8.0 - Disable VMware Tools not found warning

[sfpp]

And another two:

my old #00803552 (2015-Feb-19 !!!)

and a new #00963441 (today)

[topgunx11]

And another two:

my old #00803552 (2015-Feb-19 !!!)

and a new #00963441 (today)

This is a big and bad issues introduced with Veeam 8.
Have you thought to downgrade to Veeam 7?
This is ridiculous , I know.. but this is imposed by Veeam

[sfpp]

Up Up... People help us to fix this issues introduced with Veeam 8

Regards

[sfpp]

Why Veeam team is not able or interested to fix this simple bug introduced with Veeam 8?
One "-if- or -case-" into a function for fix it and make us happy.
Why we need to pay for support?
Regards
PS: This is strange but I have never seen anything implemented by Veeam about reports and problems

[Gostev]

This is strange but I have never seen anything implemented by Veeam about reports and problems

Wow, are you serious right now?

[sfpp]

Hello Gostev,
yes... Unfortunately...
Veeam is a great software but the support/fix/implementation is not efficient for me.
This case is a simple example or check my other case...(by support and not forum)
Regards

[Gostev]

support/fix/implementation is not efficient for me.
This case is a simple example or check my other case

Well, one thing you do have to understand is that this software is not developed for you specifically (or anyone else in particular). We don't do custom development - we build a box product for over 157,000 customers to use. Based, on latest virtualization statistics from top analyst firms, we estimate to be protecting about 20% of virtual machines in the world. So, as you can imagine, there are hundreds of enhancements requests being submitted by our users, and each of these enhancement must be prioritized somehow. And of course, the only fair way to do this is by the amount of requests.

In other words, yes - you should not expect that YOUR specific requests will be immediately addressed - unless our support has dozens of similar requests... otherwise, the priority will be given to those enhancement requests why are backed by large amount of support cases from multiple customers. Obviously, we cannot deliver everything at once - we must pick and choose.

Now, regarding this specific case. As I've already mentioned earlier in this topic, this specific request simply did not generate enough support cases to be considered for inclusion in the update. Keep in mind that enhancements and fixes selection for product updates is driven solely by our support engineers - they tell us exactly what must be fixed ASAP, and what can wait - and they base this decision on the amount of support cases open on the corresponding problem.

Other than that, I can assure that all we did at Veeam for the past 8 years was listening to our users and addressing their needs, requests and problems. So, saying that "I have never seen anything implemented by Veeam about reports and problems" is like saying that Veeam did not have a single product release in the past 8 years. Because EVERY feature we ever released was based on feedback from our users.

[sfpp]

Well, one thing you do have to understand is that this software is not developed for you specifically (or anyone else in particular). We don't do custom development

Sure!
But this issue was introduced with Veeam 8!
Version 7 work correcty.... and in this case this is not a "special development but a FIX request".

In other words, yes - you should not expect that YOUR specific requests will be immediately addressed

Immediately? ..Sure, i know.. this post/case was open about 1 Year ago! Check it..

Now, regarding this specific case. As I've already mentioned earlier in this topic, this specific request simply did not generate enough support cases to be considered for inclusion in the update.

This statement is really bad for someone who regularly pays support

Looking at the code i'm sure this is a simple fix (about 1 minutes for disable warning or about 10 min for introduce a "special flag/variable" for disable/fix it)
There is a function for check if VMware is running, but not updated, if it's not running, if it's not present, etc...
Changing the "type of output (case)" in case of "VMware Tools not found state" the fix is done!

Thanks to Veeam support

Regards

[Gostev]

But this issue was introduced with Veeam 8!
Version 7 work correcty.... and in this case this is not a "special development but a FIX request".

Perhaps you did not read this thread carefully before commenting. As explained on the first page, this change was intentional (based on actual requests from your fellow users). It is not a "bug" we introduced in v8 that must be "fixed". Rather, it was a response to large amount of issues while processing VMs without VMware Tools that our customers faced.

