), and let VMB manage the addition of virtual machine clients. On-demand backups of selected virtual machine clients can be run any time, as needed. The type of backup that STORServer VMB performs is based on the backup type that you selected for the schedule or on-demand job, the backup technology that is configured for use, and whether VMware changed block tracking (CBT) is enabled for the virtual machines that are being backed up. VMB supports the use of two backup technologies: VDDK and TSM for VE. These technologies are described further in the sections that follow. Detailed descriptions of the backup types that you can select and how they are performed are also provided. Tip! Before using STORServer VMB, please read this entire topic to familiarize yourself with the backup technologies, their differences and restrictions, and the manner in which VMB performs backup and archive operations. What would you like to do? Learn more about supported backup technologies Compare the two backup technologies Learn more about VMB backup types Start configuring STORServer VMB 1

8 About STORServer VMB VMB backup technologies Earliest versions of STORServer VMB (originally released as the "STORServer Agent for VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)") used the VCB utility (vcbmounter) for backup and archive operations. VMB Version 3.0 introduced the use of the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) technology as a replacement for VCB. However, STORServer VMB continued to support the use of VCB for customers who wanted to continue using that technology. Support for VCB backups and archives was completely removed in VMB 5.0. However, virtual machines that were backed up or archived using VCB can still be restored using VMware Converter. (Instructions are provided.) STORServer VMB 5.0 introduced an additional backup technology, Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) for Virtual Environments (VE), while continuing to support the use of the VDDK backup technology, for customers who prefer not to change their current backup methods and for use during archive and retrieve operations, which are not supported by TSM for VE. You can configure STORServer VMB to use one of these backup technologies as the default technology, and optionally specify the use of the other technology for selected virtual machine clients. Descriptions of both backup technologies follow. See Comparison of TSM for VE and VDDK backup technologies for more details. VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) STORServer VMB is configured to use the VDDK backup technology by default. This technology allows STORServer VMB to perform the following backup and archive operations, which are described further in VMB backup types: Full machine backups using base then differential backups (CBT required) Incremental file-level backups (Windows clients only) Full machine archives File-level archives (Windows clients only) Tip! The recommended backup strategy with VDDK technology is to perform weekly full machine backups and daily incremental file-level backups. Before backing up a virtual machine client with VDDK, STORServer VMB takes a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine. (Machines that cannot be quiesced, such as database servers, can be configured to allow VMB to capture the snapshot without waiting for a quiesced state.) VMB then backs up virtual machine data to TSM directly from the VMware datastore. When VMB performs a full machine backup of a virtual machine that has changed block tracking (CBT) enabled, a block-level base backup is done during the initial backup, and a differential backups are performed thereafter. When the amount of data that is being backed up reaches 60 percent of the previous base, another base 2

9 About STORServer VMB backup is performed. You can modify the differential percentage at the client level. Differential backups are much faster than the block-level full machine backups performed with the TSM for VE technology because less data is transferred. (TSM for VE backs up all provisioned or allocated blocks during each full machine backup.) They are also much faster than the full machine backups performed with the VDDK technology for all virtual machine clients that do not have CBT enabled. (VDDK is automatically used to back up all clients on which CBT is disabled.) STORServer VMB also uses the VDDK backup technology for all archive and retrieve requests because TSM for VE does not support archiving. VDDK is also used to back up virtual machine clients that do not have CBT enabled but are configured to use TSM for VE. (The TSM for VE backup technology requires the use of CBT for all backups.) Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments (TSM for VE) The TSM for VE backup technology allows you to use many of the features of the IBM Data Protection for Virtual Environments product from within VMB. CBT must be enabled on all virtual machine clients that are being backed up or restored with the TSM for VE technology. NOTE! You may need to install additional software and upgrade existing software in order to use the TSM for VE backup technology. See Configuring VMB to use the TSM for VE backup technology for more information. When STORServer VMB is configured to use the TSM for VE technology for client backups, it attempts to enable CBT on clients before backing them up. If CBT cannot be enabled, because the ESX host does not meet minimum requirements for using CBT, for example, VMB backs up those clients with the VDDK technology. When the TSM for VE technology and CBT are in use, STORServer VMB performs the following backup types, which are described further in VMB backup types: Block-level full machine backups Block-level incremental backups (Windows and non-windows virtual machines) A key feature or TSM for VE is the incremental forever backup strategy, which eliminates the need for weekly full machine backups. A full machine backup is performed the first time an incremental is requested, and block-level incremental backups are performed thereafter. Tip! The recommended backup strategy with the TSM for VE technology is to configure STORServer VMB to perform incremental backups forever. You can recover files, directories, virtual disks, and entire virtual machines from block-level full or incremental backups. File restores can be performed from the STORServer VMB UI, which launches the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent 3

10 About STORServer VMB GUI (a component of the prerequisite TSM for VE software) during the restore. This GUI allows you to mount the volume containing the backed up data to your local system, where you can then select and restore files and directories using Windows Explorer. You may also use other TSM user interfaces, such as the VMware vsphere Client Plug-In (an optional component of the TSM for VE software) to restore virtual machine data that was backed up with STORServer VMB. Instant restores of virtual machine disk volumes can be achieved using the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI. Archiving is not supported with this backup technology. STORServer VMB automatically uses VDDK technology for all archive/retrieve requests. Comparison of TSM for VE and VDDK backup technologies A comparison of the two backup technologies supported for use with STORServer VMB is presented in the following table. 4

11 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Block-level full machine backups Both backup technologies can perform blocklevel full machine backups of virtual machines running both Windows and non-windows operating systems. Note the following differences between the two technologies: TSM for VE requires that changed block tracking (CBT) be enabled on all client machines. The use of CBT is recommended but optional with VDDK. TSM for VE backs up the entire virtual machine each time a full machine backup is requested. However, the incremental forever backup strategy (described below) eliminates the need for periodic full machine backups in most cases. When CBT is enabled, VDDK performs a base backup, followed by differential backups thereafter. Differential backups are faster because only changed blocks are copied. (See the description of blocklevel differential backups for more details.) When CBT is not enabled, however, VDDK backs up all blocks during each full machine backup. Yes Yes 5

12 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Block-level differential full machine backups This backup type is unique to the VDDK technology. CBT must be enabled on all client machines. During the initial backup, STORServer VMB performs a base backup, followed by differential backups thereafter. When the amount of data being transferred reaches 60 percent of the previous base backup, VMB performs another base backup. You can modify the differential percentage threshold at the client level. These high performance backups move much less data that the more traditional full machine backups, where all blocks are copied (with TSM for VE technology, and with VDDK technology when CBT is not enabled on a virtual machine client). Block-level incremental backups Only TSM for VE technology performs this type of incremental backup. (VDDK performs filelevel incremental backups.) CBT must be enabled on all client machines. STORServer VMB backs up only those blocks that have changed since the last incremental or full machine backup. These high performance incremental backups are significantly faster than the file-level incremental backups performed with VDDK. No Yes Yes No 6

13 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Incremental forever backup strategy This backup strategy is performed with TSM for VE only. It eliminates the need for scheduled full machine backups. CBT must be enabled on all client machines. STORServer VMB performs an initial block-level full machine backup when the first incremental backup is requested. Block-level incremental backups are performed thereafter. No additional full machine backups are necessary in most cases. (If your backup requirements include long-term storage or tape retention of your data, periodic full machine backups will still be needed.) File-level incremental backups This backup type is performed with VDDK backup technology only, and is valid only with virtual machines that are running a Windows operating system. CBT is not required. STORServer VMB backs up all files on the client's disk volumes during the initial backup of a virtual machine. For subsequent backups, VMB scans the volumes for changed files, and backs up new or changed files only. Backup of non-cbt clients Requires the use of the VDDK backup technology. STORServer VMB uses VDDK automatically when attempting to back up virtual machines that do not have CBT enabled. Yes No No No Yes Yes 7

14 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Archiving and retrieving STORServer VMB uses VDDK for all archiving and retrieving functions. (TSM for VE does not support archiving.) Full machine and file-level archives performed much like the corresponding backup types. For example, base and differential archives are performed for full machine archives provided CBT is enabled. And file-level archives are restricted to Windows virtual machines only. Restore virtual machine from full machine backups Both backup technologies support the restore of virtual machines from full machine backups, regardless of operating system. Note the following differences between the two technologies: With VDDK, you can restore a virtual machine from a differential backup. STORServer VMB restores the most recent base backup plus the selected differential backup. Individual files and directories cannot be restored from full machine backups. With TSM for VE, you may restore virtual machines as well as individual files and directories from full machine backups. No Yes Yes Yes 8

15 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Restore virtual machine from incremental backups Only TSM for VE allows you to restore an entire virtual machine from an incremental backup (as opposed to a full machine backup). This provides a more recent version of the virtual machine because incremental backups are typically performed daily, whereas full machine backups are performed less frequently or not at all (with the incremental forever backup strategy). Restore virtual machine with VMware vsphere Client The TSM for VE software includes an optional component called the VMware vcenter plug-in, which allows you to restore a virtual machine directly from the VMware vsphere Client. Restore files from full machine backups Only TSM for VE backup technology allows you to restore files and directories from a blocklevel full machine backup. (With VDDK, individual files and directories must be restored from a file-level incremental backup.) To restore files and directories for a virtual machine that is running a non-windows platform, you must use a TSM for VE UI that is running on a non-windows platform. This type of restore cannot be performed directly from STORServer VMB. Yes Yes Yes No No No 9

16 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Restore files from incremental backups Both backup technologies allow you to restore files or directories from incremental backups, including block-level, file-level, and incremental forever types. Note the following differences between the two technologies: With VDDK, STORServer VMB launches the TSM Backup-Archive GUI, where you can select and restore files and directories from file-level incremental backups, which are restricted to Windows virtual machines only. With TSM for VE, STORServer VMB launches the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI, a component of the TSM for VE software that you use to mount a TSM volume to your local system. You can then select and restore files and directories using Windows Explorer. You can also restore files from outside VMB, using one of the TSM for VE UIs. To restore files for a non-windows virtual machine, you must use a TSM for VE UI that is running on a non-windows platform. This type of restore cannot be performed directly from STORServer VMB. Restore individual virtual disks Both technologies support the ability to select and restore individual virtual disks onto an existing virtual machine. This is useful when only one virtual disk is corrupted, for example. Yes Yes Yes Yes 10

17 About STORServer VMB Feature TSM for VE VDDK Instant restore of disk volumes This TSM for VE feature requires the use of the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI, a component of the TSM for VE software. An instant restore allows you to restore a virtual machine disk volume (backed up with STORServer VMB) without interrupting user access. Restore using TSM for VE user interfaces Requires the use of TSM for VE. Virtual machines and files that were backed up with this technology can be restored using STORServer VMB or several native TSM user interfaces as follows: For full virtual machine restores: the TSM Backup-Archive GUI or command line interface, or the TSM for VE Data Protection for VMware vcenter plug-in GUI or command line interface. For file or directory restores: the TSM for VE Recovery Agent for VMware GUI or command line interface (TDPVMwareshell.exe). For instant restores of disk volumes: the TSM for VE Recovery Agent for VMware GUI. Yes Yes No No VMB backup types When you schedule virtual machine backups or run them on demand with STORServer VMB, you must indicate the type of backup or archive that you want VMB to perform. You may choose from the following (detailed descriptions follow): Full machine backups Incremental backups Full machine archives File-level archives 11

18 About STORServer VMB The manner in which backups and archives are performed depends upon the backup technology that is configured for use and the state of VMware changed block tracking (CBT) on the virtual machines that are being backed up. NOTE! vsphere 4.0 or newer is required to use CBT. Detailed descriptions of the backup and archive types are as follows: Full machine backups STORServer VMB performs a full machine backup as follows: When VDDK backup technology is being used, VMB takes a snapshot of the virtual machine and then backs up the virtual machine's virtual disks to the TSM server as follows: When CBT is enabled on the virtual machine, VMB performs the following backup types. (You may notice references to these in log messages.) Base backup The first full machine backup is a baseline or base backup of the entire machine. During a base backup, VMB copies all allocated blocks for thin-provisioned disks, and all provisioned blocks for thick provisioned disks. A base backup is repeated when the specified differential percentage threshold is reached. (See the description of a differential backup.) Base backups are also repeated after you restore or retrieve a virtual machine or individual virtual disks. Differential backup After the initial base backup, VMB performs differential backups when a full machine backups are requested. Only those blocks that have changed since the last base backup are copied during each differential backup. When the amount of data being moved reaches or exceeds 60 percent (by default) of the data that was moved during the previous base backup, another base backup is performed. Tip! You can change the differential percentage in client properties. When CBT is not enabled on a virtual machine client, VMB backs up the entire virtual machine each time a full machine backup is requested. These backups take longer to complete because significantly more data is being moved each time. You can restore virtual machines and individual virtual disks from this VDDK backup type. When TSM for VE backup technology (requires CBT) is in use, VMB copies the entire virtual machine at the block level (similar to the base backup performed with the VDDK technology) every time a full machine backup is requested. These backups can take a significant amount of time. 12

19 About STORServer VMB Tip! The incremental forever backup strategy, available with TSM for VE only, eliminates the need for full machine backups (after the initial one, which is performed automatically) and is recommended for use where appropriate. However, if your backup requirements include long-term storage or tape retention of your data, periodic full machine backups are still necessary. You can restore virtual machines, individual virtual disks, and individual files and directories from this TSM for VE backup type. Incremental backups STORServer VMB performs an incremental backup as follows: When VDDK backup technology is being used, a file-level incremental backup is performed for virtual machines running a Windows operating system only. STORServer VMB takes a snapshot of the virtual machine and mounts each volume on the backup server. Individual files are then backed up to TSM directly from the mounted VMware volumes. After an initial backup that copies all eligible files, only new or changed files are backed up. You can restore individual files and directories from this VDDK backup type. When TSM for VE technology is in use, a block-level incremental backup is performed, utilizing CBT technology, for all virtual machine clients regardless of operating system. During the initial backup of a virtual machine, STORServer VMB performs a full machine backup.only changed blocks from the previous full or incremental backup are backed up thereafter. You can restore individual files and directories as well as virtual disks and entire virtual machines from this TSM for VE backup type. Full machine archives NOTE! STORServer VMB uses the VDDK backup technology for all archives, regardless of which backup technology is selected. (TSM for VE does not support archiving.) A full machine archive is performed much like the full machine backup performed with the VDDK technology. The only difference is that TSM performs an archive rather than a backup, and uses the archive copy group in the specified or default management class. You can retrieve an entire virtual machine or individual virtual disks from a VDDK full machine archive. 13

20 About STORServer VMB File-level archives NOTE! STORServer VMB uses the VDDK backup technology for all archives, regardless of which backup technology is selected. (TSM for VE does not support archiving.) File-level archives are restricted to Windows virtual machines only. A file-level archive is performed much like the file-level incremental backup performed with the VDDK technology. A snapshot of the virtual machine is taken and mounted to the backup server. TSM then archives files directly from the backup server according to the archive copy group in the specified or default management class. 14

21 Configuring STORServer VMB Post-installation configuration tasks Before you start backing up your virtual machines with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB), you must perform some configuration-related tasks. This topic provides "roadmaps" for configuring VMB components. Each roadmap lists the required tasks and provides links to procedural sections for more detail. What do you want to do? View the roadmap for configuring a STORServer VMB server and client View the roadmap for configuring a standalone STORServer VMB client Roadmap for configuring a STORServer VMB server and client To configure a newly installed VMB server and client on a backup server: 1. Start the VMB client (the user interface) and define a series of configuration values. See Defining or modifying STORServer VMB configuration settings. 2. If open registration is not in effect on the TSM server, manually register all virtual machine clients that will be backed up by VMB. (When open registration is in effect, STORServer VMB automatically registers virtual machine clients when the schedule or job that they have been added to is run.) See Registering virtual machine clients. 3. Configure VMB to back up or archive virtual machine data. See Configuring client backups and archives. Roadmap for configuring a standalone STORServer VMB client If your STORServer VMB client will be used to manage a single VMB server, no configuration tasks are required. Your VMB client will connect to the VMB server that you specified during client installation. You can modify the VMB server properties as described in Editing VMB server or database properties. To configure a VMB client to manage multiple VMB servers, you must define a database connection for each additional VMB server. See Configuring STORServer VMB servers and database connections. NOTE! Your VMB client must be connected to a VMB server s database before you can define or modify configuration settings. 15

22 Configuring STORServer VMB Defining or modifying STORServer VMB configuration settings Tip! If you are configuring STORServer VMB for the first time, you may want to read the Post-installation configuration tasks topic, which presents a high-level overview of the processes for configuring a new VMB server and client, and for configuring a remote VMB client only. This procedure explains how to set or modify configuration settings for STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) at the VMB server level. Additional configuration-related settings are available elsewhere in the VMB user interface. See the notes at the end of this section for more details. To define or modify general STORServer VMB configuration settings: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings. 2. In the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, enter or modify values on each of these tabs: General tab vcenter Server tab Backups tab Notification tab License Server tab Tip! To quickly access these tab-specific topics from the VMB user interface, click Help Help on Current Tab or press F1. 3. Click Save to save your changes and exit the dialog box. Notes... When changing the default backup technology to TSM for VE, additional tasks may be required. See Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE for details. (For an overview of available backup technologies, see VMB backup technologies.) Tip! You can configure the VMB server to use one backup technology by default, and then configure selected clients to use another for their backups and restores. See the Help for the Client Information dialog box for descriptions of the values that can be set for selected clients. 16

23 Configuring STORServer VMB See Configuring client backups and archives and Scheduling client backups and archives for related procedures. STORServer VMB can be configured to send notifications for schedule completions and individual client backup completions. See Configuring automatic notification for more information. License requirements STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) requires a license file that limits the number of virtual machines that can be backed up by one or more VMB servers at your site. This file must have a.lic extension and be placed in a specific location, as described in the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. The license file for STORServer VMB is made up of a specific number of license units one for each virtual machine client that is backed up by VMB. The STORServer License Server, a prerequisite of STORServer VMB and other STORServer software products, distributes, tracks, and audits license units. (The license server is not used with trial licenses.) When a virtual machine performs its first backup, it is granted a license unit, which it retains indefinitely and uses for all future backups. Once all authorized license units have been granted, attempts to back up additional virtual machines will fail with license-related errors. You must then either purchase additional license units from STORServer or revoke licenses from virtual machine clients that no longer need them, making them available for reuse by other clients. CAUTION! Modifying the license file will render it invalid immediately. License status information, such as the number of license units granted and the total number of remaining license units, appears in the About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup dialog box. Messages appear there when VMB is unable to connect to the license server and a local license cache is in use, or when the license server is not functioning properly, for example. Tip! License units can be managed from the local cache for up to 10 days, at which time a connection to the license server is required to continue virtual machine backups. For more information on the STORServer License Server, refer to its readme file. What do you want to do? Configure VMB servers to use the STORServer License Server View status information about my licenses Replace a trial license with a production license 17

24 Configuring STORServer VMB Purchase additional licenses Revoke licenses for reuse by other virtual machines Configuring VMB servers to use the STORServer License Server Once you have downloaded, installed, and enabled the STORServer License Server and placed the license file for STORServer VMB in the license directory, you must configure each VMB server to use the license server. To configure a VMB server to use the license server: 1. Make sure that your VMB client is connected to the VMB server whose configuration is being modified. Check the server name or address that appears in the title bar of the main window. To change the active VMB server: a. Click the VMB Servers button at the bottom of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. b. In the STORServer VMB Servers dialog box, select a new server and click Active. The icon next to that server changes to. c. Click Save. 2. On the Settings tab, click Edit Settings. 3. In the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, click License Server. 4. Modify these values: License server name or address The fully qualified domain name or IP address of the computer on which the license server is running. For example: backup3.bigcorp.com or The default value is localhost. Port number The number of the TCP/IP port that is used for incoming connections to the license server. The default port number is Click Save. 18

25 Configuring STORServer VMB Viewing license status To view license status information for the active STORServer VMB server (the server to which your VMB client is connected): 1. Click the Help button at the bottom of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window and select About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup 2. View license information in the About box. License-related messages that may appear in the About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup dialog box are as follows: Message Type Status Descriptions and Examples Examples of possible status messages include the following: Status: 363 Remaining authorized licenses Indicates the number of licenses that are still available for use. 19

26 Configuring STORServer VMB Message Type Descriptions and Examples This is the number of licenses authorized (purchased) minus the number of licenses that have been granted to virtual machines. Status: All authorized licenses in use This message appears when the number of virtual machines being backed up is equal to the number of authorized licenses. Status: Failure retrieving license information Indicates that VMB was unable to retrieve license information from the STORServer License Server. Subsequent error messages may indicate the exact cause of the failure. VMB will manage license units from a local cache for up to 10 days. The "License info" label in the About box changes to "License info (cached)" when the local cache is in use. (This is always the case with a trial license.) Error Message Error messages appear when the VMB server or license server encounters an error. For example: Error Message: The license server at is not running Indicates that the license server is not responding. Error Message: Error querying for license pool information Indicates that an attempt to query the license server for license status information failed. Error Message: Cannot verify license server license Indicates that the license server failed to load or verify its own license. Licenses Authorized Indicates the total number of authorized (purchased) licenses, which is the total number of virtual machines authorized for backup. For example: Licenses Authorized: 500 Licenses Granted Indicates the number of licenses that have already been granted to virtual machines, which is the total number of virtual machines that have been backed up. For example: 20

27 Configuring STORServer VMB Message Type Descriptions and Examples Licenses Granted: 137 Expiration Specifies the date on which the specified number of authorized licenses expires. For example: Expiration: 04/30/2013 (50), None (100) This sample message indicates that 50 virtual machine licenses will expire on April 30, 2013, and 100 additional virtual machine licenses will never expire. Last Validated Indicates when the VMB server last checked the status of the licenses. For example: Last Validated: April 09, :27:11 AM If VMB is configured to use the STORServer License Server but is unable to connect to it, this entry continues to show the date and time of the last successful connection. If licenses are being managed from the local cache, the "License Info" label changes to "License info (cached)." Replacing a trial license with a production license To replace a free STORServer VMB trial license with a purchased production license: 1. Install the STORServer License Server for use at your site. For download instructions, refer to the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. 2. Put the license server license AND the purchased VMB license in the license server directory. 3. Delete the trial license from the VMB install directory or rename it to something other than.lic. 4. Restart the VMB server. (See Restarting the VMB server for instructions if needed.) 21

28 Configuring STORServer VMB 5. If the license server is not installed on the same machine as the VMB server, define the IP address and port number of the license server to the active VMB server as follows: a. On the Settings tab, click Edit Settings. b. In the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, click License Server. c. Modify these values accordingly: License server name or address The fully qualified domain name or IP address of the computer on which the license server is running. For example: backup3.bigcorp.com or The default value is localhost. Port number The number of the TCP/IP port that is used for incoming connections to the license server. The default port number is d. Click Save. Purchasing additional licenses To purchase additional virtual machine licenses for use with STORServer VMB, contact STORServer using either of the following methods: By phone: Visit our website at and click Contact Us to obtain the phone number for your region. By Send your request to: To replace existing licenses (during an upgrade, for example), see the instructions in the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. Revoking licenses for reuse Each virtual machine client that has been granted a license by STORServer VMB retains that license unit indefinitely. You can revoke licenses from virtual machine clients that no longer need them, making them available for reuse by other clients. To determine which virtual machine clients are currently using license units: Check the Using License column on the Clients tab. Use either of the following methods to revoke a client's license: Delete the client from VMB's database. On the Clients tab, right-click the client whose license you want to revoke and select Delete Client on the shortcut menu. 22

29 Configuring STORServer VMB This removes the client from all VMB schedules, revokes its license, and removes it from the list of clients on the Clients tab. (If this client still exists in vcenter Server, it will reappear the next time the client list is refreshed.) It also removes all information related to this client from the VMB database. This action does NOT delete the client or its backup data from the TSM server. Disable the client. 1. On the Clients tab, double-click the client whose license you want to revoke. 2. In the Client Information dialog box, select the Disable this client in all schedules check box. 3. Click OK. This prevents all schedules from backing up this client and revokes the client's license, making it available to other virtual machine clients. Tip! To verify that additional licenses are now available for reuse, check the license status information in the About box. It may take a few minutes for this information to appear. Configuring VMB database connections Each STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) server has its own database where it stores data and configuration settings. The database connection used by the VMB server is defined during installation, based on answers you provide to the setup wizard. The VMB server's database connection properties are stored in an XML file, which can be modified if necessary. You must then restart the VMB server to use the new connection values. If you have multiple backup servers and VMB servers running at your site, you may need to connect to each VMB server's database using your VMB client (the user interface (UI)). You do this by adding database connection information for each VMB server to your client s configuration (via the UI). You can then access the different databases by changing the "active VMB server" from the VMB UI. Tip! If you have a single backup server and STORServer VMB server, you typically do not need to modify these settings. What do you want to do? Add a VMB server and database connection to my client's configuration Edit database connection information that the client uses Change the active VMB server Delete a VMB server's database connection information from my client Edit the database connection used by the VMB server Restart the VMB server 23

