Problems with source server lost. BUG IN VEEAM

[cag]

It seems the design of veeam tracking source to destination is very unpredicable, and breaks replications.
Why doesn't this work.

1. add ESXI Hosts to veeam.
2. create Job to replicate VM from host to another ESXI Host.
3. Complete replication of VM
4. Add Vcenter host to veeam
5. create another replication of VM from Vcenter
6. complete replication.
7. Start replication job created in step. 2
Replication fails with unable to find server. WTF.

Other symptons are when you look at the source server to recalulate disk space it displays "not available.

All my backup jobs also don't work anymore. ?????????

8 Remove VCENTER from Veeam.

Now all the replication and backup jobs created from VM on host work again. WTF BUG in VEEAM.

[Gostev]

Anything at all can be broken if used improperly. What you are doing is simply not supported and against product documentation. As per how-to step-by-step provided directly in the product (looks for 1-2-3 right-hand side pane), you need to register your infrastructure first, before creating any jobs. When registering the infrastructure, you need to make a decision whether you want to add your infrastructure by specifying vCenter which is recommended, or by adding standalone hosts (but not doing both things). After you register the infrastructure, you need to proceed to the next step (creating the job). You can certainly have multiple jobs processing the same VM, what is causing the issue here is having the infrastructure added two times in a different ways. Thanks.

[cag]

You Dont think this is a problem. Things change. Processes change. Infustructure changes. I dont think I should need to worry about the what and when I add things.
This is just a bad design period. Your application doesn't store enough info about the source. Needs to store if added via ESXI host or via Vcenter. Seems you only lookup the UUID keyed to the Name of the server. If multiple answers are found it picks the first one found. This is a easy fix.

If adding additional servers or Vcenters at a later time will break things, then the interface then should tell you what will stop working and why. But I think the programmers would be embrassed to put this in knowing what a bad design this is.

I need both VCENTER and ESXI Hosts because your product cannot VSS a vcentre server using Vcenter ( already explained in other posts ) and moving VM's between hosts breaks your application if using ESXI hosts.

[Gostev]

This is just a bad design period. Your application doesn't store enough info about the source. Needs to store if added via ESXI host or via Vcenter. Seems you only lookup the UUID keyed to the Name of the server. If multiple answers are found it picks the first one found. This is a easy fix.

If adding additional servers or Vcenters at a later time will break things, then the interface then should tell you what will stop working and why. But I think the programmers would be embrassed to put this in knowing what a bad design this is.

Reading through my response above, the deployment configuration you are trying to use, and are having design complaints about, is simply unsupported in our product. It causes various issues affecting more than one feature (not just what you mentioned below, but also SureBackup for example). Sure thing, you can find plenty of "bugs" and "bad design" decisions when using the product in an unsupported way (for example, you will find even more bugs if you try to install our product on Windows NT4).

The only time you should be adding already added ESX host again as standalone server, is a workaround to backup virtual vCenter server. Note that the UI won't even let you to add standalone ESX host by its name, because it will detect that the host has been already added through vCenter. This pretty clearly tells you that such configuration is not supported. This is the reason why, as a part of this workaround, you actually have to "cheat" the UI by adding ESX host using IP address, so that UI does not "recognize" it and blocks you from adding it again.

I need both VCENTER and ESXI Hosts because your product cannot VSS a vcentre server using Vcenter ( already explained in other posts ) and moving VM's between hosts breaks your application if using ESXI hosts.

But why add vCenter VM to jobs configured through vCenter when its processing would fail anyway? And from your first post it looks like you did just that (added the same vCenter VM to multiple jobs, one configured through standalone host, and other through vCenter).

You should only have a single job that includes vCenter VM, and that should be your only job configured through standalone host. Adding vCenter VM to other jobs that are configured through vCenter is simply pointless (yet this is what caused the original issue described in this topic).

Thanks.

[cag]

Well the design should not be so limited / supported config's. Its a simple fix. and should be added to future releases. Changing your list of sources and destinations should never break exisiting JOBS.

[Gostev]

Its a simple fix.

Loved it

Realistically, it is unlikely that we will invest development resources in improving support for deployment scenario that is only used as a workaround for vCenter VM backup. We'd much rather invest in making sure vCenter VM is backed up transparently (aka "just works") even when you backup it was the job configured through vCenter server, without having users to mess with any workarounds.

Thanks.