Creating application consistent backup of vRA 8

[saintdle]

Hi,

I am trying to follow the guidelines to create an application consistent backup of vRA 8.X, VMware's documentation states you must run a script to stop services on one node (this script will control the cluster).

https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Sui ... 4D6FC.html

I've ran through this, and created a pre-freeze and post-freeze script on the VBR server, using the settings in the post. When I run the job, the vRA services are not stopped, and when checking the task log, I see the below. I believe as you cannot detect the guest OS for vRA 8 appliances, you skip running the .sh file via ssh or VIX.

Is there a solution for this? At the moment my thoughts are possibly using Veeam to call a script, which connects to the vRA node and runs those scripts locally, possibly, however you may have an issue getting the exit code returned properly.

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[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     [ScriptInvoker] Scripting mode is FailJobOnError.
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     [ScriptInvoker] Script enabled
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     [ScriptInvoker] Couldn't detect guest type
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info    [ScriptInvoker] Creating empty invoker
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info         [Soap] Outgoing connection ''.
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info         [Soap] Connection 'sc-dc1-vcsa001.simon.local:443:simon.local\svc_veeam:False::0:21' is provided from the cache. Used: 3
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     Creating non-persistent snapshot in guest. Freezing guest.
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     Freezing guest operating system: indexing is disabled
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     VSSFreezer: Validating Veeam VSS freeze availability for the VM
[03.02.2020 21:54:51] <21> Info     VSSFreezer: Veeam VSS freeze is not enabled

[HannesK]

Hello,
I don't have a vRA appliance, so just some general troubleshooting hints:

Can you see the IP address provided by VMware tools in VCenter? That's the IP Veeam uses to connect to the VM. Guest-OS detection should just take the value from VCenter. If you define a Linux pre-script for that VM, then it should work.

I would test with a simple "echo test script" to check whether application aware processing is working at all.

Best regards,
Hannes

[saintdle]

Hi Hannes,

Yes in vCenter you can see the IP address of the machine, the appliance is PhotonOS, do you know if this OS is supported or any known issues with running scripts against this OS?

I will try a basic script as you mentioned.

[saintdle]

I've looked into the log files more and I am seeing:

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[03.02.2020 21:55:15] <21> Info     [IpConfigCollector] Collecting ip config info
[03.02.2020 21:55:15] <21> Info     [IpConfigCollector] No ip config info found

Does this mean the job is not picking up the VMware Tools correctly on the appliance and maybe why the scripts are not being run?

[HannesK]

yep. without IP it does not connect to the VM and does not upload / run the script.

I suggest to check with support why we don't find the IP address. Please post the case number for reference.

[saintdle]

Is PhotonOS supported as a backup source VM and running scripts? I see this in the logs, which leads me to thing the tasks I am trying to run will not work.

[03.02.2020 23:03:34] <20> Info Validating guest agent availability for the VM
[03.02.2020 23:03:34] <20> Info Guest OS VMware Photon OS (64-bit) is not supported

[PetrM]

Hi Dean,

Is PhotonOS supported as a backup source VM and running scripts?

No, it's not supported. Only Microsoft Windows or Linux guests are available for running pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts.
UPD 06/02/2020: VMware Photon OS is a minimal Linux container and has to be supported. The issue is reported to RnD and will be fixed in one of our next releases.

Just an idea of possible workaround:
To create a dedicated backup job for vRA and use custom scripts before and after job execution to shutdown/start vRA application services remotely.
However, I didn't test it and can not guarantee that there are no side effects.

Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hi Dean,
as Photon OS is a Linux and there is no documentation that it is not supported... I double checked with QA and got the response that you ran into a bug

Unfortunately, there is no reg key or anything to "force" application aware processing / scripts.

So working with job scripts (as mentioned by Petr) is the only workaround that comes into my mind.

Best regards,
Hannes

[PTide]

@saintdle,

Try this one. If Photon OS is indeed supported by VMware, then open-vm-tools must be available for it, hence it should be possible to use guest quiescence to trigger script execution for scripts located on a guest filesystem.

Thanks!

[saintdle]

I'm struggling to get the guest quiescence to work. The trigger of the scripts times out, and the snapshot fails. I've tested Guest quiescence with no scripts on both the vRA 8 appliance, and a standalone build of PhotonOS, which works fine. I've tested with the pre-freeze script, works fine. The post freeze script, the vm snapshot times out.

I think this is because the vRA VM is so busy to begin with, and needs to wait a while for the script to run. So we hit timeouts. wee know that this method is not preferred due to issues with its use, hence Veeam only has it as a fallback option.

I think we are going to have to wait for a patch which allows Veeam VBR to correctly identify PhotonOS guest VMs so it can inject scripts.

[saintdle]

Hi, any update on when a patch will be released for Veeam to identify PhotonOS correctly?

[HannesK]

Hello,
the chances for an update during this summer are good.

Best regards,
Hannes

[saintdle]

Latest update notes suggest PhotonOS is supported now, which is great. Hopefully I'll test out the functionality discussed is this thread and report back.

[saintdle]

I've had some success wthh VBR 10a and running script on PhotonOS, however i need the post-freeze timeout script timeout to be increased from 15 minutes to around 35 minutes.

I've used the registry keys in the below post, but after restarting the veeam backup service, reboot of the server, and trying to run the backup and an active full backup. The job still fails on a timeout window of 15 minutes.

vmware-vsphere-f24/powershell-pre-and-p ... ml#p302944

[HannesK]

hmm, the PostJobScriptTimeoutSec should still work... what does support say about that behavior (case number?)

[saintdle]

I'm doing this under NFR so I don't have the ability to open up a support ticket. However I work at VMware and I'm interested in getting this working for customers that have asked for it.

[HannesK]

hmm, it should be possible to open a case, but nobody would work on it per default. If you post the case number, then I can get it into support.

If there is really no way to open a support ticket, then please export logs and send me a direct message with a download link.

[saintdle]

Link incoming, unable to open a ticket with support via the phone as no company ID to link the license too etc and probably few hoops to jump through.

[saintdle]

Resolved this, thank you Hannes for your assistance. I was using the wrong registry key.

I've documented how to backup vRA 8.x here with the additional settings > https://veducate.co.uk/how-to-backup-vr ... ing-veeam/