Книга: Mastering VMware® Infrastructure3

Using VCB for Full Virtual Machine Backups

Using VCB for Full Virtual Machine Backups

As we mentioned briefly in the opening section, VCB is a framework for backup that integrates with third-party backup software. It is a series of scripts that performs online, LAN-free backups of virtual machines or virtual machine files.

The requirements for VCB 1.1 include: 

? A physical server running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.

 ? If using Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, the VCB server must be configured not to automatically assign drive letters using diskpart to execute automount disable and automount scrub. 

? Network connectivity for access to VirtualCenter.

? Fibre channel HBA with access to all SAN LUNs where virtual machine files are stored.

? Installation of the third-party software prior to installing and configuring VCB. 

Figure 10.43 looks at the VCB components and architecture. 

Figure 10.43 A VCB deployment relies on several communication mediums, including network access to VirtualCenter and fibre channel access to all necessary SAN LUNs.

VMware regularly tests third-party support for VCB, and, as a result, the list of supported backup products continues to change. As of this writing, the following products were listed as backup products for which VMware provides integration scripts:

? EMC NetWorker

? Symantec Backup Exec

? Tivoli Storage Manager

? Veritas NetBackup

In addition to these four products, VMware lists the following products as having created integrations to allow their products to capitalize on the VCB framework:

? Vizioncore vRanger Pro, formerly ESXRanger Pro

? Certificate Associates (CA) BrightStor ARCServe

? CommVault Galaxy

? EMC Avamar

? HP Data Protector versions 5.5 and 6

Be sure to regularly visit VMware's website to download and review the PDF at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_3backupguide.pdf.

Although considered a framework for backup, VCB can actually be used as a backup product. However, it lacks the nice scheduling and graphical interface features of third-party products like Vizioncore vRanger Pro. Two of the more common VCB commands, shown in Figures 10.44 and 10.45, are:

? vcbVmName: This command enumerates the various ways a virtual machine can be referenced in the vcbMounter. Here's an example:

vcbVmName -h 172.30.0.120 -u administrator -p Sybex!! -s ipaddr:172.30.0.24

where

 ? -h <VirtualCenter Server name or IP address>
 ? -u <VirtualCenter username>
 ? -p <VirtualCenter user password>
 ? -s ipaddr: <IP address of virtual machine to backup>

? vcbMounter:

 ? -h <VirtualCenter Server name or IP address>
 ? -u <VirtualCenter username>
 ? -p <VirtualCenter user password>
 ? -a <name | ipaddr | moref | uuid>: <attribute value>
 ? -t [fullvm | file]
 ? -r <Backup directory on VCB proxy>

Figure 10.44 The vcbVmName command enumerates the various virtual machine identifiers that can be used when running the VCB command.

Figure 10.45 The vcbMounter command can be used to perform full virtual machines backups or file-level backups for Windows virtual machines.

When VCB performs a full backup of a virtual machine, it engages the VMware snapshot functionality to quiesce the file system and perform the backup. Remember that snapshots are not complete copies of data. Instead, a snapshot is the creation of a differencing file (or redo log) to which all changes are written. When the vcbMounter command is used, a snapshot is taken of the virtual machine, as shown in Figure 10.46.

Figure 10.46 The snapshots created by VCB can be viewed in the snapshot manager of a virtual machine.

Any writes that occur during the backup are done to the differencing file. Meanwhile, VCB is busy making a copy of the VMDK, which is now read-only for the duration of the backup job. Figure 10.47 details the full virtual machine backup process. Once the backup job is completed, the snapshot is deleted, forcing all writes that occurred to the differencing file to be written to the virtual machine disk file.

Figure 10.47 Performing a full virtual machine backup utilizes the VMware snapshot functionality, which ensures that an online backup is correct as of that point in time.

Perform the following steps to perform a full virtual machine backup using VCB: 

1. Log in to the backup proxy where VCB is installed.

2. Open a command prompt and change directories to the C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Consolidated Backup Framework directory.

3. Use the vcbVmName tool to enumerate virtual machine identifiers. At the command prompt, type:

vcbVmName <IP or name of VirtualCenter> -u <username> -p <password> -s ipaddr:<IP address of virtual machine to backup>

4. From the results of running the vcbVmName tool, select which identifier to use (moref, name, uuid, or ipaddr) in the vcbMounter command.

5. At the command prompt, type:

VcbMounter -h <IP or name of VirtualCenter> -u <username> -p <password> -a ipaddr:<IP address of virtual machine to backup> -t fullvm -r <VCB proxy backup directory>

Once the backup is complete, a list of the files can be reviewed in the directory provided in the backup script. Figure 10.48 shows the files created as part of the completed full backup of a virtual machine named Server1. 

Figure 10.48 A full virtual machine backup using VCB creates a directory of files that include a configuration file (VMX), log files, and virtual machine hard drives (VMDK), among others.

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