vSphere Data Protection Administration

Guide
vSphere Data Protection 5.1

This document supports the version of each product listed and

supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced
by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this
document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

EN-000846-00
vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

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The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.
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Copyright © 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and
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2 VMware, Inc.
Contents

1 Understanding vSphere Data Protection 7

Introduction to vSphere Data Protection 8
Image-level Backup and Restore 8
File Level Recovery 9
Deduplication Store Benefits 9
Variable vs. Fixed-Length Data Segments 9
Logical Segment Determination 9
vSphere Data Protection Architecture 10

2 Installing and Configuring vSphere Data Protection 11

vSphere Data Protection Sizing 12
Software Requirements 12
System Requirements 13
vSphere Data Protection Specifications 13
Preinstallation Configuration 13
DNS Configuration 13
NTP Configuration 14
User Account Configuration 14
Deploy the OVF Template 14
Prerequisites 14
Procedure 15
vSphere Data Protection Installation and Configuration 15
Prerequisites 15
Procedure 15
Post-Installation Configuration 17
Status Tab 17
Configuration Tab 19
Rollback Tab 20
Upgrade Tab 20
Using VDP-Configure 20
Upgrading the vSphere Data Protection Appliance 21
Creating a Snapshot of the vSphere Data Protection Appliance 21
Installing the Upgrade 22
Removing the Snapshot 22

3 Using vSphere Data Protection 25

Understanding the vSphere Data Protection User Interface 26
Getting Started Tab 27
Backup Tab 27
Restore Tab 29
Reports Tab 30
Configuration Tab 30
Accessing vSphere Data Protection 31
Switching vSphere Data Protection Appliances 31

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

Creating Backup Jobs 31

Virtual Machines 31
Schedule 31
Retention Policy 32
Ready to Complete 32
Use the Backup Job Wizard 32
Backup Now 33
Restoring Virtual Machines 33
Select Backup 33
Set Restore Options 33
Restore Virtual Machines from Backup 34
Viewing Restore Job Progress 34
Locking a Backup Job 34
Viewing Reports 35
Filtering in Reports Tab 35
Managing Configuration 36
View and Edit Backup Appliance Details 36
Backup Window Configuration 37
Change Maintenance Window Settings 38
Manually Run an Integrity Check 39
Configuring Email Notification 39
Using Checkpoints and Rollback 42
Using File Level Recovery 43
File Level Recovery Supported Configurations: 43
File Level Recovery Limitations 43
Logon Options 44
Use the Restore Client in Basic Login Mode 44
Use the Restore Client in Advanced Login Mode 45
vSphere Data Protection Shutdown and Startup Procedures 46

4 vSphere Data Protection Capacity Management 47

Impact of Selecting Thin or Thick Provisioned Disks 47
Prerequisites 47
Procedure 47
Impact of Storage Capacity for Initial vSphere Data Protection Deployment 48
Monitoring vSphere Data Protection Capacity 48
vSphere Data Protection Capacity Thresholds 48
Capacity Management 49

5 vSphere Data Protection Troubleshooting 51

vSphere Data Protection Appliance Installation 52
vSphere Data Protection Backups 52
vSphere Data Protection Restores 53
File Level Recovery 54
vSphere Data Protection Reporting 54

6 vSphere Data Protection Port Usage 55

7 vSphere Data Protection Disaster Recovery 57

8 Minimum Required vCenter User Account Permissions 59

Index 61

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About This Book

The vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide contains information to install and manage backups for
small and medium businesses.

Intended Audience
This book is for anyone who wants to provide backup solutions using vSphere Data Protection. The
information in this book is for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with
virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

VMware Technical Publications Glossary

VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions
of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. Send your feedback to
[email protected].

Technical Support and Education Resources

The following sections describe the technical support resources available to you. To access the current versions
of other VMware books, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

Online Support
To use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product and contract information, and
register your products, go to http://www.vmware/support/phone_support.html.

Support Offerings
To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/services.

VMware Professional Services

VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study examples, and course materials
designed to be used as on-the-job reference tools. Courses are available onsite, in the classroom, and live
online. For onsite pilot programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting Services provides
offerings to help you assess, plan, build, and manage your virtual environment. To access information about
education classes, certification programs, and consulting services, go to http://www.vmware.com/services.

VMware, Inc. 5
vSphere Data Protection Adminisration Guide

6 VMware, Inc.
 1

Understanding vSphere Data

Protection 1
vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is a robust, simple-to-deploy, disk-based backup and recovery solution.
vSphere Data Protection is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and enables centralized and efficient
management of backup jobs while storing backups in deduplicated destination storage.

The benefits of vSphere Data Protection are:

 Provides fast and efficient data protection for all of your virtual machines, even those powered off or
moved between physical hosts.

 Significantly reduces disk space consumed by backup data using smart deduplication across all backups.

 Reduces the cost of backing up virtual machines and minimizes the backup window using change block
tracking and VMware virtual machine snapshots.

 Allows for easy backups without the need for third-party agents installed in each virtual machine.

 Uses a simple straight-forward installation as an integrated component within vSphere, that can be
managed by a web portal.

 Direct access to vSphere Data Protection configuration integrated into the standard vSphere Web Client.

 Protects backups with checkpoint and rollback mechanisms.

 Provides simplified recovery of Windows and Linux files with end-user initiated file level recoveries from
a web-based interface.

This chapter includes the following topics:

 “Introduction to vSphere Data Protection” on page 8

 “Image-level Backup and Restore” on page 8

 “File Level Recovery” on page 9

 “Deduplication Store Benefits” on page 9

 “vSphere Data Protection Architecture” on page 10

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

Introduction to vSphere Data Protection

The VMware vSphere Web Client interface is used to select, schedule, configure, and manage backups and
recoveries of virtual machines.

During a backup, vSphere Data Protection creates a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine. Deduplication
is automatically performed with every backup operation.

The following terms are used throughout this document in the context of backup and recovery.

 A datastore is a virtual representation of a combination of underlying physical storage resources in the

datacenter. A datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk, a RAID, or a SAN) for virtual
machine files.

 Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is a VMkernel feature that keeps track of the storage blocks of virtual
machines as they change over time. The VMkernel keeps track of block changes on virtual machines,
which enhances the backup process for applications that have been developed to take advantage of
VMware’s vStorage APIs.

 VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) enables backup software to perform centralized VM
backups without the disruption and overhead of running backup tasks from inside each virtual machine.

 Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) is a file or set of files that appears as a physical disk drive to a guest
operating system. These files can be on the host machine or on a remote file system.

 The vSphere Data Protection appliance is a purpose built virtual appliance for vSphere data protection.

Image-level Backup and Restore

vSphere Data Protection creates image-level backups, which are integrated with vStorage API for Data
Protection, a feature set within vSphere to offload the backup processing overhead from the VM to the vSphere
Data Protection appliance. The appliance communicates with the vCenter Server to make a snapshot of a VM’s
VMDK. Deduplication takes place within the appliance using a patented variable-length deduplication
technology.

To support the large scale and continually expanding size of many VMware environments, each vSphere Data
Protection appliance can simultaneously backup to eight virtual machines to enhance the data protection
workload capacity.

To increase the efficiency of image-level backups, vSphere Data Protection utilizes VADPs Changed Block
Tracking (CBT) feature. CBT is a VMware feature that enables vSphere Data Protection to only backup disk
blocks that have changed since the last backup. This greatly reduces the backup time of a given VM image and
provides the ability to process a large number of VMs within a particular backup window.

By leveraging CBT during restores, vSphere Data Protection offers fast and efficient recoveries when
recovering VMs to their original location. During a restore process, vSphere Data Protection queries VADP to
determine which blocks have changed since the last backup, and then only recovers or replaces those blocks
during a recovery. This reduces data transfer within the vSphere environment during a recovery operation and
more importantly reduces the recovery time objective (RTO).

Additionally, vSphere Data Protection automatically evaluates the workload between both restore methods
(full image restore or a recovery leveraging CBT) and performs the method resulting in the fastest restore
times. This is useful in scenarios where the change rate since the last backup in a VM being restored is very
high and the overhead of a CBT analysis operation would be more costly than a direct full image recovery.
vSphere Data Protection will intelligently decide which deployment method will result in the fastest VM
image recovery times for your particular scenario or environment.

The advantages of VMware image backups are:

 Provides full image backups of VMs, regardless of the guest operating system

 Utilizes the efficient transport method SCSI hotadd when available and properly licensed, which avoids
copying the entire VMDK image over the network

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 Chapter 1 Understanding vSphere Data Protection

 Provides file-level recovery from image-level backups

 Deduplicates within and across all .vmdk files protected by the vSphere Data Protection appliance

 Uses changed block tracking for faster backups and restores

 Minimizes network traffic by deduplicating and compressing data

 Eliminates the need to manage backup agents in each VM

 Supports simultaneous backup and recovery for superior throughput

IMPORTANT The best practice for VM image backups is to install VMware Tools on each virtual machine.
VMware Tools adds additional backup capability that quiesces certain processes on the guest OS prior to
backup.

File Level Recovery

File Level Recovery (FLR) allows local administrators of protected VMs to browse and mount backups for the
local machine. From these mounted backups the administrator can then restore individual files. File level
recovery is accomplished using the vSphere Data Protection restore client.

Deduplication Store Benefits

Enterprise data is highly redundant, with identical files or data stored within and across systems (for example,
OS files or documents sent to multiple recipients). Edited files also have tremendous redundancy with
previous versions. Traditional backup methods magnify this by storing all of the redundant data over and over
again. vSphere Data Protection uses patented deduplication technology to eliminate redundancy at both the
file and the subfile data segment level.

