vdp

Windows 2008 R2 VMs fail to backup with VMware Data Protection (VDP)

When using VMware Data Protection (VDP) 5.1 and want to backup Windows 2008 R2 VM’s you should  disable application-consistent quiescing. On the moment the VADP API doesn’t support Windows 2008 R2 application-consistent quiescing. So be sure that servers that uses a database such as SQL and Exchange are backuped with other third party backup software else the database will be not consistent when restoring!

If you don’t disable application-consistent quiescing the backup of the Windows 2008 R2 will probably fail. I experienced this problem by customers who are using VDP and wanted to backup Windows 2008 R2 VMs.

To disable application quiescing use the following steps (This example is based on the vSphere Client but the vSphere Web client can be used to):

  • Shut Down the VM
  • Edit the settings of the VM, go to the Options tab – go to General and click on Configuration Parameters box

image

  • Look if the disk.EnableUUId parameter exist. If not Add a new row with this parameter.
  • Change the value of the disk.EnableUUId parameter to false

image

  • Click
  • Power On the VM

After changing the disk.EnableUUId  parameter to false the backup of the Windows 2008 R2 succeeded with VDP. If you have a lot of VMs you can use PowerCLI to automate this process.

Upgrading the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliance

Here are the steps outlined for upgrading the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliance.

1. Check the version of the VDP.  SSH to the VDP appliance and use the following command:

rpm –qa | grep vdr

The current version of the VDP appliance is  vdr-1.1.53-53

image

2. The vSphere (web) client displays version 5.1.0.0 (5.1.0.0). This version will not change after the upgrade.

image

3. Shutdown the VDP appliance.

4. 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.” Starting with Hard disk 2 till disk 7image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Take a snapshot.  This must be done else you wont be able to upgrade the VDP appliance

6. Start the VDP appliance. Wait till the VDP appliance is started. It can takes 10 minutes!

7. Download the VDP upgrade ISO needed and verify the checksum of the ISO!

image

8. Mount the upgrade ISO to the VDP appliance using VM Edit Settings.

image

9. Connect to the appliance using the following URL:

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

10. Login the appliance (username is root)

11. Go to the upgrade tab. Click check upgrades (be patient it will take some time to see the upgrade package)

image

12. Select the package and press the upgrade VDP button

13. The warning “No valid Integrity Check taken Today of Yesterday”  appeared.

image

Run a manual Integrity Check by using the  vSphere Web Client, select “Run Integrity Check” in the vSphere Data Protection plugin.

image

14. Watch in the tasks till the VDP Integrity check completes

image

15. Select the package and press the upgrade VDP button

image

16. Wait till upgrade completes

image

17. Shut down the VDP appliance

18 . Delete the snapshot

19. re-enable the independent disks

20 . Detach the ISO VDP upgrade

21. Start the VDP appliance

22.  Check the version of the VDP appliance. Make a SSH connection and use the following command:

rpm –qa | grep vdr

image

The new version of the VDP appliance is: vdr-1.1.56-56.  The vSphere (web) client displays still version 5.1.0.0 (5.1.0.0).

image

Implementing vSphere Data Protection (VDP) tips

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is replacing VMware Data Recovery (vDR). VDP is a more robust product based on the EMC Avamar product.

Here are some VDP implementing tips:

  • Each vCenter server can support up to 10 VDP appiances
  • Each VDP appliance supports up to 100 VMs
  • VDP stores deduplicated data on the   0.5,1 or 2 TB datastores.
  • It is not possible to use CIFS or NFS shares directly from the VDP appliance.
  • VDP comes in 3 different OVA sizes 0,5TB, 1TB and 2TB.  Amount of disk space needed:
OVA Size (TB) Disk Space Required (GB)
0,5 850
1 1600 (1,57 TB)
2 3100 (3,02 TB)
  • It is not possible to expand the VDP destination datastore
  • VDP is managed by the vSphere Web client
  • At least one vCenter 5.1 server is required 
  • VDP is included in vSphere 5.1 Essentials Plus and higher
  • To configure the VDP appliance use the following URL: https://ip appliance:8543/vdp-configure/
  • The default username is root and the password is changeme
  • For the VDP vCenter registration use formats as in the screenshot:

image

  • After the VDP is configured the following URL can be used to do some configuration and maintenance:  https://<ip address of VDP appliance>:8543/vdp-configure/

image

  • VDP supports up to 8 simultaneously backups of 8 VMs

More information on VDP can be found here: