I recently downloaded vRanger to test the backup and restore features for our VMs. I did a backup last night of a test VM, which completed sucessfully, and now I'm wanting to test the restore process. In the backup folder, I have 2 .metadata files and 1 vmdk.var file. If I delete the VM in vSphere, what are the steps to recreate that VM?
Thanks.
Hi
This is my first post, I am new to vRanger 
Of course I read the user/installation guide and the post in this community
After a trial version, I bought a licence with my new backup server.
I can't search in the Catalog, it is empty
Cataloging is enable in the options, "Quest Catalog Service" service is running
Cataloging is enable in the session
It seems to be OK in the log of the task
[2013-10-11 15:32:21.839]: Lancement du catalogage de 'vix:r:XX.XX.XX.XX:902:[datastore1] test win2k3/test win2k3.vmdk'
[2013-10-11 15:32:23.901]: Les données de catalogue pour 'vix:r:XX.XX.XX.XX:902:[datastore1] test win2k3/test win2k3.vmdk' volume 1 ont été mises en attente avec succès pour l'enregistrement.
[2013-10-11 15:32:23.938]: Les données de catalogue pour le disque 'vix:r:XX.XX.XX.XX:902:[datastore1] test win2k3/test win2k3.vmdk' volume 1 ont été mises en attente pour l'activation.
Yes it is in french but it means that Catalog data for disk has been queued to activate.
But when I try to search in the catalog, there is nothing at all
I have looked at the records in the Catalog tables, they are empty
I have seen several vzl files in "D:\CatalogManager\Logs\Support\Service" but I am not able to open those files.
I did not found "C:\Windows\Temp\CatalogOutput"
So I modified the file "Vizioncore.CatalogManager.WCF.Service.exe.config"
<!-- <add key="WorkingDirectory" value="C:\Windows\Temp\CatalogOutput"/> -->
in
<add key="WorkingDirectory" value="D:\temp"/>
I checked the NTFS rights
restart all services and make a new backup => NO OK
Then I changed
<!--<add name="Catalog" connectionString="Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=Catalog;Trusted_Connection=True;"/>
<add name="CatalogStage" connectionString="Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=CatalogStage;Trusted_Connection=True;"/>-->
in
<add name="Catalog" connectionString="Server=.\VRANGER;Database=Catalog;Trusted_Connection=True;"/>
<!--<add name="CatalogStage" connectionString="Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=CatalogStage;Trusted_Connection=True;"/>-->
restart all services and make a new backup => NO OK
I have read that catalogin was creating csv files where are they ? Are they deleted if they are not imported in the Catalog tables
Is there a missing step ?
I can backup windows and Linux VM
I can use FLR
I can create reports
Log concerning vRanger and catalog installation are OK
CONFIGURATION
Here is my configuration
PE R520 12 Go RAM RAID 1 2*600 Go SAS 15k and RAID5 5*4To SATA 7k2 and 1 *4To hot spare
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
vRanger 6.1.0.35402 on D:\vranger
MS Sql Server 2008 SP3 Instance VRANGER and databases on d:\vrangerbdd
Thanks for your ideas
Philippe
Non-official script! Provided on 'as-is' basis.
This is a new version of the popular reposync script. (http://communities.quest.com/thread/10839?tstart=0)
Thanks to collaboration with R&D the script works with all repo types. Based on support experience, few extra features have been included.
Features:
Instructions:
Note for users with DDBoost repositories.
DDBoost repos proved to be the slowest to import/sync. It does not mean though that this repo type shows bad performance during backup/restore.
The script reads 2 metadata files for each SP. Correspondingly BET metadata.exe is executed.
Just for comparison, single metadata call against CIFS repo takes less than a second. The best result for a single metadata call against DDBoost repo was 4.3 s.
Also there is an open bug for the case where metadata read takes 6 minutes. Devs are looking into the issue, there are few components to check: BET - cygwin - DDBoost API - Datadomain firmware.