Variable vs. Fixed-Length Data Segments

A key factor in eliminating redundant data at a segment (or subfile) level is the method for determining
segment size. Fixed-block or fixed-length segments are commonly employed by snapshot and some
deduplication technologies. Unfortunately, even small changes to a dataset (for example, inserting data at the
beginning of a file) can change all fixed-length segments in a dataset, despite the fact that very little of the
dataset has been changed. vSphere Data Protection uses an intelligent variable-length method for determining
segment size that examines the data to determine logical boundary points, eliminating the inefficiency.

Logical Segment Determination

vSphere Data Protection uses a patented method for segment size determination designed to yield optimal
efficiency across all systems. vSphere Data Protection’s algorithm analyzes the binary structure of a data set
(all the 0s and 1s that make up a dataset) in order to determine segment boundaries that are
context-dependent. Variable-length segments average 24 KB in size and are compressed to an average of 12
KB.

By analyzing the binary structure within the VMDK files, vSphere Data Protection works for all file types and
sizes and intelligently deduplicates the data.

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

vSphere Data Protection Architecture

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) uses a vSphere Web Client and a vSphere Data Protection appliance to store
backups to deduplicated storage.

vSphere Data Protection is composed of a set of components that run on different machines (shown in the
following diagram).

 vSphere 5.1

 vSphere Data Protection appliance (installed on ESX/ESXi 4.x or 5.x)

 vSphere Web Client.

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 2

Installing and Configuring vSphere

Data Protection 2
This chapter includes the following topics:

 “vSphere Data Protection Sizing” on page 12

 “Software Requirements” on page 12

 “System Requirements” on page 13

 “Preinstallation Configuration” on page 13

 “Deploy the OVF Template” on page 14

 “vSphere Data Protection Installation and Configuration” on page 15

 “Post-Installation Configuration” on page 17

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

vSphere Data Protection Sizing

vSphere Data Protection sizing helps determine the vSphere Data Protection appliance size and number of
appliances required based on:

 Number of and type of VMs (do the VM contain file system or database data?)

 Amount of data

 Retention periods (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)

 Typical change rate

The following table shows examples for vSphere Data Protection sizing recommendations:
Table 2-1. Sample recommendations for vSphere Data Protection sizing
Data
storage Retention: Retention: Retention: Retention:
# of VMs per client daily weekly monthly yearly Recommendation

25 20 GB 30 0 0 0 1- 0.5 TB

25 20 GB 30 4 12 7 1- 2 TB

25 40 GB 30 4 12 7 2- 2 TB

50 20 GB 30 0 0 0 1- 1 TB

50 20 GB 30 4 12 7 2- 2 TB

50 40 GB 30 4 12 7 3- 2 TB

100 20 GB 30 0 0 0 1- 2 TB

100 20 GB 30 4 12 7 3- 2 TB

100 40 GB 30 4 12 7 6- 2 TB

The recommendations above (note these are only guidelines) are based on the following assumptions:
 The VMs primarily contain file system data. If the VMs primarily contain database data, the deduplication
rates will be lower.

 70% initial deduplication rate for file system data.

 99.7% daily deduplication rate for file system data.

 The annual growth rate is 5%.

IMPORTANT If you are unsure of the size of the appliance to deploy, it is better to use a larger vSphere Data
Protection datastore. Once a appliance has been deployed, the size of the datastore cannot change.

Software Requirements
vSphere Data Protection 5.1 requires the following software:

 VMware vCenter Server

 vCenter Server Linux or Windows: Version 5.1

 vSphere Web Client is supported on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and 8 or Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or
higher.

 Web browsers need to be enabled with Adobe Flash Player 11.3 or higher to access the vSphere Web
Client or vSphere Data Protection functionality

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 Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring vSphere Data Protection

 VMware ESX/ESXi (the following versions are supported)

 ESX/ESXi 4.0, ESX/ESXi 4.1,ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1

 Appliance version:

 vSphere Data Protection: 5.1

System Requirements
The vSphere Data Protection appliance is available in three options:

 0.5 TB

 1 TB

 2 TB

IMPORTANT Once vSphere Data Protection is deployed the size cannot be changed.

The system requirements for each option of vSphere Data Protection are specified in the following table.

0.5 TB 1 TB 2 TB

Processors dedicated Minimum four 2 GHz Minimum four 2 GHz Minimum four 2 GHz
to vSphere Data processors available processors available processors available
Protection to vSphere Data to vSphere Data to vSphere Data
Protection at all times Protection at all times Protection at all times

Physical memory 4 GB 4 GB 4 GB
dedicated to vSphere
Data Protection

Disk space 850 GB 1,600 GB 3,100 GB

Network connection 1 GbE connection 1 GbE connection 1 GbE connection

NOTE The additional disk space required that is above the usable capacity of the appliance is for creating and
managing checkpoints.

vSphere Data Protection Specifications

vSphere Data Protection supports the following specifications:

 Each vSphere Data Protection appliance supports backup for up to 100 VMs
 Each vCenter Server can support up to 10 vSphere Data Protection appliances

 Support for 0.5 TB, 1 TB, or 2 TB of deduplication storage

Preinstallation Configuration
Prior to vSphere Data Protection installation, DNS and NTP need to be configured.

DNS Configuration
Before you deploy vSphere Data Protection, an entry needs to be added to the DNS Server for the appliance
IP address and FQDN. This DNS Server must support forward and reverse lookup.

IMPORTANT Failure to have DNS set up properly can cause many runtime or configuration issues.

To confirm that DNS is configured properly:

1 Open a command prompt and type the following command:

nslookup <VDP_IP_address> <DNS_IP_address>

The nslookup command will return the FQDN of the vSphere Data Protection appliance.

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

2 Type the following command:

nslookup <FQDN_of_VDP> <DNS_IP_address>

The nslookup command will return the IP address of the vSphere Data Protection appliance.

3 If the nslookup commands returned the proper information, close the command prompt, if not resolve the
DNS configuration prior to vSphere Data Protection installation.

NTP Configuration
vSphere Data Protection uses Network Time Protocol (NTP). Before you install vSphere Data Protection, NTP
needs to be configured on the vCenter Server and the ESXi host that vSphere Data Protection will be installed
on.

See the ESXi and vCenter Server documentation for more information about configuring NTP.

User Account Configuration

Before the vCenter user account can be used with vSphere Data Protection, or before the SSO admin user can
be used with vSphere Data Protection, these users should be specifically added as administrator on the
vCenter root node. The following steps are used to configure the vSphere Data Protection user or SSO admin
user using the vSphere Client.

1 Login to the vSphere Web Client and select vCenter > Hosts and Clusters.

2 On the left pane, click on the vCenter Server.

3 Click the Manage tab and then the Permissions sub-tab.

4 Click the Add permission icon.

5 Click Add.

6 From the Domain drop-down select domain, server, or SYSTEM-DOMAIN.

7 Select the user that will administer vSphere Data Protection or be the SSO admin user and then click Add.

8 Click OK

9 From the Assigned Role drop down select Administrator.

10 Confirm that the Propagate to child objects box is checked.

11 Click OK.

To Verify that user is listed under Administrators, go to Home > Administration > Role Manager and click the
Administrator role. The user you just added should be listed to the right of that role.

IMPORTANT If the vSphere Data Protection backup user using the VDP-configure UI belongs to a domain
account then it should be used in the format “SYSTEM-DOMAIN\admin” format in VDP-configure. If the
user name is entered in the format “admin@SYSTEM-DOMAIN” format then tasks related to backup job may
not show up on the Recent Running tasks.

Deploy the OVF Template

Prerequisites
 The vSphere Data Protection appliance is installed on an ESXi 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, or 5.1 host.
 vCenter 5.1 is required. Login to vCenter from a vSphere Web Client to deploy the OVF template.

 The vSphere Data Protection appliance connects to ESXi using port 902. If there is a firewall between the
appliance and ESXi, port 902 must be open.

 The VMware Client Integration Plug-in 5.1.0 needs to be installed in your browser.

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 Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring vSphere Data Protection

Procedure
1 Log in to the vSphere Web Client and select vCenter > Datacenters.

2 On the Objects tab, click Actions > Deploy OVF Template.

3 Select the source where the vSphere Data Protection appliance is located.

4 By default the select source dialog is set to OVF Packages. Change it to OVA Packages.

5 Select the appliance and click Open.

6 After the appliance .ova file is selected, click Next.

7 Review the template details and click Next.

8 On the Accept EULAs screen, read the license agreement, click Accept, and then click Next.

9 On the Select name and folder screen, enter the name for the appliance and click on folder or datacenter
you want it deployed in. Click Next.

10 Select the host for the appliance and click Next.

11 Select the virtual disk format (“Impact of Selecting Thin or Thick Provisioned Disks” on page 47 provides
additional information) and the location of the storage for the appliance. Click Next.

12 Select the Destination Network for the appliance and click Next.

13 In the Customize template, specify the Default Gateway, DNS, Network 1 IP Address, and Network 1
Netmask. Confirm that the IP addresses are correct. Setting incorrect IP addresses in this dialog box will
require the .ova to be redeployed. Click Next.

NOTE The vSphere Data Protection appliance does not support DHCP. The appliance requires a static IP
address.

14 On the Ready to complete screen, confirm that all of the deployment options are correct and click Finish.

vCenter deploys the vSphere Data Protection appliance. Monitor Recent Tasks to determine when the
deployment is complete.

vSphere Data Protection Installation and Configuration

Prerequisites
The vSphere Data Protection .ovf template (see “Deploy the OVF Template” on page 14) must have deployed
successfully, and you must be logged into the vCenter Server from the vSphere Web Client.

