Excluded disk in Backup causes SureBackup job to fail.

[cparker4486]

Hello,

Though mostly unrelated to the original, this is a follow up to my other thread on the topic of SureBackup (http://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-re ... 22261.html).

The problem I've run into is that my SureBackup job is failing due to a missing disk. This disk is missing from the source backup because it was excluded from the backup. I don't see a way to tell the SureBackup job that this disk has been excluded. The error is "Error: File SQL-01_2.vmdk was not found".

How do I work around this?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Chris,

Can you please tell me if you have this checkbox enabled for the source backup job?

Thanks!

[cparker4486]

Yes, I do. However, this job is a "dummy" job that I created just so that I could map the files from a Backup Copy job (so that I could run this SureBackup job.)

[Vitaliy S.]

Hmm... can you check the config file of this VM in the backup files created by your backup copy job? You can do that via restore VM files wizard. Do you see the records about excluded disk still in place?

[cparker4486]

Yes, it is still present in the .vmx. I even went back and restored the .vmx file from my main backup job for this VM and it too has the disk still present. The strange part is that I verified that my job's definition has the box checked to "Remove excluded disks from VM configuration." See the screenshot below.

[Vitaliy S.]

Are you running on the latest patch level of Veeam B&R v7?

[cparker4486]

Yes. 7.0.0.871.

[Vitaliy S.]

I have passed this information to our QC team for verification. Meanwhile, can you please use SureBackup job/Instant VM Recovery feature to bring the required VM to the ESXi host and then use regular backup job to back it up? In this case VM config file should be updated properly.

[cparker4486]

Thanks for reporting this to QC but are you also saying that I should be expecting a fix soon? I hope all my backups of this VM are not useless.

Also, as to your instructions, I'm thoroughly confused. I am trying to run an Application Group with three VMs but this VM is preventing that from working. So does that mean I need to restore all three VMs using Instant Recovery and then re-backup those VMs to keep them all together?

[Vitaliy S.]

The backups are not useless, the main backup job should not have these issues during Full VM restores, SureBackup and Instant VM recovery tasks, no worries. The reason why you still see these records in the VMX file is that we adjust this file on the VM restore process, the instructions on what disks to exclude are stored in the backup files themselves.

So does that mean I need to restore all three VMs using Instant Recovery and then re-backup those VMs to keep them all together?

Not really, I was trying to say that you can try to use regular backup job and not backup copy job to pull the required VM out of the existing large backup file from the main job.

[cparker4486]

Not really, I was trying to say that you can try to use regular backup job and not backup copy job to pull the required VM out of the existing large backup file from the main job.

I see I see. I will try that. Thanks.

[cparker4486]

Unfortunately, that doesn't work. So I need to have this disk issue resolved. I'll open a ticket.

[Vitaliy S.]

Please post your case ID, so I could discuss it with the engineering team.

[cparker4486]

#00593312

[cparker4486]

The problem ended up being that a long time ago a new instance of this VM was created in my inventory (the reason for which I don't recall) but I never re-added the exclusion with the new VM. I didn't notice this because the disk itself is independent so it, by default, was never included and therefore didn't make my backup files jump to an outrageous size.