Query on backup warning "Guest processing skipped" Linux box

[jonjuk]

Hi all, I think I already know the answer to this but thought I'd better check. I have tried to search and find the answer but it's not really been conclusive.

I have a couple of Linux boxes which have warnings every time they back up.

"Guest processing skipped (check VMware Tools status)"

Data is being backed up but we get this message every night. They do not have VMware Tools installed.

Now, supposing we don't want to/can't install VMware Tools on these boxes; they are still being backed up OK right? Am I losing out on anything from this 'guest processing' being skipped? If not, I'm quite happy to ignore the message.

[Shestakov]

Hi Jon,
Correct, even without VMware tools VMs can be backed up. VMware tools are generally needed for file system freezing during the snapshot creation.
So you can ignore the warning or disable corresponding checkboxes for not getting it at all.
By the way, what was the reason of turning guest processing on if you don`t have the VMware tools installed? Do you have all VMs in the job without VMware tools?
Thanks.

[jonjuk]

Hi Shestakov, thanks for your reply and thanks for confirming my thoughts.

Would the 'fix' be to just un-tick "Enable application-aware image processing" then? Or does "Enable guest file system indexing" also need to be turned off?

The VMs all have their separate jobs so I guess whoever originally set them up left it on by default(?).

[Vitaliy S.]

If you don't need application aware image processing or VMware Tools quiescence for VMs backup, you can disable these checkboxes in the job. If you don't have VMware Tools installed, indexing is not performed as well.

[Shestakov]

By default these options are disabled so during the job creation the features were added manually(on purpose or randomly).
Thanks.

[jonjuk]

Brilliant. Thanks both for clearing that up. You always find something new when you 'inherit' someone's work