30 Configuring STORServer VMB Adding a VMB server and database connection To configure your STORServer VMB client to connect to a VMB database other than the one configured during VMB setup: 1. Click the VMB Servers button at the bottom of the [main] STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. 2. Click Add in the STORServer VMB Servers dialog box. 3. Define values in the STORServer VMB Server Properties dialog box. 4. Click Test Connection to verify that the VMB client can connect to the specified database. 5. Click OK to close the properties dialog box. 6. Select the newly added VMB server and click Active to have VMB connect to and use this database. The icon next to the VMB server changes to. 7. Click Save. Editing client-side database connections To modify the database connection properties used by the VMB client when connecting to a VMB server's database: 1. Click the VMB Servers button at the bottom of the [main] STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. 2. Select the VMB server whose properties you want to edit and click Edit. 3. Change one or more values in the STORServer VMB Server Properties dialog box. 4. Click OK to close the properties dialog box. 5. Click Save to save your changes. Tip! To modify the database connection used by the VMB server, see Editing the VMB server's database connection. 24

31 Configuring STORServer VMB Changing the active VMB server To connect to a different STORServer VMB server s database from the VMB client (UI), change the active VMB server as follows: 1. Click the VMB Servers button at the bottom of the [main] STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. 2. In the STORServer VMB Servers dialog box select the VMB server whose database you want to connect to and click Active. The icon next to the VMB server changes to. 3. Click Save. Deleting a VMB server and database connection To remove a STORServer VMB database from your VMB client s configuration: 1. Click the VMB Servers button at the bottom of the [main] STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. 2. In the STORServer VMB Servers dialog box select the VMB server and click Delete. 3. Click Save. Editing the VMB server's database connection The database connection used by the STORServer VMB server is defined during installation. You can change database connection values after installation, if necessary, by using the DbEdit.exe utility to modify values in the database connections file, SsDbConnections.xml. To edit a VMB server's database connection using the DbEdit.exe utility: 1. Open a command prompt window. 2. Change directory to the install folder, where the DbEdit.exe utility resides. For example (default install directory shown): C:\> cd C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB> 3. Enter the following command to run the DbEdit utility and identify the file it will modify: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB> DbEdit SsDbConnections.xml 25

32 Configuring STORServer VMB The main menu, which varies depending upon the number of connections that are currently defined, appears. For example: 1. Edit/Delete Server connection Scheduler 2. Edit/Delete Viewer connection Local 3. Edit/Delete Viewer connection hqprod1 4. Add 'Server' connection 5. Add 'Viewer' connection 6. Exit 4. Type the number that corresponds to the task you want to perform and press ENTER. For example, to edit the connection named hqprod1, type 3 and press ENTER. Another list of menu options appears: 1. Connection Name: hqprod1 2. SQL Server Name: hqprod1 3. Instance Name: 4. Database Name: SsVcb 5. Database Filename: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB \SsVcb.mdf 6. Windows Authentication: false 7. SQL User Id: vmbuser 8. SQL User Password: ******* 9. Connection Pooling: true 10. Maximum Pool Size: Minimum Pool Size: Connection Active: true 13. Delete 14. Done 15. Cancel 5. Type the number that corresponds to the attribute that you want to edit. For example, to change the name of the database server machine, type 2 and press ENTER. You will be prompted for the new value. Enter the new value and press ENTER. For example: Enter the number of the item you would like to change. 2 Enter the new value: MyServer The options menu described in step 4 reappears. 26

33 Configuring STORServer VMB 6. Do one of the following: To accept changes, type 14 (Done) and press ENTER. To cancel changes, type 15 (Cancel) and press ENTER. To delete the connection, type 13 (Delete) and press ENTER. You are returned to the main menu described in step To exit, type the number corresponding to the Exit command and press ENTER. You will be prompted to save changes. A backup copy of the SsDbConnections.xml file is created when you save your changes. 8. Restart the VMB server. See Restarting the VMB server for instructions if needed. Notes... If you change the connection authentication method to SQL Server, verify that the database server is configured to allow this type of access. The specified SQL user (user ID and password) must also be properly configured on the database server. When using Windows authentication, make sure that the database server can authenticate the account under which the VMB server's service (STORServer VMB Server) is running. Connection pooling is set to true (enabled) by default. The maximum pool size (maxpoolsize) must be an integer value that is larger than the minimum pool size (minpoolsize). Neither value may be negative. When connection pooling is set to false, the other two pooling options (maxpoolsize and minpoolsize) are ignored. Restarting the VMB server Use either of the following methods to stop and restart the STORServer VMB server: Tip! To put VDDK configuration file changes into effect, simply click the Reload Configuration File button located on the Settings tab. A restart of the VMB server is not necessary. To restart the VMB server from the command line: 1. Exit any open STORServer VMB user interfaces (clients). 2. Open a command prompt window and enter the following commands in the order shown: C:\> net stop ssvcbsched 27

34 Configuring STORServer VMB C:\> net start ssvcbsched To restart the VMB server using the Windows services manager: 1. Open the Windows services manager (My Computer Manage Services and Applications Services). 2. Right-click the service STORServer VMB Server and select Restart on the shortcut menu. Configuring TSM servers Each TSM server that will manage backed up or archived virtual machine data must be added to the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) configuration. When you add a TSM server, it is enabled by default. The first enabled server that you add becomes the default TSM server. Each virtual machine client that is backed up by VMB will be backed up to this server unless otherwise specified. (You can assign a client to a different server if desired.) Valid account credentials must be specified for each TSM server that will store virtual machine client data that is backed up using the TSM for VE backup technology. VMB uses this account to access the TSM administrative command-line interface (DSMADMC) on the TSM server. What do you want to do? Add a TSM server Edit a TSM server Set a default TSM server Enable or disable a TSM server Change the TSM server assigned to a client Delete a TSM server 28

35 Configuring STORServer VMB Adding a TSM server to STORServer VMB To add a TSM server to STORServer VMB: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab click Add. 3. Define TSM server properties in the TSM Server Information dialog box. 4. Click OK. 5. Click Save to save the new TSM server properties. Notes... The first enabled TSM server that you add automatically becomes the default TSM server. You can change the default server later, if necessary, as described in Setting a default TSM server. If STORServer VMB is configured to use TSM for VE backup technology for any client machines that will be backed up to this TSM server, you must provide VMB process credentials (the credentials for a TSM administrator account with System authority). STORServer VMB uses this account to access the TSM administrative command-line interface (DSMADMC). NOTE! STORServer recommends that you set the password for this account to never expire if this does not violate your company's security policies. Otherwise, VMB's ability to interact with this TSM server ceases abruptly when the password expires. Editing a TSM server To modify the properties of a TSM server that has been defined to STORServer VMB: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab select the TSM server to modify and click Edit. 3. Change one or more values in the TSM Server Information dialog box. 4. Click OK. 5. Click Save to save your changes. 29

36 Configuring STORServer VMB Setting a default TSM server To change the default TSM server: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. Select an enabled TSM server on the General tab. 3. Click Default. The icon next to the server name changes to: 4. Click Save. Enabling and disabling a TSM server When you add a TSM server to STORServer VMB, that server is enabled by default. To disable a TSM server: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab select the TSM server that you want to disable. 3. Click Disable. The icon next to the server name changes to: 4. Click Save. To enable a disabled TSM server: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab select the disabled TSM server. 3. Click Enable. The icon next to the server name changes to: 4. Click Save. Changing the TSM server assigned to a client To change the TSM server to which a particular client is assigned: 1. On the Clients tab, click next to the client's name to view the list of schedules to which that client belongs. 2. Edit each schedule as follows: a. Right-click the schedule name and select Edit Schedule. b. Click Add/Remove Clients in the left pane of the Schedule Information dialog box. 30

37 Configuring STORServer VMB c. In the list of clients that have already been added to the schedule (at the bottom), select the client whose TSM server you want to change. d. Click Assign TSM server and select a server from the drop-down list. e. Click OK. Notes... You can change the TSM server assignment for an on-demand backup by selecting a different server in the On-Demand Client Backup dialog box. Deleting a TSM server from STORServer VMB To delete a TSM server from the STORServer VMB configuration: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab select the TSM server to delete. 3. Click Delete. The TSM server is removed from the list. 4. Click Save to delete the TSM server from VMB s configuration. If the TSM server you are attempting to delete has one or more clients assigned to it (from within a schedule), a message appears stating that the server cannot be deleted and listing the schedules that point to that server. Before you can delete this TSM server, you must change the TSM server assignments within the named schedules, as described in the preceding section, Changing the TSM server assigned to a client. Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE Before you can use Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) for Virtual Environments (VE) backup technology with STORServer VMB, you must perform a series of configuration-related tasks. This is necessary whether you will be backing up all or just a few virtual machine clients with the TSM for VE technology. 31

38 Configuring STORServer VMB 1. Verify that your backup server and storage environment meet the prerequisite software requirements for TSM for VE use. For more details, see the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. NOTE! The prerequisite software for TSM for VE differs from that of the VDDK backup technology. Be sure to read the VMB readme file carefully. 2. Configure TSM for VE as your default backup technology OR keep VDDK as your default technology and configure selected virtual machine clients to use TSM for VE. 3. Define a TSM administrator account for STORServer VMB on each TSM server that will store data that is backed up with the TSM for VE technology. This account requires System authority. Add the account credentials to the TSM server properties in VMB. 4. On the TSM backup-archive client that resides on the backup server, define the vcenter Server login credentials for the account that STORServer VMB uses to access vcenter Server. 5. Define datacenter nodes in VMB if the virtual machines that will be backed up are associated with datacenters in vcenter Server, and register these nodes with the TSM server. What do you want to do? Make TSM for VE the default backup technology Configure individual clients to use TSM for VE Define the TSM administrator account for use with TSM for VE Define vcenter Server credentials on the TSM backup-archive client Configure the use of datacenter nodes Defining the TSM administrator account for TSM for VE When using TSM for VE backup technology, STORServer VMB requires access to the TSM Administrative Command Line interface (DSMADMC) on each TSM server that will store backed up virtual machine data. To enable this access, you must set up an account for VMB use (a VMB process account) and then define the account credentials in the TSM server properties. NOTE! The VMB process account requires System authority. Also, STORServer recommends that you set the password for this account to never expire provided this does not violate your company's security policies. Otherwise, VMB's access to this TSM server ceases abruptly when the password expires. 32

39 Configuring STORServer VMB After you have created a VMB process account on each TSM server, define the account credentials in STORServer VMB as follows: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the General tab do either of the following: Select the TSM server and click Edit. To add a new TSM server and define the account credentials click Add. Tip! See Adding a TSM server to STORServer VMB for related information. 3. Enter the user ID and password values in the TSM Server Information dialog box. 4. Click OK. 5. Click Save to save the new/updated TSM server properties. Repeat this procedure for each TSM server. Defining vcenter Server credentials for the backup-archive client Before you can use the TSM for VE backup technology, you must define vcenter Server login credentials to the TSM backup-archive client on the backup server. You only need to do this once. STORServer recommends that you specify credentials for the same account that STORServer VMB uses when accessing vcenter Server. (These credentials are specified on the vcenter Server tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box.) The same privileges are required. See the list of minimum required privileges in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box section. Use either of the following methods to define the vcenter Server account credentials to the TSM backup-archive client on the backup server: From the TSM Backup-Archive Command Line (DSMC), enter this command: set password type=vm vcenterservername.domain userid password From the TSM Backup-Archive GUI, open the Preferences Editor and define the same values (host, user, password) on the VM Backup tab. 33

40 Configuring STORServer VMB Configuring the use of datacenter nodes If you are using datacenters in vcenter Server and want to back up your virtual machine clients to a specified datacenter node using the TSM for VE backup technology, or if you are adding STORServer VMB to a storage environment that already uses TSM for VE and datacenter nodes, you need to perform some or all of the following steps: 1. To enable the use of datacenter nodes for all backups performed using STORServer VMB and TSM for VE backup technology: a. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to launch the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. b. On the Backups tab under Datacenter Nodes select the Use datacenter nodes for VE backups check box. 2. Define datacenter nodes in STORServer VMB. The list of datacenters under Datacenter Nodes shows the datacenters that are currently defined in vcenter Server. A default datacenter node name and password is assigned to each datacenter. (When the Password field is blank, the node name is used by default.) You can either click Save to accept the default values or modify node names and/or passwords as follows: a. Select the node name to modify and click it again to edit it. b. Select the password that you want to edit (click inside the cell) and click again to enter a new password. c. Click Save. 3. Register each datacenter node on the TSM server using the same node name and password as specified to STORServer VMB. Use the REGISTER NODE command from the TSM Administrative Command Line interface to register each datacenter node. For example: tsm: > register node datacenter12 datacenter12 where the first datacenter12 is the datacenter node name and the second datacenter12 is the (default) password for that node. 34

41 Configuring STORServer VMB Notes... The use of datacenter nodes applies to all backups performed using TSM for VE technology. It cannot be modified at the client level. Each datacenter node name that you specify must be unique on the TSM server, and must comply with TSM naming conventions for node names. The following characters may be used in a TSM node name: A-Z, 0-9, _ (underscore),. (period), - (hyphen), + (plus sign), and & (ampersand). TSM node names are not case sensitive. The maximum number of characters permitted is 64. TSM for VE adds the prefix VMFULL- to all file space names, for both full and blocklevel incremental backups, followed by the virtual machine name. An example of the file space for a virtual machine client (AdminCenterR20) that is backed up to a datacenter node is as follows: DatacenterNode_1\VMFULL AdminCenterR20 The Add Datacenter and Delete Datacenter buttons under Datacenter Nodes are intended for use during special circumstances only. For example, if a virtual machine backup is stored under a datacenter node, but the datacenter is no longer available in vcenter Server, you could define the original datacenter, node name, and password in STORServer VMB before restoring that data, and then delete the datacenter from the VMB database after the data has been restored. Datacenters that you add to STORServer VMB are not defined in vcenter Server. Configuring automatic notification You can configure STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) to send two types of notification: Schedule completion messages, which include information about each VMB schedule (schedule name, type, start/end times, amount of data transferred, data transfer rates, and final schedule status), and about the clients associated with that schedule (client name, backup start/end times, elapsed time, data transferred and completion status). Client backup completion messages, which indicate the final status of individual client backups. If any backups fail or end with an error or warning, relevant error logs are attached to the notification messages. These logs include messages from VMB, VMware, and TSM in some cases. Tip! You can configure VMB to exclude all error logs or include them in the body of the message (rather than as attachments) by changing the related setting in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. 35

42 Configuring STORServer VMB Notification messages are sent to addresses that you specify. Each notification type (schedule or client) uses a separate address list, as described in the sections that follow. This allows you to notify client owners regarding their client's backup, while notifying administrators of all schedule and client backup completions. NOTE! STORServer VMB uses an SMTP server when sending automatic notifications. You must define a valid SMTP server address and port number to enable these features. What do you want to do? Define or edit SMTP server information Define or edit addresses for schedule completion notifications Define or edit addresses for client backup completion notifications Defining or editing SMTP server information NOTE! All STORServer VMB automatic notification features as well as the Send Application Information wizard require the use of an SMTP server. To define or edit an SMTP server for use by VMB: 1. On the Settings tab, click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the Notification tab enter the following values: SMTP server The fully qualified domain name or IP address of the outgoing mail (SMTP) server used at your site. For example: .bigcorp.com or Port number The number of the TCP/IP port used by SMTP. The default port is 25. From address The address that will appear in the From field of all automatic notifications sent by STORServer VMB and all support requests submitted by the Send Application Information wizard. 3. If the SMTP server that you specified requires authentication when relaying messages to other mail servers, select Requires authentication enter a valid user name and password for that server. 4. Click Save. Notes... The From address that you specify must be a valid address if required by your SMTP server. Also, to expedite support requests submitted by the Send Application 36

43 Configuring STORServer VMB Information wizard on your behalf, the From address must include your company domain. Defining or editing addresses for schedule completion notifications Before you begin... If you have not yet defined a valid SMTP server for STORServer VMB's use, see Defining or editing the SMTP server and port number. To define or edit addresses that will receive schedule completion notifications: 1. On the Settings tab, click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. On the Notification tab, enter valid addresses in the list. Press Enter after each address. Tip! STORServer recommends that you specify the name of a distribution list here (your operations staff, for example). 3. Click Save. Notes... By default, error logs for client backups that failed or ended with an error or a warning are attached to schedule completion notifications. You can configure STORServer VMB to exclude logs or include them in the message body by changing the selection under Client and Schedule Notification Details. Note that this setting affects both schedule and client backup completion notifications. Defining or editing addresses for client backup completion notifications Before you begin... If you have not yet defined a valid SMTP server for STORServer VMB's use, see Defining or editing the SMTP server and port number. To define or edit addresses that will receive client backup completion notifications: 1. Select one or more virtual machine clients and click Edit Clients from either of the following locations: The Clients tab The Add/Remove Clients tab of the Schedule Information dialog box 2. Enter valid addresses in the Notification list. Press ENTER after each 37

44 Configuring STORServer VMB address. 3. Click OK. Notes... By default, error logs for client backups that failed or ended with an error or a warning are attached to client backup completion notifications. You can configure STORServer VMB to exclude logs or include them in the message body by changing the selection under Client and Schedule Notification Details in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. (Click Settings Edit Settings Notifications.) Note that this setting affects both client backup and schedule completion notifications. 38

45 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Configuring client backups and archives Client backup and archive operations can be invoked by a schedule or run on demand from the Clients tab. There are various attributes in STORServer VMB that affect client backups. Most backup-related settings can be found in the following locations in the VMB user interface: STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box (VMB server-level settings) Client Information dialog box (client-level settings) On-Demand Client Backup dialog box (settings for one backup only) Schedule Information dialog box When setting up STORServer VMB to back up or archive your virtual machines, consider the following: Backup technologies VMB supports two: VDDK and TSM for VE. You can select one as your default technology and the other for selected clients only. See topics under About STORServer Virtual Machine Backup for technology descriptions and feature comparisons, as well as detailed descriptions of the different backup types that VMB can perform. If you will be backing up your vcenter Server with VMB, refer to the STORServer white paper titled Protecting and Restoring a VMware vcenter Server Virtual Machine with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (available on the STORServer website) for additional considerations and recommendations. Changed block tracking (CBT) This VMware feature must be enabled for all clients that will be backed up using the TSM for VE technology. Its use is also recommended with VDDK technology to allow VMB to perform faster full machine backups. Client registration VMB registers virtual machine clients that have been added to a schedule or on-demand job if open registration is in effect on the TSM server. Otherwise, you must register clients manually before you can back up or archive their data. Client options VMB supports various methods for assigning client options to virtual machine backups. It applies a set of dynamically generated options to all backups and supports the use of both global and client-specific client options. See Using client options with STORServer VMB. Default schedules VMB has a special type of schedule that automatically discovers and assigns virtual machines that are not yet scheduled for the relevant backup type (full or incremental). See Scheduling client backups and archives. 39

46 Backing up/archiving virtual machines What do you want to do? Learn more about the backup technologies Configure STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE backup technology Learn more about using client options with VMB Register virtual machine clients Configure server-level settings for client backups Change the default backup technology Edit client properties Change the backup technology for individual clients Enable changed block tracking Change the TSM server assignment for a client Delete a client from the VMB database Define or change addresses for client backup completion notifications Registering virtual machine clients If open registration is in effect on your TSM server, STORServer VMB automatically registers virtual machine clients in TSM s STANDARD policy domain when the schedule or on-demand job to which they have been added is run. If registration is set to Closed, you must manually register all virtual machine clients. The following message appears in the schedule log when an attempt is made to back up an unregistered client: ANS1353E Session rejected: Unknown or incorrect ID entered To determine the current registration mode on the TSM server, enter the following command from the TSM Administrative Command Line interface: tsm: > query status The current registration mode is listed in the status output. For example: Registration: Closed To register virtual machine clients in the STANDARD policy domain during closed registration: 1. Use the REGISTER NODE command from the TSM Administrative Command Line interface to register each virtual machine. For example: tsm: > register node vmclient1 vmclient1 where the first vmclient1 is the virtual machine name and the second vmclient1 is the password. 40

47 Backing up/archiving virtual machines If the default policy domain in TSM has been changed to something other than STANDARD, or if you want to register clients in a different domain, include the DOMAIN option in your REGISTER NODE command. For example: tsm: > register node vmclient1 vmclient1 domain=jupiter 2. On the backup server, enter the following command for each client that you registered: C:\> dsmc query session nodename=client_name 3. When prompted for a user id and password, enter the same virtual machine name and password that you specified when you registered the client. This command creates the encrypted client password on the backup server. Notes... STORServer VMB does not register datacenter nodes. You must register these manually. See Configuring the use of datacenter nodes (TSM for VE only) for more information. Configuring server-level settings for client backups To modify any/all STORServer VMB settings that affect most backups (see notes): 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings. 2. Click Backups in the left pane of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 3. Modify values on the Backups tab. 4. Click Save to save your changes and exit the dialog box. Notes... You can configure selected virtual machine clients to use a different backup technology than the one selected here by editing the properties of selected clients. Note that each technology has different prerequisites. Before switching technologies for selected clients only, see VMB backup technologies. Changing the default backup technology STORServer VMB is configured to use the VDDK backup technology as the default backup technology. This means VMB will use the VDDK technology for all virtual machine backups unless otherwise specified at the client level. 41

48 Backing up/archiving virtual machines To change the default backup technology: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 2. Change the setting under Default Backup Technology on the Backups tab. 3. Click Save to save your changes and exit the dialog box. Notes... Additional configuration tasks may be required when switching from VDDK to TSM for VE backup technology. See Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE for details. You can configure selected virtual machine clients to use a different backup technology by setting the technology in client properties. See Changing the backup technology for individual clients for instructions. Editing client properties STORServer VMB assigns a default set of properties to each virtual machine client. These properties are read and used by all schedules that back up the client. You can modify client properties as follows: 1. Select one or more virtual machine clients in any of the following locations and click Edit Clients to open the Client Information dialog box: The Clients tab The Schedules tab (expand the schedule entry, right-click selected clients, and click Edit Clients on the shortcut menu) The Add/Remove Clients tab of the Schedule Information dialog box 2. Modify available values in the Client Information dialog box. 3. Click OK. Notes... You can quickly enable or disable changed block tracking (CBT) for a group of clients using shortcut menu commands on the Clients tab. The transport mode can also be changed for selected clients from this shortcut menu. Changing the backup technology for individual clients By default, STORServer VMB uses the backup technology that is selected on the Backups tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box when backing up and restoring virtual machine clients. The clients themselves are configured to use the default backup technology that is set on the VMB server. 42

49 Backing up/archiving virtual machines You can modify selected clients to use a different backup technology for all backups as follows: NOTE! Additional configuration tasks may be required when switching from VDDK to TSM for VE backup technology. See Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE for details. 1. Select one or more virtual machine clients in either of the following places: The Clients tab The Add/Remove Clients tab of the Schedule Information dialog box 2. Click Edit Clients. 3. In the Client Information dialog box, select a different technology and the appropriate associated options under Backup Technology Options. 4. Click OK. Enabling changed block tracking (CBT) STORServer VMB automatically enables changed block tracking (CBT) on all virtual machine clients that will use TSM for VE as their backup technology. When VDDK is the selected backup technology, however, VMB uses CBT only if it is enabled on the VMware side. Tip! When CBT is not enabled, your full machine backups with VDDK will be much slower because differential backups cannot be performed. (See Notes for more details.) You can instruct STORServer VMB to enable the use of CBT for selected virtual machine clients as follows: NOTE! CBT is supported on hosts running ESX/ESXi 4.0 or later AND on virtual machines that are running Hardware Version 7 or later. You can verify the hardware version of each virtual machine from its Summary tab in the VMware vsphere Client. Refer to VMware documentation for instructions on upgrading the hardware version if necessary. 1. On the Clients tab select one or more virtual machine clients. 2. Right-click the selected clients, point to Changed Block Tracking on the shortcut menu, and select Enable CBT. 43

50 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Notes... If VMB cannot successfully enable CBT (because the selected client does not meet the minimum requirements, for example), no error is given. Instead, VMB backs up the entire virtual machine each time a full machine backup is performed using the VDDK backup technology. When CBT is enabled and the VDDK backup technology is used, STORServer VMB performs full machine backups by doing a base backup first, followed by a differential backup. Differential backups continue to be performed until the amount of data being transferred reaches or exceeds 60 percent of the data that was moved during the previous base backup, at which time another base backup is performed. You can adjust the differential percentage for individual clients by modifying the Differential percentage setting in the Client Information dialog box. You can also enable CBT from the Client Information dialog box, which displays when you click Edit Clients. See Editing client properties for instructions. Deleting clients from the VMB database Clients that have been removed from vcenter Server, but continue to exist in the STORServer VMB database (because they have been backed up by VMB or added to a VMB schedule), will continue to be listed on the Clients tab. You can delete them using this procedure. To delete one or more virtual machine clients from the VMB database, and remove them from any VMB schedules to which they are assigned: On the Clients tab, select one or more clients and click Delete Clients. You will be asked to confirm your request. Notes... Clients that still exist in vcenter Server will reappear on the Clients tab the next time the clients list is refreshed. To remove these, you must delete them directly from vcenter Server. Scheduling client backups and archives You must create a schedule to automate the backup and/or archive of virtual machine clients with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB). In some cases, multiple schedules may be required to adequately protect your virtual machine environment. 44

