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VMWare Image Level Backups Using TSM and Avamar
I wanted to know if there would be a conflict between technologies if I was using different technologies while doing Image level backups. I currently have a VCB Tivoli solution in place and I am going to be implementing an Avamar solution using Image / File level backups. I have not been able to get a definitive answer regarding a conflict between the two. I believe that it should be ok but with change-block-tracking I have a slight concern.
What I would like to do is seed my backups to Avamar while continuing to provide protection using the VCB's, I have my DR solution onsite and would like to continue offsiting tapes until I get my replica grid moved. It would be beneficial to seed them while they are in the same Data Center though. Please let me know. Thanks,
Rich
rprnairj
45 Posts
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May 15th, 2014 17:00
Hello Ian,
I am having somewhat similar issue in our environment, its in the development phase, Avamar 7.0 VM image backup, I had just started to move backups into Avamar, at this moment they are backing up these VM through TSM, and today after the last night backups, few VMs were corrupted and had some drives missing.
Both the backup technologies do not run together at the same time, I have not faced this issue before.
Please help me to understand the issue. The log of the troubled VM that did finish the backup with exception, does mentions of having issues while quiescing for snapshot and then completes with exception.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
rprnairj
ionthegeek
2K Posts
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May 15th, 2014 18:00
I'm not aware of any way Avamar itself could cause VM corruption or missing drives.
Based on what you've described seeing in the logs, it sounds like there may have been a Windows VSS failure during the backup of the virtual machine and that's what caused the backup to complete with exceptions. This also cannot cause corruption in a production VM (VSS is a Microsoft technology that is used to quiesce I/O to the disks before the backup so open files are in a consistent state when they are backed up).
I would recommend opening a service request for this issue.
rprnairj
45 Posts
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May 15th, 2014 18:00
Ok, If its the VSS quiesce cause, would using [avvcbimage]quiesce_fs=false work, one important thing I forgot to mention is all troubled VM are Windows 2008 R2, and this does have known issues with quiesce snapshot, correct?
rprnairj
45 Posts
1
May 15th, 2014 19:00
Very well said, Ian, I will go that route, and by just join on the basics, no backup application touches the VM for image backup and so I do not believe it will cause the corruption, and I also think that the person that gave me the news of corruption is confused himself. I believe it is missing drive mainly, I will clarify this tomorrow and will take your suggestion on it, will let you know how it goes.
ionthegeek
2K Posts
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May 15th, 2014 19:00
VSS snapshot failures will cause backups to complete with exceptions, yes. And yes, setting the quiesce_fs flag to false will request a non-quesced snapshot from VMware which does not invoke VSS and will prevent the backup from completing with exceptions just because the VSS snapshot failed. I have two concerns with this, however.
Firstly and more importantly, you mentioned VM corruption in your previous post. I think you need to take a look at your environment to figure out what might be causing this -- VM corruption doesn't happen in a vacuum and it sounds like some component in your environment is not in good shape.
Secondly, disabling quiesced snapshots is only a workaround. Ideally, you'll want to determine why VSS is failing on the affected guest(s) and correct the problem so all the files in your backup are consistent.