Immediately? ..Sure, i know.. this post/case was open about 1 Year ago! Check it.

Checked and first post was 9 months ago. We did not have new releases after that - only updates. For which, as explained earlier, the feature set is determined by support based on the amount of support case. And that is, by the way, with over 80,000 users having already upgraded to v8. There must be sufficient amount of support cases open to justify the inclusion in an update - as opposed to the next release.

Looking at the code i'm sure this is a simple fix (about 1 minutes for disable warning or about 10 min for introduce a "special flag/variable" for disable/fix it).

We don't do fixes or enhancements just because they are simple. There are probably hundreds of those pending that would fall under the above definition perfectly. We only deliver the top ones, that are most requested. You are missing the fact that every change may potentially affect many other functionality, so even a 10 minute code change may require days of testing, and even more days of fixing stuff it breaks (and then re-testing). For example, if other functionality starts to throw unexplainable error message due to this change, or just plain fail due to lack of VMware Tools - we need to go back and introduce new error handles with new error messages all over the place. And again, as I already mentioned earlier in this post - these many issues were actually the very reason for this change in v8! Finally, another consideration is that as soon as we add any functionality, we need to support it forever (re-test with every release), which immediately doubles the amount of related test scenario.

As you can probably see by now, it is never a "10 minutes" solution. This is exactly why we don't do fixes or enhancements just because they are simple. Nevertheless, what you are saying regarding is actually very typical misconception, as software development is nothing close to how it looks for those who were never involved in one...

But regardless, one thing you can be sure of with Veeam, is that any enhancement request will be addressed eventually - based on its relative priority, that is in turned defined by the amount of support cases. This is why we always invite people to open a support case first and foremost for any technical issue they are experiencing - we want to track the actual need in the bigger picture, across the entire customer base.

By the way, just wanted to explicitly note that I am not "arguing" with you, in case if it comes across as such - I am just trying to be 100% transparent and clear on how everything works at Veeam, so as to set the correct expectations on your end.

[sfpp]

Hello Gostev and all Veeam user!

Today we are happy....

Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0 Update 3
http://www.veeam.com/kb2068

Code: Select all

Added ability to convert "VMware Tools not found" job warning to informational event. To enable this behavior, set DisableVMwareToolsNotFoundWarning (REG_DWORD) registry value to 1.

Adding DisableVMwareToolsNotFoundWarning to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication" it solved our warning/iusse!

Thanks again to the Team!

[jdgs]

Great news!

Allows us now to see much more clearly where actual problems exist for some VMs!

[rreed]

Hey this is great, but where do we apply the registry fix please? (Veeam server, proxies, etc?)

[Vitaliy S.]

Should be applied on the backup server. Thanks!

[serg38]

Thanks Veeam for listening to our request. It works perfectly. Since U3 Release notes doesn't have detailed instructions on how to add it registry you can save the following lines as a .reg file and import in to Backup andRecovery server(s)

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication]
"DisableVMwareToolsNotFoundWarning"=dword:00000001

[stevenrodenburg1]

Well, it's not working for me...

I installed Patch 3 and implemented the registry-fix but i still get these "Cannot use VMware Tools quiescence because VMware Tools are not running." warnings, causing the entire backup-job to end with a warning.

I have a separate job for a whole bunch of Virtual Appliances. They are all Linux based and one of them, a Teradici PCoIP Management appliance, simply has no VMtools in it. The option "Enable VMware tools quiescence" is enabled for the job.
This appliance is backed-up fine but always ends with the before mentioned warning. All the other appliances are shipped with VMware tools in them and trigger no warnings.

Am i doing something wrong or do i have an incorrect expectation?
I triple-checked if the Reg.key is written correctly and is in the right place etc. and it all checks out. I rebooted the backup-master-server twice out of sheer desperation (ok, drama-queen alert) but all to no avail.

[foggy]

Steven, please let support take a look at your setup.

[serg38]

I seem to remember seeing warning for VM that have VMTools installed but not running even after the registry fix. In our environment it is OK since OPS can go and fix the offending VM. For Vms that have no VMtools installed warning is converted into Informational log entry.

