RAW Device Mapping

#1

Will this backup a RAW Device mapping in vmware or is it just vertical drives?

#2

No, backup of a RAW device mapping isn’t supported.

#3

Perfect. Is there a way to exclude virtual disks?

#4

Currently there is no way. I thought the backup would be incomplete if you exclude a disk and that would give you some trouble when restoring the vm from the backup.

#5

I too am keen to see the ability to exclude a virtual disk. My scenario/use case;

Our domain controller also acts as a fileserver. The shared folders are on a second virtual disk and synced with “the cloud”.

In the event of a disaster we need to recover our domain controller (so users can logon to the network etc) but we do not need to “immediately” recover the shared folders (as they can be accessed directly via the cloud).

#6

That makes sense and excluding some disks by name isn’t hard so I’ll add this feature to the next update.

#7

I’ll use that feature too!

#8

In version 1.1.2 you can now exclude a disk by specifying the --exclude-disk option. For instance:

./vertical backup vm-test --exclude-disk vm-test-flat.vmdk
./vertical backup vm-test --exclude-disk "*test*"
#9

So I tried to run a backup like above. I have a virtual harddrive that I need to exclude. My VM also has a raw device mapping which I assuming would just by pass, but I am receiving an error saying returned 1. It then goes and removes the snapshot file. Any idea what this means?

#10

Can you run .vertical -vv -log backup vmname and post the output here (be sure to remove sensitive information)?

You can enclose the output with . For example,
line 1
line 2
line 3
```

becomes:

line 1
line 2
line 3
#11

This is what I am seeing.

cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 592017-09-21 01:03:09.212977 INFO COMMAND_OUTPUT Create Snapshot:

2017-09-21 01:03:09.213141 INFO COMMAND_OUTPUT Create snapshot failed
2017-09-21 01:03:09.213197 ERROR COMMAND_RUN Command ‘/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 59 2017-09-21-01-
02-41 ‘Created by Vertical Backup 1.1.2’ 0 1’ returned 1
2017-09-21 01:03:09.213280 INFO SNAPSHOT_REMOVE Removing all snapshots of VM
2017-09-21 01:03:09.213357 TRACE COMMAND_RUN Running command: /bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.removeall 59
2017-09-21 01:03:09.686889 TRACE COMMAND_OUTPUT Remove All Snapshots:
ERROR COMMAND_RUN Command '/bin/vim-
-sh: ERROR: not found

#12

If you run this command manually, do you get any error message:

/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 59 test test 0 1

How about this (quiesce flag is off):

/bin/vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 59 test test 0 0
#13

First command came back with a Create snapshot failed, Second just started create Snapshot: and that is it.

#14

Then I think adding the --no-quiesce switch should work:

./vertical backup vm-test --no-quiesce --exclude-disk "*test*"
#15

I think the issue has to do with the RAW Device mapping. I took that out and the virtual disk and did a backup. Worked without a hitch. Did another backup with 2 virtual drives, currently its running and seems to be fine. (Exclude disk was used for the other harddrive.) Which if successful, I believe it would then point to the raw Device mapping that I have on that virtual machine. Is there a way to get that to automatically be excluded? The path is a bit long…

#16

I have done some more research, it appears to be an issue with vmware and how it works with the raw device mapping. The errors are coming from it. I am able to successfully backup if I remove it, and I am able to successfully exclude a vmware virtual disk. Now I just need some way to automate a backup for it, but at least I can now get a successful backup at the moment.

#17

I’ll see if I can find a way to automatically exclude virtual disks.