Procedure
1 Select vCenter Home > vCenter > VMs and Templates. Expand the vCenter tree and select the vSphere
Data Protection appliance. Right-click the appliance and select Power On.

2 Right-click the appliance and select Open Console.

3 After the installation files load, the Welcome screen for the vSphere Data Protection menu appears. Open
a web browser and type:

https://<ip address of VDP appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

4 From the VMware Login screen, enter the following:

a User: root

b Password: changeme

c Click Login

5 The Welcome screen appears. Click Next.

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

6 The Network settings dialog box appears. Specify (or confirm) the following:

a IPv4 Static address

b Netmask

c Gateway

d Primary DNS

e Secondary DNS

f Host name

g Domain

7 Click Next.

8 The Time Zone dialog box appears. Select the appropriate time zone and click Next.

9 The vSphere Data Protection credentials dialog box appears. For vSphere Data Protection credentials type
in the appliance password. This will be the universal configuration password. Specify a password that
contains the following:

 Nine characters

 At least one uppercase letter

 At least one lowercase letter

 At least one number

 No special characters

10 Click Next.

11 The vCenter registration dialog box appears. Specify the following:

a vCenter user name (If the user belongs to a domain account then it should be entered in the format
“SYSTEM-DOMAIN\admin”.)

b vCenter password

c vCenter host name (IP address or FQDN)

d vCenter port

e SSO host name (IP address or FQDN)

f SSO port

12 Click Test connection.

A Connection success message will appear. If this message does not appear, troubleshoot your settings
and repeat this step until a successful message appears.

If you receive the message “Specified user either is not a dedicated VDP user or does not have sufficient
vCenter privileges to administer VDP. Please update your user role and try again,” go to “User Account
Configuration” on page 14 for instructions on how to update the user role.

13 Click OK.

14 Click Next.

15 The Ready to Complete page appears. Click Finish.

16 A message appears that configuration is complete. Click OK.

Configuration of the vSphere Data Protection appliance is now complete, but you will need to return to the
vSphere Web Client and reboot the appliance. Using the vSphere Web Client, right click on the appliance and
select Restart Guest OS. In the Confirm Restart message, click Yes. The reboot can take up to 30 minutes.

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 Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring vSphere Data Protection

Post-Installation Configuration
During installation of vSphere Data Protection, when you first run the configuration utility, it runs in “install”
mode. This mode allows you to enter initial networking settings, time zone, appliance password, and vCenter
credentials. After initial installation, the VDP-configure utility runs in “maintenance” mode and displays a
different user interface.

To access VDP-configure, open a web browser and type:

https://<ip address of VDP appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

The maintenance interface is used for:

 Viewing Status—Allows you to see the services currently running (or currently stopped) on the appliance.

 Starting and Stopping Services—Allows you to start and stop selected services on the appliance.

 Collecting Logs—Allows you to download current logs from the appliance.

 View or change vSphere Data Protection configuration—Allows you to view or change network settings,
configure vCenter Registration, or to view or edit system settings (timezone information and vSphere
Data Protection credentials).

 Rolling Back an Appliance—Allows you to restore your appliance to an earlier known and valid state. (see
“Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42)

 Upgrade—Allows you to upgrade ISO images on your vSphere Data Protection appliance.

Status Tab
The Status tab is used to view (and stop or start) vSphere Data Protection services.

Managing Status Options

The left-hand screen of the Status tab shows the status of key services in the vSphere Data Protection
appliance. The status of the following services is displayed:
Table 2-2. Description of services running on the vSphere Data Protection appliance
Service Description

Core services These are the services that comprise the backup engine of the appliance. If these
services are disabled no backup jobs--either scheduled or “on demand”--will
run, and no restore activities can be initiated.

Management services Management services should only be stopped under the direction of technical
support.

File system services These are the services that allow backups to be mounted for file-level recovery
operations.

File level restore These are the services that support the management of file level recovery
services operations.

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

Table 2-2. Description of services running on the vSphere Data Protection appliance
Service Description

Maintenance services These are the services that perform maintenance tasks such as evaluating
whether retention periods of backups have expired. Maintenance services are
disabled the first 24-48 hours the vSphere Data Protection appliance is in
operation. This gives initial backups additional time to complete.

Backup scheduler The backup scheduler is the service that initiates schedule backup jobs. If this is
stopped, no scheduled backups will run; however, “on demand” backups can
still be initiated.

The status that is displayed for these services can be:

 Starting

 Start Failed

 Running
 Stopping

 Stop Failed

 Stopped

 Loading-getting state

 Unrecoverable (Core services only)

 Restoring (Management services only)

 Restore Failed (Management services only)

Starting and Stopping Services

On the status screen you can start services that are stopped by clicking Start, or you can stop running services
by clicking Stop. In general, however, you should only stop running services under the direction of technical
support.

If you see that a service is stopped, you can attempt to re-start it by clicking Start, but in some cases, additional
troubleshooting steps are necessary for the service to work properly.

If all services are stopped, start the services in the following order:

1 Core services

2 Management services

3 Backup scheduler

4 Maintenance services

5 File system services

6 File level restore services

Collecting Log Files

The log file bundle is intended to facilitate sending logs of your vSphere Data Protection appliance to support
personnel. You can download all the logs from vSphere Data Protection services as a “log bundled” by clicking
Collect logs. A “save as” dialog displays that will allow you to download the log bundle to the file system of
the machine where your web browser is running. The log bundle is named LogBundle.zip.

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Configuration Tab
The Configuration tab is used to view and edit vSphere Data Protection configuration.

vSphere Data Protection configuration that can be viewed of edited includes:

 Network settings

 IP address

 Netmask

 Gateway

 Primary DNS

 Secondary DNS

 Host name

 Domain
 vCenter registration

 vCenter user name

 vCenter password

 vCenter host name

 vCenter port

 SSO host name

 SSO port

 System settings

 Time zone

 VDP credentials (change VDP password)

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Rollback Tab
The Rollback tab is used to rollback to a known checkpoint in the event that the vSphere Data Protection data
becomes corrupt.

NOTE Using Rollback is covered in “Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42.

Upgrade Tab
The Upgrade tab is used to update ISO images on the vSphere Data Protection appliance.

NOTE Performing upgrades is covered in “Using VDP-Configure.”

Using VDP-Configure
VDP-configure is used for post-installation configuration.

Prerequisites
The vSphere Data Protection appliance must be installed and configured and you must login with the vSphere
Data Protection administrative account.

Procedure
1 Open a web browser and type:

https://<ip address of VDP appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

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2 From the VMware Login screen, enter the following:

a User: root

b Password: VDP password

c Click Login

3 (optional) To view vSphere Data Protection services, click the Status tab. To stop or start vSphere Data
Protection services, click the associated Stop or Start button.

4 (optional if requested by VMware support) To create support log files, click the Status tab and then click
the Collect Logs button. Save the log bundle file and follow the instructions from VMware support to
submit the file.

5 (optional) To view or edit vSphere Data Protection configuration, click the Status tab.

 For Network settings, view or edit the configuration. If you make configuration changes, click the
Save button.

 For vCenter registration, you can edit the settings. To edit the settings, click the lock icon. If you make
changes to vCenter registration settings, the current backup job settings will be lost and you must
reconfigure the backup jobs. If changes are made, click the Save button.

 For System settings, you can view or edit the timezone. If you change the time zone, click the Save
button. You can change the vSphere Data Protection password by clicking the Change VDP
password button.

Upgrading the vSphere Data Protection Appliance

The upgrade process consists of the following general steps:

1 Creating a Snapshot of the vSphere Data Protection Appliance

2 Installing the Upgrade

3 Removing the Snapshot

CAUTION Do not upgrade the vSphere Data Protection appliance during the backup window or while any
backup jobs are running. Also do not initiate any ad hoc backup jobs or restore requests during the upgrade
process.

Prerequisites
 In order to perform a software upgrade of vSphere Data Protection, an ISO upgrade image must be
downloaded to a location where your vSphere web client can navigate to it.

 All of the vSphere Data Protection services must be running.

Creating a Snapshot of the vSphere Data Protection Appliance

At installation time, the virtual disks used by the vSphere Data Protection appliance are set to be “Independent
- Persistent.” However, in order to take a snapshot, the disks will have to be temporarily changed to
“Dependent.”

To create a snapshot of the vSphere Data Protection appliance:

1 Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Web Client as a user who has rights to edit hardware
settings and take a snapshot.

2 Click Hosts and Clusters

3 In the tree on the left, click the disclosure arrows until the vSphere Data Protection appliance is displayed.

4 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Shut Down Guest OS.

5 Click Yes. Wait for the vSphere Data Protection appliance to shut down. This can take several minutes.

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6 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Edit Settings.

7 Starting with Hard disk 2, click the disclosure arrow.

8 In the Virtual Hardware table, in the Disk Mode row, click Dependent.

9 Continuing with Hard disk 3, repeat step 8 until all the remaining disks have been set to Dependent mode.

10 Click OK.

11 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select All vCenter Actions > Snapshot> Take
Snapshot.

12 Type a name for the snapshot. Type an optional description. Click OK.

13 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Power On.

Installing the Upgrade

1 Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Web Client as an administrator.

2 Click Hosts and Clusters

3 In the tree on the left, click the disclosure arrows until the vSphere Data Protection appliance is displayed.

4 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Edit Settings.

5 From the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the CD/DVD drive. From the drop-down menu, select Datastore
ISO File.

6 From Select File navigate to and select the ISO image. Click OK.

7 To the right of Datastore ISO select the Connected box. Click OK. Depending on the size of the ISO file, it
can take can take up to five minutes to mount.