51 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Some suggested schedules for each of the supported backup technologies are as follows: Backup Technology VDDK TSM for VE Recommended Schedules Weekly full machine backups Daily (weekday) incremental backups - Windows clients only Daily incremental backups only When you create a new schedule with STORServer VMB, you must first define general schedule information (name, backup type, start time, and frequency) and then assign virtual machine clients to the schedule. You can then copy the schedule to create another one that will use similar values. Tip! VMB has a special schedule type called a default backup schedule, which automates the discovery and assignment of virtual machine clients. You may create two default schedules: one for full machine backups and one for incremental backups. See the description of the Default schedule check box in the Schedule Information dialog box topic for more details. What do you want to do? Create a new schedule Add clients to a schedule Copy an existing schedule Edit schedule properties Enable or disable a schedule Remove clients from a schedule Delete a schedule Creating a schedule CAUTION! Pay close attention to the timing of your schedules to ensure that the same clients are not being backed up or archived concurrently by multiple schedules. To define a schedule in STORServer VMB: 1. On the Schedules tab click Add Schedule. 2. Define values in the Schedule Information dialog box. If you created a default backup schedule, clients that are not currently scheduled to perform the specified backup type will be added automatically. If not, see the next section, Adding virtual machine clients to a schedule, for further instructions. 45

52 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Notes... With VDDK backup technology, incremental backups are supported for virtual machine clients running Windows only. In a heterogeneous environment, you may need to create additional schedules to ensure that all virtual machines are protected. For example: A daily schedule that executes incremental backups of all virtual machines that are running Windows A weekly schedule to perform full machine backups of virtual machines that are running Windows A daily schedule that runs full machine backups of virtual machines that are running operating systems other than Windows For regulatory compliance, you may need to create one or more custom schedules that run periodic full machine archives. Note that the VDDK technology will be used for all archive operations. TSM for VE backup technology does not support archiving. Adding virtual machine clients to a schedule This section describes how to add virtual machine clients to a regular, "non-default" backup schedule. If you have a default backup schedule that performs the same type of backup (incremental, for example), VMB automatically removes clients from the default schedule when they are manually added to a non-default schedule. See the description of the Default schedule option in the Schedule Information dialog box topic for more details. NOTE! If your backup server is a virtual machine, do not attempt to back it up with STORServer VMB. To prevent it from being added automatically to a default backup schedule, edit its properties and select the Disable clients in all schedules check box in the Client Information dialog box. There are two ways to add virtual machine clients to a schedule in STORServer VMB. Use the second procedure if you need to assign any clients to back up to a TSM server other than the default TSM server. From the Clients tab: 1. Select the virtual machine clients that you want to add to a schedule. Tip! Click the icon next to a virtual machine name to see the schedules to which it is already assigned. Virtual machines that have not been assigned to any schedule have the icon next to their names. 2. Right-click the selected clients, point to Add Clients to Schedule on the shortcut menu, and select a schedule from the submenu. 46

53 Backing up/archiving virtual machines From the Schedules tab: Tip! To see which clients are already assigned to a schedule, client the next to the schedule name. Schedules with no clients assigned have the next to their names. icon icon 1. Right-click a schedule and select Add Clients to Schedule on the shortcut menu. This opens the Schedule Information dialog box and displays the Add/Remove Clients tab. 2. In the list of available virtual machines at the top of the tab, select one or more virtual machines and click Add to Schedule, or double-click individual virtual machines to add them immediately. Added clients appear in the list at the bottom of the tab. 3. (Optional) To assign added clients to a TSM server other than the default TSM server, select them in the list at the bottom, click Assign TSM Server, and select a server from the drop-down list. 4. (Optional) To modify other client properties, select one or more clients in the list at the bottom, click Edit Clients, and modify values in the Client Information dialog box. 5. Click OK to save your changes. Copying an existing schedule To copy an existing schedule: 1. On the Schedules tab right-click the schedule to copy and select Copy Schedule. A schedule named "Copy of [selected schedule name]" is added to the list of schedules. 2. Double-click the copy to edit its properties. 47

54 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Notes... When you copy a default backup schedule, you will be prompted to make the new schedule the default schedule. Only one default schedule for each backup type (full or incremental) is allowed. If you make the new schedule the default schedule, VMB modifies the original schedule by clearing the Default schedule check box. Editing schedule properties To edit the properties of a STORServer VMB schedule: 1. On the Schedules tab either double-click the schedule that you want to edit or select the schedule and click Edit Schedule. 2. In the Schedule Information dialog box: Change one or more values on the Add/Edit Schedule tab. On the Add/Remove Clients tab, add or remove clients or change TSM server assignments. See Related Topics for further instructions. NOTE! Default backup schedules add and remove virtual machine clients automatically. See the description of the Default schedule option in the Schedule Information dialog box topic for more details. 3. Click OK. Enabling and disabling schedules Schedules are enabled by default. You can explicitly disable or re-enable STORServer VMB schedules as follows: 1. On the Schedules tab select one or more schedules to enable or disable. 2. Right-click the selected schedules and click Enable Schedules or Disable Schedules on the shortcut menu. The schedule icon changes to reflect the new status: (enabled) or (disabled). Notes... While disabled, a default backup schedule continues to manage the assigned clients list. (Any virtual machine clients that are not scheduled for the relevant backup type are added; those that you assigned to other, non-default schedules are removed.) Another way to enable or disable a single schedule is by editing its properties and selecting or clearing the Disable this schedule check box in the Schedule Information dialog box. 48

55 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Removing clients from a schedule There are multiple ways to remove virtual machine clients from an existing schedule: From the Schedules tab: 1. Expand the schedule (click the icon next to its name) to view the list of assigned virtual machine clients. 2. Select the clients to remove, right-click the selected clients, and select Remove Clients from Schedule. NOTE! You will not be asked to confirm this action. From the Clients tab: 1. Select the virtual machine clients that you want to remove from a schedule. 2. Right-click the selected clients, point to Remove Clients from Schedule, and select the schedule name from the submenu. Tip! The list of schedules that appears on the submenu includes ALL schedules to which the selected clients belong. If you choose a schedule to which only some selected clients belong, those clients are removed from the schedule; others are unaffected. From the Schedule Information dialog box: 1. On the Schedules tab, double-click the schedule whose clients will be removed. This opens the Schedule Information dialog box and displays the Add/Remove Clients tab. 2. Select clients in the Virtual machine clients added to schedule list near the bottom of the dialog box. 3. Click Remove from Schedule. 4. Click OK. Notes... A virtual machine client is automatically removed from a default backup schedule when it is assigned to a regular (non-default) schedule that performs the relevant backup type (full machine or incremental). See the description of the Default schedule option in the Schedule Information dialog box topic for more details. Clients that are removed from a default schedule but have not been added to a regular schedule for the same backup type will be re-added. You can prevent this by 49

56 Backing up/archiving virtual machines editing the client's properties and selecting the Disable clients in all schedules check box. See Editing client properties for more information. Deleting schedules To delete one or more schedules from STORServer VMB: 1. On the Schedules tab, select one or more schedules and do either of the following: Click the Delete Schedules button. Right-click the selected schedules and click Delete Schedules on the shortcut menu. 2. When prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes. Notes... If you select the Do not show this dialog check box in the confirmation message box, you will no longer be asked to confirm schedule deletions. You can reinstate these confirmation messages if necessary, from the General tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. Running on-demand jobs On-demand jobs are jobs that you execute in STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) to run immediately. These include backup, archive, restore, and retrieve operations, as well as schedules that you have defined in STORServer VMB. (While schedules will run automatically at specified frequencies, you can execute them at any time as an ondemand job.) On demand jobs are titled as such on the Status tab. You may set additional properties for on-demand jobs that override properties set elsewhere in VMB. What do you want to do? Run a schedule on demand Back up individual clients on demand Restore a virtual machine Restore individual files or directories Restore a virtual disk Running a schedule on demand To run a backup schedule immediately: 1. On the Schedules tab select the schedule you want to run. 2. Click Run Schedule. 50

57 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Notes... You can view the status of the on-demand schedule from the Status tab. To stop an on-demand job, see Stopping a schedule or on-demand job. To back up individual clients, see Backing up or archiving individual clients on demand. Backing up or archiving individual clients on demand To back up or archive one or more selected clients immediately: 1. On the Clients tab select one or more virtual machine clients. 2. Click Back Up Clients. 3. Specify values in the On-Demand Client Backup dialog box. 4. Click Start. Notes... You can view the status of this on-demand job from the Status tab. To stop an on-demand job, see Stopping a schedule or on-demand job. If the backup fails because STORServer VMB is unable to obtain a snapshot of the selected virtual machines in a quiesced state (applies to the VDDK backup technology only), consider the use of the Allow non-quiesced snapshots option. See the option description for related considerations. STORServer VMB uses the VDDK backup technology to perform all archive-related tasks, regardless of whether this backup technology is selected for use. The TSM for VE technology does not support archiving. To run a backup schedule, see Running a schedule on demand. STORServer VMB cannot be used to back up a backup server that is running as a virtual machine. Using client options with STORServer VMB STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) submits the following types of client options to TSM for processing during each backup, archive, and restore operation: Dynamic client options (generated by VMB) User-defined client options, which can be configured as global (apply to all virtual machine clients) or client-specific (apply to selected clients only) 51

58 Backing up/archiving virtual machines In general, the following order of precedence (from highest to lowest) is applied when duplicate client options are defined: 1. User-defined client-specific options (override global options) 2. User-defined global options (override dynamically generated options) 3. Dynamically generated client options (lowest order of precedence) What do you want to do? Learn more about dynamic client options files Create client options files for use with VMB Configure VMB to use global client options Configure VMB to use client-specific client options About the dynamic client options files generated by VMB Each time a virtual machine client is backed up, archived, or restored, STORServer VMB generates a dynamic client options file for that client and submits it to TSM for processing. This file includes options that are generated by VMB as well as user-defined client options, which are described further in the next section. The dynamic client options files reside in the TSM folder under the VMB install directory on the VMB server machine, and are retained according to a setting in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. Dynamic client option files use the naming convention client-name_ nnnnnn.opt. For example: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\tsm\myclient_ opt NOTE! You can view these files to determine which options are being used, but do not modify them. Because these files are generated dynamically, any modifications that you make will be ignored and overwritten the next time the clients are backed up, archived, or restored. When building a dynamic client options file, VMB generates a set of options that are tailored for each operation, and defined based on values specified in the VMB user interface (UI). These options provide values related to: The client/server communication method and attributes The control and data management classes The password access mechanism The datacenter node Compression and deduplication Application protection 52

59 Backing up/archiving virtual machines Disks to exclude from backup The VMware communication transport mode The TSM error log file NOTE! If you need to change any of these values, edit the appropriate corresponding value in the VMB UI. Do not attempt to redefine them with a usercreated client options file unless otherwise noted in this topic. STORServer VMB also defines the following options (as shown), which do not have corresponding values in the VMB UI. Therefore, you may redefine these, if necessary, using a global or client-specific client options file. TcpBuffSize 32 TcpWindowSize 63 TxnByteLimit The following set of default exclude options are also added to dynamic client options files, and are applied only during file-level incremental backups performed with the VDDK backup technology. These options are defined by STORServer and are subject to change at the discretion of STORServer Engineering. You may redefine these with a global or clientspecific client options file. Exclude.dir "\\*\*\...\Temporary Internet Files" Exclude.dir "\\*\*\Recycled" Exclude.dir "\\*\*\Recycler" Exclude.dir "\\*\*\...\History" Exclude.dir "\\*\*\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download" Exclude "\\*\*\microsoft uam volume\...\*" Exclude "\\*\*\microsoft uam volume\...\*.*" Exclude "\\*\*\...\EA DATA. SF" Exclude "\\*\*\...\pagefile.sys" Exclude "\\*\*\IBMBIO.COM" Exclude "\\*\*\IBMDOS.COM" Exclude "\\*\*\MSDOS.SYS" Exclude "\\*\*\IO.SYS" Exclude "\\*\*\...\*.dmp" Exclude "\\*\*\winnt\symbols\...\*" Exclude "\\*\*\...\*.tmp" When populating a dynamic client options file, STORServer VMB adds client options in the order listed: 1. Operation-specific client options generated by VMB 2. Options from a user-defined global options file (if any) 3. Options from a user-defined client-specific client options file (if any) 53

60 Backing up/archiving virtual machines 4. Default exclude options defined by VMB 5. Include-exclude options from a user-defined global include-exclude file (if any) 6. Include-exclude options from a user-defined client include-exclude file (if any) The order in which options are listed in the dynamic client options file is significant when duplicate options are defined. TSM processes client options files from the bottom up, and uses the first occurrence of an option that it encounters. Therefore, options at the bottom of the file generally take precedence over those at the top. Creating client options files for use with VMB To define global or client-specific client options, you must first create the appropriate client options files: An include-exclude options file for all include and exclude options that will be applied to all or selected clients. Include-exclude options files have a.iex file extension and provide a separate repository for all include-exclude options. An example of an include-exclude options file is as follows: include "\\MailServer\*\...\*.mai" MAIL exclude "\\*\C$\...\System_Temp 1\...\*" exclude "\\*\C$\...\System_Temp 2\...\*" exclude "\\JournalNode\D$\Journals\...\*" A regular TSM client options file (.opt) for options OTHER than include-exclude options that will be applied to all or selected clients. Once the files have been created, you must then configure STORServer VMB to use them. (VMB will include your options in the appropriate dynamic client options files that it submits to TSM during each backup, archive, and restore operation.) The manner in which you configure STORServer VMB determines whether your options will be applied to all virtual machine clients or only selected ones. NOTE! Note the order of precedence that is applied when duplicate options are defined. To create an include-exclude options file or a client options file: 1. On the backup server, create a folder outside of the VMB directory tree to store your custom client options files. 2. Decide on a naming convention that ensures unique file names, especially when defining multiple options files for specific clients. 54

61 Backing up/archiving virtual machines For example: client-name.iex (for include-exclude option files) client-name.opt (for client options files) 3. Determine which client options are being used by default in case you want to override any of them. Default options appear at the top of the dynamic client options files, which are created during each backup operation, and stored in the TSM folder under the VMB install directory on the VMB server machine. 4. Create the appropriate options files and enter options. Refer to the IBM TSM documentation for client option descriptions. NOTE! When defining options for incremental file-level backups (performed by VDDK backup technology only), you must use a specific syntax for all file specifications. Otherwise, STORServer VMB cannot locate the files. See Required syntax for file specifications (VDDK only) for details. After creating your client options files, you must configure VMB to use them. Notes... Include-exclude options for files and directories are ignored when backups are performed using TSM for VE backup technology because data is backed up at the block level rather than the file level. Required file specification syntax for client options (VDDK only) When defining include-exclude options for incremental file-level backups, which are performed only when the VDDK backup technology is used, you must enter folder and file specifications in a specific format. Otherwise, these objects may not be found during backup processing and your include or exclude statements will be ignored. File paths that reflect the actual location on the virtual machine (for example: C:\Reports\*.rpt) are not valid in most cases because VMB maps drives on the virtual machine to a location on the VMB backup server, so the drive specification format is incorrect. The general syntax to use for these include and exclude statements is as follows: include "\\tsmnodename\drive$\folder\filename" exclude "\\tsmnodename\drive$\folder\filename" where: The tsmnodename is the name of the client node as it was registered with TSM. This name may be based on either the virtual machine name or the virtual machine's local hostname. Characters that are not permitted by TSM (spaces, for example) are 55

62 Backing up/archiving virtual machines replaced with underscores (_). You can replace the node name value with an asterisk (*), which acts as a wildcard. This is recommended under most circumstances. The only time you would need to specify the actual client node name here is when you are using a single set of include-exclude options (in one TSM include-exclude options file(.iex) or client options file (.opt)) for multiple clients and need to apply different actions to specific clients. The drive is the native drive letter on the virtual machine. This value must be followed by a dollar sign ($) rather than a colon (:). You may substitute an asterisk (*) as a wildcard (*) for the drive letter. If you have existing include-exclude statements that specify the drive as *: (that is, a wildcard for the drive letter, followed by a colon), these will continue to function properly. However, if an actual drive letter is used, the full syntax must be used and the colon must be replaced with a dollar sign ($). For example: Correct: exclude "*:\...\*.tmp" Incorrect: exclude "C:\...\*.tmp" Correct: exclude "\\*\C$\...\*.tmp" Incorrect: exclude "C$\...\*.tmp" The folder name can also be replaced with a wildcard (*), which represents any single-level folder, or an ellipsis (...), which represents any number of folder levels. The filename may use a wildcard (*) to represent a portion of the name or be replaced with a single wildcard to signify all files. You can optionally specify a management class in your include statement, which is useful when you want to apply a different set of data retention parameters to a group of files. Use the following syntax when specifying a management class: include "\\tsmnodename\drive$\folder\filename" mgmtclass Be sure to specify the TSM node name rather than the virtual machine name. These two names are typically the same, but if the virtual machine name contains any spaces, they are replaced by underscores in the TSM node name. Examples: The first example instructs STORServer VMB to back up all files on the E drive that reside in any directory named temp and all subdirectories under temp. It also associates matching files with the TEMPORARY management class. include "\\*\E$\...\temp\...\*" TEMPORARY The next example applies the same include option to all drives: include "\\*\*\...\temp\...\*" TEMPORARY 56

63 Backing up/archiving virtual machines The two examples that follow restrict included files to those on the C drives on virtual machine clients mynodea and mynodeb. You would want to specify node names when you are using a single set of include-exclude options for all clients and want to include or exclude different files on some clients. include "\\mynodea\c$\...\temp\...\*" TEMPORARY include "\\mynodeb\c$\...\temp\...\*" TEMPORARY NOTE! When specifying a virtual machine client in an include-exclude option, always enter the TSM client node name rather than the virtual machine client name. Configuring VMB to use global client options Unlike traditional TSM client options, which apply only to the clients that are configured to use them, global options apply to all virtual machine clients that are being backed up by STORServer VMB, regardless of the TSM server to which they are assigned. To configure VMB to apply the options in user-created client options files during all virtual machine client backups: 1. Create the appropriate client options files that contain the global options. (See Creating options files for use with VMB for instructions.) 2. On the main Settings tab click Edit Settings to open the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 3. On the Backups tab under Global Options, browse to or enter the paths and file names for the include-exclude and/or client options files that contain the global options. 4. Click Save. The options in the specified files will be added to all dynamic client options files that STORServer VMB generates during virtual machine backups, archives, and restores. Global options supercede the dynamic options defined by VMB when duplicates are defined. (See the order of precedence that is used when duplicate options are defined.) Configuring VMB to use client-specific client options 1. Create the appropriate client options files (.iex and/or.opt). See Creating options files for use with VMB for instructions. 2. On the Clients tab, select the virtual machine clients to which these options will be applied and click Edit Clients. 3. In the Client Information dialog box click Advanced. 57

64 Backing up/archiving virtual machines 4. Under Options Files, browse to or enter the paths and file names for the includeexclude and/or client options files that contain the client options that you want VMB to use when backing up the selected clients. 5. Click OK. The options in the specified files will be added to the dynamic client options files for the selected virtual machine clients only. Client-specific options take precedence over both global and dynamic options when duplicates are defined. (See the order of precedence that is used when duplicate options are defined.) 58

65 Restoring and retrieving data This section provides general instructions for restoring and retrieving virtual machines, individual files and directories, and virtual disks from STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB). Data that was backed up using the TSM for VE backup technology can also be restored from other user interfaces and plug-ins associated with the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Data Protection for Virtual Environments software (a prerequisite for STORServer VMB). Refer to the IBM TSM for VE documentation for more information. Tip! For information on restoring a vcenter Server see the STORServer white paper titled Protecting and Restoring a VMware vcenter Server Virtual Machine with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup, available on the STORServer website. What do you want to do? Restore or retrieve individual files and directories Restore virtual machines Restore virtual disks Restore a virtual machine client that no longer appears on the Clients tab Restore or retrieve from a VCB backup or archive Restoring or retrieving individual files and directories When you use STORServer VMB to restore or retrieve virtual machine files and directories, VMB launches one of the following graphical user interfaces (GUIs), based on the backup technology that was used for the most recent backup or archive of the selected virtual machine client: TSM Backup-Archive GUI (for VDDK restores/retrieves) The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Backup-Archive Client GUI, which is required on the VMB client. You will use this GUI when selecting and restoring or retrieving files and directories from incremental backups. TSM Recovery Agent GUI (for TSM for VE restores) - The IBM Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI, which is also required on the VMB client. You will use this GUI when mounting a snapshot of the virtual machine (as a virtual volume) to your local machine. You then select and restore files and directories from full or incremental backups using Windows Explorer. Files and directories can be restored directly to the virtual machine client or to local or shared storage on the backup server. You can then move the restored data to the location of your choice. 59

66 Restoring and retrieving data NOTE! This procedure applies to virtual machines that are running a Windows operating system only. To restore files for a non-windows virtual machine (Linux) that was backed up using the TSM for VE backup technology, you must use the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI as described in the IBM TSM documentation. Before you begin... If restoring files directly to a virtual machine client, map a network drive from the client to the backup server. To restore or retrieve individual files or directories from a virtual machine: 1. On the Clients tab select the virtual machine client whose data is being restored or retrieved and click Restore. Tip! You can also click the down-arrow on the Restore button and click Restore Files and Directories (available only when a single client is selected). 2. In the On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box, click Next to use the default values unless you need to: Specify a different TSM server. (You may be prompted to log on.) Retrieve files from archive. (The default setting is to restore from backup.) Use a different backup technology than the one used for the last backup/archive. See the On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box Help for more details. 60

67 Restoring and retrieving data 3. Complete the restore operation using one of the following GUIs, which launches automatically: TSM Backup-Archive GUI a. Click Restore or Retrieve in the TSM Backup-Archive GUI. b. In the Restore window or the Retrieve window: 1. Locate the files or directories to restore or retrieve. In the directory tree, expand the virtual machine client s name and locate the directory that represents the drive on which the files reside. For restores, expand File Level and the appropriate virtual disk to view files. For retrieves, expand the appropriate Archive Date folder. See Locating files for restore or retrieval for more information. 2. Select the files or directories that you want to restore or retrieve. 61

68 Restoring and retrieving data 3. Click Restore or Retrieve. c. In the Restore Destination or Retrieve Destination dialog box, select Following location and specify a destination directory. IMPORTANT! Do NOT accept the default destination and restore or retrieve virtual machine files to their original location when using VDDK backup technology. The original location is actually the location of the snapshot, which is a transient mount point. You can restore/retrieve files to the virtual machine via a mapped network drive on the virtual machine or to local or shared storage on the backup server. d. Click Restore or Retrieve. A confirmation appears once the operation has completed. e. Exit the TSM Backup-Archive GUI. Notes... The Restore command on the VMB Clients tab is unavailable until the selected client has been backed up or archived at least once. TSM Recovery Agent GUI a. Select New Tivoli Storage Manager in the Data Protection for VMware dialog box. 62

69 Restoring and retrieving data 63

70 Restoring and retrieving data b. In the Tivoli Storage Manager Server information dialog box: 1. Verify that the Server address is the correct address for the TSM server from which you want to restore. 2. Verify that the Direct node access method is selected. 3. If datacenter nodes are used, verify that the Authentication node value specifies the datacenter node where the virtual machine's backups are located. Enter the Password for the datacenter node. If datacenters are not used at your site, enter the TSM node name and password for the virtual machine whose data is being restored. 64

71 Restoring and retrieving data Tip! Datacenter nodes are defined on the Backups tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. The TSM node name and password for the virtual machine are defined in client properties for that machine. 4. Click OK. c. Back in the Data Protection for VMware dialog box, which has obtained a list of virtual machines for the specified TSM server, select the virtual machine that you want to restore. Tip! Type the first few letters of the virtual machine name (case-sensitive) to quickly locate a machine. d. Select a snapshot date (the date of the backup or archive from which you want to restore files). e. Select the disk where the files are located. f. Click Mount. 65

72 Restoring and retrieving data g. Select Create virtual volume from selected partition and select a partition. By default, only partitions that can be used for file and directory restores are displayed. Tip! To display all partitions that existed on the original disk, clear the Show only mountable partitions check box. 66

73 Restoring and retrieving data h. Check/change the drive letter that will be used as a mount point for the virtual volume. i. Click OK. The newly created virtual volume appears under Mounted volumes in the Data Protection for VMware dialog box. j. Use Windows Explorer to select and copy files and directories from the mounted volume to your preferred location. NOTE! The ACL values associated with the folders and files that are restored in a file level recovery operation are not transferred to the recovered files. In order to maintain ACL values, use the XCOPY command when copying files from the target. k. To dismount the virtual volume, select it in the Data Protection for VMware dialog box and click Dismount. 67

