Veeam backups fail when VMware tools is out of date

[Isis]

When the ESX environment is updated, VMwaretools is out of date on the servers and the pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts stop working. Is there a work around for this?

[Vitaliy S.]

Pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts are solely controlled by VMware Tools, so it's better to double-check that with VMware community forums. However, if these scripts stop executing with out-of-date VMware Tools, I believe there should be a reason for that (script home path change etc.). Thanks!

[tsightler]

VMware has changed the location of such files quite a few times over the years. For example, if you are coming from version old versions (3.5 U1 and earlier), the files were in "C:\Windows", while for 3.5 U2 it was "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d\". Then, when 4.x came out it was "C:\Windows\backupScripts.d", and finally, with 5.0, supposedly it worked in either of the final two locations. For all I know they've changed it again with 5.1 although I haven't heard that. I don't know if it's moved as much on the Linux side of things, but it wouldn't surprise me.

So yes, you should make sure that VMware Tools quiescence is enabled in the Veeam job and then verify the scripts are in the correct location for your current version. As Vitaliy said, the VMware forums might offer more advice.