8 Open a web browser and type:

https://<ip address of VDP appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

9 From the VMware Login screen, enter the following:

a User: root

b Password: VDP password

c Click Login

10 Click the Upgrade tab. Confirm that ISO image is available and status is ready. If not, the ISO image might
still be loading.

NOTE If the ISO image does not appear, logout of VDP-configure and log back in. If the ISO image still does
not appear it may be because the image has been corrupted. Any ISO images that do not pass checksum do
not display on the Upgrade tab.

11 Click Upgrade VDP. The upgrade begins installing. This installation portion of the upgrade can take a
long time, but a status bar will update the progress of the installation.

12 After the upgrade installs successfully, click OK. Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and
select Shut Down Guest OS.

Removing the Snapshot

It is strongly recommended that you remove snapshots after an upgrade completes successfully.

To remove the snapshot:

1 Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Web Client as a user who has rights to edit hardware
settings and remove a snapshot.

2 Click Hosts and Clusters

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3 In the tree on the left, click the disclosure arrows until the vSphere Data Protection appliance is displayed.

4 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select All vCenter Actions > Snapshot > Snapshot
Manager.

5 Click the Snapshot you created for the vSphere Data Protection Appliance.

6 Click Delete, and click Yes.

7 Click Close.

8 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Edit Settings.

9 Starting with Hard disk 2, click the disclosure arrow.

10 In the Virtual Hardware table, in the Disk Mode row, click Independent - Persistent.

11 Continuing with Hard disk 3, repeat step 10 until all the remaining disks have been set to Independent -
Persistent mode.

12 Unmount the ISO image. From the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the CD/DVD drive. From the
drop-down menu, select Client Device. Click OK.

13 Click OK.

14 Right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Power On.

15 After the reboot is complete right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Edit Settings.

The vSphere Data Protection appliance upgrade process is complete.

NOTE After upgrading the appliance, when you log in to the vSphere Web Client for the first time, the vSphere
Web Client will not show vSphere Data Protection as an option. You will need to log out of the vSphere Web
Client and then log in again. Subsequent logins will show vSphere Data Protection as an option.

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Using vSphere Data Protection 3

After vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is installed and configured, it can be managed through the vSphere Web
Client for vSphere Data Protection.

This chapter includes the following topics:

 “Understanding the vSphere Data Protection User Interface” on page 26

 “Accessing vSphere Data Protection” on page 31

 “Switching vSphere Data Protection Appliances” on page 31

 “Creating Backup Jobs” on page 31

 “Restoring Virtual Machines” on page 33

 “Viewing Reports” on page 35

 “Managing Configuration” on page 36

 “Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42

 “Using File Level Recovery” on page 43

 “vSphere Data Protection Shutdown and Startup Procedures” on page 46

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Understanding the vSphere Data Protection User Interface

The vSphere Web Client for vSphere Data Protection provides a number of new user interface elements that
can be used to configure and manage vSphere Data Protection.

The vSphere Data Protection user interface consists of five tabs:

 Getting Started—provides an overview of vSphere Data Protection functionality and quick links to the
Create Backup Job wizard and the Restore wizard.

 Backup—provides list of scheduled backup jobs as well as details about each backup job. Backup jobs can
also be created and edited from this page. This page also provides the ability to run a backup job
immediately.

 Restore—provides a list of successful backups that can be restored.

 Reports—provides backup status reports on the virtual machines in the vCenter.

 Configuration—displays information about how vSphere Data Protection is configured and allows you
edit some of these settings.

Each of these tabs are described in the following sections.

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Getting Started Tab

The Getting Started tab provides introductory information about vSphere Data Protection and provides a way
to start common configuration tasks.

Table 3-1. Getting Started tab

Icon Name Description

Create Backup Job Launches the Backup Job wizard. For more information, see “Use the
Backup Job Wizard” on page 32.

Restore a VM Launches the Restore a Virtual Machine wizard. For more information,
see “Restore Virtual Machines from Backup” on page 34.

See an Overview Switches the current view to the Reports tab, which provides a way to review
the status of existing jobs. For more information, see “Viewing Reports”
on page 35.

Backup Tab
The Backup tab displays information about existing backup jobs and their status. It also provides a way to
create, edit, delete, enable/disable, and run ad-hoc backup jobs.

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Table 3-2. Backup tab icons

Icon Name Description

New Launches the Backup Job wizard. For more information, see “Use the
Backup Job Wizard” on page 32.

Edit Launches the Backup Job wizard for editing an existing job.

Delete Deletes the selected backup job.

Enable/Disable Configures the backup job as enabled or disabled.

Backup Now Launches an ad-hoc backup.

The Backup tab displays a list of the backup jobs that have been created. The backup jobs are listed in a table
that contains the following information:
Table 3-3. Backup tab column descriptions
Column Description

Name Name of the backup job.

State Enabled or disabled. Disabled backup jobs are not run.

Last Start Time The last time the job was started.

Duration How long the job took the last time it ran.

Next Run Time When the job is scheduled to run again.

Success Count The number of VMs backed up successfully the last time the backup job ran.
This number is updated after each backup job. Changes to a job between backups will not
be reflected in this number until after the job runs again. For example, if a job reports 10
VMs successfully backed up, and then the job is edited so that only one VM remains, this
number will continue to be 10 until the job runs again and, if successful, the number
changes to one.

Failure Count The number of VMs that were not backed up successfully the last time the backup job ran.
This number is updated after each backup job. Changes to a job between backups will not
be reflected in this number until after the job runs again. For example, if a job reports 10
VMs failed to backed up, and then the job is edited so that only one VM remains, this
number will continue to be 10 until the job runs again and, if the job fails, the number
changes to one.

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Restore Tab
The Restore tab displays a list of VMs that have been backed up to the vSphere Data Protection appliance. By
navigating through the list of backups you can select and restore specific backups. Over time, the information
displayed on the Restore tab may become out of date. To see the most up-to-date information on backups
which are available for restore, click Refresh.

The following icons are used in the Restore tab.

Table 3-4. Restore tab icons

Icon Name Description

Restore Launches the Restore Virtual Machines from Backup, which provides a
way to configure how virtual machines are restored to the state saved in the
selected restore points. For more information, see “Restore Virtual
Machines from Backup” on page 34.
By default, vSphere Data Protection manages the storage and eventual
deletion of older restore points according to the Retention Policy specified
in the backup job.
Lock/Unlock Lock changes the expiration point of a backup job to “no end date”.

Delete Specifies that selected restore points are deleted.

Clear all selections Clears all selections in the Restore tab.

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Reports Tab
The Reports tab provides overview information about the vSphere Data Protection appliance and about the
VMs in the Virtual Center.

Configuration Tab
The Configuration tab allows you to manage the maintenance tasks for the vSphere Data Protection
appliance.
There are three tasks that can be performed on this tab:
 View or edit the Backup Window (see “Backup Window Configuration” on page 37)

 Run an Integrity Check (see “Manually Run an Integrity Check” on page 39)

 Configure Email (see “Configuring Email Notification” on page 39)

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Accessing vSphere Data Protection

vSphere Data Protection is accessed through a vSphere Web Client.

NOTE vSphere Data Protection is only managed through the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Client does
not support managing vSphere Data Protection.

Prerequisites
Before using vSphere Data Protection, you must install and configure the vSphere Data Protection appliance
described in “Installing and Configuring vSphere Data Protection” on page 11.

Procedure
1 From a web browser, access the vSphere Web Client.
https://<IP_address_vCenter_Server>:9443/vsphere-client/

2 In the Credentials page, enter a the vCenter username and password and click Login.

vSphere Data Protection uses this information to connect to vCenter to perform backups, so the specified
user account must have administrative rights.

3 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

4 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select the vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

Switching vSphere Data Protection Appliances

Each vCenter Server support up to 10 vSphere Data Protection appliances. You can switch appliances by
choosing a appliance from the drop-down list to the right of the Switch Appliance label.

NOTE The vSphere Data Protection appliances in the drop-down list are sorted alphabetically, and the first
item in the list that is displayed on the screen may not match the current appliance. On the vSphere Data
Protection screen, the appliance name on the left is the current appliance, and the appliance name in the
drop-down list is the first appliance in the list of available appliances.

Creating Backup Jobs

You can create backup jobs that include which virtual machines to backup, how often backups occur, and the
retention period for storing the backups. vSphere Data Protection uses the backup window to create new
backups and the retention policy, or to remove specific older backups.

Virtual Machines
You can specify collections of VMs, such as all VMs in a datacenter, or select individual VMs. If an entire
resource pool, host, datacenter, or folder is selected, any new VMs in that container are included in subsequent
backups. If a VM is selected, any disk added to the VM is included in the backup. If a VM is moved from the
selected container to another container that is not selected, it is no longer part of the backup.

You can manually select a VM to be backed up, this will ensure that VM is backed up, even if it is moved.

NOTE Using vSphere Data Protection to back up the vSphere Data Protection appliance is not supported.

Schedule
The backup schedule determines how often your selections are backed up. Backups will occur as near to the
start of the backup window as possible. You can schedule your backups to be run daily, weekly, or on a specific
day of the month.

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Retention Policy
Backup retention policies enable you to specify how long to keep a backup in the system.

A retention policy is assigned to each backup when the backup occurs. When the retention for a backup
expires, then the backup is deleted.

Table 3-5 describes the retention policies for backups.