74 Restoring and retrieving data Notes... VMB uses the VDDK technology for all archives and retrievals, regardless of the configured backup technology. These functions are not supported with the TSM for VE technology. Locating files for restore or retrieval The file space naming conventions differ by backup technology (VDDK or TSM for VE), and in the case of VDDK, the version of VMB that you are currently using or used previously. The following sections explain the conventions and show examples of what you would see in TSM. Backed up/archived with VDDK: When restoring or retrieving individual files or directories using the VDDK backup technology, you will be selecting the files and directories from the TSM Backup-Archive GUI. File space names for VDDK backups look like those shown in the following example: where: TEST_VDDK is the TSM node name or virtual machine name of the virtual machine client. The TSM node name is used if you are running any VMB version other than VMB 5.0 and have never installed VMB 5.0. The virtual machine name is used if you ever installed VMB 5.0. VMB 5.0 was the first and only VMB version to use virtual machine names by default when naming file spaces. The original convention of using TSM node names was reinstated in VMB 5.1. However, to maintain a consistent file naming convention for VMB 5.0 users, VMB 5.1 and newer will continue to use virtual machine names in file space names on any machines that previously ran VMB

75 Restoring and retrieving data \\test_vddk\apifullbackup is the directory where full machine backups of the TEST_VDDK client are stored. Full machine archives are stored in a directory called apifullarchive. \\test_vddk\c$ is the directory under which incremental file-level backups and file-level archives are stored. Virtual machines with multiple drives will have a directory for each drive (for example: \\test_vddk\d$, \\test_vddk\f$, and so on). Backed up with TSM for VE: When restoring files using the TSM for VE backup technology, you can browse the actual directory and file names from Windows Explorer. If you were to view TSM for VE file spaces directly from TSM, with a QUERY FILESPACE command for example, they would appear as shown in the following example: where: DCNode1\VMFULL-VM Lab2 DCNode1 is the name of the datacenter node to which the virtual machine is backed up. VMFULL- is a prefix added by TSM for VE to all backups, both full and incremental. VM Lab2 is the name of the virtual machine. TSM for VE file spaces use the virtual machine name rather than the node name, so spaces are allowed. Restoring virtual machines This procedure explains how to restore or retrieve one or more virtual machines from backup or archive (respectively). Note the following: Multiple virtual machines may be restored from a single TSM server only. If you are restoring to a standalone ESX/ESXi host, VMB must be configured to connect directly to that host. Check settings on the vcenter Server tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. Only virtual machines that were backed up using the VDDK backup technology and changed block tracking (CBT) can be restored to a standalone ESX/ESXi host. If the virtual machine that is being restored is a vcenter Server, refer to the STORServer white paper titled Protecting and Restoring a VMware vcenter Server Virtual Machine with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup for instructions. If the virtual machine that you want to restore is not listed on the Clients tab, see Restoring a deleted virtual machine client for further instructions. If the virtual machine was backed up or archived using the older VCB backup technology, see Restoring and retrieving from VCB backups and archives. 69

76 Restoring and retrieving data You can opt to validate full machine backups instead of actually restoring the virtual machines by using the Perform data validation only option in the Restore Virtual Machines dialog box. This option is valid only for full machine backups created with VDDK backup technology. To restore or retrieve one or more virtual machines: 1. On the Clients tab, select one or more virtual machine clients and click Restore or click the down-arrow on the Restore button and select Restore Virtual Machines on the submenu. Tip! To make a long list of clients more manageable, use the Show clients on host feature to filter the list by ESX/ESXi host, or click the appropriate column head to re-sort the list by name, ESX/ESXi host, or last backup, for example. 2. In the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, click Next to use the default values unless you need to: Specify a different TSM server. (You may be prompted to log on.) Retrieve virtual machines from archive. (The default setting is to restore from backup.) Restore an older version of one or more selected virtual machines. (Latest is selected by default.) When you select Date range and specify a date range, the backups or archives that occurred during that period are listed in the next dialog box. Both active and inactive files are included by default. You must clear the Include inactive files check box to omit inactive files. 3. In the Restore Virtual Machines dialog box: NOTE! Values that you set during this procedure (network, ESX host, and datastore, for example) are applied to all virtual machines that are being restored. The default "Unchanged" value retains original settings on all selected virtual machines. a. If you specified a date range in the previous dialog box, there may be multiple versions of selected virtual machines listed. Select one version for each virtual machine that is being restored. Tip! Entries in the Type column indicate which backup technology was used and the type of backup/archive that was performed. See the Restore Virtual Machines dialog box section for a list of entries that may appear in this column. 70

77 Restoring and retrieving data b. Verify settings for the newly restored virtual machines: These settings apply to ALL virtual machines that are being restored. The default "Unchanged" value retains original settings on each selected machine. When restoring a virtual machine that already exists on the specified ESX/ESXi server, select the Delete and replace existing virtual machines check box or specify a new name for the restored machine. To rename multiple virtual machines, add a prefix, suffix, or both. When restoring virtual machines to a standalone ESX/ESXi host, be sure to select that host in the ESX host box, and a Network and Datastore that are valid for that host. c. Click Start. You can monitor the status of this on-demand job from the Status tab. NOTE! Do not attempt to access or use the restored virtual machines until the restore operation has successfully completed. Notes... When restoring or retrieving virtual machines using VDDK backup technology, you may notice that none of the restore/retrieve candidates match the last backup date shown on the Clients tab. This occurs when the last backup or archive was incremental rather than full. With VDDK technology, virtual machines can only be restored from a full machine backup. When restoring or retrieving a virtual machine that was backed up or archived using VDDK backup technology and changed block tracking (CBT), if you select a differential backup, STORServer VMB restores the latest base backup first, followed by the differential backup. When restoring to a different ESX/ESXi host, make sure that host is running a version of ESX/ESXi software that is the same or newer than that of the original host (the host on which the virtual machine resided when it was backed up or archived). Otherwise, the restore will fail if features that were enabled during the original backup (CBT, for example) are not supported by the target host. Virtual machines that were backed up with the TSM for VE backup technology can be restored directly from the VMware vsphere Client using the Data Protection for VMware vcenter plug-in, an optional TSM for VE component. 71

78 Restoring and retrieving data Restoring virtual disks To restore one or more virtual disks into a selected virtual machine and the original datastore: 1. On the Clients tab select the virtual machine client whose disks you want to restore, click the down-arrow on the Restore button, and select Restore Virtual Disks. 2. In the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, click Next to use the default values unless you need to: Specify a different TSM server. (You may be prompted to log on.) Retrieve virtual disks from archive. (The default setting is to restore from backup.) Restore an older version of the virtual machine disks. (Latest is selected by default.) When you select Date range and specify a date range, the backups or archives that occurred during that period are listed in the next dialog box. Both active and inactive files are included by default. You must clear the Include inactive files check box if you want to omit inactive files. 3. In the Restore Virtual Disks dialog box, select the disks to restore. If multiple versions are listed (because you specified a date range, for example), select one version for each disk. 4. Click Start. You can monitor the status of this on-demand job from the Status tab. Notes... This feature is useful when a virtual machine with multiple disks has a single corrupted disk, for example. It is not intended as a way to move virtual disks from one datastore to another. Use the vsphere relocate function to move disks. When restoring disks using VDDK backup technology, you may notice that none of the disks available for restore match the last backup date shown on the Clients tab. This occurs when the last backup was an incremental backup rather than a full machine backup. A virtual disk cannot be restored from an incremental backup with VDDK technology. Restoring a deleted virtual machine client Under unusual circumstances, it may be necessary to restore a virtual machine client that has been deleted from both vcenter Server and the STORServer VMB database. Because this client is no longer listed on the Clients tab in VMB, it cannot be selected for restore 72

79 Restoring and retrieving data until you reinstate the client record in the VMB database. The restore process then recreates the client in vcenter Server. To reinstate a virtual machine client that was previously backed up and then deleted from VMB: 1. On the Clients tab click the Reinstate Client button. 2. In the Reinstate Client dialog box, provide the original name and datacenter for the client that you want to restore and click Next. 3. In the Client Information dialog box, set the original properties of this client (as closely as possible), particularly: Changed block tracking Set according to what was used when the client was backed up. TSM node name and password Define if this client was backed up using credentials other than the default credentials. Backup technology Select the technology that was used for previous backups. 4. Click OK to recreate a client record for this client in the VMB database. Once the virtual machine client has been reinstated, it reappears on the Clients tab. You may then select it and proceed with the restore. See Restoring virtual machines for further instructions. Notes... You may have to wait a few seconds for the Restore Virtual Machine function to become available (after the reinstated client appears in the Clients list). The restored client s last backup time will default to Unknown until the virtual machine is backed up again. If you encounter any issues while attempting to restore the reinstated client, verify client properties to ensure that the correct values are specified. You may edit the properties of this client as you would any other virtual machine client. If the datacenter no longer exists, use the Add Datacenter feature on the Backups tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box to add it to the VMB database. Restoring and retrieving from VCB backups and archives Older versions of STORServer VMB, formerly known as the STORServer Agent for VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), used a VCB utility to back up and archive virtual machines. The use of VCB was eventually replaced with the VDDK backup technology, and support for VCB was discontinued. The following procedure explains how to restore or retrieve data from a full machine backup or a full machine archive that was performed using VCB technology. It requires the 73

80 Restoring and retrieving data use of the TSM Backup-Archive GUI and VMware Converter/vCenter Converter. The destination for the restored virtual machine is an ESX/ESXi host. NOTE! If the latest snapshot of the full machine backup/archive is still available on the backup server, skip steps 1 through 7 and copy the virtual machine files directly from the snapshot directory to a staging location on local or shared storage. This location must be accessible to the VMware Converter and outside of the snapshot directory. Proceed to step 8 to convert the images to a virtual machine. 1. On the Clients tab, select the virtual machine client whose data is being restored or retrieved and click Restore. 2. In the On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box: Verify the TSM server name. Select the appropriate action (Restore from backup or Retrieve from archive). Verify that Launch TSM Backup-Archive GUI (VDDK) is selected. Click Next. 3. Click Restore or Retrieve in the TSM Backup-Archive GUI. 74

81 Restoring and retrieving data 4. In the Restore window or the Retrieve window: a. In the directory tree, expand the virtual machine client s name and locate the directory that contains the full machine backup or archive. For restores, expand File Level and the appropriate virtual disk to view files. For retrieves, expand the appropriate Archive Date folder. b. Select the entire folder by clicking inside the gray selection box next to the folder name. A check mark appears inside the box when the folder is selected. c. Click Restore or Retrieve. 5. In the Restore Destination or Retrieve Destination dialog box, select Following location and select a staging location on local or shared storage as a destination. The location you specify must be accessible to the VMware Converter. IMPORTANT! Do NOT accept the default destination. Also, do not select a location within the snapshot directory. Retain the default selection Restore partial path. 6. Click Restore or Retrieve. A confirmation appears once the operation has completed. 7. Exit the TSM Backup-Archive GUI. 8. Run the VMware Converter. (Click Start All Programs VMware VMware Converter.) 9. Click the Import Machine button. 10. In the VMware Converter Import Wizard: a. Welcome: Click Next. b. Source: Click Next. c. Source Type: Select Standalone virtual machine, backup or disk image and click Next. d. Select Virtual Machine: Browse to the folder that contains the restored full machine backup or archive and double-click on it. Select the.vmx file in that folder and click Open. The full path to the.vmx file is entered in Source VM or image. Click Next. e. Source Data: Click Next to import all disks (recommended). 75

82 Restoring and retrieving data f. Destination: Click Next. g. Destination Type: Click Next to import this virtual machine to an ESX/ESXi host. h. Destination Login: Select the ESX/ESXi host that will receive the restored virtual machine. If the target server is not listed, enter the fully qualified domain name or IP address of the server. Enter the login credentials (User name and Password) for the specified server. i. Virtual Machine Name: Enter a new name (recommended) for the virtual machine that is being restored. Click Next. j. Host: Select the host from which to run the virtual machine and click Next. k. Datastore: Choose a datastore with sufficient space for the restored virtual machine and click Next. l. Networks: Indicate the number of network adapters for the virtual machine. If the machine that is being restored had a fixed IP address, you may need to clear the Connect at power on checkbox to prevent a network conflict. You can alternately customize the identity of the new virtual machine using customization features on the next wizard page. m. Customization: To customize the operating system of the new virtual machine, refer to the wizard s Help for instructions. Otherwise, click Next to proceed without customizing the new virtual machine. n. Ready to Complete: Click Finish to begin the conversion. The wizard exits and the conversion job appears in the task list of the VMware Converter window. You can monitor the progress on the Task Progress tab. When the job completes successfully, the Status column entry changes to Completed. NOTE! The new virtual machine is visible in the vsphere Client immediately. However, the conversion process can take a considerable amount of time. Do not attempt to access or use the new virtual machine until the status in the VMware Converter window indicates that the job has completed. 10. Once the restored machine is available, you can delete the directory containing the restored full machine backup or archive from the staging area. 76

83 Monitoring jobs and checking status You can monitor the status of both scheduled and on-demand jobs (collectively referred to as jobs) from the Status tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) user interface. Status information is available for the number of days specified by the log retention period, which is 7 by default. (You can change the log retention period if necessary.) NOTE! Although you can set the status filter on the Status tab to show status for up to 999 days, status information is available only during the defined log retention period. If a schedule or a client backup within a schedule fails, you can examine the related error logs to determine the cause of failure and take the appropriate steps to correct the problem. Schedule and client error logs can be searched, exported to a file, and, in some cases, even annotated. See Error logs for procedures related to logs, including viewing logs, exporting logs, deleting logs, and changing the log retention period. What do you want to do? Get a quick (brief) status of a job Expand or collapse entries on the Status tab (to view or hide details) Filter the list of jobs or the list of clients in an expanded job Check the status of individual client tasks Change the final status of a job Add notes or comments to a job log Change the refresh frequency for the Status tab Disable the automatic refresh of the Status tab View the Status tab in its own window Getting a quick status of a job To view a brief status of a schedule or an on-demand job: Go to the Status tab and hover the pointer over the job name. A brief status for that job appears in a pop-up window. 77

84 Monitoring jobs and checking status Tip! To view more detailed status information, expand the job entry and view the logs. Expanding and collapsing entries on the Status tab You can expand and collapse job entries that are listed on the Status tab, to access more detail on that job (the list of clients being backed up and their individual status, for example) or to hide detail. To expand a job entry: Click on the far right side of the job entry. To collapse a job entry: Click on the far right side of the job entry. (This button changes depending on the current state of the job entry.) To expand or collapse all job entries: Click or to expand or collapse (respectively) all job entries at once. Filtering status information You can filter the list of schedules and on-demand jobs (jobs) that appears on the Status tab or filter the list of clients that appears within an expanded job entry. To filter the list of jobs: Use either or both of the following filters on the Status tab: Show jobs with status [ ] Select one or more statuses in the drop-down list. The list of jobs is updated immediately to show only those jobs with a current or final status that matches any of the selected statuses. Show status for [ ] days Enter a number of days from 1 to 999 and click or press ENTER. The list of jobs is updated to show only those that occurred within the specified number of days. NOTE! Status information is available only during the log retention period. 78

85 Monitoring jobs and checking status To filter the list of clients for a specific job: Expand the job entry on the Status tab and then use either or both of the following filters, which appear above the list of clients: Show clients with status [ ] Select one or more statuses in the drop-down list. The list of clients is updated immediately to show only those clients whose backup status matches any of the selected statuses. Message filter [ ] Enter text that you want to find in client logs and click or press ENTER. An asterisk (*) can be used as a wildcard. The list of clients is updated immediately to show only those clients whose logs contain the specified text. You can then view and search the individual logs as necessary. Checking the status of individual client tasks To check the status of individual client tasks within a schedule or an on-demand job: 1. On the Status tab expand the entry for the schedule or on-demand job. Click on the far right side of the job entry. You will see a list of the clients associated with that job. 2. Check the status indicators next to each client in the list to determine the status of that task. 3. (Optional) For more details on a client task, double-click the entry for that client and view the log messages in the Task Details dialog box. Changing the final status of a job The final status of a schedule or an on-demand job will be a failure or warning if any of the tasks within the job did not run to completion or did not run at all. You may want to change the original status to Success after correcting the problem (by successfully backing up a missed client with an on-demand backup, for example). You can change the final status of a job to Success or Failed as follows: 1. On the Status tab right-click the entry for the job whose status you want to change and select Show Job Details on the shortcut menu. 2. On the General tab of the Job Details dialog box select the new status in the Change status box. (Selections in the list vary depending upon the current status of the schedule.) 3. Click OK. 79

86 Monitoring jobs and checking status An entry is automatically added to the schedule log indicating that the status was changed. For example: 06/13/ :31 PM User Administrator changed completion status from [2000] 'Failed' to [4]'Changed to Success'. Tip! You can add your own comments to this entry as described in Adding notes to a job log. The graphical status indicator on the Status tab changes to indicate the new (changed) status. The new status also appears in Quick Status displays. Both the original and changed statuses appear in the Job Details dialog box. Adding notes to a job log When you change the status of a job STORServer VMB adds a message to the log describing the status change. You can add your own comments or notes as follows: 1. On the Status tab right-click the job that you want to add notes to and select Show Job Details. 2. On the General tab of the Job Details dialog box, enter your notes in the New notes box. 3. Do either of the following: Click OK to save your notes to the log and exit the Job Details dialog box. Click Add Note to add your notes to the Notes history box and keep the Job Details dialog box open. NOTE! Your notes are not saved to the log until you click OK. The following example shows the entry that STORServer VMB added after a schedule status change, as well as a user-entered note: 80

87 Monitoring jobs and checking status Changing the refresh frequency for the Status tab Information on the Status tab is updated every 3 minutes (180 seconds) by default. To change the refresh frequency: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings. 2. On the General tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, change the Refresh Status tab every [ ] seconds value to the appropriate number of seconds. 3. Click Save. Disabling the automatic refresh of the Status tab STORServer VMB updates the information on the Status tab automatically, according to the frequency setting in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. You can disable the automatic refresh as follows: 1. On the Settings tab click Edit Settings. 2. Clear the Refresh Status tab every [ ] seconds check box on the General tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. 3. Click Save. You can manually update status information at any time by clicking toolbar. on the Status Viewing the Status tab in a separate window To view the Status tab in its own window, which allows you to keep status information visible while performing other tasks with STORServer VMB: Click tab. in the status toolbar, located on the right-hand side at the top of the Status The Job Status window appears. You can resize and reposition this window as needed. Stopping on-demand jobs, schedules, and tasks There are two procedures for stopping active jobs, schedules, or tasks: One stops the active job (a schedule or on-demand job), which halts the action that is currently in progress and cancels remaining tasks. The other stops an individual task within a job (a client backup or archive, for example) but allows the job to continue. 81

88 Monitoring jobs and checking status What do you want to do? Stop a schedule or an on-demand job Stop individual tasks Stopping a schedule or an on-demand job To stop a schedule or an on-demand job while it is still running: On the Status tab click next to the schedule or job name. (This icon is visible only while the job is running. It disappears once the job has finished.) Tip! To stop the backup of one or more clients within a schedule or on-demand client backup without stopping the entire job, see Stopping individual tasks. Stopping individual tasks To stop individual client backups within an executing schedule or on-demand job without stopping the entire schedule or job: 1. On the Status tab, expand the schedule or job. To expand a schedule or job, click to the right of the schedule s name. 2. In the list of clients, select the clients whose backups you want to stop. 82

89 Monitoring jobs and checking status 3. Click the Stop Selected Task button that appears on the toolbar within an expanded job. (This button becomes available when you select a client whose backup is in progress or pending.) Tip! You can disable backups of a particular client indefinitely by editing the client s properties and selecting Disable this client in all schedules. 83

90

91 Backing up and restoring VMB's database STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) uses an SQL database to manage configuration and internal settings. The VMB server writes database information to the following primary data file, which resides in the install directory: C:\Program Files\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\SsVcb.mdf When configured to use the default database, Microsoft SQL Express on the backup server, the VMB server backs up its database every day to the default TSM server. These automatic backups typically take only seconds to complete and should not interfere with normal processing. You can modify the automatic database configuration, if necessary, as described in the next section. If you configured VMB to use your own SQL server, disable the automatic database backups and use your normal procedure to back up the VMB database. NOTE! STORServer recommends that you back up the VMB database every day. What do you want to do? Configure automatic database backups Disable automatic database backups Restore the database Configuring automatic database backups Automatic database backups are controlled by a series of parameters in the STORServer VMB server configuration file. To change these parameters, you must modify the VMB server configuration file, which resides in the install directory at: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\SsVcbSched.exe.config 85

92 Backing up and restoring VMB's database Guidelines for modifying the server configuration file Make a copy of the original configuration file in case you need to revert to it later. In general, case matters for configuration parameter names and values. Tags for undefined values can use a single tag format: <value />. When you define the value, replace the single tag with start and end tags. For example: <value>mypassword</value> To put your changes into effect, you must restart the VMB server. If your changes introduce an invalid value, for example, VMB uses a default value and ignores your changes; no error is generated. However, if changes violate XML protocol (mismatched opening and closing tags, for example), the VMB server will not start. Errors from.net runtime will appear in the Windows application event log. (No errors are logged by the VMB server because it did not start.) The parameters that affect automatic database backups are: AutoDbBackup Enables or disables automatic database backups. Set to True to enable automatic database backups and False to disable them. AutoDbBackupClient and AutoDbBackupPwd Specifies the client name and password to use when connecting to the TSM server to perform automatic database backups. By default, these parameters are undefined. VMB uses the machine name of the backup server and the password that was created when the backup server itself was backed up. If no password is stored, VMB uses the client name as the password. If the client connection to the TSM server fails, VMB attempts to reconnect using the values specified by these parameters. Define AutoDbBackupClient if the backup server is registered with TSM as something other than its machine name. Define AutoDbBackupPwd to the appropriate password when client connections continue to fail with authentication errors. AutoDbBackupRepeat Specifies how often to back up the database. The syntax for this value is: dddd:hh:mm:ss (days:hours:minutes:seconds) The default value is 1.00:00:00, which causes backups to occur every day. 86

93 Backing up and restoring VMB's database AutoDbBackupStart Specifies the starting time for the current day in the format HH:MM:SS (hours:minutes:seconds). After this starting time, the database is backed up according to the value specified by the AutoDbBackupRepeat parameter. The default starting time is 20:45:00 (8:45 pm). The relevant section of the VMB server configuration file looks like this: <STORServer.Vcb.SsVcbSched.Properties.Settings> <setting name="autodbbackup" serializeas="string"> <value>true</value> </setting> <setting name="autodbbackuprepeat" serializeas="string"> <value>1.00:00:00</value> </setting> <setting name="autodbbackupstart" serializeas="string"> <value>20:45:00</value> </setting> <setting name="autodbbackuppwd" serializeas="string"> <value /> </setting> <setting name="autodbbackupclient" serializeas="string"> <value /> </setting> </STORServer.Vcb.SsVcbSched.Properties.Settings> Disabling automatic database backups If you configured STORServer VMB to use your own SQL server and are already backing up the VMB database, you can prevent the automatic database backups from occurring each day as follows: 1. Open the VMB server configuration file, SsVcbSched.exe.config, with a text editor. 2. Set the AutoDbBackup parameter to False. 3. Save and exit the file. For more information and guidelines on modifying the server configuration file, see the previous section, Configuring automatic database backups. Restoring the VMB database To restore a VMB database that has been backed up by the STORServer VMB server: 1. A copy of the most recent database backup resides in the dbbackup folder under the VMB install directory. For example: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\dbBackup\SsVcb.BAK 87

94 Backing up and restoring VMB's database This file will be used for the restore. To restore from an older backup, use the TSM backup-archive client to restore the appropriate copy of the SsVcb.BAK file to this location. 2. Exit any VMB user interfaces (clients) that are connected to the database that is being restored. 3. Stop the VMB server process associated with this database. Open a command prompt window and enter the following command: C:\> net stop ssvcbsched Tip! You can also accomplish this by stopping the STORServer VMB Server service using the Windows services manager. 4. Run the osql utility from the command prompt and enter the commands shown in the following example, where SsVcb is the name of the VMB database that is being restored, and c:\program files\storserver\agent for vcb\dbbackup\ Ssvcb.bak is the full path and file name for the restored backup file: C:\> osql E S.\SQLEXPRESS 1> use master 2> go 1> restore database SsVcb from disk='c:\program files\storserver\ agent for vcb\dbbackup\ssvcb.bak' 2> go Processed 256 pages for database 'SsVcb', file 'SsVcb' on file 1. Processed 2 pages for database 'SsVcb', file 'SsVcb_log' on file 1. RESTORE DATABASE successfully processed 258 pages in seconds (2.253 MB/sec). 1> exit 5. Restart the VMB server by entering the following command at the command prompt: C:\> net start ssvcbsched Tip! You can also accomplish this by starting the STORServer VMB Server service using the Windows services manager. 88

