v12 potential bug with static IP in SureBackup

[mcz]

Hi everyone,

since v12, some SureBackup-jobs are failing. I've got some (unmanaged) vm's where no vmware-tools are installed (or could even be installed), that's why I had specified the IP's manually for the test scripts in the application groups. That did work well for v11 but obviously it has changed in v12 - veeam tries to resolve the IP dynamically by %vm_ip%, but that does not work as vmware-tools are not running.

Currently there's an investigation going on via case # 06072320 and I guess I'd receive the answers soon. Just for information for anybody else out there who has a similar setup/issue. Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hello,
just to be clear... you put the IP address in the "arguments" field in the test script section and that worked fine in V11?

In general: if something worked in V11, then it should also work with V12.

Best regards,
Hannes

[mcz]

you put the IP address in the "arguments" field in the test script section and that worked fine in V11?

correct

[mcz]

the engineer wrote me that he was able to reproduce the issue in the lab, so I think from now on it's just a matter of time until the issue gets fixed...

[HannesK]

sounds good. I always recommend to ask support for the bug number (it's a 6-digit number). Then it's possible to check quickly if something was fixed.

[mcz]

Hi Hannes,

got a response from support:

After working on this problem with the developers, here are the conclusions:

1) In VBR 12, Surebackup script execution engine will try to populate %vm_ip% variable at the beginning of the job.
2) Surebackup job for VMware can retrieve vm IP only from VMware Tools.
3) There is no configuration file where %vm_ip% variable could be hardcoded.
4) In VBR 11, Surebackup script execution engine worked in a different way, so hardcoding the vm IP in the script parameters worked.
5) According to the user guide, if a vm does not have VMware tools, it still can be used for Surebackup, but only as an auxiliary vm for other vms in the application group: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

As a workaround, I suggest setting up a more complex application group, where another vm (with VMware Tools) will be checking the availability of the problematic vm.

Frankly speaking, this is disappointing to me. Now I'd have to setup a complicated stuff just to get a properly functioning surebackup-job again, which was the case until v12. I mean the problem here is not the static IP as an argument but the fact that veeam expects an IP via vmwaretools, otherwise it won't start the tests... Is there really no way around it? I bet other customers also have vm's without vmware-tools installed on it...

[HannesK]

Hello,
thanks for coming back on this. We will discuss that and try to find a way to bring back the V11 behavior.

Best regards,
Hannes

[mcz]

Thanks Hannes, appreciate your help!

[mcz]

Hi Hannes,

you can please also take a look at the following case: veeam-backup-replication-f2/surebackup- ... 87141.html
There's another issue in v12 where the behaviour has changed compared to v11... Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hello,
in 12.1 we added the "SureBackupDisablePreferredAddressCheck" (DWORD in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication) registry key with valid values '0' or '1'. It disables ip address lookup for %vm_ip%. Default is false (0).

Let us know, how it goes.

Best regards,
Hannes