Table 3-5. Retention Policy Settings
Retention setting Description
Forever Enables you to keep backups indefinitely. This setting is useful for
ensuring that all backups that are assigned this retention policy are
retained for the life of the system.
For (Retention Enables you to define a fixed retention period in days, weeks, months, or
Period) years after the backup is performed. For example, you could specify that
backups expire after 6 months.
Until (End Date) Enables you to assign a calendar date as the expiration date. For example,
you could specify that backups expire on December 31, 2013.
For (This Schedule) Enables you to define a fixed retention period based on daily, weekly,
monthly, and yearly retention. For example, you could specify that backups
are kept daily for 30 days, weekly for 52 weeks, monthly for 12 months,
and yearly for 2 years.

Ready to Complete
Review the settings for the backup job. This page includes information including:

 Name of the backup job.

 Which virtual machines will be backed up by this job.

 The schedule on which virtual machines will be backed up.

 The retention policy selected for the backup.

Use the Backup Job Wizard

Use the Backup Job Wizard to specify which virtual machines are to be backed up and when this can occur.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select the vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Backup tab and click New to launch the Backup Job wizard.

4 In the Virtual Machines page, select individual virtual machines or containers that contain virtual
machines to be backed up and click Next.

5 In the Schedule page, select the backup schedule for the job and click Next.

6 In the Retention Policy page, accept the default retention policy or specify an alternate retention policy
and click Next.

7 In the Name page, enter a backup job name and click Next.

8 In the Ready to Complete page, reviewed the summary information for the backup job and click Finish.

9 An information dialog box will confirm the backup job was created successfully. Click OK.

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Backup Now
After a backup job is created, you can manually initiate a backup job through the Backup Now icon.

Prerequisites
Before using the Backup Now option, you must have installed and configured vSphere Data Protection and
you should have at least one backup job.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select the vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Backup tab select a backup job. Click Backup Now and select either Backup all sources or
Backup only out of date sources.

 Backup all sources specifies all jobs should be backed up.

 Backup only out of date sources specifies backup jobs that failed the last backup attempt.

Restoring Virtual Machines

You can specify which virtual machines to restore, how they are restored, and where they are restored to using
the Virtual Machine Restore wizard.

CAUTION If the VM that you are restoring to contains a snapshot, the restore will fail. Remove any snapshots
from the VM prior to beginning the restore process.

Select Backup
Select backup specifies the virtual machines to be restored. Restores are similar to creating backup jobs, you
can specify a container of virtual machines or specific virtual machines. It is possible to restore virtual
machines to alternate locations.

Set Restore Options

Set Restore options specifies where the backup is restored to.

You can specify:

 If the backup will be restored to the original location

 If the backup will be restored to an alternate location

 New name

 Destination

 Datastore location

To clone a virtual machine, rename the virtual machine you are restoring.

Ready to Complete
Review the settings for the restore job. The summary contains: information on how many VMs will be restored
and how many VMs will be created.

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Restore Virtual Machines from Backup

Restore virtual machines to a previous backup state using the Virtual Machine Restore wizard.

Prerequisites
Before you can restore virtual machines, you must have configured vSphere Data Protection and have at least
one backup from which to restore.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select the vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Restore tab and click the Restore button.

4 The Restore Virtual Machines wizard appears.

5 In the Select Backup page, specify a source from which to restore virtual machines and click Next.

6 If the VM has more than one backup point, deselect all of the points that will not be restored. Only one
backup point should be selected.

7 On the Set to Restore page, confirm that the client and backup restore point is correct. Select Restore to
Original Location or to restore to an alternate location, uncheck the Restore to Original Location check box
and specify the alternate Destination and Datastore. Click Next.

8 On the Ready to Complete page, review the configuration and click Finish.

The virtual machines are restored as specified in the wizard.

Viewing Restore Job Progress

After a restore job is initiated, you can view the current restore process through the Recent Task pane.

Locking a Backup Job

The Lock icon is used to change the expiration point of a backup job to “no end date”. This keeps a backup job
from manually expiring and being automatically deleted after the expiration date passes. The lock option does
not prevent a backup job from being deleted, an administrator can still manually delete a locked job. To lock
a backup job, select the backup job(s) in the Restore tab and click the Lock icon. Backup jobs that are locked
are displayed with a yellow lock to the left of the backup job name.

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Viewing Reports
The Reports tab shows current status for:

 Appliance Status

 Used Capacity

 Integrity Check Status

 Recent Successful Backups

 Recent Failed Backups

Filtering in Reports Tab

By default the Reports tab displays all Virtual Machines associated with the vCenter Server. The Filter option
in the Report tab filters by:

 Show All
 Virtual Machine

 Name

 State

 Last successful backup

 Last Backup Job

 Name

 Status

 Date

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Managing Configuration
The Configuration tab is used to view and modify configuration information. The following topics are covered
in this section:

 “View and Edit Backup Appliance Details” on page 36

 “Backup Window Configuration” on page 37

 “Change Maintenance Window Settings” on page 38

 “Manually Run an Integrity Check” on page 39

 “Configuring Email Notification” on page 39

You can view backup appliance details, storage overview, and backup window configuration through the
Configuration tab.

View and Edit Backup Appliance Details

Backup Appliance details includes the following information:

 IP address

 VDP appliance version

 Status

 vCenter Server

 Current user

 Local time

 Time zone

 Space free

 Deduplicated size

 Non-deduplicated size

NOTE The storage capacity is displayed in GiB (as opposed to GB), which is 1024 MB.

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Backup Window Configuration

Each 24-hour day is divided into three operational windows; backup, blackout, and maintenance, during
which various system activities are performed.

Backup Window
The backup window is the portion of each day reserved for performing normal scheduled backups.

 Operational impact —By default, no maintenance activities are performed during the backup window.

 Default settings — The default backup window begins at 8 p.m. local server time and continues
uninterrupted for 12 hours until 8 a.m. the following morning.

 Customization — You can customize the backup window start time and duration to meet specific site
requirements.

vSphere Data Protection attempts to back up each virtual machine in a job once a day during its backup
window. Backups start at the beginning of the backup window and up to eight backup jobs can be run at one
time.

NOTE If you have multiple vSphere Data Protection appliances backing up the same virtual machines, the
backup windows should be adjusted so that backup jobs on different appliances do not overlap. If backup jobs
overlap, backup failures will occur.

Blackout Window
The blackout window is the portion of each day reserved for performing server maintenance activities, such
as garbage collection, which require unrestricted access to the server. Garbage collection deletes the orphaned
chunks of data that are no longer referenced within any backups stored on the system.

 Operational impact — No backup or administrative activities are allowed during the blackout window.
You can perform restores.

 Default settings — The default blackout window begins at 8 a.m. local server time and continues
uninterrupted for three hours until 11 a.m. that same morning.

 Customization — You can customize the blackout window duration to meet specific site requirements.

Any changes to blackout window duration also affect maintenance window duration. For example, changing
the blackout window duration from three hours to two hours, extends the maintenance window duration one
hour because it begins one hour earlier. The backup window is not affected.

NOTE Jobs that are running when the blackout window begins or that run during the blackout window may
continue run. However, some maintenance processes in the blackout window may cancel the job.

Maintenance Window
The maintenance window is the portion of each day reserved for performing routine server maintenance
activities such as integrity check validation.

 Operational impact — There might be brief periods when backup or administrative activities are not
allowed.

Although backups can be initiated during the maintenance window, doing so impacts both the backup
and maintenance activities. For this reason, minimize any backup or administrative activities during the
maintenance window. You can, however, perform restores.

Although Integrity Check and backups can overlap, doing so might result in I/O resource contention,
which can cause both activities to take longer to complete and possibly even to fail.

 Default settings — The default maintenance window begins at 11 a.m. local server time and continues
uninterrupted for nine hours until 8 p.m. that evening.

 Customization — Although the maintenance window is not directly customizable, its start time and
duration is derived from backup and blackout window settings.

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The maintenance window starts immediately after the blackout window and continues until the backup
window start time.

NOTE Jobs that are running when the maintenance window begins or that run during the maintenance
window will continue to run.

Integrity check
This operation is performed to verify and maintain data integrity on the deduplication store. vSphere Data
Protection is designed to complete an incremental or full integrity checks during the maintenance window.
Incremental integrity checks verify the integrity of checkpoints that have been added to the deduplication
store since the most recent full or incremental integrity check. vSphere Data Protection is also designed to
perform an integrity check of all checkpoints once a day. See “Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42
for more information.

The maintenance window should be used to avoid the case where integrity checks may consume computing
resources or otherwise interfere with any backup operations in process. As a result, the maintenance window
and backup window are defined such that they do not overlap. The maintenance is stopped if it does not
complete within the defined window. Even if the maintenance is stopped, the destination is not locked out
from other operations such as backup and restore. The next time destination maintenance window opens, the
operation continues where it was left off. For more information on configuring the maintenance window, see
“Change Maintenance Window Settings” on page 38.

In addition, the integrity check can be started manually. When the integrity check is started manually, it always
performs full integrity check of the entire destination, and does not use the maintenance window. Normally,
the backup and restore operations are allowed from the deduplication store while the integrity check is in
progress. If a restore point is manually marked for delete, backups are not allowed during integrity check but
restore operations are allowed. If damaged restore points are found in the deduplication store during integrity
check, a manual integrity check must be run after marking the damaged restore points for delete. During this
manually run integrity check, backups and restores are not allowed. For more information on manually
starting an integrity check, see “Manually Run an Integrity Check” on page 39.

vSphere Data Protection stores information about the progress of an integrity check. As a result, if the vSphere
Data Protection appliance stops integrity check, the process can be restarted from where the check was
stopped, thereby ensuring that work completed on an integrity check is not lost. The appliance stops integrity
checks when the maintenance window passes. Tracking progress helps ensure integrity checks eventually
complete. Integrity checks that are manually stopped by user intervention do not save progress information,
so after such a stop, the integrity check begins again from the start.

Change Maintenance Window Settings

Change Maintenance Window Settings through the Configuration tab.

Prerequisites
Before you can change Maintenance Window Settings, you must install and configure vSphere Data
Protection.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select your vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Configuration tab.

4 In Backup Window Configuration, click Edit.

5 Select the Backup Start Time, Backup Duration, and Blackout Duration and click Save.

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Manually Run an Integrity Check

Integrity Checks can be manually run from the Configuration tab.

Prerequisites
Before you can run an Integrity Check, you must have configured vSphere Data Protection.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select your vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Configuration tab.

4 In Backup Window Configuration, click the Settings icon (top right corner of the Configuration tab) and
click Run Integrity Check.

5 A confirmation dialog box appears. Click Yes.

Configuring Email Notification

If email notification is enabled, emails are sent that include the following information:

 VDP appliance status

 Backup jobs summary

 Virtual machines summary

NOTE vSphere Data Protection email notification does not support carbon copies (CCs) or blind carbon copies
(BCCs), nor does it support SSL certificates.

Prerequisites
Before you can run configure email reports, the email account must exist.

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Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, select vSphere Data Protection.

2 In the Welcome to vSphere Data Protection page, select your vSphere Data Protection appliance and click
Connect.

3 Click the Configuration tab.

4 Click the Email button.

5 Click the Edit button the bottom right side of the screen.

6 Specify the following:

a Select Enable email reports.

b Specify the Outgoing mail server.

The server name can be entered as either an IP address, a host name, or a fully qualified domain
name. The vSphere Data Protection appliance needs to be able to resolve the name entered.

The default port for non-authenticated email servers is 25. The default port of authenticated mail
servers is 587. You can specify a different port by appending a port number to the server name. For
example, to specify the use of port 8025 on server “emailserver” enter

emailserver:8025

c (optional) Select My server requires me to log in if your SMTP server requires authentication. If this
option is selected, specify the associated Username and Password. (vSphere Data Protection does not
validate the password entered in any way; the password entered is passed directly to the email
server.)

d Specify the From address. This can only be a single address.

e Specify the To address(es). This can be a comma separated list of up to 10 email addresses.

f Select Send time.

g Select the Send day(s).

h Select the Report Locale.

7 Click the Save button.

40 VMware, Inc.
 Chapter 3 Using vSphere Data Protection

vSphere Data Protection reports sent by Email will contain information similar to that shown below.
Explanatory comments have been added to the report in blue.
Table 3-6. Example of vSphere Data Protection Email Reports with explanatory comments
lava10036AVE-6.1.80.42 - (100.10.1.1)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report Date: February 27, 2012 - 15:12
Last Report Date: February 27, 2012 - 14:45

Appliance Status: Normal

Byte Capacity: 498.945 GiB
Bytes Free: 498.196 GiB
Used Capacity: 0.50%
Bytes Protected: 8 GiB
Bytes Deduped: 0.748 GiB
Integrity Check Status: Normal
Recent Successful Backups: 1
This is the sum of VMs successfully
backed up over the past 72 hours.

Recent Failed Backups: 1

This is the sum of VMs which either
failed to back up, or had their
backups canceled over the
past 72 hours.

Backup Jobs Summary

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Backup Job: another-one-with-vm-315
Backup Sources: VM-315
Last Start Time: February 27, 2012 - 15:07
Next Run Time: February 27, 2012 - 20:00
Last Successful Backups: 0
This is the sum of VMs successfully
backed up the last time this backup
job was run.

Last Failed Backups: 1

This is the sum of VMs which either
failed to back up or had their
backup canceled the last time this
backup job was run.

Backup Job: VM-315

Backup Sources: VM-315
Last Start Time: February 27, 2012 - 15:01
Next Run Time: February 27, 2012 - 20:00
Last Successful Backups: 1
Last Failed Backups: 0

Virtual Machines Summary

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virtual Machine: @#_+-&<>.
State: poweredOff
Backup Jobs:
Last Backup Job:
Last Successful Backup: Never
Last Backup Job Date: Never

Virtual Machine: VM-315

State: poweredOff
Backup Jobs: VM-315, another-one-with-vm-315
Last Backup Job: another-one-with-vm-315
Last Successful Backup: February 27, 2012 - 15:03
Last Backup Job Date: February 27, 2012 - 15:09

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vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide

Using Checkpoints and Rollback

A checkpoint is a system-wide backup taken for the express purpose of assisting with disaster recovery.
Checkpoints are scheduled and created once a day during the maintenance window, which is discussed in
“Maintenance Window” on page 37. The vSphere Data Protection stores two checkpoints (one validated and
one unvalidated). Rollback is the process of restoring the vSphere Data Protection appliance to a known good
state using data stored in a validated checkpoint. By default maintenance services are disabled for the 24-48
hours after a appliance is deployed. This allows for a longer backup window to support the initial backups.

In the event of an unexpected shutdown, the appliance will rollback to the last validated checkpoint when it
is restarted. This is expected behavior and is used to avoid appliance corruption.

When the appliance is deployed an ad-hoc checkpoint is created. This checkpoint contains the appliance
settings from the installation. If an unexpected shutdown occurs during the first 24-48 hours a appliance is
deployed, the appliance will rollback to the ad-hoc checkpoint. Any backup jobs or backups that were created
between the creation of the ad-hoc checkpoint and the unexpected shutdown will be lost. If you want to create
a checkpoint during this window, manually run an Integrity Check. See “Manually Run an Integrity Check”
on page 39 for additional information.

NOTE If you use rollback, any backups that occurred after the selected checkpoint are lost.

Prerequisites
Before you can run a rollback, you must have installed and configured vSphere Data Protection and
checkpoints must have been created and validated.

CAUTION It is strongly recommended that you only roll back to the most recent validated checkpoint.

Procedure
1 Open a web browser and type:

http://<IP_address_of _VDP_appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

2 From the VMware Login screen, enter the following:

a User: root

b Password: VDP password

c Click Login

3 Click the Rollback tab.

4 Click Unlock to enable VDP rollback.

5 A Warning dialog box warns that any backups that occurred after the selected checkpoint will be lost. If
this is acceptable, type in the vSphere Data Protection appliance password and click OK.

6 Select a validated checkpoint and click Perform VDP rollback to selected checkpoint.

42 VMware, Inc.
 Chapter 3 Using vSphere Data Protection

Using File Level Recovery

vSphere Data Protection creates backups of entire virtual machines. These backups can be restored in their
entirety using the vSphere Web Client for vSphere Data Protection. However, if you only want to restore
specific files from these virtual machines, then use the vSphere Data Protection Restore Client.

The Restore Client allows you to mount specific virtual machine backups as file systems and then “browse”
the file system to find the files you want to restore.

The Restore Client operates in one of two modes:

 Basic—allows you to only mount backups that were made from the machine you are logging in with, and
any files that you restore will be restored to this client.

For example, if you were logging in to the Restore Client in Basic mode from a Windows host named
“WS44” then you would only be able to mount and browse backups of “WS44.”

 Advanced—allows you to mount and browse any backups that are contained in vSphere Data Protection.

You can only have a maximum of eight backups mounted at a given time.

NOTE In order to restore files with file level recovery, the virtual machine you are connecting to the restore
client from has to have VMware tools installed. A virtual machine with VMware tools installed can use the
restore client to restore files from backups of machines that did not have VMware Tools installed, but virtual
machines without VMware Tools won’t be able to successfully restore any backed up files at all with the restore
client.

NOTE The restore client does not support using VMware vSphere vMotion or VMware vSphere Storage
vMotion.

File Level Recovery Supported Configurations:

File Level Recovery can be performed on backups of the following file systems:

 NTFS (Primary Partition with MBR)

 Ext2 (Primary Partition with MBR)

 Ext3 (Primary Partition with MBR)

 LVM with ext2 (Primary Partition with MBR and a Standalone [without MBR] LVM w/ ext2)

 LVM with ext3 (Primary Partition with MBR and a Standalone [without MBR] LVM w/ ext3)

File Level Recovery Limitations

File Level Recovery does not support the following virtual disk configurations:

 Unformatted disks

 Dynamic disks (Windows) / Multi-Drive Partitions (that is, any partition which is composed of 2 or more
virtual disks)

 GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks

 ext4 filesystems

 FAT16 filesystems

 FAT32 filesystems

 Extended partitions

 Encrypted partitions

 Compressed partitions

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File Level Recovery also has the following limitations:

 Symbolic links cannot be restored or browsed

 Browsing either a given directory contained within a backup or a restore destination is limited to a total
of 5000 files or folders

 You cannot restore more than 5,000 folders or files in the same restore operation

The following limitations apply to logical volumes managed by the Logical Volume Manager:

 One Physical Volume (.vmdk) must be mapped to exactly one logical volume

 Only ext2 and ext3 formatting is supported

Logon Options
You can log in to the vSphere Data Protection Restore Client in one of two ways:

The file level recovery service is only available to virtual machines whose backups are managed by vSphere
Data Protection. This means that you will need to be logged in, either through the vCenter console or some
other remote connection, to one of the virtual machines backed up by vSphere Data Protection, in order to log
in to the restore client.

Basic Login
To connect with basic login, you will first need to connect to the restore client from a virtual machine that has
been backed up by vSphere Data Protection. You will log in to the restore client with the local administrative
credentials of the virtual machine you are logged in to. The restore client will only display backups for the
virtual machine you are logged in on, and all restored files will be restored to the virtual machine you are
currently logged in to.