[stevenrodenburg1]

"For Vms that have no VMtools installed warning is converted into Informational log entry."

Nope, it doesn't. It acts like the reg.key is not there and still says "warning" instead of "informational".

[serg38]

I agree with foggy. Let Veeam support take a look at your issue. It would be nice if you post the outcome of their investigation here.

[dcolpitts]

Any update here? I have this same issue at a couple of client sites now. The regedit does nothing.

dcc

[foggy]

Dean, please make sure the clients are actually on Update 3 and contact technical support directly, after confirming this. Cannot give you an update, since there're no case IDs reported for this issue in the thread.

[dcolpitts]

They are definitely on Update 3. I was hoping to avoid the time sink that is calling support (any vendor's support call is a time sync )

Thanks

dcc

[singy2002]

Since no one has posted that this has been raised as a support incident i have just logged it.

Ref: 01233728

Encountering the issue despite the reg key being added with Patch 3. In this instance the VM in question is a SCO VM which does not have a VM Tools VM as far as i know.

[plandata_at]

Please include this option in a future update.
The reg key is no solution, because the regkey changes the behavior in the behavior from warning to informational, and the information of the missing tools is shown in the job history, but in the email with job status even the information of the missing tools is gone!! Change from warning to ifnormational is ok, but the information can'Ät be missing in the email when information is there in the jobhistory!

[dcolpitts]

1.) Enable the regedit...
2.) Edit the job and go to the Guest Processing tab
3.) Click the Applications Button
4.) Edit the VM in question
5.) Disable application processing

Application-aware processing won't work if VMware Tools is not installed anyways because there is no way for VMware to send the queice commands into the VM... Right?

I confirmed these steps with support last month. In my case it was a replication job of a vendor supplied FreeBSD appliance without VMware Tools that had Application Processing enabled that was causing the issue.

dcc

[foggy]

Change from warning to ifnormational is ok, but the information can'Ät be missing in the email when information is there in the jobhistory!

Why you would change it from warning to informational, if you still want to see it in the report?

[plandata_at]

When looking at the GUI (Veeam Console) you can see that every backupjob worked fine because all is ok (green), while you are still able to take a deeper look if there are any VMs who should have vmware tools installed but haven't (text vmware tools are not found is displayed)
But in the email log, the text is not there, so everything worked fine but you are not able to take a deeper look.
In my opinion the best solution would be to be able to make exceptions of the tool quiesence like the VSS exceptions, and the second best option (more a workaround) would be to change the warning to informational (like the registry key does), but leave the information text there also in the email (like it is in the console) to leave the ability to take a closer look on which VMs tools are missing.

I think many customers may have VM appliances without the ability to install vmware tools, but still don't want a warning on the backupjob every day. (so is it a warning you can ignore, or is it a real warning?)
--> Feauture Request!

[foggy]

Ok, if you want to have all greens for your jobs, but still interested in monitoring VMware Tools status and version, I can suggest using Veeam ONE VMs Configuration report for that.

[rnelson0]

From https://twitter.com/rnelson0/status/705794906187571200 and https://twitter.com/rnelson0/status/706108021420728321

We do backups by folders, as I am sure many do. We have a folder for "non tools" VMs and a related job. That's kind of annoying. We also occasionally have VMs where Tools stops running. While it's nice to be aware of this, we don't really use Veeam as a monitoring solution. In fact, we really only want to get emails when backup jobs fail or have to retry. But because VMware tools not running generates a Warning, we get a lot of false negatives for Warnings. We DO see some Warnings where there are IPC or other issues, so we cannot disable Warning emails, too.

Solution: Add a checkbox under "Enable VMware Tools Quiescence" that says "Do not generate warnings when VMware Tools is not running", or similar. This would reduce false negative emails, reduce the number of backup jobs, and allow us to put VMs in the folder they belong in instead of a "No Tools Installed" folder tree.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Thanks Rob, I will discuss this with the devs.