Tested against vRanger 5.4/5.5 and 6.0.2. Script won't work for Ranger 5.3 or earlier version.
01/17/2014 Update. Minor bug for SP manifest reading has been fixed.
In contrast to reposync02 (still very popular), BET-based handles long SP path properly.
Hi,
I'm planning to use vRanger mostly in order to be able to restore machines states (using incremental backup), and FLR if necessary, on a two months period, with a full backup once a week.
But I'm not sure I've clearly understood the examples.
Am I right if I use a savepoint count of 60 and a threshold count of 6 ? A full backup every saturday or sunday, incremental backup every day and cleaning/start over after 60 days.
Thanks
I have a stock 5.3.1 installation of vRanger using the SQL 2005 DB that maxes out at 4GB. Currently the environment has 5 virtual centers.
ESXi (3 vc) 88 VMs
ESX (2 vc) 219 VMs
Cataloging was turned on last year but has been turned off for months and those backups have aged out and been deleted.
I recently added the second ESX host and the GUI has slowed down a lot.
In addition to the slowness, it seems that sometimes I see old backups that are still on the repository's store but no longer in Ranger. I'm wondering if Ranger has lost the entry due to a full DB.
My question is, How do I go about seeing if the DB is close to being full?
Hello,
how could I get a list of the members in a backupgroup?
Non-official script! Provided on 'as-is' basis.
It is recommended to have vRangerPro DB backup before running the script!
Features:
1. Scans CIFS (only!) repository for existing Savepoints.
2. Generates new Global Manifest. Can be used to re-create missing Global Manifest.
3. Synchronizes DB records with actual repo content.
4. Can be executed from any PC with Powershell 2 installed.
5. Should work for non-USA customers. Tested on SpanishServer 2008 and Spanish SQL Express 2008.
Pros:
It fixes situation when imported SPs can not be deleted through GUI (Remove button disabled).
Re-scans/verifies existing repo. In theory some check procedure can be added, e.g. var is missing or unreasonably small var created.
Lets completely avoid ‘Restore from Manifest’.
Customer can create own set of SPs. For example, take following scenario. DR site. Repo exists, admin brings set of SPs from different locations and drops them into the repo share, runs script. Ranger displays both old (if still exist) and new SPs in restore grid. Regular restore job can be created from SP Grid.
Cons:
Requires version 2 of Powershell
Does not perform thorough check of backup content. Presence of 2 metadata files in SP directory is sufficient to consider SP existing.
SP directory should follow original naming convention: root_of_the_repo\<ObjectName>_<ObjectUUID>\<ObjectName>_<Date>_<Time>_<JobTemplate UUID>.
Instructions:
1. Launch Powershell, execute “Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted” if necessary
2. run script
3. select SQL instance, provide credentials if necessary
4. select existing repo you would like to sync
5. provide credentials to access repo share if necessary
6. refresh Repo view in Ranger.
Old GlobalManifest and script log are saved in the root of the repository.
================ update. 03/09/2012 ==================
Some of you may have seen a following error when executing original version of a script.
Exception calling "ExecuteNonQuery" with "0" argument(s): "Conversion failed when converting from a character string to uniqueidentifier."
It happens due to a broken link between BackupTask and SavePoint tables. When backup task is completed successfully, the row in the BackupTask table should have a pointer to the corresponding savepoint. For some reason there are successful tasks with pointer set to NULL.
Attached new version (reposync02) of the script can handle this situation properly and will re-establish link between tables if necessary.
I also recommend to run following sql command to find if there are any broken links between 2 tables. Check 4th (Table_Link) column for NULL value.
This issue could be a reason for malfunctioning retention. SPs with broken link will most probably be ignored by retention mechanism.