Advanced Login
To connect with advanced login, you will need to connect to the restore client from a virtual machine that has
been backed up by vSphere Data Protection. You will log in to the restore client with the local administrative
credentials of the virtual machine you are logged in to as well as with the administrative credentials to the
vCenter server. After connecting to the restore client, you will be able to mount, browse, and restore files from
any virtual machine that has been backed up by vSphere Data Protection. All restore files will be restored to
the virtual machine you are currently logged in to.

Use the Restore Client in Basic Login Mode

Use the restore client on a Windows or Linux virtual machine in Basic Login Mode to access individual files
from restore points for that machine, rather than restoring the entire virtual machine.

Prerequisites
Prior to a vSphere Data Protection backup, the VM must have VMware Tools installed (refer to the VMware
website for list of operating systems that support VMware Tools).

The following disk types are supported by the restore client:

 Windows (basic disk, non-extended): NTFS

 Linux (basic disk, non-extended): LVM, Ext 2, Ext 3

Procedure
1 Remote Desktop or use a vSphere Web Client to access the local host that has been backed up through
vSphere Data Protection.

2 Access the vSphere Data Protection Restore Client through:

https://<IP_address_of _VDP_appliance>:8543/flr

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 Chapter 3 Using vSphere Data Protection

3 In the Credentials page under Local Credentials, specify the Username and Password for the local host
and click Login.

4 The Manage mounted backups dialog box appears. It lists all of the restore points for the client you are
accessing. Select the mount point that will be restored and click Mount.

5 When the mount is complete, the drive icon will appear as a green networked drive.

6 Click Close.

7 In the Mounted Backups window, navigate to and select the folders and files you want to recover.

8 Click Restore selected files...

9 In the Select Destination dialog box, navigate to and select the drive and destination folder for recovery.

10 Click Restore.

11 An Initiate Restore confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes.

12 A successfully initiated dialog box appears, click OK.

13 Click the Monitor Restores tab to view restore status.

14 Confirm that the job status is completed.

Use the Restore Client in Advanced Login Mode

Use the restore client on a Windows or Linux virtual machine in Advanced Login Mode to access virtual
machines on a vCenter Server that contain restore points to perform file level recovery.

Prerequisites
Prior to the backup, the VM must have VMware Tools installed (refer to the VMware website for list of
operating systems that support VMware Tools).

The following disk types are supported by the restore client:

 Windows (basic disk, non-extended): NTFS

 Linux (basic disk, non-extended): LVM, Ext 2, Ext 3

Procedure
1 Remote Desktop or use a vSphere Web Client to access a virtual machine.

2 Access the vSphere Data Protection Restore Client through:

https://<IP_address_of _VDP_appliance>:8543/flr

3 In the Credentials page under Local Credentials, specify the Username and Password for the local host.
In vCenter Credentials, specify the vCenter administrator Username and Password and click Login.

4 The Manage mounted backups dialog box appears. It lists all of the restore points for the client you are
accessing. Select the mount point that will be restored and click Mount.

5 When the mount is complete, the drive icon will appear as a green networked drive.

6 Click Close.

7 In the Mounted Backups window, navigate to and select the virtual machine, folders, and files for
recovery.

8 Click Restore selected files...

9 In the Select Destination dialog box, navigate to and select the drive and destination folder for recovery.

10 Click Restore.

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11 An Initiate Restore confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes.

12 A successfully initiated dialog box appears, click OK.

You can determine when the restore is complete by clicking the Monitor Restores tab to view restore status.

vSphere Data Protection Shutdown and Startup Procedures

If you need to shutdown the vSphere Data Protection appliance, use the Shut Down Guest OS action. This
action automatically performs a clean shutdown of the appliance. If the appliance is powered off without the
Shut Down Guest OS action corruption might occur. After a appliance is shut down, it can be restarted through
the Power On action.

If the appliance does not shutdown properly, when it restarts it will rollback to the last validated checkpoint.
This means any changes to backup jobs or backups that occur between the checkpoint and the unexpected
shutdown will be lost. This is expected behavior and is used to ensure system corruption does not occur from
unexpected shutdowns. See “Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42 for additional information.

IMPORTANT The vSphere Data Protection appliance is designed to be run 24x7 to support maintenance
operations and to be available for restore operations. It should not be shutdown unless there is a specific
reason for shutdown.

46 VMware, Inc.
 4

vSphere Data Protection Capacity

Management 4
This chapter focuses on vSphere Data Protection capacity management and includes the following topics:

 “Impact of Selecting Thin or Thick Provisioned Disks” on page 47

 “Impact of Storage Capacity for Initial vSphere Data Protection Deployment” on page 48
 “Monitoring vSphere Data Protection Capacity” on page 48

 “vSphere Data Protection Capacity Thresholds” on page 48

 “Capacity Management” on page 49

Impact of Selecting Thin or Thick Provisioned Disks

There are advantages and disadvantages of selecting thin or thick disk partitioning for the vSphere Data
Protection datastore.

Thin provisioning uses virtualization technology to allow the appearance of more disk resources than what
might be physically available. This can be used if an administrator is actively monitoring disk space and is able
to allocate additional physical disk space as the thin disk grows. If this is not managed and the vSphere Data
Protection datastore is on a thin provisioned disk that cannot allocate space, the vSphere Data Protection
appliance will fail. If this happens, you can rollback to a validated checkpoint (see “Using Checkpoints and
Rollback” on page 42 for additional information). Any backups that occurred after the checkpoint will be lost.

Thick provisioning allocates all of the required storage when the disk is created. The best practice for the
vSphere Data Protection datastore is to create a thin provisioned disk when the vSphere Data Protection
appliance is deployed (this allows for rapid deployment) and after deployment, convert the disk from thin
provisioning to thick provisioning.

The following procedure is used to convert thin provisioning to thick provisioning. This procedure requires
that the vSphere Data Protection appliance be shut down and can take several hours to complete.

Prerequisites
It is strongly recommended that the vSphere Data Protection appliance be installed with thin provisioning.
However, there must be sufficient disk space available to inflate the disk to thick provisioning.

Procedure
1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the vSphere Data Protection appliance and select Shut Down Guest OS.

2 Highlight the appliance and select the Summary tab. In the Storage section right-click the datastore and
select Browse Datastore...

3 From the Datastore Browser screen, select your appliance and expand the associated datastore.

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4 Right click a .vmdk file and select Inflate.

5 Repeat this step for each .vmdk file.

 For 0.5 TB appliance, there are four .vmdk files.

 For 1 TB appliance, there are seven .vmdk files.

 For 2 TB appliance, there are 13 .vmdk files.

Impact of Storage Capacity for Initial vSphere Data Protection

Deployment
When a new vSphere Data Protection appliance is deployed, the appliance typically fills rapidly for the first
few weeks. This is because nearly every client that is backed up contains unique data. vSphere Data Protection
deduplication is best leveraged when other similar clients have been backed up, or the same clients have been
backed up at least once.

After the initial backup, the appliance backs up less unique data during subsequent backups. When initial
backups are complete and the maximum retention periods are exceeded, it is possible to consider and measure
the ability of the system to store about as much new data each day as it frees during the maintenance windows.
This is referred to as achieving steady state capacity utilization. Ideal steady state capacity should be 80%.

Monitoring vSphere Data Protection Capacity

You should proactively monitor vSphere Data Protection capacity. You can view vSphere Data Protection
capacity through the vSphere Data Protection Report tab, Used Capacity.

vSphere Data Protection Capacity Thresholds

The following table describes vSphere Data Protection behavior for key capacity thresholds:
Table 4-1. vSphere Data Protection capacity thresholds
Threshold Value Behavior

Capacity warning 80% vSphere Data Protection issues a warning event.

Capacity warning 95% Tasks are not generated on vCenter for backup
jobs when capacity is greater than 95% full.

Healthcheck limit 95% Existing backups are allowed to complete, but

new backup activities are suspended. vSphere
Data Protection issues warning events.

Server read-only 100% vSphere Data Protection transitions to read-only

limit mode and no new data is allowed.

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 Chapter 4 vSphere Data Protection Capacity Management

Capacity Management
Once you exceed 80% capacity, you should use the following guidelines for capacity management:

 Stop adding new VMs as backup clients

 Delete uneeded backup jobs

 Reassess retention policies to see if you can decrease retention policies

 Consider adding additional vSphere Data Protection appliances and balance backup jobs between
multiple appliances

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50 VMware, Inc.
 5

vSphere Data Protection

Troubleshooting 5
This chapter includes the following troubleshooting topics:

 “vSphere Data Protection Appliance Installation” on page 52

 “vSphere Data Protection Backups” on page 52

 “vSphere Data Protection Restores” on page 53

 “File Level Recovery” on page 54

 “vSphere Data Protection Reporting” on page 54

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vSphere Data Protection Appliance Installation

If you have problems with the vSphere Data Protection appliance installation:

 Confirm that all of the software meets the minimum software requirements (see “Software Requirements”
on page 12).

 Confirm that the hardware meets the minimum hardware requirements (see “System Requirements” on
page 13).

 Confirm that DNS is properly configured for the vSphere Data Protection appliance. (see “Preinstallation
Configuration” on page 13).

vSphere Data Protection Backups

The following are known issues for vSphere Data Protection backups.

“Loading backup job data”

This message can appear for a long time (up to five minutes) when a large number of VMs (~100 VMs) are
selected for a single backup job. This issue can also apply to lock/unlock, refresh, delete, or delete actions for
large jobs. This is expected behavior when very large jobs are selected. This message will resolve itself when
the action is completed, this can take up to five minutes.

“'Unable to add client {client name} to the VDP appliance while creating backup job
{backupjob name}.”
This error can occur if there is a duplicate client name on the vApp container or the ESX/ESXi host. In this case
only one backup job is added. Resolve any duplicate client names.

