ESXi 5.1 Update 1 and Veeam B&R 6.5

[naveed_ahmed]

Hello,

Yesterday VMware has released VMware vSphere 5.1 Update 1. Any idea which version of Veeam One and Backup/Replication is compatible with vSphere 5.1 Update 1.

Thanks,

[m.novelli]

Hi, someone already tested ESXi 5.1 Update 1 with Veeam B&R 6.5?
I would like to update ASAP my customers because it solve a couple annoying issues that I'm facing
Many thanks

Marco

[Gostev]

Typically, we do not perform any testing of update releases, because they are nothing but collection of all existing ESXi patches built directly into the new vSphere build. We did not plan for testing this time either, but I can arrange a smoke test if you feel this is necessary for whatever considerations. Please let us know.

[desmond shio]

Hi,

I did updated patch-5.1update1 to my production VMware this morning, so far until now everything working fine.
Not sure other.

Thanks

[VladV]

It seems that VDDK also gets an update to 5.1.1 from 5.1:

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer ... notes.html

[jermen]

Any idea when VEEAM 6.5 is official fully compatible with this update? We have several customers were we would like to update the VMWare environment.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi John,

Have you had a chance to read Anton's digest from this weekend and the previous one?

We do still have the official smoke test scheduled for the next week by our QC, and I will keep you posted on the forums if we find any issues.

In my previous digest, I have announced the availability of vCenter 5.1 Update 1, so now I am obliged to follow up with the following info as well. Last week, a critical issue was found in this update, and VMware recommends that customers who might be potentially affected do not upgrade. Please read the issue description carefully > ALERT: Login issue after updating to vCenter 5.1 Update 1. And remember to never rush upgrading to new product releases, no matter who your software vendor is.

Thanks!

[dvp]

veeam 6.5 supported vsphere 5.1 U1?

[m.novelli]

Hi Veeam guys, I've just installed a little Vmware Infrastructure (2 hosts with local storage) and one Veeam Backup server (I've reused an old server with dual-quad core processors and 12 GB ram, quite powerful). Latest version both for vSphere and Veeam Backup.

I'm facing a strange issue with NBD backup: they are terribly slow. The network card on the Veeam Backup server has a spike to 50-60% usage, then stay idle for 5 minutes, then again a spike, then idle...

I've installed dozens of Vmware Infrastructures and Veeam Backup servers but I don't remember a similar issue. Could be related to vSphere 5.1 U1? Or to the updated VDDK 5.1.1?

One note: downloading files from vSphere with Datastore Browser to Veeam Backup server is superfast.

Actually I've bypassed the problem installing a proxy in a VM, in this way the backups are quite fast (40-50 MB/sec) but if someone from Veeam want to look at the logs I can open a ticket

Cheers,

Marco

[veremin]

if someone from Veeam want to look at the logs I can open a ticket

Yep, definitely.

We’re more than willing to ensure that our product is stable and performing well in up-to-date virtual environments. So, kindly open a ticket with our support team and provide us with the corresponding ticket number, so that, we can follow you.

Additionally, just out of curiosity – what are the bottleneck statistics for these jobs?

Anyway, I glad that you’ve managed to bypass this issue.

Thanks.

[m.novelli]

Hi, I've opened the case 00206430
in NBD mode the bottelneck is reported as the source

5/16/2013 9:55:22 AM :: Busy: Source 99% > Proxy 8% > Network 0% > Target 5%
5/16/2013 9:57:12 AM :: Busy: Source 86% > Proxy 24% > Network 16% > Target 20%
5/16/2013 10:00:44 AM :: Busy: Source 83% > Proxy 28% > Network 20% > Target 11%
5/16/2013 10:02:01 AM :: Busy: Source 99% > Proxy 42% > Network 1% > Target 74%

cheers,

Marco

[Vitaliy S.]

Marco, can you please switch/force your HotAdd proxy to network mode and see what performance you will get for a full backup job pass? Just want to make sure that this is not a proxy NIC issue.

[m.novelli]

Hi, I've forced the proxy VM to NBD and the issue reappeared: one high spike of network utilization of the Veeam Backup server, the 4-5 minutes at 0%, then again a spike of 30 seconds-1 minute, then...

