Host-based backup of Microsoft Hyper-V VMs.
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Ondrej
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How to backup virtual machines on Volume GUID disks?

Post by Ondrej »

How to backup virtual machines on Volume Globally Unique Identified (Volume GUID) disks?
Storage in a Hyper-V Guest can be referenced by way of a Volume Globally Unique Identified (GUID). This is very useful in scenarios where there are a large number of storage volumes and there are not enough drive letters available to uniquely identify each of them.
This is our scenario in most of Hyper-V clusters. All servers are in version Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise SP1 (6.1.7601), so Volume GUIDs are full suported [from 29-Jul-2008 (http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/951308/en-us)]

So there is a problem with Veeam BackUp Jobs used Volume GUIDs:
3/26/2015 10:50:16 AM :: Task failed Error: Failed to extract volume mount point by the specified path '\\?\Volume{118563E3-CD9B-11E4-85DD-3CD92B016862}\rovw89v\Virtual Machines\88148453-6C2F-400D-B001-186BA1786770.xml'.

But the base functionalities of Volume GUIDs is working:
1) It is possible to backup and sync with hidden volumes that do not have a drive letter and are not mounted. To see which volumes are or are not mounted, and discover their unique Volume GUID, go to the command prompt and use the command mountvol. You will then see a list of all the volumes on the system and where they are mounted. The volume GUID's have the format \\?\Volume\{GUID}\
2) You can find Mounted Volumes under HKLM\System\MountedDevices

Have you some scenario for backuping Volume GUIDs disks? For example with using the symbolic link? (like CSV disks?)
Vitaliy S.
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Re: How to backup virtual machines on Volume GUID disks?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Hi Ondrej,

If it is not working out-of-the-box, then most likely there is no way to achieve your goal right now. Can you please tell me how many volumes you have on each host? Since you have clusters configured, do you use CSVs?

P.S. if there is not enough drive letters, you can use mount points to present these volumes to the system.

Thanks!
Ondrej
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Re: How to backup virtual machines on Volume GUID disks?

Post by Ondrej »

Hello Vitaliy,
I thought it... but I write it for "future"... I hope your developer`s team add this functionality to the next version of Veeam Backup&Replication (we have installed the latest version 8.0.0.917).
We have 30-40 volumes per one metro-cluster and the metro-cluster architecture from HP (clx) doesn`t support CSV disks, so there we use storages referenced by way of a Volume Globally Unique Identified (GUID).
We use CSV disks on non-metro-cluster architecture and there are BackUp Jobs working.
Vitaliy S.
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Re: How to backup virtual machines on Volume GUID disks?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Thanks for the feedback, implementation of this feature will depend on the amount of requests and our current priorities at the release time.
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