VMKernel error when attempting FLR from Other OS

[VMartinez]

Hi! I'm a complete newbie to Veeam B&R and just beginning to learn VMWare. Our company has 6 VM installations on different networks with Veeam B&R 5.0 installed on a stand-alone Windows machine at each location, along with VMWare Player 3.1.4. I am trying to learn how to perform a FLR, particulary for Other OS (Linux).

When I go through the FLR wizard, Tools --> File Level Restore --> Other OS, I select the VM and restore point, enter a reason, then select the Customize button in the Completing the Multi-OS FLR Wizard window. In the FLR Appliance Configuration window I select the Choose button, then select one of the two VM Hosts presented in the cluster. It attempts to validate the host, then displays the error "The selected host does not have VMKernel interface configured on Veeam Backup server network. Without VMKernel interface, the host will not be able to access vPower NFS server. Please add VMKernel interface to host using vSphere Client and try again."

First of all, am I supposed to use VMWare Player to create a virtual machine for the appliance first? I've read several posts by others who are using this method, but they didn't give me any clue as to the step-by-step process. Does anyone know of a document that describes it in detail?

2nd, I opened a case with Veeam tech support about the above error message, and their response was that I was going about it the right way but that I would have to contact VMWare tech support about the error message. Can anyone offer me some guidance here? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Hi,

You do not need VMware Player at all with Veeam v5.

Also, based on what you say above, you do not really need to contact VMware support, as this error message is from our product. You just need to implement what the error message says (open ESX settings and add VMkernel interface on the network where Veeam Backup server resides). You can refer to VMware documentation on how to do this. Our support should be able to assist you with this as well via webex.

Thanks!

[VMartinez]

I appreciate the quick response. I am sorry for being so timid about this, but I don't have a test environment to experiment with, so I have to be pretty careful. There's a LOT of VMware documentation to wade through. I'm not sure whether I'm on the right track. Are you saying I need to set up VMKernel Networking? Is that what they mean by adding a VMKernel Interface?

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Hi, in that case please just ping our support, and they will guide you through this over the phone or webex. You just got unlucky with your support rep I guess. Most would just guide you through setting this setting up over the phone or webex right away. While the response is technically correct, it makes little sense to point you to VMware support in this specific case. Thanks.

[VMartinez]

I'll give them another shot. Thanks!