95 Troubleshooting If you experience problems with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB), refer to the sections in this topic for information that may assist you in diagnosing and resolving the issue. For additional assistance, see Getting help from STORServer Support. NOTE! Be sure to check the STORServer knowledge base ( for related articles. Error retrieving virtual machines from vcenter Server Disable vmotion task fails during backups No virtual machines or disks listed for restore (proxy access errors) ANS9365E VMware vstorage API error during backups Backups fail or end with a warning when application protection is enabled Backups fail with "Password file is not available" error Backups fail with "Unable to load DLL SsVmbLog.dll" error Backups fail with VIX_E_DISK_NOLICENSE exception Problems connecting to the VMB database Schedule shows status of PrecludedRunning ANS1353E Session rejected: Unknown or incorrect ID entered Full machine backups to a single ESX/ESXi host are failing VMB reports that CBT is unsupported and performs full machine backups Help does not always take you back to the previous topic Error retrieving virtual machines from vcenter Server Several different issues can prevent VMB from retrieving a list of virtual machine clients from vcenter Server: Invalid value specified for vcenter Server Web service or vcenter Server host. Incorrect or invalid vcenter Server login credentials. (An additional error message may appear, such as "Permission to perform this operation was denied.") vcenter Server is not running. (Errors indicate that the Web service does not exist or cannot be found.) Network issues. VMB uses HTTP to communicate with vcenter Server. If HTTP settings prevent communications between VMB and vcenter Server, the "Unable to connect to remote server" error may appear. DNS issues. If the specified vcenter Server Web service address uses a domain name rather than a numeric IP address, DNS issues can prevent VMB from retrieving the list of virtual machines. 89

96 Troubleshooting Recommended actions: Check the values specified for vcenter Server Web service and vcenter Server host. These are defined on the vcenter Server tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. (Click Settings Edit Settings vcenter Server.) Verify that both addresses use the proper syntax, as shown in the following examples: vcenter Server Web service address: or vcenter Server host address: vcenter.mycompany.com or If you suspect DNS issues, bypass the use of DNS by replacing the fully qualified host name (vcenter.mycompany.com in the preceding examples) with a numeric IP address. Verify that the login credentials specified on the vcenter Server tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box are valid. Check the status of vcenter Server to be sure it is running. Check for network problems. 90

97 Troubleshooting Disable vmotion task fails during backups STORServer VMB disables vmotion at the beginning of each client backup, as noted in the log messages. If this task fails, messages similar to the following appear in the log: ******** * Starting Disable vmotion at 03/04/ :08:14 ******** 04/03/ :08:15 (info) VixDiskLibVimResolveHostName: Resolving IP address for hostname vcneter.hq.bigco.com. 04/03/ :08:15 (warn) VixDiskLibVimResolveHostName: Failed to resolve IP address, error /03/ :08:15 (warn) VixDiskLibVim: VixDiskLibVim_AllowVMotion: Unable to resolve IP address for vcneter.hq.bigco.com. 04/03/ :08:15 (error) Prepare For Access exception: 04/03/ :08:15 VDDK Exception: Method VixDiskLib_PrepareForAccess (STORServer.Vddk.Vixlib+VixDiskLibConnectParams, "Test_VDDK") Error: System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt. at STORServer.Vddk.Vixlib.a(VixDiskLibConnectParams A_0, String A_1) at STORServer.Vddk.Vixlib.VixDiskLib_PrepareForAccess (VixDiskLibConnectParams connectparams,string vmname) ******** * Disable vmotion complete at 03/04/ :08:15 * With final operating system status = 2001 (Operations completed with errors) ******** The most likely cause of this error is an invalid vcenter Server host value. Another possible cause is a problem with DNS. Recommended action: Check the vcenter Server host and vcenter Server Web service addresses specified in the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. (Click Settings Edit Settings vcenter Server.) Verify that the following values are defined correctly, and that the proper syntax is used as shown in these examples: vcenter Server Web service address: or vcenter Server host address: vcenter.mycompany.com or If you suspect DNS issues, bypass the use of DNS by replacing the fully qualified host name (vcenter.mycompany.com in the examples) with a numeric IP address. 91

98 Troubleshooting No virtual machines/disks listed for restore (proxy access errors) When using the TSM for VE backup technology and datacenter nodes, VMB grants (and revokes) proxy access to a datacenter node for each virtual machine client. This process requires VMB to provide administrative VMB process credentials to the TSM server. If these credentials are not provided or are invalid, various errors can occur. One rather obvious symptom is that VMB does not present a list of virtual machines or virtual disks for a restore operation. Examples of the log messages that you may see are as follows: ******** * Starting Submit Backup at 03/04/ :20:28 ******** 04/03/ :20:28 (warn) Failed to grant proxy access to target DATACENTER1 for agent VM1_TestLab; TSM server administration username or password not specified. 04/03/ :20:28 (warn) Failed to revoke proxy access to target DATACENTER1 for agent VM1_TestLab; TSM server administration username or password not specified. ******** * Submit Backup complete at 03/04/ :20:28 * With final operating system status = 0 (All operations completed successfully) ******** or: ******** * Starting dsmadmc at 03/04/ :17:03 ******** IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Command Line Administrative Interface - Version 6, Release 4, Level 0.0 (c) Copyright by IBM Corporation and other(s) 1990, All Rights Reserved. ANS8023E Unable to establish session with server. ANS8002I Highest return code was 137. ANS1051I Invalid password ******** * dsmadmc complete at 03/04/ :17:05 * With final operating system status = 137 (Unknown failure code '137') ******** 92

99 Troubleshooting Recommended action: Verify that the VMB process account credentials defined in the TSM server properties are correct and still valid. See Defining the TSM administrator account for TSM for VE for more information. ANS9365E VMware vstorage API error during backups When using TSM for VE technology, STORServer VMB must provide login credentials to vcenter Server. If these credentials are missing or invalid, VMB cannot access vcenter Server. Messages such as the following appear in client logs during backups: **** Backup Error Log **** 04/03/ :30:58 ANS9365E VMware vstorage API error for virtual machine 'VM1_TestLab'. TSM function name : ns2 Login TSM file : vmvisdk.cpp (1661) API return code : 12 API error message : SOAP 1.1 fault: "":ServerFaultCode[no subcode] "Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password." Detail: 04/03/ :30:58 ANS4152E Failure initializing VMware virtual machine environment. RC=115. Refer to client dsmerror.log for detailed error messages. Recommended action: Define the login credentials for a vcenter Server administrative account, or, at a minimum, an account with VMB-required privileges. See Defining vcenter Server credentials to the TSM backup-archive client for more information and instructions. Backups fail or end with a Warning when application protection is enabled Backups of virtual machine clients that have application protection enabled may fail or end with a Warning status for a number of reasons: Client username and password not specified. This causes the backup to fail. Messages such as the following to appear in the client log: **** Backup Error Log **** 04/03/ :41:48 ANS9398E IBM Tivoli Storage Manager application protection failed to initialize on virtual machine 'VMSQL_TestLab'. See the error log for more details. 04/03/ :41:49 ANS1228E Sending of object 'VMSQL_TestLab' failed 04/03/ :41:49 ANS9491E The password credentials for virtual machine 'VMSQL_TestLab' could not be found. Use dsmc SET PASSWORD -type=vmguest 'VM guest name' 'userid' 'password' to save encrypted password. 93

100 Troubleshooting VMware tools are not installed or up-to-date in the client. This causes the backup to end with a Warning status, and generates the following log message: **** Backup Error Log **** 04/03/ :38:23 ANS9499W VMware tools on virtual machine 'VMSQL_TestLab' need to be updated. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager application protection will not be used. No eligible applications (Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft SQL Server) are running on the client. This also causes the backup to end with a Warning status, and generates the following log message: **** Backup Error Log **** 04/03/ :52:17 ANS9397W TSM application protection cannot protect this machine. Virtual machine 'VMSQL_TestLab' does not have operating system or applications supported by TSM application protection. Recommended action: Depending upon the messages in your log, perform one or more of the following actions: Specify login credentials for the virtual machine client by entering the following command from the TSM Backup-Archive Command Line interface (DSMC) on the backup server: set password -type=vmguest VM_name userid password Install or upgrade to the latest VMware tools from the vsphere client. (For example, right-click the virtual machine, and select Guest Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.) Disable the application protection feature (clear the Enable application protection check box in client properties) for clients that are not running applications that require its use. Backups fail with "Password file is not available" error Backups of some virtual machine clients can fail with the following error: 04/03/ :02:02 (error) Connect exception: ANS0282E (RC168) Password file is not available. This failure typically happens when the VMB and TSM configuration settings related to this client are out of synch. For example: The TSM node name or password defined in VMB does not match that defined on the TSM server. The administrator for this client (client owner) does not have the authority to access this client. 94

101 Troubleshooting The administrator's password does not match that defined in VMB, or does not match the TSM node password The client node is not registered with TSM. Recommended actions: Examine the TSM activity log to gather more information about the error. Then perform one or more of the following tasks, based on what you have learned from the activity log messages: If VMB and TSM are using different passwords for the client, modify the client node password in both places: In VMB, open the Client Information dialog box, click Advanced, and modify the password under TSM Client Login. In TSM, enter the following command from the Administrative Command Line interface: tsm> update node tsm_node_name password If the administrator for the client (client owner) does not have authority to access the node, enter the following command from the Administrative Command Line interface: tsm> grant authority admin_name classes=node authority=owner node=tsm_node_name If the administrator's password does not match the TSM node name password, change both passwords to match using the following commands from the Administrative Command Line interface: tsm> update node tsm_node_name password tsm> update admin admin_name password If the client node is not registered with TSM, register it with the following command, which also creates an administrator of the same name and password: tsm> register node tsm_node_name password Tip! Consider the use of open registration (set registration open) on the TSM server to allow STORServer VMB to automate this process. Backups fail with "Unable to load DLL SsVmbLog.dll" error Virtual machine backups are failing with an error similar to the following after STORServer VMB was upgraded to Version 5.0: Unable to load DLL 'SsVmbLog.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x E) 95

102 Troubleshooting This issue occurs on VMB servers that are running on the Windows Server 2003 operating system. VMB is unable to load the SsVmbLog.dll because it relies on a Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package that is not present on Windows servers running older (pre- Windows Server 2008) operating systems. This dependency was introduced with VMB Version 5.0. Recommended action: Upgrade STORServer VMB to Version 5.1 or newer, which supplies all necessary redistributable packages. If you are unable to upgrade at this time, download and install the Microsoft Visual C SP1 redistributable package and apply any recommended updates to this package. The Microsoft redistributable package is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. Choose the appropriate package for your platform: Microsoft Visual C SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) Microsoft Visual C SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) Backups for some clients fail with VIX_E_DISK_ NOLICENSE exception This log message appears when the account that VMB is using for vcenter Server access has insufficient privileges to perform one or more operations associated with a backup. This could be caused by an improper vcenter configuration (the role assigned to the VMB user account has inadequate permissions or the account has not been added to the vcenter Server object in the inventory hierarchy, for example) or by restrictions intentionally imposed to limit VMB's access to certain machines. Depending upon the level of restriction applied to your vcenter Server, virtual machines that cannot be backed up by VMB may still appear on the Clients tab in VMB as available candidates for backup, but backup attempts will fail. For example, machines with readonly access continue to appear in the clients list; those to which VMB has no access are not listed. 96

103 Troubleshooting Recommended action: Determine which user account VMB is using and check the vcenter Server configuration for that account. You can obtain the user name from the vcenter Server tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. Use the vsphere Client to check the following: Has the VMB user account been added to the vcenter Server object? Does the role assigned to that account have the required permissions? Has a more restrictive role been applied to the VMB user account on a child object in the inventory hierarchy (at the datacenter or virtual machine level, for example)? For more details on the requirements associated with the vcenter Server account that VMB uses, refer to the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. Problems connecting to the VMB database The following error message may occur when STORServer VMB attempts to connect to its SQL Server database: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. This generic message can occur for a number of reasons. Here are some of the more probable causes and recommended corrective actions: The database server name or instance name that VMB is using is incorrect. Recommended action: If the connection is failing for the VMB client (that is, the error appears when you launch the user interface (UI) or when you click Test Connection in the STORServer VMB Server Properties dialog box), modify the database connection information from the UI as described in Editing client-side database connections. If the connection is failing for the VMB server (the server has stopped running and messages in the Windows Event Viewer indicate that it failed to connect to the database), use the DbEdit.exe utility to modify the database connection properties as described in Editing the VMB server's database connection. The remote SQL Server that you are trying to connect to is not configured to accept remote connections. Recommended action: Enable remote connections in SQL Server. Instructions are available online (as of publication date) at: 97

104 Troubleshooting The remote SQL Server is running Windows Firewall, which does not permit database connections from external sources. Recommended action: Configure Windows Firewall to allow network traffic that is related to SQL Server and the SQL Server Browser service. Instructions are available online (as of publication date) at: The service for the VMB server is running under a different Windows account. If the STORServer VMB Server service is running under a different account and the account cannot be authenticated by the SQL Server machine, an authentication error occurs when STORServer VMB tries to connect using Windows authentication. Recommended action: Check the logon properties for the STORServer VMB Server service. If the service is running under an account other than the local system account, take steps to ensure that this account can be authenticated by the SQL Server machine. There is a firewall in between the client computer and the SQL Server. Recommended action: Configure the firewall to allow communications over port 1433 (the default port for SQL Server). For more information on configuring firewall ports for SQL Server, see the following Microsoft knowledge base article (available online as of publication date): Schedule shows status of PrecludedRunning If a periodic backup schedule is still running when it is scheduled to start again, the running schedule continues but the next scheduled iteration is skipped. The final status of the skipped schedule is: PrecludedRunning. The following message appears in client logs: The schedule is not started because it is already running. Recommended action: If possible, change the schedule frequency to extend the duration period. For example, if the schedule is a Daily schedule, change it to Custom and configure it to run every other day. See Editing schedule properties for instructions. If your backup server has adequate hardware resources to support the additional workload, increase the Maximum concurrent backups setting located on the Backups tab under Settings. If you continue to encounter this problem, contact STORServer to discuss options for upgrading your backup server or appliance. 98

105 Troubleshooting ANS1353E Session rejected: Unknown or incorrect ID entered This message appears in the schedule log when a schedule or on-demand job contains one or more unregistered clients and the current registration mode on the TSM server is Closed. Recommended action: Manually register clients. See Registering Virtual Machine Clients for instructions. Full machine backups to a single ESX/ESXi host are failing If your Maximum concurrent backups setting uses a fairly high value and you are running full backups of many virtual machines to the same ESX/ESXi host, the backups may fail with errors similar to the following from the ESX host: 06/07/ :49:38 (info) Performing base backup of sectors ( gb) from '[storage1] AdminCenterSAS/AdminCenterSAS.vmdk'... 06/07/ :49:44 (warn) [NFC ERROR] NfcFssrvrProcessErrorMsg: received disklib error from server: NfcFssrvrRead: failed to read : An error was detected 06/07/ :49:44 (info) DISKLIB-LIB : RWv failed ioid: #28496 (4898) (34) 06/07/ :49:44 (error) Read Virtual Disk exception: 07/06/ :49:44 VDDK Exception: Method VixDiskLib_Read (STORServer.SafeGenericHandle, 81920, 16384, System.Byte[]) Error: STORServer.Vddk.Vixlib+VixException: VIX_E_FAIL at STORServer.Vddk.Vixlib.VixDiskLib_Read (SafeGenericHandle diskhandle, UInt64 startsector, UInt64 numsectors, Byte[] readbuffer) ******** * Read Virtual Disk complete at 07/06/ :49:44 * With final operating system status = 2001 (Operations completed with errors) ******** These errors occur when the ESX server runs out of memory while trying to handle many concurrent backups (error code ). Recommended action: Use any of the following solutions: Increase the size of the COW.MaxHeapSizeMB parameter (also referred to as copyon-write (COW) memory heap) on the ESX host. Reduce the size of the VDDK buffers used by STORServer VMB. (The default buffer size is 8 MiB.) This may slow the backups slightly, but will reduce the memory requirements on the ESX server. 99

106 Troubleshooting 1. Edit the following entry in the VDDK configuration file (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\VDDK\config.txt), which resides on the VMB server machine: vddkbuf=n where n is a power-of-2 number representing a fraction of the maximum size of 16 MiB. Thus a value of 16 would use 1-MiB buffers. 2. Click Reload Configuration File on the Settings tab. Reduce the Maximum concurrent backups value, which is defined on the Backups tab of the Settings dialog box in VMB, or design your schedules to avoid backing up too many virtual machines to the same host (ESX server) at the same time. VMB reports that CBT is unsupported and performs full machine backups If the virtual machine capability values set on vcenter Server indicate that a virtual machine does not support changed block tracking, then VMB will not attempt to enable CBT. Instead, it writes log messages similar to the following and then backs up the entire virtual machine using VDDK backup technology. ******** * Starting Check Changed Block Tracking at 12/7/2015 3:52:57 PM ******** 12/07/ :52:59 (warn) Changed block tracking is unsupported on this VM. The VM must be at hardware version 7 and the host must be at vsphere V4.0 or later to enable changed block tracking. If a virtual machine that is capable of supporting CBT is being backed up in its entirety, try forcing vcenter Server to refresh the capability values by using the procedure that follows. Recommended action: Use this procedure to modify and then restore a configuration parameter value for the virtual machine that is not being backed up using CBT. This process causes vcenter Server to refresh the capability list associated with that virtual machine. (Some steps may vary depending upon your version of vsphere.) 1. Open the VMware vsphere Client, select the virtual machine, and edit virtual machine settings. 2. On the Options tab of the virtual machine properties dialog box, select General (under Advanced). 3. Click Configuration Parameters and change the value of ctkenabled. If it is set to 100

107 Troubleshooting True, change it to False; if it is set to False, change it to True. 4. Click OK twice to close both dialog boxes. The capability list associated with the virtual machine is refreshed by vcenter Server. 5. Reset the ctkenabled parameter back to its previous value. VMB can now enable CBT for that virtual machine as necessary. Help does not always take you back to the previous topic Clicking the Back button while navigating in the VMB Help system using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) has unreliable results. With IE 11, which is currently shipping on STORServer appliances, clicking the Back button (the left-facing arrow on the VMB Help window toolbar) may return to the previous topic once, then to the Quick Browse topic the next time it is clicked. This issue is unique to the IE browser. Recommended action: There is currently no workaround when the VMB Help is launched from the VMB application, which opens an IE window automatically. However, you may use other navigation features, such as the Contents, Search, or Index, to locate a previously visited topic. You may also use a different, external browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge to browse directly to the VMB Help system to avoid this issue. Browse to the following file, located under the VMB install directory (default installation destination shown): C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for Vcb\Help\SsVcbHelp.htm Error logs STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) collects log messages from various sources and makes them available for viewing from within the VMB user interface (UI). These log messages are stored in the VMB database rather than in separate files. VMB retains log messages and other status information according to a specified log retention period (7 days by default). You can define the log retention period for each schedule and on-demand job. Once the period elapses, related status information and messages are deleted from the database. NOTE! To conserve database space, always set this value to a minimum number of days. The data being saved can grow substantially, depending upon the number of jobs that VMB is performing and the frequency with which they are performed. VMB log messages are categorized as follows: Client logs Client-specific log messages for a particular job. These messages are obtained from TSM backup-archive client logs, which are subsequently deleted. You can configure VMB to retain the TSM client logs using an option on the Backups tab of 101

108 Troubleshooting the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. Schedule logs All messages associated with a schedule or on-demand job. These logs are also referred to as job logs. They include messages for all clients backed up by the schedule or on-demand job. You can export individual client and schedule logs to a file to submit to STORServer Support, for example. A separate utility that exports VMB schedule and client logs for a specified period is available for use at companies that collect log files using scripts. The Export Log utility (SsVMBExport.exe) can be downloaded from the same FTP site as the STORServer VMB software. For the exact location refer to the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. Tip! STORServer VMB has a wizard that gathers application information and relevant server and/or client logs and sends this information to STORServer Support and other addresses that you specify. See Using the Send Application Information wizard for details. What do you want to do? View a client log Export client log messages to a file View the log for a schedule or on-demand job Export schedule log messages to a file Change the log retention period Delete logs Viewing a client log To view a client log: 1. On the Status tab, expand the job with which the client is associated. To expand a job entry on the Status tab, click on the far right side of the entry. 2. In the list of clients, double-click the client whose log messages you want to view or right-click the client and select Show Task Details. Messages appear in the Task Details dialog box. You can export these messages as described in the Exporting client log messages to a file. 102

109 Troubleshooting Notes... To search the current log for a particular word or phrase, enter text in the Find box. Click Next to find the next occurrence and Previous to search in reverse. When no matches are found, the Find box changes color. To view client logs in succession, open the log for the first client listed in the expanded job and then click View Next Client Log (the double right arrows). This takes you to the bottom of the next client s log, where the most recent messages are found. To reverse direction, click View Previous Client Log (the double left arrows). This takes you to the bottom of the previous client s log. The Refresh button also takes you to the bottom of the client s log, after updating the status information and messages. When monitoring a client backup that is still in progress, click this button repeatedly to view the latest messages as they are added to the log. When troubleshooting a problem, you may also want to examine the TSM client log files. These files are stored on the VMB server at C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\tsm. They use the naming convention dsmerror_ client-name.log. By default, VMB deletes these log files automatically, but you can configure VMB to retain them for a specified time period (1 day, for example) for troubleshooting purposes. See the description of the Number of days to save TSM client logs and dynamic client options files option in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box for more information. Use a text editor such as Notepad to view these files. You cannot access them from within the STORServer VMB user interface. Exporting client log messages to a file To quickly export one or more client logs without viewing them first: 1. On the Status tab, expand the job with which the client is associated. To expand a job entry on the Status tab, click on the far right side of the entry. 2. In the list of clients, select one or more clients, right-click, and select Export Client Log from the shortcut menu. 3. In the Export dialog box, specify a location and file name for the exported log file or accept the default values. 103

110 Troubleshooting The default destination for exported logs is the VMB install directory. The default file name for a single exported client log is client-name.log. For example: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\myclient.log The default file name for a group of exported logs is ClientExport.log. 4. Click Save. To export a single client log after viewing it: 1. In the list of clients for an expanded job on the Status tab, double-click the client whose log messages you want to export or right-click the client and select Show Task Details. 2. In the Task Details dialog box click. 3. In the Export dialog box, specify a location and file name for the exported log file or accept the default values described in the preceding procedure. 4. Click Save. Notes... If your company uses a script to collect log files, you may want to use a separate utility to export all client and/or schedule logs for specified periods. The Export Log utility (SsVMBExport.exe), designed for use with VMB, is available for download from the same FTP site as the VMB software. See the VMB readme for the location, and the Export Utility readme (also on the FTP site) for more details. Viewing a schedule or job log To view all of the logs related to a schedule or on-demand job: 1. On the Status tab, do either of the following: Right-click the job whose logs you want to view and select Show Job Details on the shortcut menu. Expand the job and click on the expanded job toolbar. 2. View all associated logs on the View Logs tab of the Job Details dialog box. Notes... To locate a particular word or phrase, enter text in the Find box and press ENTER or click Next. To search in reverse, click Previous. When no matches are found, the Find box changes color. Click to update the log messages (if the schedule is still running, for example). 104

111 Troubleshooting Exporting schedule log messages to a file To quickly export a schedule log to a file without viewing it first: 1. On the Status tab, right-click the name of the schedule whose logs you want to export and select Export Schedule Log from the shortcut menu. 2. In the Export dialog box, select a destination folder and specify a file name or accept the default values. The default destination is the VMB install directory. The default file name is schedule_ name.log for schedule logs, and job name date time.log for on-demand job logs. For example: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\WklyFulls.log C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\On-Demand Client Backup 4_17_2013 3_30_05 PM.log 3. Click Save. To export a schedule log after viewing it: 1. On the Status tab, do either of the following: Right-click the schedule or job and select Show Job Details on the shortcut menu. Expand the job and click on the job toolbar. 2. On the View Logs tab of the Job Details dialog box click. Tip! This button is available on both tabs of this dialog box. 3. In the Export dialog box, specify a location and file name for the exported log file or accept the default values (described in the previous procedure). 4. Click Save. Notes... The View Logs tab has a check box that lets you filter the display to show only the client logs for tasks that did not succeed. When you export the logs from within the Job Details dialog box, only the client logs that are visible on this tab are exported. If your company uses a script to collect log files, you may want to use a separate utility to export all schedule and/or client logs for specified periods. The Export Log utility (SsVMBExport.exe), designed for use with VMB, is available for download from the same FTP site as the VMB software. See the VMB readme for the location, and the Export Utility readme (also on the FTP site) for more details. 105

112 Troubleshooting Changing the log retention period The log retention period determines how long status information and log messages are retained in the VMB database and available on the Status tab and elsewhere in the VMB UI. Each schedule and on-demand job has its own log retention period, which is set to 7 days by default. To change the log retention period for a schedule: 1. On the Schedules tab, either double-click the schedule that you want to edit or select the schedule and click Edit Schedule. 2. On the Add/Edit Schedule tab of the Schedule Information dialog box, change the Log retention period to a value between 1 and 999 days. NOTE! STORServer VMB stores logs in its internal database. To conserve database space, always set this value to a minimum number of days. 3. Click OK. To change the log retention period for an on-demand job: Modify the Log retention period value in either of the following dialog boxes: The On-Demand Client Backup dialog box The On-Demand Client Restore dialog box Notes... VMB deletes TSM backup-archive client logs from the backup server after collecting that information in its database. You can configure VMB to retain these files by setting the Number of days to save TSM client logs and dynamic client options files option in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. Deleting logs To delete all of the logs associated with a schedule or an on-demand job before the log retention period elapses: On the Status tab, right-click the job whose logs you want to delete and click Delete Log on the shortcut menu. NOTE! This action has no undo and no confirmation request. All status information related to that job is deleted from STORServer VMB s database. 106