I'm going to send a couple of screenshots of the issue to support

Marco

[Vitaliy S.]

Looks like there is something to do with the ESX(i) host management network, let's wait and see what our support team can say based on the logs review.

[m.novelli]

Yup, it could be. I've tested right now both Vmware hosts and they exhibit the same strange behavior during Veeam backups
The host are Dell R420 servers with 2 vmnic both active on the VM Network
The vmnic are BCM5720

Marco

[infused]

Any idea when VEEAM 6.5 is official fully compatible with this update? We have several customers were we would like to update the VMWare environment.

I wouldn't update your customers so quickly if it was me... wait it out. It's just a collection of patches.

[Moebius]

Any official stand from Veeam yet about VB&R 6.5 compatibility against ESXi 5.1 U1? Has the smoke test been carried out yet?

[foggy]

Tests were successful so we can say that this update is supported by Veeam B&R v6.5.

[buck]

I upgraded to 5.1 U1 a couple of weeks ago, and the only issue I ran into was backup jobs failing due to incorrect username/password errors. Just had to edit the backup jobs & re-enter the correct info, then everything was fine. Not sure if the new sign-in stuff in Update 1 was the issue or not, but either way, a quick fix & everything's running fine.

[Libertas]

Hi Veeam,
At the risk of dotting the I's and crossing the T's, can you please confirm that Veeam B&R version 6.5.0.128 (64bit) is fully compatible with vSphere Center and ESXi 5.1 Update 1a?
Thank you,

[Vitaliy S.]

Our internal lab is running on this update, and so far we haven't seen any issues with this configuration.

[foggy]

As far as I understand, Update 1a is applicable to vCenter Server only (not ESXi host itself) and is similar to Update 1 that has been removed from the downloads and replaced by the Update 1a having identical functionality and addressing the issue when you were unable to log in to vCenter Server using domain credentials.

[Libertas]

Our internal lab is running on this update, and so far we haven't seen any issues with this configuration.

Hi Vitaliy,
I appreciate the fact that within your labs this is running without a problem, and that probably answers my questions.
However, given that this is a production environment, I require confirmation that this VMware release has been certified by Veeam and that Veeam will fully support the configuration if I encounter a problem. I completely understand that the guys at Veeam are the sort to always provide help and support, but I need the official stance from Veeam before I roll-out to my environment.
Are you able to confirm?
Many thanks,

[Libertas]

As far as I understand, Update 1a is applicable to vCenter Server only (not ESXi host itself) and is similar to Update 1 that has been removed from the downloads and replaced by the Update 1a having identical functionality and addressing the issue when you were unable to log in to vCenter Server using domain credentials.

Hi Foggy,
You are correct, and I may have confused matters.
What I wish Veeam to confirm is that the current B&R version is fully compatible and tested to run with:
ESXi 5.1.0 Update 1 - 1065491
vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1a - 1123966
Thank you,

[foggy]

Mentioned updates are fully supported by Veeam B&R v6.5, you can safely deploy it and use against such environment. Thanks.

[Gostev]

I require confirmation that this VMware release has been certified by Veeam

As per my first post in this topic, we do not certify patches and micro-updates (1a, 1b etc.). These are coming out too often, and it is simply unrealistic to be performing full regressive testing on each and every one of them. We do install them in our test labs, so if they bring any major issues, we see those immediately.

If you are worried specifically about Veeam support, we will always support "the latest and greatest" in term of patch/update level. In fact, we typically require that all the latest patches and service packs are installed, because this is how we run our QC labs internally (and because they are released to address real bugs).

If you really want to be on a safe side, I don't recommend jumping software updates.

There are two best practices around any software update:
1. Wait a few month after it is released before installing.
2. Test the update in YOUR environment before rolling it out to production.

If the testing/certification process was able to uncover all possible issues, software would not have bugs at all... but, this is not the case (look at the amount of vCenter 5.1 updates in the past few months alone). So, don't put too much trust in testing and certification - it is impossible to test every scenario, and every environment.

[jamerson]

i can confirm it working fine with the new ESXI updates,
i have over 20 host on my produtions and all is working fine,