SELECT t.TaskId, t.VmName, t.StartTime, bt.SavePointId AS Table_Link, sx.SavePointId
FROM Task t, BackupTask bt, SavePoint s, SavePointXml sx
WHERE t.TaskId = bt.TaskId
AND s.SavePointId = sx.SavePointId
AND bt.TaskId = sx.ManifestXml.value('/*[1]/JobTaskID[1]', 'uniqueidentifier')
AND s.IsDeleted = 0
ORDER BY t.StartTime
P.S. This script has been used in multiple support cases and proved to be very helpful. Especially taking into consideration some recent glitches with "FLR from Manifest".
The post is open for vote, questions and comments.
================ update. 05/28/2013 ==================
New version of the script has been posted:
http://communities.quest.com/thread/23459?tstart=0
What to be aware when you move from ESX to ESXi.
With more customers moving their infrastructure from ESX to ESXi (including version vSphere 5) I would like to cover one topic related to this upgrade.
I am not going to talk about a performance drop while moving from Service Console based (LAN) backup mode to the corresponding vStorage API NBD. This is all covered in Deployment guide along with some suggestions how to improve situation. We play by VMware rules: Service Console has been locked, end of story. We miss this part same way you do.
Here is another serious topic – Restore. Take following scenario. You had few ESX hosts and performed LAN-based backup. Some of your VMs had a snapshot or two. They were successfully backed up. With LAN-based backup we had an opportunity to save each vmdk file no matter if it was flat.vmdk or delta.vmdk (snapshot). During restore to the ESX host, all information is recovered including snapshots. Basically, after restore you still see a snapshot and have an option to revert or commit changes.
Now fast forward to ESXi. The only way to work with virtual disks is by using VMware vStorage API. You probably noticed already that if you backup VM with a snapshot residing on ESXi, you don’t see any delta files in savepoint directory. vStorage API consolidates all snapshots on the fly. What it means is that on restore you have a VM without any snapshots, with all changes, previously stored in snapshot, perfectly merged into the base flat vmdk.
If you try to configure a restore job from the savepoint with snapshots (delta files), job will fail:
[2012-04-04 15:31:38.383]: Restore task failed: Restoring savepoints with snapshots using VDDK is not supported.
[2012-04-04 15:31:38.415]: An internal error occurred during execution, please contact Quest support if the error persists. Error Message: Restoring savepoints with snapshots using VDDK is not supported.
VDDK is just another term for vStorage API. Obviously, since it does not save snapshots during backup, why should it work with them on restore?!
What can we (Support) do to address this issue? Well, we have some options:
1. if you still have any ESX host you are saved. Just point a restore job to this host and run the job. VM will be restored with all snapshots.
2. we still have a manual restore procedure. Igor’s var-extractor restores vmdk on NTFS partition. It is a three-step procedure:
2.1 create VM with defined parameters (number of disks, size, number of snapshots);
2.2 extract vmdk from each var file locally, on Windows side;
2.3 upload all extracted vmdk to the datastore overwriting existing files.
It is a long and cumbersome procedure, but it does the trick.
There are two other possible solutions but both involve metadata editing. I won’t go into details, just give a brief description.
All references to the snapshot/delta should be removed from the Manifest and VmConfig files. Then ‘Restore from Manifest’ should be performed. Manifest file is pretty easy. The hard part is to properly edit VmConfig.metadata. Information about snapshot is stored in two major spots: at the very beginning (RootSnapshot, CurrentSnapshot/SnapshotLayouts) and in each disk configuration tag.
Here are two remaining solutions:
3. If you can leave snapshot behind (say, you do not care about changes accumulated in the snapshot), you can restore VM as if it never had a snapshot.
3.1 modify metadata files;
3.2 create ‘Restore from Manifest’ job.
4. If you still want to restore VM with all snapshots
4.1 modify metadata files;
4.2 create ‘Restore from Manifest’ job and run it;
4.3 take one or more snapshots of restored VM (see in metadata files how many snapshots existed);
4.4. extract delta files on Windows end using var-extractor. Make sure names match those created by VC/ESX in VM directory;
4.5 upload delta files to the datastore.
Every method, except for the first one, looks pretty complicated. And it is. Main goal of this post is to make customers aware of possible issues during restore.