“The following items could not be located and were not selected {client name}.”
This error can occur when the backed up VM(s) cannot be located during Edit of a backup job. This is a known
issue.

Windows 2008 R2 VMs can fail to backup with “disk.EnableUUID” configured to “true.”
Windows 2008 R2 backups can fail if the VM is configured with disk.EnableUUID set to true. To correct this
problem, you can manually update the vmx configuration parameter disk.EnableUUID to false.

To configure disk.EnableUUID to false using the vSphere Web Client:

1 Shut down the VM by right clicking the VM and selecting Shut Down Guest OS.

2 Right dick the VM and select Edit Settings.

3 Click VM Options.

4 Expand the Advanced section and click Edit Configuration.

5 Locate the name disk.EnableUUId and set the value to false.

6 Click OK.

7 Click OK.

8 Right click the VM and click Power On.

After updating the configuration parameter, backups of the Windows 2008 R2 VM should succeed.

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 Chapter 5 vSphere Data Protection Troubleshooting

Backup fails if vSphere Data Protection there is not sufficient vSphere Data Protection
datastore capacity.
Scheduled backups will fail at 92% complete if there is not sufficient vSphere Data Protection datastore
capacity. If the vSphere Data Protection datastore is configured with thin provisioning and maximum capacity
has not been reached, add additional storage resources. If the vSphere Data Protection datastore is configured
with thick provisioning and is at capacity, see “vSphere Data Protection Capacity Management” on page 47.

Backup fails if VM is enabled with VMware Fault Tolerance.

If a VM has fault tolerance enabled, the backup will fail. This is expected behavior, vSphere Data Protection
does not support backing up VMs that have Fault Tolerance enabled.

When VMs are moved in or out of different cluster groups, associated backup sources may
be lost.
When hosts are moved into clusters with the option to retain the resource pools and vApps, the containers are
recreated, not copied. As a result, it is no longer the same container even though the name is the same. Validate
or recreate any backup jobs that protect containers after moving hosts in or out of a cluster.

After an unexpected shutdown, recent backup jobs and backups are lost.
Anytime an unexpected shutdown occurs, the vSphere Data Protection appliance uses rollback to the last
validated checkpoint. This is expected behavior. See “Using Checkpoints and Rollback” on page 42 for
additional information.

vSphere Data Protection Restores

The following are known issues for vSphere Data Protection restores.

Restore tab shows a “Loading backups” message and is slow to load.

It typically takes two seconds per VM backup to load each of the backups on the Restore tab. This is expected
behavior.

Restore fails to original location if VM has associated snapshots.

If a VM has associated snapshots, the restore to original location will fail. This is expected behavior, vSphere
Data Protection does not support restoring VMs that have snapshots to the original location. Restore the VM
to an alternate location or delete the snapshots before restoring to the original location.

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File Level Recovery

The following are known issues for file level recovery with the vSphere Data Protection restore client.

During a file level recovery mount, only the last partition is displayed if the VMDK file
contains multiple partitions.
The restore client does not support extended volumes. This is expected behavior. Perform an image-level
recovery and manually copy the files needed.

During an file level recovery mount, unsupported partitions fail to mount.

The following disk formats are not supported by the restore client, and it is expected behavior that the restore
client mount will fail.

 Unformatted disk

 FAT32

 Extended partitions
 Dynamic disks
 GPT disks

 Ext4 fs

 Encrypted partitions

 Compressed partitions

Perform an image-level restore and manually copy the files needed.

manually copy the files needed.

Symbolic links are not displayed in the restore client.

The restore client does not support browsing symbolic links.

vSphere Data Protection Reporting

The following are known issues for vSphere Data Protection reporting.

Restore tab is slow to load or refresh.

If there is a large number of VMs, the Restore tab can be slow to load or refresh. In tests with 100 VMs, this has
taken up to four and a half minutes.

54 VMware, Inc.
 6

vSphere Data Protection Port Usage 6

vSphere Data Protection uses the ports listed in the following table.

Table 6-1. vSphere Data Protection port usage

Product Port Protocol Source Destination Purpose

vSphere Data 22 TCP User VDP ssh

Protection (for debugging)

vSphere Data 53 UDP VDP DNS server DNS

Protection

vSphere Data 80 TCP User VDP http

Protection

vSphere Data 111 TCP/UDP VDP ESX/ESXi rpcbind

Protection

vSphere Data 443 TCP User VDP https

Protection

vSphere Data 700 TCP VDP LDAP Active Directory Loginmgr tool
Protection

vSphere Data 7778 TCP vCenter VDP VDP RMI

Protection

vSphere Data 7779 TCP vCenter VDP VDP RMI

Protection

vSphere Data 8509 TCP vCenter VDP Tomcat AJP

Protection Connector

vSphere Data 8543 TCP User VDP Redirect for Tomcat

Protection

vSphere Data 8580 TCP vCenter VDP VDP Downloader

Protection

vSphere Data 9443 TCP vCenter VDP VDP Web Services

Protection

vSphere Data 27000 TCP VDP vCenter Licensing

Protection communication

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56 VMware, Inc.
 7

vSphere Data Protection Disaster

Recovery 7
vSphere Data Protection is robust in its ability to store and manage backups. In the event of failure, the first
course of action should be to rollback to a known validated checkpoint (see “Using Checkpoints and Rollback”
on page 42). To recover from a vSphere Data Protection appliance failure, the following procedure is used to
create backups of the appliance and all of the associated vSphere Data Protection backups for use in disaster
recovery.

The following provides guidelines for vSphere Data Protection disaster recovery:

1 Before shutting down the vSphere Data Protection appliance, verify that no backup or maintenance tasks
are running. Depending on the backup method used and how long it takes, schedule your vSphere Data
Protection backup during a time where no tasks are scheduled. For example, if your backup window is
eight hours and backups only take one hour to complete, you have an additional seven hours before
maintenance tasks are schedule. This is an ideal time to shut down and backup the appliance. See “Backup
Window Configuration” on page 37 for additional information.

2 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the appliance. Perform a Shut Down Guest OS on the VM. Do not use
Power Off. A power off task is equivalent to pulling the plug on a physical server and may not result in a
a clean shut down process. See “vSphere Data Protection Shutdown and Startup Procedures” on page 46
for more information.

3 Once you have confirmed that the appliance has been shut down, proceed with your preferred method of
protection.

4 Verify that the backup of vSphere Data Protection is complete and that no backup/snapshot/copy jobs are
being performed against vSphere Data Protection.

5 From the vSphere Client, perform a Power On for the appliance.

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58 VMware, Inc.
 8

Minimum Required vCenter User

Account Permissions 8
In high-security environments, you can restrict the vCenter user account permissions required to configure
and administer the Backup and Recovery appliance to all of the following:

Datastore
• Allocate Space

• Browse datastore

• Low level file operations

• Move datastore

• Remove datastore

• Remove file

• Rename datastore

Folder
• Create Folder

Global
• Cancel task

• Log event

• Settings

Network
• Assign network

• Configure

Resource
• Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Sessions
• Validate session

Tasks
• Create task

• Update task

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Virtual machine > Configuration

• Add existing disk

• Add new disk

• Add or Remove device

• Advanced

• Change CPU count

• Change Resource

• Disk change Tracking

• Disk Lease

• Host USB device

• Memory

• Modify device setting

• Raw device

• Reload from path

• Remove disk
• Rename

• Reset guest information

• Settings

• Swapfile placement

• Upgrade virtual hardware

• Extend Virtual disk

Virtual machine > Interaction

• Power Off

• Power On

• Reset

Virtual machine > Inventory

• Create new

• Register

• Remove

• Unregister

Virtual machine > Provisioning

• Allow read-only disk access

• Allow virtual machine download

• Mark as Template

Virtual machine > State

• Create snapshot

• Remove Snapshot

• Revert to snapshot

60 VMware, Inc.
 Index

Index

B P
Backup Job Wizard 32 platform product support 8
backup jobs 31
Backup Now 33 R
backup schedule 31 Reports tab 35
Backup tab 27 Restore Client 43
backup window 37 Restore wizard 33
blackout window 37 retention policy 32
reverting to a snapshot 23
C rollback 42
Changed Block Tracking (CBT) 8
checkpoint 42 S
Configuration tab 36 snapshot
creating a snapshot of the appliance 21 creating 21
removing 22
D reverting to 23
datastore 8 steady state capacity 48
deduplication store 9 system requirements 13
DNS configuration 13
T
E technical support resources 5
email notification 39
Enterprise 9 V
variable-length data segment 9
F vCenter registration 19
file level recovery 43 vCenter user account permissions 59
File Level Recovery (FLR) 9 VDP-configure utility 17
filter option 35 Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) 8
fixed-length data segment 9 VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection
FLR advanced login 44 (VADP) 8
FLR basic login 44 vSphere Data Protection appliance 10
vSphere Data Protection appliance definition 8
G vSphere Data Protection appliance details 36
Getting Started tab 27 vSphere Data Protection appliance shutdown and
startup 46
I vSphere Data Protection architecture 10
Image-level backups 8 vSphere Data Protection configuration 19
integrity checks 38 vSphere Data Protection disaster recovery 57
vSphere Data Protection installation 15
L vSphere Data Protection password 19
lock a backup job 34 vSphere Data Protection sizing 12
vSphere Data Protection specifications 13
M vSphere Data Protection storage capacity 48
maintenance window 37 vSphere Data Protection system settings 19
vSphere Data Protection thick provisioned disks 47
O
vSphere Data Protection thin provisioned disks 47
OVF template file 14

VMware, Inc. 61
 Index

VMware, Inc. 62