How to backup larger than max size LUN's?

[lokiju]

I recently added a VM that has the largets provisioned LUN to date in our environment. The LUN is just under 2TB.

I can't seem to get it to backup and according to the error message it looks like it's due to how large the LUN is.

The error I get is.


Freezing guest operating system
CreateSnapshot failed, vmRef "vm-2026", timeout "1800000", snName "VEEAM BACKUP TEMPORARY SNAPSHOT", snDescription "Please do not delete this snapshot. It is being used by Veeam Backup.", memory "False", quiesce "False"
File <unspecified filename> is larger than the maximum size supported by datastore '<unspecified datastore>


How do I get these LUN's and VM backed up if they exceed the limits?

The guest OS is Server 2003 Standard 32bit.

The host environment is ESXi 4.1 Enterprise Plus.

I'm running Veeam Backup & Replication 5.0.0.179 64bit.

The Veeam server is a VM in the same environment and everything else is being backed up using the virtual appliance method.

[Gostev]

LUN where VMX file for VM resides must large enough block size to accomodate largest VM disk. This is because by default, VMware creates snapshot file on the VMX datastore.

By the way, if you try to snapshot this VM manually with vSphere client, you will get the same error - so really, this issue has nothing to deal with Veeam Backup.

[lokiju]

I understand that limitation, I'm wondering though if there is anyway I can backup large LUN VM's without needing a snapshot?

[Gostev]

Only with agent inside of guest

VMware image level backup requires snapshot to be created, otherwise hot backup will not be possible even theoretically.