113 Getting help Documentation for VMB The STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) product includes the following documentation: Readme file This HTML file includes instructions for downloading and installing the STORServer VMB software. Any last-minute new features or known issues are also described in the readme. It is located in VMB's product install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB by default) and is named README.htm. Help system The STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Help system includes instructions for configuring and using the VMB software. See Using the Help system for more information. Tip! A PDF version of this Help system (with minor format changes) is typically available on the STORServer FTP site with the VMB kit. Other related documentation Other documentation that may prove useful includes the following. NOTE! The links below are to third-party sites that were available at publication time but are subject to change without notice. VMware documentation VMware vsphere 6 documentation: VMware vsphere 5 documentation: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) documentation Links to online IBM Tivoli Storage Manager documentation are as follows: IBM Knowledge Center Tivoli Storage Manager (all supported versions) TSM Version 6.1.x documentation (PDF) TSM Version 5.5.x documentation (PDF) IBM Redbooks (search for "Tivoli Storage Manager") 107

114 Getting help Using the Help system STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) Help system explains how to configure and use the VMB software. To submit comments on this Help system, please send to What do you want to do? Learn different methods for accessing Help Locate information in Help Show/hide additional text and graphics Accessing Help You can access the STORServer VMB Help system by using any of the following methods: To get Help on the current tab (Status, Schedules, Clients, or Settings): Click the Help button and select Help on Current Tab or press F1. To get Help on a dialog box: Click the Help icon in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box or press F1. To launch the Help system and show the [default] Quick Browse topic: Click the Help button and select STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Help. 108

115 Getting help To launch the Help from outside VMB: Browse to the following file, where the path shown reflects the default VMB product install directory: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\Help\SsVcbHelp.htm. Locating information in Help Use any of these navigation features to locate information in the Help system: Search Type a search query in the search field and press ENTER or click the Search icon. Search results are presented in context. Matches with variant endings will also be found. 109

116 Getting help Guidelines for searching the Help system: Partial word searches require a minimum of three characters. Wildcards such as the asterisk (*) are not supported. Search is not case sensitive. Enclose phrases in quotation marks (" ") to locate the exact phrase. When you click a topic in the search results, all matches found in that topic are highlighted. Tip! To remove highlighting click on the Help toolbar. Contents Click items on the Contents tab to display topics. To expand and collapse sections, click the book icons. Click the page icon to display an individual topic. Index Click entries on the Index tab to display related topics, or type a keyword in the Search box. (Clear the Search box to return to the full listing.) Glossary Click entries on the Glossary tab or type the term in the Search box to view definitions of terms used in the Help system. Most glossary terms are also defined at least once within a topic, as shown in the next section.) Quick-browse Browse through and select topics from the quick browse table, which displays when non-context-sensitive Help is launched. Tip! Click the STORServer logo (at the top) to return to the quick browse table at any time. Showing/hiding additional text and graphics The following Help features hide additional detail and examples from more experienced users, but make them available to others. Click once to reveal hidden text and a second time to hide it. Tip! Click on the Help toolbar to show all hidden text within a topic. Click again to hide it. 110

117 Getting help Expanding text When expanded, this text appears directly after its link or on the next line. The icon for expanding text changes to indicate whether the expanding text is shown ( ) or hidden ( ). Drop-down text When expanded, drop-down text appears in a new paragraph below its link. The icon for drop-down text changes to indicate whether the drop-down text is shown ( hidden ( ). The following icons may also be present to indicate the type of drop-down or expanding text: Indicates the presence of a graphical example, such as a screenshot. Screenshots may also appear as thumbnails. For example: ) or Indicates the presence of additional instructions for accomplishing a task. Glossary terms that are defined within a topic appear in blue italics. Their definitions appear when you hover the mouse pointer over them. For example: quiesced snapshot. The pop-up closes automatically when you move the mouse pointer away. You can also view glossary definitions from the Glossary tab in the Help window. Getting help from STORServer Support NOTE! Before requesting assistance from STORServer Support, please see the Troubleshooting section and the STORServer knowledge base for related information that could assist you in resolving your issue. Customers with an active support agreement may log a support call with STORServer Support by using any of the following methods: Web Send to support@storserver.com. For faster service, send your request from the address associated with your STORServer customer account. Browse to and follow the instructions on that page. Phone Contact STORServer by phone at (800) Send Use the Send Application Information wizard to collect and submit 111

118 Getting help Application Information wizard application data and open a support call. Using the Send Application Information wizard The Send Application Information wizard collects data on the current state of the STORServer VMB client, server, or both. You can use this wizard to submit this data to STORServer or to other addresses that you specify. When data is submitted to STORServer, it is used to open a new support call or append an existing one. Before you begin... Verify that the following values have been defined correctly on the Notifications tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box: A valid SMTP server. A valid From address that contains your company domain. See Defining or editing SMTP server information for more information. To use the Send Application Information wizard: 1. Click Help (in the bottom left corner of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window) and select Send Application Information. 112

119 Getting help 2. The welcome dialog box of the Send Application Information Wizard appears. Select one of the following choices and click Next: Open a new support ticket Select to have STORServer VMB submit collected data on the state of your VMB client, server, or both to STORServer Support. You will be prompted for a brief and more detailed description of the problem you are experiencing. Send application information to addresses that I specify Select to send the collected VMB client and/or server information to addresses that you specify. When you select this option and click Next, you advance to the last wizard dialog box, which is described in in step

120 Getting help 3. If you are opening a support ticket with STORServer, the problem description dialog box appears. Specify the following information and click Next: Common issues Select the issue that best describes the problem you are reporting. Your selection will appear as the subject of the that is sent to STORServer, and will be used as the title of the support ticket. The number that appears at the end of each entry is a preassigned priority, with 1 being the highest priority. Description Provide a brief description of the problem you are experiencing. If you are appending an existing support ticket, briefly describe the data that is being submitted. 4. In the contact information dialog box, which appears only when you are submitting information to STORServer, identify the person to contact regarding this submission. NOTE! You must provide a name and at least one method of contact. 114

121 Getting help 115

122 Getting help 5. In the send information dialog box, select the VMB component (client, server, or both) whose information you want to send. Also, specify the addresses to which this information will be sent. The STORServer Support address appears by default if you selected Open a new support ticket. You may enter additional addresses as necessary. Press ENTER after each address. 6. Click Send . The wizard sends version numbers, license status, and pertinent messages and logs for the selected component to the specified addresses. If you sent the information to STORServer Support, a STORServer representative will contact you shortly using the contact method that you specified ( or phone). STORServer, Inc. VMware Statement of Support STORServer, Inc. confirms that we will support customers running STORServer Virtual Machine Backup on supported operating systems in a VMware virtual machine environment. STORServer, Inc. will provide unqualified support for STORServer Virtual Machine Backup running in a VMware virtual environment in an identical manner as with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup running on any other major x86-based system without initially requiring reproduction of issues in native hardware. All support is subject to STORServer, 116

123 Getting help Inc. customer support agreements and to specific constraints and exceptions described in our product documentation (including, among others, release notes, user guides and knowledge base articles). Should STORServer, Inc. suspect that the virtualization layer is the root cause of an incident; the customer will be required to contact the appropriate VMware support provider to resolve the VMware issue. While STORServer Virtual Machine Backup is expected to function properly in a VMware virtual environment, there may be performance implications which can impact our typical sizing recommendations. STORServer, Inc. supports the use of STORServer Virtual Machine Backup with VMware vcenter Server and ESX/ESXi host versions that are compatible with the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) upon which the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup software is based. The VMware administrator at the customer site is responsible for ensuring VMware product compatibility according to the VMware website. 117

124

125 VMB windows and dialog boxes VMB windows and dialog boxes Client Information dialog box How to display it? Use any of the following methods: On the Clients tab, double-click a single client or select one or more clients and click Edit Clients. On the Schedules tab, expand a schedule, select one or more clients, right-click selected clients, and click Edit Clients. From the Schedule Information dialog box, Add/Remove Clients tab, select one or more clients that have been added to the schedule and click Edit Clients. The Client Information dialog box is where you define or modify the properties of one or more virtual machine clients. When multiple clients are selected and different values are used for the same option, a value of "No change" appears. This allows current values to remain unchanged unless you select a different value, in which case it is applied to all selected clients. You can define the following values from this dialog box: Transport mode Select one of the following transport modes to use when moving this client's data. By default, STORServer VMB uses the transport mode specified here when backing up or restoring this client's data. However, you can select a different transport mode during ondemand backup and restore operations. Tip! The best available transport mode is used by default. When changing this setting to a specific transport mode, consider the type of storage device to which the ESX/ESXi host has access. Choose one of the following values: Best available Allows STORServer VMB to choose the fastest available transport mode. This is the default selection. Transports are tried in the following order: SAN, HOTADD, LANSSL, LAN SAN Use with a shared Fibre Channel or iscsi device. 119

126 VMB windows and dialog boxes LAN Use when SAN and HOTADD are not appropriate or permitted. The use of the LAN transport can negatively impact the performance of other virtual machines residing on the ESX/ESXi host. Schedule backups during off-peak hours to minimize this impact. LANSSL Same as LAN except that all data is encrypted during network transfer. If an unencrypted network channel will be used, you may also want to enable SSL certificate verification. HOTADD Use with any shared or local storage device that is accessible to the ESX server hosting the backup server. The ESX/ESXi host's I/O stack is used to move data. This method is more efficient than LAN, but not as efficient as SAN. The HOTADD transport mode is used only if the VMB software is running on a virtual machine. Refer to the VMware documentation for more information on transport modes and instructions for configuring roles. For instructions on enabling SSL certificate verification, see the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. Notification list Enter one or more addresses that will receive backup completion notifications for selected clients. Press ENTER after each address. Backup job retries Define the number of times that STORServer VMB may retry a backup of the selected virtual machine clients when the backup job ends with an error status. By default, STORServer VMB retries the job once. Valid values are from 0 (zero) to 3. Restore job retries Define the number of times that STORServer VMB may retry a restore of the selected virtual machine clients when a restore attempt ends with an error status. By default, STORServer VMB retries the job once. Valid values are from 0 (zero) to 3. Disable clients in all schedules Select this check box to prevent all schedules from backing up the selected clients until you explicitly re-enable them (by clearing this check box). This setting also prevents the selected clients from being added to a default backup schedule automatically. (See the description of the Default schedule option in the Schedule Information dialog box for more 120

127 VMB windows and dialog boxes information on this feature.) Tip! To determine which clients have been disabled, check the Disabled column on the Clients tab. Enable compression Select to enable the use of data compression during all backups, archives, and restores of the selected virtual machine clients. (This option is not selected by default.) The use of compression and deduplication requires that deduplication be enabled on the target storage pool. (Refer to the IBM TSM documentation for more details.) If you enable compression here but deduplication is not enabled on the storage pool, backups performed with TSM for VE technology will end with a Warning status; those performed with VDDK will not show a warning, but data will not be compressed. Enable deduplication Select to enable the use of data deduplication when virtual machine client data is transferred to the TSM server during backup and archive processing. (This option is not selected by default.) The use of deduplication and compression requires that deduplication be enabled on the target storage pool. (Refer to the IBM TSM documentation for more information.) If you enable deduplication here but it is not enabled on the storage pool, backups performed with TSM for VE technology will end with a Warning status; those performed with VDDK will not show a warning, but deduplication will not occur. Changed Block Tracking (CBT) This selection controls the use of changed block tracking (CBT) during backups and archives. NOTE! The use of CBT requires ESX/ESXi 4.0 or later on the host, and Hardware Version 7 or later on the virtual machine. Otherwise, STORServer VMB cannot enable CBT and uses the VDDK backup technology for full machine backups, regardless of which backup technology is selected. See the description of full machine backups in About STORServer VMB for more details. Tip! You can verify the hardware version of a virtual machine from its Summary tab in the VMware vsphere Client. Refer to VMware documentation for instructions on upgrading the hardware version if necessary. 121

128 VMB windows and dialog boxes Enable CBT Enables the use of CBT for selected virtual machine clients, provided it is supported by the VMware software. Note the following backup-technology-specific requirements: TSM for VE backup technology requires the use of CBT. Therefore, this option is selected automatically and cannot be changed when TSM for VE is the selected technology at the client level or as the default backup technology. VDDK backup technology requires CBT to perform differential backups during full machine backups. Otherwise, the entire machine must be backed up each time a full machine backup is performed. When you enable CBT on a virtual machine client that does not meet the minimum requirements noted above, a message appears in the job log when VMB attempts to back up that client, and STORServer VMB uses the VDDK technology for the backup. (The backup technology that is used also appears in the job log.) Disable CBT Disables the use of CBT for selected virtual machine clients. NOTE! The TSM for VE backup technology requires the use of CBT. Therefore, you cannot disable CBT when TSM for VE is the selected backup technology. Use VMware settings Allows STORServer VMB to honor the current configuration of selected virtual machine clients regarding the use of CBT. (CBT will be used only for clients that have it enabled in the VMware software.) This option is selected by default when the client uses VDDK backup technology. Backup Technology Options These settings let you override the default backup technology (the technology selected in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box) for the selected virtual machine clients, and set additional options relevant to the selected technology. NOTE! Before changing the backup technology, ensure that prerequisite software is installed, as described in the STORServer VMB readme file. (This file resides in the VMB install directory, C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for Vcb by default, and is named README.htm.) See related topics for more information on supported backup technologies. Use VDDK Select to have STORServer VMB use the VDDK backup technology when backing up or restoring the selected virtual machine clients. VMB uses this technology automatically in 122

129 VMB windows and dialog boxes some cases (for all archive and retrieve operations, and for clients that do not have CBT enabled properly, for example). Allow non-quiesced snapshots (Available with VDDK backup technology only) Select to allow STORServer VMB to back up the selected virtual machine clients in a non-quiesced state when a quiesced snapshot is not possible. CAUTION! Carefully consider the use of this feature before enabling it. Some virtual machine clients, such as those running databases, may not be good candidates for non-quiesced snapshots. If the file system is not quiescent when the snapshot is taken, the system may be captured in a transitional state, with inconsistent disk entries. Enable snapshot warnings (Available with VDDK backup technology only) Select to allow STORServer VMB to assign a Warning status to backups of selected client machines that complete with leftover snapshot files or missed volumes. (This option is selected by default.) Clear this check box to prevent VMB from assigning the Warning status for this reason. In either case, STORServer VMB reads the datastore after each backup to determine if any leftover snapshot files (designated with a -nnnnnn delta number) exist. Any that are found are listed in the job log, along with a warning message. Differential percentage (Available with VDDK backup technology only) Specify the percentage of data that must be reached or exceeded during differential backups before STORServer VMB repeats a base backup. For more information, see the description of full machine backups. Valid values are from 0 to 100, where 0 (zero) causes STORServer VMB to always perform a base rather than a differential backup, and 100 causes base backups to be performed only when the amount of data being transferred reaches or exceeds the amount of data that was transferred during the last base backup. The default value is 60 percent, which means that STORServer VMB will do a base backup when the amount of [changed/new] data that needs to be transferred for a selected client equals or exceeds 60 percent of the data that was moved during the last base backup. Use TSM for VE Select to have STORServer VMB use the TSM for VE backup technology when performing backups and restores for selected virtual machine clients that have CBT enabled. Clients that do not have CBT enabled will be backed up using VDDK technology. VDDK technology is also used for all archive and retrieve operations, which are not supported with TSM for VE. 123

130 VMB windows and dialog boxes Additional steps are necessary to begin using TSM for VE as the default backup technology or for individual virtual machine clients. See Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE for details. Use incremental forever (Available with TSM for VE technology only) Select to use the incremental forever backup strategy for selected virtual machine clients. This option affects all backups of selected clients. VMB automatically performs a full machine backup during the initial backup, followed by block-level incrementals thereafter. No full backups need to be scheduled. This option overrides the type of backup specified in both schedules and on-demand jobs. For example, if you configure MYVMCLIENT to use incremental forever, and then add it to a schedule that performs full machine backups, VMB will perform a block-level incremental backup for this client each time the schedule runs. If you run an on-demand full machine backup of this client, a block-level incremental backup will be performed instead. Tip! STORServer recommends that you migrate virtual machine clients that use this backup strategy to a daily incremental schedule, and remove them from any full backup schedules. (Clients using incremental forever are not automatically re-added to a default schedule that performs full machine backups.) Enable application protection (Available with TSM for VE technology only) Select to have VMB notify Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, running inside a virtual machine guest, when a backup is about to occur. Application protection allows these applications to properly truncate transaction logs and commit transactions. They can then resume from a consistent state after the backup completes. NOTE! This option requires the use of TSM for VE Version 6.4 or newer and VMware ESX 5.x or newer. The virtual machine guest must be running Microsoft Windows 2008 or newer. Do not select this option on virtual machines that are not running Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft SQL Server. Otherwise, all backups end with a warning status. To allow VMB to interact with a protected application, you must specify Administrator login credentials for the virtual machine as follows: Enter the following command from the TSM Backup-Archive Command Line (DSMC) on the backup server: tsm > set password -type=vmguest vm_name username password Refer to the IBM TSM Data Protection for Virtual Environments documentation, part of the IBM TSM documentation set, for more information on the application protection feature. 124

131 VMB windows and dialog boxes Use default technology Select to have STORServer VMB use the default backup technology, which is selected on the Backups tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. Advanced Click the Advanced button to show/hide additional, less frequently used client properties. Tip! Browse buttons in advanced settings are available only when the VMB client that you are using resides on the same system as the VMB server. Backup Execution Options Exclude disks from full/all backups (Valid only when a single client is selected) Select one or more disks to exclude from all block-based backups. With VDDK technology, this applies to full machine backups only; with TSM for VE, it applies to all backups. This feature is intended for virtual disks that never need to be backed up because they contain data that does not need to be restored, or that is already protected using another method. TSM treats excluded disks as deleted. When you restore the virtual machine client from backup, the disk definition is restored, but not the disk itself. Tip! For Windows clients, the drive letter associated with a selected disk is added to this list after the client is backed up using the VDDK backup technology. Customers upgrading from older VMB versions may notice that their previously defined list of excluded disks initially appears with the hard disk numbers and drive letters listed separately. Once the virtual machine client has been backed up with the newer VMB software, the values are combined as appropriate. For example, immediately after the upgrade, the list may look like this: Harddisk1 Harddisk2 Harddisk3 C: D: E: After VMB has backed up the virtual machine client, the list changes to its final form, which looks like this: Hard disk 1 (C:) Hard disk 2 (D:,E:) Hard disk 3 125

132 VMB windows and dialog boxes In this case, hard disk 1 supports the C drive, hard disk 2 has two formatted drives (D and E), and hard disk 3 has no drives. (This could be an unformatted drive in the Windows disk management screen, for example.) Snapshot directory override Browse to or type the directory under which snapshots for this virtual machine client will be mounted during backups performed with the VDDK backup technology. Otherwise, the snapshot directory that is defined in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box is used. Options Files This is where you define the client-specific client options file and/or include-exclude options file that will be used for selected virtual machine clients during backup, archive, and restore operations. STORServer VMB appends the options you specify to the dynamic client options file that is submitted to TSM prior for processing during each operation. See Using client options with STORServer VMB for more details. Client options file Browse to or enter the full path and file name of a TSM client options file on the backup server. Include-exclude file Browse to or enter the full path and file name of an include-exclude options file on the backup server. TSM Client Login STORServer VMB uses these settings (with exceptions as noted) when registering a single selected virtual machine client. Automatic registration occurs when the schedule or ondemand job with which the client is associated runs, and open registration is in effect on the TSM server. (See Registering client nodes for more information.) VMB uses the login credentials that you specify here during backups. TSM node name (Valid only when a single client is selected) By default, STORServer VMB registers each virtual machine client using the type of name specified on the Backups tab in the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box (virtual machine name or local hostname), with automatic modifications for compliance with TSM naming conventions. (Spaces in the name are replaced with underscores, for example.) You do not have to specify a node name here unless you want the selected client to be registered under a different name or if you are reinstating a deleted client (for restore) that was registered under a different name. Once a virtual machine client has been backed up with STORServer VMB, the name under which it is registered appears in this field by default. 126

133 VMB windows and dialog boxes CAUTION! Changing the default TSM node name that appears here is not recommended. Otherwise, STORServer VMB may be unable to locate this client's data during a restore. If this field is blank and you want to assign a non-default name to the selected client, enter a valid TSM node name. The following characters may be used in a TSM node name: A-Z, 0-9, _ (underscore),. (period), - (hyphen), + (plus sign), and & (ampersand). TSM node names are not case sensitive. The maximum number of characters permitted is 64. When STORServer VMB backs up this client, it will register it using the specified name and store its data under that name in TSM, with one exception. When the TSM for VE backup technology is used and VMB is configured to back up virtual machine clients to a datacenter node, all client data is stored under the relevant datacenter node name. However, VMB will still register the client using the node name that you specify. Password and Re-enter password (Valid only when a single client is selected) If you specified a node name in the previous field, that name is also used as the client password by default. You may specify a different password by entering one in both of these fields. Under normal circumstances, you do not have to enter or update this password. However, if the password used by the selected virtual machine client during backups to TSM no longer matches the client password that is stored on the TSM server, you may reset it here. Clients tab How to display it? Click Clients in the left pane of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. The Clients tab displays the virtual machine inventory from the vcenter Server or ESX/ESXi host to which STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) is connected. This list also includes any virtual machine clients that have been backed up by VMB or added to a VMB schedule, even if they no longer exist in vcenter Server. Column entries provide additional information on each client, such as the address of its ESX/ESXi host, the date of its most recent backup, whether it has an allocated license, and whether the client is currently disabled, which prevents it from being backed up by any schedule or added to a default backup schedule. The disabled status also causes the client to relinquish its license, making that license available for reuse. From this tab, you can add selected clients to or remove them from a schedule, back up selected clients on demand, and edit client or schedule properties. This is also where you initiate a restore of client files, virtual machines, or virtual disks (with limitations imposed by the backup technology). CAUTION! When selecting clients for backup, do not select your backup server if it is a virtual machine. 127

134 VMB windows and dialog boxes The Delete Clients feature lets you remove clients from the STORServer VMB database. You would need to do this only when clients have been deleted from the vcenter Server, but continue to appear here because they were backed up by VMB or added to a VMB schedule. The Reinstate Client feature lets you reinstate a client that was previously backed up but has since been deleted so that you can restore its data from TSM. More details on the features of the Clients tab: Clients list can be filtered by ESX/ESXi host You can filter the list of clients to include only those belonging to one or more selected ESX/ESXi hosts by clicking the Show clients on host button and making a selection. The clients list is updated immediately and your selection is retained until you change it or restart VMB. You can restore the full list of clients by selecting All. When more than one ESX/ESXi host is selected, the button label changes to Custom. Client entries can be expanded and collapsed Click the icon next to each client name to view the list of schedules to which the client has been added, and to collapse the entry. Tip! To expand or collapse all entries at once, right-click an entry and select Expand All or Collapse All on the shortcut menu. Clients with a icon next to them have not been assigned to any schedules. Columns can be re-sorted Click column headings to resort entries in ascending or descending order. Double-click displays client properties Double-click a client to quickly access its properties. Right-click menus for clients and schedules Both client and schedule entries, which appear under expanded clients, have "right-click" or shortcut menus that provide quick access to various commands some that may not appear elsewhere on the tab. For example, the shortcut menu for selected clients has Add Clients to Schedule and Remove Clients from Schedule commands that allow you to quickly assign or remove selected clients to or from the schedule that you select from a submenu. Restore commands also appear on this shortcut menu. (See the description of the Restore commands for more information.) 128

135 VMB windows and dialog boxes The shortcut menu for a selected schedule (visible under an expanded client) has an Edit Schedule command that allows you to modify the properties of that schedule. Various restore commands available The default action for the Restore button and the availability of restore commands on the shortcut menu changes based on the number of virtual machine clients that are selected. When a single virtual machine client is selected, additional, restore-related commands are available when you click the down arrow on the right side of the Restore button. Available restore commands are as follows: Restore Files and Directories Displays the On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box, where you can set options before proceeding with the restore of files and directories. This is the same action that occurs by default when you select a single virtual machine client and click the main Restore button. It is available only when a single virtual machine is selected. Restore Virtual Machines Displays the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, where you can set options before proceeding with the restore of selected virtual machines. This is the same action that occurs by default when you select multiple clients and click the main Restore button. Restore Virtual Disks Displays the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, where you can set options before proceeding with the restore of virtual disks (VMDK files). This command is available only when a single virtual machine is selected. Job Details dialog box How to display it? On the Status tab, right-click a schedule and select Show Job Details OR Expand a schedule and click on the Schedule toolbar. From the Job Details dialog box, you can change the final status of a job and add notes to the schedule log. You can also view the error log messages for all virtual machine clients that belong to a job, and search the logs for a particular entry. 129