Keeping VMs clean of any snapshots helps avoiding problems in the future!
I did a full backup of a test VM the other night and it worked great and I was able to restore it. I tried one of our production servers next and I got the below email when it failed. I'm not sure if there is any other information somewhere withing vRanger to look at but this is all I have now. Would anyone know a cause of why this one didn't work?
Thanks.
Host Name: VEEAM
Job Name: Backup 'WINAT'
Inventory Name: WINAT
Result: Completed
Start Time: 1/30/2013 6:30:51 PM
End Time: 1/30/2013 6:30:58 PM
Duration: 1 minute(s)
Backup Type: Full
Machine Name: WINAT
Result: Failed
Start Time: 1/30/2013 6:30:54 PM
End Time: 1/30/2013 6:30:58 PM
Duration (minutes): 0
Archive Size: 0 GB
Message: An internal error occurred during execution, please contact Quest support if the error persists. Error Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
During the outage of VC (virtualcenter), how the vranger behaves?
Will it keep doing its backup continuesly and able to star new jobs.
How could I copy the backups to tape with TSM?
Hello,
I would like to backup a couple of VMs over LAN, as we now have a 10Gbit network. I deployed two vRanger appliances on two of our ESXi 5.1 U2 Servers and installed the vmxnet3 adapters. All the way to our physical vRanger server is 10Gbit, but the max. rate is about 450Mbit. Any ideas what could be wrong?
Daniel
Does vRanger 6.0.2 support installation on Windows 2012?
The Installation guide support matrix seems to indicate only supporting up to 2008 R2, but my initial googling on the question shows that all of the press on vRanger 6.0 said that it would support installation on Windows 2012 upon its RTM.
Thanks!
Hello @all,
is there a feature list for vRanger V7 ?
Greets
Marco
As I understood,there are 3 different Consistencies: Crash, File and Application. What we need for SQL is application consistent.
What exactly I need to do for that, just activate “VSS” in VMware Tools AND “quiescing”?
Or do I needto install “vzShadow.exe” on my Windows VM? Or is this just an other method???
Very Important =>
Any experince with backing up AND RESTORING SQL DBs with vRanger? Any inconsistency problems?
I am using it for backup, but I had never a restore case. Usually the SQL admin is using some dumpfiles. But now we want to use the replication process.
Thanx
Pek
Hi
I recently upgraded to vpshere5. As you know, there's no ESX version anymore, just ESXi. With ESX 4.1, i used "direct to target", which was incredibly fast with a DataDomain (4x1 Gbit), as each host did the backup itself. Now with ESXi and "proxy based - lan free", I could only get 25% of the thruput, which makes sense, because all traffic is going through one vranger server (vm) and has only 1 Gbit.
How can I get the same performance with ESXi backups as before? Is there a way to use the virtual appliance as a proxy? or am i able to deploy more vranger servers with the same license? If so, do i have to split my backup jobs when doing that?
My backup time increased from 10 to almost 40 hours for all the VMs, this is just not practicle anymore.
Thanks
Roman
When upgrading from vRanger 5.2.1 and from a fresh install of vRanger 5.3 I am getting the following error message in the vRanger Service event log when the installer gets to the point of installing the vRanger service:
vRanger Backup & Replication encountered an error during startup. The exact error message was: Invalid column name 'DedupEnabled'.
Invalid column name 'Compressed'.
Invalid column name 'BlockSize'..
Any ideas?
I have five ESX4 hosts with about 80 VMs that I need to backup. On four of the hosts everything works just fine, but on the last one I cant get it to backup any VMs. I can see that snapshots are created OK, but every backup fails.
No further reason is given. Is there somewhere where i can se a log af what causes the failure?
I've tried picking one VM on the host, but that gives the same result.
Backup up with vRanger has been working smoothly on the old 3.5 environment, but now we are moving to a newer setup using ESX4 hosts.
Please, your feedback would be appreciated.