vSphere backupscript.d usage

[Jave]

Hello all.

I am currently using vSphere vCenter 4.0.0 (162856), ESX 4.0.0 (175625) and Veeam Backup 4.0. I made a fresh VM (W2k3 32-bit) to test pre-freeze and post-thaw script funtionality but cannot see any evidence on script launhing when Veeam Backup initiates Snapshot.

Backup script is "test.bat" and is located in "c:\program files\vmware\vmware tool\backupscript.d" folder. VM has VMware Tools installed (4.0.0 193498). According to VMware documents this setup should be correct.

In Veeam Backup job has "Enable VMware tools quiescence" enabled and I am using Veeam VSS. Backup mode is vStorage API (SAN with Failover). Backup runs fine and I can see Microsoft and Veeam VSS components doing their job in the event log and SQL test database shows I/O correctly forzen in the application log. However, the script never kicks off.

What am I missing?

Here is the backup script:

Code: Select all

@echo off
if "%1%" == "" goto noparam
if "%1%" == "freeze" goto freeze
if "%1%" == "thaw" goto thaw
if "%1%" == "freezeFail" goto freezeFail
goto wrongparam

:freeze
echo "Freeze" >> c:\test.txt
goto end

:thaw
echo "Thaw" >> c:\test.txt
goto end

:freezeFail
echo "freezeFail" >> c:\test.txt
goto end

:noparam
echo "Parameter not specified" >> c:\test.txt
goto end

:wrongparam
echo "Invalid parameter" >> c:\test.txt

:end
echo "End reached" >> c:\test.txt
exit

[Gostev]

Hello, using Veeam VSS disable VMware Tools quiescence even if it is enabled (including customer scripts). Generally there is no need to use custom scripts if you use Veeam VSS, and vice versa. Thank you.

[Jave]

Sorry for the late reply.

Is there a way to launch some kind of pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts inside VM when using Veeam VSS?

[Gostev]

Hello Zack, no it is not currently possible. Typically if applications running in the VM support Microsoft VSS, you do not need to use custom scripts. And if they do not support Microsoft VSS, then there is no need to enable Veeam VSS integration... you have to use custom scripts.

[Jave]

The reason I'm asking is because I have a VM with 3 instances of IBM SolidDB 4.5 and I would like to shutdown these services before making a backup. vssadmin tool doest not list any writers related to SolidDB, thus I think I should stop these services.

Or is there another recommended way of taking SolidDB backup?

[Gostev]

Yes, just stop/start these services with script, do not use Veeam VSS at all.

[Jave]

Would it be possible in the future versions of Veeam Backup to be able to use pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts and Veeam VSS at the same time? That way I could (nearly) always keep Veeam VSS selected and just add script for those VMs that required services to be stopped.

For example, if I have a domain controller as a VM and I want to back it up. Obviously I want to use Veeam VSS to backup this machine to get proper restore functionality. But if I wanted to stop one service (be it a custom service, not related to Windows or MS) before performing Domain Controller backup, I could not achieve this with current Veeam Backup (4.0). Correct?

[Gostev]

That is correct, but unlike it used to be in "physical" world, people a rarely mixing different application on the same VM today. And for computers with applications like DC, Exchange, SQL best practices of not installing any other apps along is respected even in "physical" world.

But we will consider this feature for future product enhancements.

[Jave]

You are absolutely right. Separating different roles is one of the big upsides that server virtualization offers. And no, I don't have any "custom" service running on my production domain controllers.

However, I can give you and example from production where this kind of functionality would be needed or appreciated. I have a branch office with about 20 users and the use Openfire server and Spark IM Client for internal instant messaging. On the same server there is MSSQL 2005 Express SP2 and Openfire server services with web management interface. Openfire service writes to SQL database and to file system. I would like to stop Openfire service before making a backup.

Couple of options for me to do:

1) Have the SQL database transferred to another server which already hosts only SQL (ERP database server).

Problem: IM database causes stress on ERP database (minimal but it's still there). Openfire server becomes dependent on ERP database server (patches requiring booting etc.)

2) Have another VM host SQL Express for Openfire (Veeam VSS on SQL enabled and disabled on Openfire server, stop service by script)

Problem: Needless growth of Windows licensing cost due to extra VM, host resources

If I could run a script inside a VM when using Veeam VSS, no problem. I could always opt to use Veeam VSS and when needed run scripts to stop services.

Gostev, thanks for your super fast answers.

[Gostev]

Yes, I am not trying to arguing that there are special cases when ability to do this would be useful. This is why I have this feature added to our feature tracking system. There were a few requests for this feature to date already.

[fgw]

anton,

would like to have the ability to run pre/post scripts even in VSS mode too!

so if it's not a big deal for your developers, it would be nice to find it in an upcomig version ...

... add me to the list

thanks