136 VMB windows and dialog boxes What do you want to do? Learn more about the General tab Learn more about the View Logs tab Features of the General tab The General tab of the Job Details dialog box has these features: Toolbar The toolbar in the upper right hand corner of the General tab has these buttons: Refresh updates the status information. Export to File opens the Export dialog box, where you can specify a file name and location and save the schedule log to a file. All messages box that appear in the Messages area on the View Logs tab are saved to the specified file. Status information area Shows status information about the schedule or on-demand job, including the schedule/job name, start and end times and how long it took to complete, the type of backup that was done, and the final status. If the final status has been modified (as described in Changing the final status of a schedule), both the original and changed statuses are shown here. Change status Select an item in this drop-down list to change the final status of the schedule or ondemand job to Success or Failed. (Selections vary depending upon the current status of the schedule.) You can restore the original status by selecting Original Status. Notes history Shows all notes that have been added to this schedule log by STORServer VMB users and by the VMB software itself. VMB adds a note similar to the following when the final status of a schedule is modified: 11/02/ :31 PM Administrator changed completion status from [2000]'Failed' to [4] 'Changed to Success'. New notes Enter notes or comments that you want added to the log for the schedule or on-demand job. Click Add Note to add them. Your notes will then appear in the Notes history box. They are not actually saved to the log until you click OK. 130

137 VMB windows and dialog boxes Add Note Click this button to add the contents of the New notes box to the schedule log. Your new notes appear in the Notes history box. They are not saved to the log until you click OK. Features of the View Logs tab The View Logs tab of the Job Details dialog box has these features: Toolbar The toolbar in the upper right hand corner of the View Logs tab has these buttons: Refresh Schedule Details updates the logs in the Messages box. Because there are multiple logs and messages may be added to the bottom of any of them, clicking this button will not take you to the bottom of the Messages box like the refresh button in the Client Backup Details dialog box does. Export to File opens the Export dialog box, where you can specify a file name and location and save the schedule log to a file. The contents of the Messages box are saved, regardless of highlighting. Show logs for unsuccessful tasks only check box When checked, updates information in the Messages box to exclude logs associated with backups that completed successfully. Messages Shows all of the logs associated with the schedule or on-demand job. The individual client logs contain the output from the STORServer VMB Server service during the backup of that virtual machine. This includes communications with various VMware APIs, the TSM backuparchive client API, and the TSM backup-archive client. Messages from the TSM client error log, dsmerror.log, are included for failed client backups only. If the Show unsuccessful client backups only check box is selected, logs for clients whose backups failed are the only logs visible in this box, and the only ones included when you export logs to a file. Find Enter a word or phrase to search for in the Messages box. This field changes color when no match is found. For example: Next Searches forward for the next occurrence of the text specified in the Find box. 131

138 VMB windows and dialog boxes Previous Searches in reverse for the next occurrence of the text specified in the Find box. Job Status window How to display it? 1. Click Status in the left pane of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window to access the Status tab. 2. Click on the Status toolbar. The Job Status window is a "tear-off" copy of the Status tab in a fully functional, separate window. Displaying the status information in this manner allows you to keep status information visible while performing other tasks with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB). You can resize or reposition this window as needed. This window has the same features as the Status tab. See Status tab for more information. On-Demand Client Backup dialog box How to display it? On the Clients tab, select one or more virtual machine clients and click Back Up Clients. The On-Demand Client Backup dialog box lets you define various options for an on-demand backup or archive of one or more virtual machine clients. The On-Demand Client Backup dialog box has the following features: Name of job A unique name for this on-demand job. This name will appear on the Status tab. Type of job The type of backup or archive to be performed. Choose from one of the following: Full machine backup Incremental backup Full machine archive File-level archive Incremental backups are file-level backups when the VDDK backup technology is in use, and block-level backups when the TSM for VE technology is used. 132

139 VMB windows and dialog boxes NOTE! VDDK file-level incremental backups and archive jobs are performed ONLY for virtual machines that are running on Microsoft Windows platforms, and only with Windows versions that are supported by both VMware and TSM. Data management class (Optional) Define this value to apply different retention policies to selected clients. (The default management class is used by default.) The management class that you specify here controls retention of client data as well as associated control files, which are described in the next section. Tip! The following retention policies are recommended for virtual machine data: Versions Data Exists (how many backup versions TSM keeps of a file that is on your local drive) Unlimited Versions Data Deleted (how many backup versions TSM keeps of a file that you have deleted from your local drive) 1 Retain Extra Versions (how many days will elapse before the last remaining inactive backup version of a file is deleted) and Retain Only Version (how many days will elapse before all but the most recent backup version of a file that is on your local drive is deleted) The number of days that you want to keep these copies (45, for example) Control management class (Optional) Define a control management class to instruct TSM to store VMware metadata information about selected virtual machine clients and disks (also referred to as control files) on disk when backing up or migrating data files to tape. During a restore, the VMB user interface (or whatever UI you are using to perform the restore) can then quickly obtain the location of the files to restore. Otherwise, the UI could be unresponsive for a period of time, while attempting to locate the files, and could even hang indefinitely if the files are on a tape that is stored in a vault, for example. Specify a management class that uses a disk storage pool with no migration to tape. This management class affects the storage of control files only, and overrides the associated parameters specified in the data or default management class. Retention parameters specified in a control management class are ignored. Control files are expired along with virtual machine data files according to the retention policies set in the data management class or, if no data management class is defined, the default management class. TSM server The TSM server that will manage the files that are backed up or archived by this on-demand job. If you do not specify a TSM server, STORServer VMB assigns clients to the default TSM server. 133

140 VMB windows and dialog boxes Transport mode Specifies the transport mode to use when moving virtual machine client data. By default, STORServer VMB uses the transport mode that is selected for each client. (Clients are configured to use Best available by default.) When changing this setting to a specific transport mode, consider the type of storage device to which the ESX/ESXi host has access. Choose one of the following values: Use client value Instructs STORServer VMB to use the transport mode defined by the virtual machine client's properties. When multiple clients are backed up, each will use its own transport mode. This is the default selection. Best available Allows STORServer VMB to choose the fastest available transport mode. Transports are tried in the following order: SAN, HOTADD, LANSSL, LAN SAN Use with a shared Fibre Channel or iscsi device. LAN Use when SAN and HOTADD are not appropriate or permitted. LANSSL Same as LAN except that all data is encrypted during network transfer. If an unencrypted network channel will be used, you may also want to enable SSL certificate verification. HOTADD Use with any shared or local storage device that is accessible to the ESX server hosting the backup server. The ESX/ESXi host's I/O stack is used to move data. This method is more efficient than LAN, but not as efficient as SAN. The HOTADD transport mode is used only if the VMB software is running on a virtual machine. Refer to the VMware documentation for more information on transport modes and instructions for configuring roles and enabling SSL certificate verification. Log retention period (in days) The number of days to retain log messages related to this on-demand job. This setting 134

141 VMB windows and dialog boxes determines how long status information remains available on the Status tab. The default period is 7 days. NOTE! STORServer VMB stores status information (logs) in its internal database. To conserve database space, set this value to a minimum number of days. Allow non-queisced snapshots (VDDK only) Select this check box to allow STORServer VMB to back up selected virtual machine clients in a non-quiesced state when a quiesced snapshot is not possible. This value takes precedence over the corresponding value specified for each client. CAUTION! Carefully consider the use of this feature before enabling it. Some virtual machine clients, such as those running databases, may not be good candidates for non-quiesced snapshots. If the file system is not quiescent when the snapshot is taken, the system may be captured in a transitional state, with inconsistent disk entries. On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box How to display it? On the Clients tab, use either of the following methods to access this dialog box: Select a single virtual machine client and click Restore. Select a single virtual machine client, click the down arrow on the Restore button, and click Restore Files and Directories on the submenu. The On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box is where you define options for restoring or retrieving individual files and directories for a virtual machine client that was backed up or archived with STORServer VMB. The On-Demand Restore - Files and Directories dialog box has the following features: Client name Shows the name of the virtual machine client whose data is being restored (the one you selected on the Clients tab). TSM server Specifies the name of the TSM server from which to restore data for the selected virtual machine client. VMB provides a default TSM server value by default. If you need to modify this value, because the client was backed up to multiple TSM servers for example, you may select a different TSM server from the list or add one using the Add TSM Server button. You may be prompted to log on to the TSM server that you specify. 135

142 VMB windows and dialog boxes Add TSM Server button Allows you to define a new TSM server to STORServer VMB, and select it for this restore or retrieve operation. When you click this button, the TSM Server Information dialog box displays. Define values according to the TSM Server Information dialog box Help, with the following caveats: If the VMB client that you are using to perform the restore is running on a separate system from the TSM server that is being defined, you must define these two values as noted to enable communications between the two systems (the VMB client and the remote TSM server): TCP server name or address Specify a numeric IP address, fully qualified domain name, or host name. Do not specify localhost. Use TCP/IP port Select this check box to use TCP/IP rather than shared memory, which is used by default and does not support a remote connection. Object type Identifies the type of objects being restored: files and directories versus virtual machines or disks, for example. In this dialog box, the object type is always "Files and directories." Restore from backup Select when restoring files and directories from a backup copy in TSM. This option is selected by default. Retrieve from archive Select when retrieving files and directories from an archived copy in TSM. NOTE! Archive and retrieve functions are supported by the VDDK backup technology only. Backup Technology for Restore This selection determines which graphical user interface (GUI) launches when you click Next. The default selection is based on the backup technology that was used to create the last backup or archive of the selected client. Under normal circumstances, you do not need to change this setting. It is intended for use only when restoring older files that were backed up with a different technology (VDDK, for example) than the one that is currently being used (TSM for VE, for example). Tip! If you change this setting and cannot locate the files or directories that you want to restore, try the restore again using the other (default) backup technology setting. 136

143 VMB windows and dialog boxes Launch TSM Backup-Archive GUI (VDDK) Launches the TSM Backup-Archive GUI when you click Next. You can then select and restore or retrieve files and directories that were backed up or archived with the VDDK backup technology. NOTE! Archive and retrieve functions are supported by the VDDK backup technology only. Launch Data Protection for VMware GUI (TSM for VE) Launches the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI (a component of the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments software) when you click Next. You can use this GUI to mount a TSM volume on your local system. You can then proceed to select and restore files and directories using Windows Explorer. On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box How to display it? On the Clients tab, use any of the following methods to access this dialog box: Select multiple virtual machine clients and click Restore. Select one or more virtual machine clients, click the down arrow on the Restore button, and click Restore Virtual Machines on the submenu. Select a single virtual machine client, click the down arrow on the Restore button, and click Restore Virtual Disks on the submenu. The On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box is where you define options for a restore or retrieval of one or more virtual machines, or one or more virtual disks (VMDK files) for a single virtual machine. The On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box has the following features: Client name Lists the name of the virtual machine that was selected on the Clients tab for restore. If multiple virtual machines were selected, this field shows "Multiple clients." Name of job Specify a unique name for this on-demand job. This name will appear on the Status tab. A default name is provided, but can be changed as necessary. TSM server Specifies the name of the TSM server from which to restore data. VMB determines which TSM server to specify by default. 137

144 VMB windows and dialog boxes If you need to change this value (because the virtual machine being restored was backed up to multiple TSM servers and is being restored from a server other than the one to which it was most recently backed up), choose a different TSM server from the list or add one using the Add TSM Server button. You may be prompted to log on to the TSM server that you specify. Add TSM Server Allows you to define a new TSM server to STORServer VMB and select it for this restore operation. When you click this button, the TSM Server Information dialog box displays. Define values according to the dialog box Help, with the following caveat: If the VMB client that you are using to perform the restore is running on a separate system from the TSM server that is being defined, you must define these two values as noted to enable communications between the two systems (the VMB client and the remote TSM server): TCP server name or address Specify a numeric IP address, fully qualified domain name, or host name. Do not specify localhost. Use TCP/IP port Select this check box to use TCP/IP rather than shared memory, which is used by default and does not support a remote connection. Transport mode Specifies the transport mode to use when moving virtual machine client data. By default, STORServer VMB uses the transport mode that is selected for each client. (Clients are configured to use Best available by default.) When changing this setting to a specific transport mode, consider the type of storage device to which the ESX/ESXi host has access. Choose one of the following values: Use client value Instructs STORServer VMB to use the transport mode defined by the virtual machine client's properties. When multiple clients are restored, each will use its own transport mode. This is the default selection. Best available Allows STORServer VMB to choose the fastest available transport mode. Transports are tried in the following order: SAN, HOTADD, LANSSL, LAN SAN Use with a shared Fibre Channel or iscsi device. 138

145 VMB windows and dialog boxes LAN Use when SAN and HOTADD are not appropriate or permitted. LANSSL Same as LAN except that all data is encrypted during network transfer. If an unencrypted network channel will be used, you may also want to enable SSL certificate verification. HOTADD Use with any shared or local storage device that is accessible to the ESX server hosting the backup server. The ESX/ESXi host's I/O stack is used to move data. This method is more efficient than LAN, but not as efficient as SAN. The HOTADD transport mode is used only if the VMB software is running on a virtual machine. Refer to the VMware documentation for more information on transport modes and instructions for configuring roles and enabling SSL certificate verification. Object type Identifies the type of objects being restored: virtual machines or virtual disks. Restore from backup Select when restoring virtual machines or disks from a backup copy in TSM. This option is selected by default. Retrieve from archive Select when retrieving virtual machines or disks from an archived copy in TSM. Log retention period Specifies the number of days to retain error log information for this on-demand job. This setting determines how long status information remains available on the Status tab. The default period is 7 days. NOTE! STORServer VMB stores status information (logs) in its internal database. To conserve database space, set this value to a minimum number of days. Version to Restore These options affect the list of files that appears in the next dialog box. For example, if you specify a date range, only backups or archives that occurred during that period will be listed. Inactive files are listed by default when a date range is specified. 139

146 VMB windows and dialog boxes Latest Select to restore from the latest backed up or archived version of each selected virtual machine. This is the default selection. Date range Select to restore from backups or archives that were performed during a specified time period. You may specify one, both, or no dates here as follows: Beginning date only The end date defaults to the date of the latest backup or archive. End date only The beginning date defaults to the date of the earliest backup or archive available from TSM. No dates Lists all files that were backed up or archived for the selected virtual machine clients. The Include inactive files check box is selected automatically when you select Date range. Include inactive files Specifies whether to include inactive backup/archive versions in the list of files that appears in the next dialog box. This check box is selected by default when Date range is selected, and cleared by default when Latest is selected. Reinstate Client dialog box How to display it? Click Reinstate Client on the Clients tab. The Reinstate Client dialog box allows you to recreate a client record in the STORServer VMB database, which reinstates the client to the list of virtual machine clients on the Clients tab. You can then select the virtual machine client and restore it, provided the client's data is still available in TSM. You would use this feature under unusual circumstances only. For example, you backed up a virtual machine client with STORServer VMB and then needed to restore it, only to discover that the client had since been explicitly deleted from both vcenter Server and the VMB database. When you click Next, the Client Information dialog box appears. You must then redefine (to the best of your abilities) the original properties of the client that is being restored. See related topics for more details. The Reinstate Client dialog box has these features: Client name Enter the name of the virtual machine client (as it was listed on the Clients tab) that you 140

147 VMB windows and dialog boxes want to restore. If you cannot remember the original client name, you may enter the TSM node name instead. Tip! If this client was registered with TSM under a different node name, specify that here or in the TSM node name field of the Client Information dialog box, which appears when you click Next. Datacenter Select the name of the datacenter that the specified client resided in prior to its deletion. If that datacenter does not appear in the list and needs to be added to the VMB database, use the Add Datacenter feature on the Backups tab of the STORServer VMB Settings dialog box. If the datacenter did not exist when the client was backed up, you may either enter the client name as the datacenter name or leave this field blank. Restore Virtual Disks dialog box How to display it? This dialog box displays when you click Next in the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, after selecting a single client on the Clients tab and clicking Restore Virtual Disks on the Restore button's submenu. The Restore Virtual Disks dialog box is where you indicate which virtual machine disks (VMDK files) you want to restore or retrieve for a selected virtual machine client. The Restore Virtual Disks dialog box has the following features: Client name Shows the name of the virtual machine client whose disks are being restored. Name of job Shows the name that will appear on the Status tab for this restore job. This name was specified in the previous, On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines and Disks dialog box. Type of restore Indicates whether virtual disks are being restored from backup or retrieved from archive. The content of this field is based on the selected action in the previous dialog box. Select virtual disks to restore You may select one or more virtual disks to restore or retrieve. The content of this list is based on the selections you made in the previous, On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box. 141

148 VMB windows and dialog boxes If you selected Latest version to restore or retrieve, then this list includes the latest backed up or archived virtual disks for the selected virtual machine client. If you selected Date range, only virtual disks that were backed up or archived within the specified time period are listed. If no dates are specified, all backed up or archived versions are listed. NOTE! Inactive files are listed only when the Include inactive files check box is selected in the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box. This check box is selected by default when Date range is selected, and cleared by default when Latest is selected. Entries in this list specify the date of the last backup/archive, whether the file is active (A) or inactive (I), the name of the management class that was used, the name of the disk that was backed up on that date, and the file name that contains the disk's data. Drive column entries, which appear only for virtual disks that were backed up or archived with the VDDK technology from a virtual machine that is running a Windows operating system, identify the drive letter associated with each virtual disk. Disks with multiple partitions may list multiple drive letters. Restore Virtual Machines dialog box How to display it? This dialog box displays when you click Next in the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box, after selecting multiple clients on the Clients tab and clicking Restore, or selecting one or more clients and clicking Restore Virtual Machines on the Restore button's submenu. The Restore Virtual Machines dialog box is where you specify information about the virtual machines that are being restored from backup or retrieved from archive. If multiple versions are listed in this dialog box, you must select the backup or archive version of each virtual machine that is being restored. The Restore Virtual Machines dialog box has the following fields and options: Client name Shows the name of the virtual machine that is being restored. If you selected multiple virtual machines on the Clients tab, this field shows "Multiple virtual machine clients." Name of job Shows the name that will appear on the Status tab for this restore job. This name was specified in the previous, On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines and Disks dialog box. Type of restore Indicates whether virtual machines are being restored from backup or retrieved from archive. The content of this field is based on the selected action in the previous dialog box. 142

149 VMB windows and dialog boxes Select virtual machines to restore This is where you select the actual backup or archive that you want to restore. The content of this list is based on selections that you made in the previous dialog box. For example, if you indicated that you wanted to restore the latest version of three selected virtual machine clients from backup, this list would include the latest relevant backup for each of the selected machines. If the backups were performed with VDDK backup technology, the latest full machine backups would be listed. If TSM for VE was used, the most recent incremental or full block-level backups would be listed. (Virtual machines can be restored from incremental backups using TSM for VE.) If you specified a date range from which to restore or retrieve, multiple backups or archives may be listed for each selected client. You must select one entry for each virtual machine that is being restored. Entries in the Type column indicate which backup technology was used to perform each backup or archive, and the type of backup or archive that was performed, as follows: Entry Technology Backup/Archive Type VK-Full VDDK Full machine backup or archive VK-Base VDDK Base backup with CBT enabled VK-Diff VDDK Differential backup with CBT enabled VE-Full TSM for VE Full machine backup with CBT enabled VE-Incr TSM for VE Block-level incremental backup with CBT enabled VE-IFIncr TSM for VE Block-level incremental forever with CBT enabled VE-IFFull TSM for VE Block-level full machine incremental forever with CBT enabled V3-Full VMB Version 3.x Full machine backup or archive Entries in the A/I column indicate whether a backup/archive is active (A) or inactive (I). NOTE! Inactive versions are listed only when the Include inactive files check box is selected in the On-Demand Restore - Virtual Machines or Disks dialog box. This check box is selected by default when Date range is selected, and cleared by default when Latest is selected. Options for New Virtual Machines Settings in this area affect the newly restored virtual machines. Perform data validation only (Valid only for virtual machines that were backed up using VDDK backup technology). Select to have VMB verify the integrity of full machine backups for selected virtual machine clients without actually restoring the machines. This process is significantly faster than an actual restore. The job log indicates whether any failures were reported by TSM. 143

150 VMB windows and dialog boxes The data validation option is unavailable when one or more selected virtual machine clients were backed up using TSM for VE backup technology. When data validation is selected, other options for new virtual machines are unavailable. No virtual machines are created during a data-validation-only operation so these options have no effect. VM name / VM names: Add prefix, Add suffix The labels for the name to assign to the newly restored virtual machines change based on the selection in the previous dialog box. VM name Appears when a single virtual machine is being restored. Enter a new name for the restored virtual machine. Otherwise, the original name is used. VM names: Add prefix, Add suffix Appears when multiple virtual machines are being restored. Enter text in the Add prefix field to add text to the beginning of all names, and/or in the Add suffix field to append text to the end of all names for the newly restored virtual machines. If no prefix or suffix is specified, the original names are used by default. ESX host Select the ESX/ESXi host on which to create the restored virtual machines. This list includes all ESX/ESXi hosts configured in vcenter Server. The Unchanged value (selected by default) causes each restored virtual machine to use the same ESX host as the one on which the virtual machine resided when it was backed up. NOTE! The host that you select must be running the same or a newer version of ESX/ESXi as that on the original host (that is, the host where the virtual machine resided when it was backed up). Otherwise, the restore will fail if features that are not supported by the older host (changed block tracking, for example) were enabled on the virtual machine when it was backed up. Network Select the network that the restored virtual machines will use. The list from which you may select includes all available networks in the current environment, as well as the following values: Unchanged Selected by default to allow restored machines to use the same network that was configured when they were last backed up or archived. None Select when restoring virtual machines to an environment that no longer includes the original network configuration (during disaster recovery or because your network configuration has changed, for example). You can then use the VMware vsphere Client to configure the appropriate network on the restored virtual machines. 144

151 VMB windows and dialog boxes Tip! If errors related to network configuration are encountered during a virtual machine restore, select None and try the restore again. After the restore, use the VMware vsphere Client to configure the appropriate network for the restored virtual machines. Datastore Select a datastore for the restored virtual machines. This list includes all datastores that are configured in vcenter Server. The Unchanged value, which is selected by default, causes each restored virtual machine to use the same datastore as the one from which it was backed up. Tip! When selecting a datastore, be sure to choose one that is supported by the selected ESX/ESXi host and that has sufficient space for the restored virtual machines and all of their virtual disk files. Delete and replace existing virtual machines Select to have STORServer VMB destroy each existing virtual machine on the specified ESX/ESXi host before recreating it from restored or retrieved files. (When using the VDDK backup technology, VMB will not actually destroy the existing virtual machine until it has successfully restored or retrieved all files necessary to recreate it.) You will be asked to confirm this request when you click Start. If you decide not to proceed, you are returned to this dialog box, where you can assign a different name to an individual virtual machine that is being restored, or add a prefix or suffix to the names of multiple virtual machines that are being restored. This option is not selected by default. Power on virtual machines Select to have STORServer VMB power on each restored virtual machine. Schedule Information dialog box How to display it? On the Schedules tab do any of the following: Click Add Schedule. Double-click a schedule. Select a schedule and click Edit Schedule. The Schedule Information dialog box is where you view, define, or edit the properties of a selected schedule. This dialog box has two tabs. Each is described below. 145

152 VMB windows and dialog boxes What do you want to do? Learn more about the Add/Edit Schedule tab Learn more about the Add/Remove Clients tab Features of the Add/Edit Schedule tab From the Add/Edit Schedule tab of the Schedule Information dialog box, you can define or modify these values and settings: Schedule name Enter a unique name of up to 121 characters including spaces. Type of job Select the type of backup or archive to be performed by this schedule. See VMB backup types for a detailed description of each type. Default schedule (Available only when the selected job type is Full machine backup or Incremental backup.) Select to make this schedule the default backup schedule for the selected backup type. Only one default schedule for each backup type (full or incremental) is allowed. This check box is not selected by default. Tip! Default backup schedules use a different icon ( differentiate them from other schedules. ) on the Schedules tab to Default backup schedules automatically discover and assign any virtual machine clients that are not already scheduled for the relevant backup type. This occurs when you click OK, after selecting the Default schedule check box. STORServer VMB continues to scan for and add unprotected clients every few minutes. You can prevent VMB from adding virtual machine clients that you do not want scheduled for backup by selecting the Disable clients in all schedules check box in client properties. You may want to do this for a TSM server virtual machine or a backup server that is running as a virtual machine. NOTE! STORServer VMB cannot be used to back up a backup server that is running as a virtual machine. Virtual machine clients are automatically removed from a default backup schedule when they are assigned to another, non-default schedule that performs the same backup type. If you remove clients from a default schedule that are not assigned to another schedule, they will be re-added. Disable this schedule (Optional) Select this check box to disable this schedule indefinitely. If the schedule is a 146

