Excluding one datastore but not the other..

[mattdwyerva]

I have a support case on this (Case # 01092404), but thought I would share.

I have one physical box running VM 5.10 as the host with 5 Windows guests (A,B,C,D,E). All the guests use a common datastore, "DS1". One guest is disabled, so only 4 vm guests are backed up: A,B,C,D. (VBR runs on a separate physical, dedicated server. ) "E" is specifically excluded in VBR backup job. One VBR task runs every night to back up the host and has worked fine for years. Since "E" is excluded (and has been for 2 months), only A,B,C,D are backed up these days. Great.

I added an NAS last week for temporary, duplicate file storage as I am preparing to relocate data. I assigned the NAS to guest "C" and I don't need to backup the NAS, so I asked VBR to exclude the NAS ('DS2" datastore), but otherwise carry on as always. I did NOT exclude the vm guest "C", JUST excluded the NAS.

VBR casually excluded guest "C" completely which I did not notice for 4 days. A,B,D backed up perfectly fine as always. I was shocked by C's exclusion once I finally noticed its absence from the VBR log (note to self - read all the VBR email detail - it did not mention C at all which is a clue). Since "C" is both the domain controller and has an abundance of critical project information on it, well..... thank god I finally noticed.

Guest "C" o/s is 'running' on DS1, and not the excluded NAS -- "C" just uses the NAS for supplementary storage. Weird that it was excluded. For today, I removed the exclusion to the NAS to get a full backup. Once complete, I will try excluding "drives" instead of excluding the secondary datastore.

[mattdwyerva]

Ok, in case this is not clear, the attached (embedded) img shows the exclusion of NAS17.

Note in the snip that VM-MAIN is the only VM using NAS17, and that it is also using datastore1. Sadly, if I exclude the NAS17, VBR skips VM-Main entirely without even commenting on that in the emailed log. So, I will test excluding DISKS instead of OBJECTS next, but consider this snip a Here Be Dragons note on the VEEAM maps.

https://goo.gl/fbvo5Z

Not sure that img tag allows https, but ... same link as above:

[foggy]

Matt, thanks for the more detailed description of the issue. This is actually somewhat expected behavior. When you're excluding something on the VM tab, it is still a VM exclusion (unlike the Disks tab), so the entire VM is being excluded. Veeam B&R "sees" the VM in its entirety even if just one of its disks is located on the said datastore, otherwise it would not be able to display it under the datastore you select in the tree. That said, note with would probably be helpful here.

[mattdwyerva]

I guess, but I am not clicking on the VM, I am clicking on the secondary datastore, and the VM shows up in two places also, so .... not clear to me .

I understand that is the way it is, but I suggest that VBR add the VM (vm-main here) explicitly to the excluded list of VM's on the VM tab. Or if that doesn't scale (and it may not), just issue a pop-up window (.YesNoCancel) so the novice user is forced to acknowledge the consequences of what they just requested. This could have been a truly spectacular disaster for me, and is somewhat ambiguous imo, so a warning seems appropriate.

fwiw

[foggy]

Got your point on this, much appreciated.