153 VMB windows and dialog boxes default backup schedule (that is, the Default schedule check box is selected), it will continue to discover and add virtual machine clients that are not otherwise scheduled for the relevant backup type, but no backups will be performed until the schedule is reenabled. To prevent further automatic client discovery, clear the Default schedule check box. Tip! Disabled schedules use a different icon ( ) on the Schedules tab to differentiate them from other (enabled) schedules. You can disable or re-enable multiple schedules from the Schedules tab by using the Disable Schedules and Enable Schedules commands (respectively) on the shortcut menu. See Enabling and disabling schedules. Log retention period (Optional) Specify the number of days to retain error log information for this schedule. This determines how long status information is available on the Status tab. The default period is 7 days. NOTE! STORServer VMB stores status information (logs) in its internal database. To conserve database space, set this value to a minimum number of days. Management Classes Define data management classes on this tab to apply different data retention policies to your virtual machine data than those specified by the default management class, which is used by default, and/or to allow VMware metadata files to be stored on disk when virtual machine data is being backed up or migrated to physical tape media. Tip! The following retention policies are recommended for virtual machine data: Versions Data Exists (how many backup versions TSM keeps of a file that is on your local drive) Unlimited Versions Data Deleted (how many backup versions TSM keeps of a file that you have deleted from your local drive) 1 Retain Extra Versions (how many days will elapse before the last remaining inactive backup version of a file is deleted) and Retain Only Version (how many days will elapse before all but the most recent backup version of a file that is on your local drive is deleted) The number of days that you want to keep these copies (45, for example) Data management class (Optional) Define this value to apply different retention policies to selected clients. (The default management class is used by default.) The management class that you specify here 147

154 VMB windows and dialog boxes controls retention of client data as well as associated control files, which are described in the next section. Control management class (Optional) Define a control management class to instruct TSM to store VMware metadata information about selected virtual machine clients and disks (also referred to as control files) on disk when backing up or migrating data files to tape. During a restore, the VMB user interface (or whatever UI you are using to perform the restore) can then quickly obtain the location of the files to restore. Otherwise, the UI could be unresponsive for a period of time, while attempting to locate the files, and could even hang indefinitely if the tape is stored in a vault, for example. Specify a management class that uses a disk storage pool with no migration to tape. This management class affects the storage of control files only, and overrides the associated parameters specified in the data or default management class. Retention parameters specified in a control management class are ignored. Control files are expired along with virtual machine data files according to the retention policies set in the data management class or, if no data management class is defined, the default management class. Schedule Frequency Frequency Indicate how often this schedule will run. Choices are as follows: Daily: Run every day of the week. This is the default frequency. Daily weekdays: Run on weekdays (Monday through Friday) only. Weekly: Run on a designated day every week. Monthly: Run on a designated date each month End of month: Run on the last day of each month. Start of month: Run on the first day of each month. End of quarter: Run on the last day of each calendar quarter. Start of quarter: Run on the first day of each calendar quarter. End of year: Run on the last day of each calendar year (Dec 31) Start of year: Run on the first day of each calendar year (Jan 1). Once: Run once on a designated date and time and then disable. Custom: Run at a specified interval. You can specify the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds between start times. 148

155 VMB windows and dialog boxes Start time Specify the time of day when the schedule will start. Start date Appears when Custom or Once is the selected frequency. Enter the date on which the custom or one-time-only schedule will run. Day of week Appears when Weekly is the selected frequency. Select the day of the week on which the weekly schedule will run. Day of month Appears when Monthly is the selected frequency. Enter the day of the month on which the monthly schedule will run. Time between schedule start times (Days Hours Minutes) Appears when Custom is the selected frequency. Specify the number of days, hours, and minutes to wait after the specified start time before rerunning the custom schedule. Features of the Add/Remove Clients tab The Add/Remove Clients tab of the Schedule Information dialog box is where you add virtual machine clients to or remove them from an existing schedule. NOTE! If the Default schedule check box is selected on the Add/Edit Schedule tab, virtual machine clients that are not already scheduled for the selected backup type are added automatically. When assigned to another, non-default schedule that performs the same backup type, clients are automatically removed from the default schedule. The Add/Remove Clients tab is tab has the following features: Hide/Show Virtual Machine List This button controls whether the Available virtual machines list (the list at the top) is visible. The button label changes depending upon the state of the list. Hide Virtual Machine List Click to hide the list of Available virtual machines and allow the Virtual machine clients added to schedule list to utilize the entire tab. This is useful when working with schedules that have a large number of clients assigned. Show Virtual Machine List Click to restore the list of Available virtual machines. 149

156 VMB windows and dialog boxes Available virtual machines The list of virtual machine clients that can be added to this schedule. STORServer VMB obtains this list directly from vcenter Server. NOTE! Only virtual machines whose ESX/ESXi hosts have been added to vcenter Server are available to VMB. If VMB is unable to connect to vcenter Server, this list shows only those machines that have been added to VMB's database (because they were backed up on demand at least once or added to one or more schedules). Refresh Causes VMB to connect to vcenter Server immediately and update the information in the Available virtual machines list. Add to Schedule Adds selected clients in the Available virtual machines list to the schedule. These clients appear immediately in the list of virtual machine clients that have been added to the schedule at the bottom. However, they are not actually added until you click OK. Virtual machine clients added to schedule The list of virtual machine clients that have been added to this schedule. Clients that were added during the current session appear in this list but are not actually added until you click OK. Assign TSM Server Presents a list of the TSM servers that have been added to the STORServer VMB configuration. Use this button to change the TSM server to which a virtual machine client is assigned. (Clients are assigned to the default TSM server if no TSM server is specified.) Select the client in the Virtual machine clients added to schedule list, and then select a TSM server from this list. Edit Clients Launches the Client Information dialog box, where you can modify the properties of the clients that are selected in the Virtual machine clients added to schedule list. Remove from Schedule Removes selected clients from the Virtual machine clients added to schedule list. These clients are not actually removed from the schedule until you click OK. 150

157 VMB windows and dialog boxes Clients that are removed from a default backup schedule but not assigned to another (nondefault) schedule that performs the same backup type will be re-assigned to the default schedule automatically. Schedules tab How to display it? Click Schedules in the left pane of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. The Schedules tab lists the backup and archive schedules that you have created for use with STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB). You can create new schedules, copy, modify, or delete existing schedules, and run schedules on demand from this tab. You can also add clients to a schedule and enable or disable selected schedules using commands on the right-click menu. Schedule icons indicate the following: = an enabled schedule = a default backup schedule = a disabled schedule For more details on default backup schedules, see the description of the Default schedule check box in the Schedule Information dialog box topic. This tab has the following features: Entries can be expanded and collapsed Click the icon next to each schedule entry to view the list of clients that belong to each schedule. Click to collapse the entry. Tip! To expand or collapse all entries at once, right-click an entry and select Expand All or Collapse All on the shortcut menu. Right-click menus for schedules and clients Both schedule entries and clients under expanded schedules have "right-click" or shortcut menus that provide quick access to various commands some that may not appear elsewhere on the tab. For example, the shortcut menu for schedules has a Copy Schedule command that allows you to make a copy of an existing schedule, which you can then edit to create a new schedule. It also has Enable Schedules and Disable Schedules commands, which allow you to quickly disable or re-enable multiple schedules at once. The shortcut menu for selected clients (under an expanded schedule entry) has an Assign TSM Server command that lets you assign them to another TSM server, which you can 151

158 VMB windows and dialog boxes select from a submenu, and a Remove from Schedule command that lets you quickly remove several clients without accessing the schedule's properties. Double-click to access schedule or client properties Double-click a schedule to quickly access its properties. When schedules are expanded on this tab and associated clients are visible, you can also access client properties by doubleclicking the client name. Columns can be re-sorted Click column headings to re-sort entries in ascending or descending order. Settings tab How to display? Click Settings in the left pane of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. The Settings tab lists the configuration settings for the active VMB server. It also provides access to the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, where you can modify configuration settings. The Settings tab has the following features: List of configuration settings The Settings tab shows a list of the configuration settings for the active VMB server. To change any of these values, click the Edit Settings button and make the appropriate changes in the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. Reload Configuration File button Causes the STORServer VMB server to reload the contents of a configuration file that affects both VDDK and VMB operation. NOTE! Under normal circumstances, you do not have to modify or reload this file unless instructed to do so by a member of the STORServer Support or STORServer Engineering team. This file resides on the VMB server machine in the VDDK folder under the VMB install directory (default location shown): C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\VDDK\config.txt 152

159 VMB windows and dialog boxes Edit Settings button Opens the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, where you can modify configuration settings for the active VMB server. Status tab How to display it? Click Status in the left pane of the main STORServer Virtual Machine Backup window. You can also display this tab in a separate window by clicking the Tear Off button on the Status toolbar. The Status tab provides status information for each schedule and on-demand job (collectively referred to as jobs) that ran during the log retention period, which is defined at the job level. The default log retention period is 7 days. Once that period has elapsed, status information for that period is deleted. By default, the most recent 25 jobs are listed. You can advance or back up through the list using navigation buttons. You can also filter the list by job status and time period. The status that appears in the upper left corner is an overall status for all current jobs. Possible statuses are: Good All jobs completed successfully. May Need Attention One or more jobs encountered at least one warning. Needs Attention One or more jobs failed. Icons are used within the list of jobs to indicate the current status of each job. (See the List of jobs description below for more on status icons.) Expand entries in the jobs list to access job-specific status information and associated logs. Hover the mouse pointer over any job entry to view a brief status. From this tab, you can determine which jobs are pending, running, or completed, and whether they have succeeded, failed, or completed with warnings. You can also view and annotate both job and client-specific logs, and export them as needed. This tab can be displayed as a separate window, allowing you to keep it open at all times while performing other tasks with the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup (VMB) user interface. The Status tab has these features: Show jobs with status [ ] Filters the list to include only those jobs that match one or more selected statuses. The button label changes to Custom when more than one status is selected. Select All to restore the full list of jobs. 153

160 VMB windows and dialog boxes Show status for [ ] days Filters the list to show only those jobs that ran during a specified number of days since today. NOTE! Status information is retained for the number of days specified by the log retention period, which is an attribute of each schedule and on-demand job. Although you may specify a period of up to 999 days here, only available status information is shown. Status toolbar A row of graphical buttons whose actions primarily affect the list of jobs that appears on the Status tab. Toolbar buttons are as follows: Apply Filter refreshes the list to include only those jobs that occurred within the specified number of days. Note that status information is available only during the log retention period that is specified for each schedule and on-demand job. Tear Off displays a copy of the Status tab in a fully functional, separate window titled Job Status, which you can resize and reposition as needed. This allows you to keep status information visible while performing other tasks. Refresh Page updates the information on the Status tab immediately. By default, this information is updated every 120 seconds. Tip! You can change the refresh frequency on the General tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box. Expand All expands all entries in the list of jobs. This allows you to access more information on each job. Collapse All collapses all expanded entries. Items per page Defines the maximum number of jobs to list at one time. This default value is 25. You can increase this value by clicking the down-arrow next to the number of items and selecting a different value. Use the scroll bar to view all jobs on the current page, and the navigation buttons to advance to the next page or return to the previous page. 154

161 VMB windows and dialog boxes and buttons Use these buttons to advance to the next page of job listings or back up to the previous page (respectively). These buttons are dimmed when all jobs are shown. List of jobs The list of jobs on the Status tab includes an entry for each scheduled and on-demand job that ran or is running during the specified log retention period and matches the status filters. Entries include the start time while the job is running and the finish time after the job completes. These entries are arranged in descending order by date (from most recent to oldest). You can hover the pointer over each entry in this list to display a "quick status" (type of job, start, end, and duration times, and the final status) for that job. One or more of the following buttons may appear on entries in this list: Expand Panel (located on the far right side of each entry) expands the job entry to reveal more details. You can also expand an entry by double-clicking within the blue panel. Collapse Panel (located on the far right side of an expanded job entry) collapses the entry. You can also collapse an expanded entry by double-clicking within the blue panel. Stop Job (appears only when a job is in progress or pending) cancels all currently running and pending client tasks (backups, for example) associated with this job. The following status indicators are used to indicate the current or final status of each job: Success indicates a final status of Completed. Warning indicates a final status of Disabled, Cancelled, Timeout, Dependent Task Failed, Schedule Already Running, Warning, or Cancellation Pending. Failure indicates a final status of Failed. In Progress or Pending indicates a final status of Started or Pending. 155

162 VMB windows and dialog boxes Changed to Success indicates that the original final status was manually changed to Success. See Changing the final status of a schedule for more information. Changed to Failed indicates that the original final status was manually changed to Failed. See Changing the final status of a schedule for more information. Expanded job entries The following features are visible when you expand a job on the Status tab by clicking (the Expand Panel icon) on the far right side of the job entry. Show clients with status [ ] (Appears in expanded jobs) Filters the list of clients to include only those whose jobs match one or more of the selected statuses. You can select multiple statuses. The button label changes to Custom when more than one status is selected. Select All to restore the full list of clients. Message filter [ ] (Appears in expanded jobs) Filters the list of clients by removing clients whose error log messages do not contain text that matches the specified text string. You can use an asterisk (*) in your text string to represent one or multiple characters. The filter is not case sensitive. Expanded job toolbar (Appears in expanded jobs) The expanded job toolbar has the following graphical buttons: Apply Filter refreshes the list of clients to include only those whose log messages contain text that matches the text specified in Message filter. Show Task Details (available only when one or more clients are selected) launches the Task Details dialog box, where you can view the logs for the selected clients and export logs to a file. Stop Selected Task (available only when the client selected in the clients list is actually performing a task) Stops the selected task. 156

163 VMB windows and dialog boxes Show Job Details launches the Job Details dialog box, where you can view all logs related to the selected schedule (including the individual client logs), export logs to a file, change the status of the schedule if necessary, and add comments to or modify comments for this schedule. Tip! If your company relies on logs for auditing purposes, you may want to modify the final status of a failed schedule after you have resolved the issue. You can annotate the schedule log to explain why the final status was modified. List of clients (Appears in expanded jobs) All virtual machine clients that are associated with the expanded job and that match the status and message filters are listed here. Status indicators (described under List of jobs) show the current status of each client job. You can select one or more clients in this list and stop individual client jobs that are in progress or view the error logs for the selected clients in the Task Details dialog box. STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box How to display? On the Settings tab click Edit Settings. The STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box is where you define or modify most configuration settings for STORServer VMB. This dialog box has five tabs, each of which is described below. What do you want to do? Learn more about the General tab Learn more about the vcenter Server tab Learn more about the Backups tab Learn more about the Notification tab Learn more about the License Server tab Features of the General tab From the General tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box, you can define or modify these values: TSM servers Lists the TSM servers (name:port number) that are known to VMB. These are the servers that will manage backed up or archived virtual machine data. 157

164 VMB windows and dialog boxes The icons next to the server names indicate the following: = an enabled TSM server = the default TSM server = a disabled TSM server You can initiate the following actions here: Add: Opens the TSM Server Information dialog box, where you can define a new TSM server. Edit: Opens the TSM Server Information dialog box for the selected server, where you can modify the server properties. Delete: Removes the selected TSM server from the list and from VMB's configuration. Default: Makes the selected TSM server the default TSM server. Disable/Enable: Disables a TSM server indefinitely, or enables a previously disabled TSM server. See Configuring TSM servers for further instructions. Refresh Settings Includes settings related to automatic updates of data that is presented in the STORServer VMB user interface. Refresh Status tab every [ ] seconds Designates whether STORServer VMB automatically updates the information on the Status tab at the specified frequency. By default, this check box is selected and the Status tab content is updated every 180 seconds. Confirmations and Warnings Clear the confirmation prompts and warnings that you want to suppress or select those that you want to reinstate (those that you previously turned off by checking the Do not show this dialog check box in a pop-up message, for example). Show schedule deletion confirmation Select to be prompted to confirm your request when you attempt to delete a schedule. Show on-demand schedule execution confirmations Select to be prompted to confirm your request when you attempt to run a schedule on demand. 158

165 VMB windows and dialog boxes Show maximum license warnings Select to have a warning message appear when you have reached or exceeded the number of virtual machine backups allowed by your license. Features of the vcenter Server tab The vcenter Server tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box is where you identify the VMware machine that STORServer VMB will communicate with when displaying information in the user interface, performing backups, and so on. Under normal circumstances, you would specify vcenter Server values on this tab. The vcenter Server tab has the following sections and settings: vcenter Server or ESX/ESXi Host Identify the vcenter Server that STORServer VMB will use. If you need to bypass vcenter Server because it is unavailable, for example, you may enter values for the ESX/ESXi host here instead. Address Enter the fully qualified host name or IP address of the machine on which vcenter Server or the target ESX/ESXi host is running. This value must use the following syntax: computer_name.domain or computer_ip_address For example: vcenter.mycompany.com or Port number Enter the number of the TCP/IP port used for incoming connections to the vcenter Server or ESX/ESXi host. The default port is 443. Web service Enter the URL for the vcenter Server Web service interface at your site. This value must use the following syntax: or For example: or 159

166 VMB windows and dialog boxes Port number Enter the number of the TCP/IP port on which the vcenter Server Web service communicates. The default HTTPS port number is 443. Login Credentials Enter the login credentials for the account that STORServer VMB will use when accessing the specified vcenter Server or ESX/ESXi host. NOTE! The account that you specify here must meet specific requirements as described in the STORServer VMB readme file. This file resides in the VMB install directory (C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB, by default) and is named README.htm. When using a standard (non-administrator) user account, you must define a role that enables the following minimum required privileges and assign that role to the VMB user account. 160

167 VMB windows and dialog boxes Datastore Allocate space Folder Create folder Global Disable methods Enable methods Licenses Network Assign network Resource vapp Assign virtual machine to resource pool Add virtual machine Assign resource pool Virtual machine Configuration Add existing disk Add new disk Add or remove device Advanced Change CPU count Change resource Disk change tracking Disk lease Extend virtual disk Host USB device Memory Modify device settings Remove disk Rename Settings Swapfile placement Interaction Answer question Power off Power on Inventory Create from existing Create new Remove Provisioning Allow disk access Allow read-only disk access Allow virtual machine download State Create snapshot Remove snapshot User name Enter the user name for the account that STORServer VMB will use when accessing the specified vcenter Server or ESX/ESXi host. 161

168 VMB windows and dialog boxes Password and Re-enter password Enter and re-enter the password for the specified account. Features of the Backups tab The Backups tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box is where you specify the default backup technology that STORServer VMB will use for all virtual machine backup operations unless otherwise specified (in virtual machine client properties). This is also where you specify other backup-related settings for virtual machine client backups. Tip! The Browse buttons on this tab are available only when the VMB client that you are using resides on the same system as the VMB server. The Backups tab has the following sections and settings: Default Backup Technology Select the backup technology that you want STORServer VMB to use by default for all virtual machine clients, including new ones that are added to your environment. You may configure individual virtual machine clients to use the other backup technology as needed. Client properties supercede the selection made here. NOTE! Each backup technology has different prerequisite software requirements, as described in the STORServer VMB readme file (located in the VMB install directory, C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for Vcb, by default). Before changing this setting, verify that your backup server and storage environment meet the appropriate requirements. See related topics for more information on the supported backup technologies. Use VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) Select to have STORServer VMB use VDDK as the underlying technology when performing backups and archives, and specify the directory where the VDDK software resides. By default, this option is selected and the following location is specified: C:\Program Files\STORServer\Agent for VCB\VDDK NOTE! If you change the VDDK directory specification for any reason, you must restart the VMB server. Use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments (TSM for VE) Select to have STORServer VMB use TSM for VE as the underlying technology when performing backups. (STORServer VMB uses VDDK technology for all archive operations.) 162

169 VMB windows and dialog boxes See Configuring STORServer VMB to use TSM for VE for additional steps that may be necessary. Backup Settings Maximum concurrent backups Defines the maximum number of operations (backups, archives, restores) that VMB may perform in parallel. The default value is 2. You may specify a value from 1 to 16. You might have to experiment to determine the maximum setting supported by your network bandwidth and resources. If your backups do not complete in a reasonable amount of time, try increasing this value. If contention issues occur during backups, you may need to decrease this value. Number of days to save TSM client log and dynamic client options files Defines the number of days to save the TSM client logs and the dynamic client options files that are created by STORServer VMB. Valid values are 0 to 99 days. By default, both of these file types are automatically deleted after a backup and this option is set to 0 (zero). Client logs generated by TSM are a source of information for the VMB client logs discussed in Error logs. You can view VMB client logs from the Status tab. Retaining the source TSM client logs may be useful when you are using a script to collect logs, for example. Snapshot directory (Valid with VDDK backup technology only.) Defines the directory under which virtual machine snapshots will be mounted. For example: D:\mnt. Tip! You can override this setting for specific clients by specifying a different snapshot directory in client properties. See Editing Client Properties. Type of name to use when registering virtual machine clients NOTE! Do not change this setting after backing up virtual machine clients. Otherwise, VMB may be unable to locate client data when restoring a client that was backed up under a different name. Specify the type of name that you want STORServer VMB to use when registering a virtual machine client with a TSM server, which happens automatically the first time a schedule or on-demand job runs. Select either of the following name types: Virtual machine name: (Selected by default.) Instructs VMB to use the virtual machine name when registering a virtual machine client. Names that do not comply with TSM guidelines for client node names will be modified by STORServer VMB as follows: 163

170 VMB windows and dialog boxes Names that exceed 64 characters are truncated to comply with TSM restrictions. Illegal characters are converted to underscores. TSM client node names may include the following characters: A through Z, a through z, 0 through 9,. (period), - (hyphen), _ (underscore), + (plus sign), & (ampersand) Local hostname: Select to instruct VMB to use the local hostname of the virtual machine when registering it with the TSM server. Datacenter Nodes (Valid with TSM for VE backup technology only.) Enable the use of datacenter nodes, and define datacenter nodes and passwords in this section. These settings apply to ALL client backups performed by STORServer VMB using the TSM for VE technology. They cannot be applied on a client-by-client basis. NOTE! Each datacenter node that you define must be registered on the TSM server using the same node name and password as defined here. STORServer VMB does not register datacenter nodes. Use datacenter nodes for TSM for VE backups Select this check box to have STORServer VMB use datacenter nodes when storing file space data. You must also define the datacenter node names and passwords here, and then register the datacenter nodes with the TSM server. When VMB backs up a virtual machine client that belongs to a datacenter, the file space name appears under the datacenter node name in TSM. In the following file space example, DatacenterNode_1 is the datacenter node, and MsExchangeSrv1 and EngDevoTest6 are the virtual machines that were backed up to the TSM server. (TSM for VE adds the VMFULL- prefix to each virtual machine name, for both full and incremental backups.) DatacenterNode_1\VMFULL MsExchangeSrv1 \VMFULL-EngDevoTest6 Datacenter column Lists the datacenters that are currently defined in your vcenter Server, and any that you added to the STORServer VMB database. Datacenters added to VMB do not exist in vcenter Server, and are marked with an asterisk (*). These datacenters are the only ones that can be deleted from STORServer VMB. (Others must be managed from vcenter Server.) Tip! Click twice on the datacenter name to edit it. See the description of the Add Datacenter button for more details. 164

171 VMB windows and dialog boxes Node Name column Use the REGISTER NODE command from the TSM Administrative Command Line interface to register each datacenter node with the TSM server. Specify the exact same node name and password as specified here. Specify a unique name for the datacenter node. The datacenter name is used by default, and may be modified to comply with TSM node name restrictions. (For example, any spaces in the datacenter name are replaced with underscores in the default datacenter node name.) You may use the default name or specify a different one. The name that you specify must comply with TSM node name naming conventions. The following characters may be used in a TSM node name: A-Z, 0-9, _ (underscore),. (period), - (hyphen), + (plus sign), and & (ampersand). TSM node names are not case sensitive. The maximum number of characters permitted is 64. Tip! Click twice on a node name to edit it. Password column Specify a password for the datacenter node. If this field is left blank, the datacenter node name is used by default. To specify a different password, enter it here. Refer to the IBM TSM documentation for client node password guidelines. Add Datacenter Adds a datacenter to the STORServer VMB database only. (This datacenter is not saved in vcenter Server.) datacenters that you add to STORServer VMB have an asterisk next to their name to differentiate them from actual vcenter Server datacenters. You may modify or delete these datacenters, unlike vcenter Server datacenters, which must be managed from vcenter Server. This feature is useful when you need to restore virtual machine data from a datacenter node in TSM, but the datacenter itself no longer exists in vcenter Server. You can use this command to temporarily redefine the old datacenter in STORServer VMB, along with the appropriate datacenter node name and password, to allow the restore. NOTE! Datacenter names are case-sensitive. Delete Datacenter Deletes the selected datacenter. Only datacenters that were added from STORServer VMB (those marked with an asterisk) can be deleted. Datacenters that are defined in vcenter server must be managed from vcenter Server. Global Options This is where you define the client options file and/or include-exclude options file that will be applied to all virtual machine clients during backup, archive, and restore operations. STORServer VMB appends these options to the dynamic client options file that is submitted 165

172 VMB windows and dialog boxes to TSM for processing during each operation. See Using client options with STORServer VMB for more details. Tip! You can override these options for selected clients only by creating additional client options files and configuring specific virtual machine clients to use them. Client-specific client options take precedence over global options. Global options file Browse to or enter the full path and file name of a global client options file that resides on the backup server. Global include-exclude file Browse to or enter the full path and file name of a global include-exclude options file that resides on the backup server. Features of the Notification tab The Notification tab of the STORServer Virtual Machine Backup Settings dialog box is where you configure the SMTP server that VMB will use for notifications. This is also where you define the addresses to which VMB schedule completion notifications will be sent, and specify the content of messages for both schedule completion and client backup completion notifications. An example of a schedule completion notification message from STORServer VMB is as follows: 166