Backup/Copy a VM in a running Surebackup job

[pmalagese]

I have a surebackup job running where I'm testing an upgrade. I would like to save one of the VM's in this surebackup job to use later. Is it possible to backup or copy a vm runnning in a surebackup job?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Paul,

Yes, of course. Since this VM will be running on the ESXi host, you can VeeamZIP/Backup/Replicate this VM if you want to preserve its state after applying patches or after performing application upgrades.

Thanks!

[pmalagese]

I tried to backup, vm copy, and veeamzip. The jobs run and shows it's succeeding but the files it's producing are less than a MB. I'm showing that the jobs are skipping the drives: (Disk '[VeeamBackup_CHABK01] LCEAS01_861a1f2540184923b122d1369bee073c/LCEAS01.vmdk' has been skipped due to unsupported type (independent).
Any thoughts?

[veremin]

Independent disks are not supported, since they can't be snapshoted. That's why they are skipped during backup process.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

[chrisdearden]

Independent disks are not supported, since they can't be snapshoted. That's why they are skipped during backup process.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.

I@m guessing the question is more around why disks are set to independent as part of a surebackup / virtual lab. Would the be related to the location of the vpower datastore to hold writes ? ( on the backup server or a specificed datastore )

[pmalagese]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. In what cases is it possible to save these VMs in a surebackup job? Do all surebackup jobs use independant disks?

[chrisdearden]

I will quickly test and see if this is affected by the vpower cache config.

[veremin]

@m guessing the question is more around why disks are set to independent as part of a surebackup / virtual lab.

Yep, my bad.

What you’re talking about seems to be the exact OP’s issue.

Thanks for correcting me.

[chrisdearden]

I can repeat this in our lab - just seeing if there is a workaround.

[chrisdearden]

I've tested this with instant restore and can't replicate - VM powered on or off disks redirected or not.

[tsightler]

Surebackup uses a different method for attaching the disk compared to Instant Restore. VMs that are running in a Surebackup configuration use Independent, Nonpersistent disk, with the REDO disk mapped to the datastore selected as part of the vLab configuration wizard. Because the disks are all "Independent" you cannot back them up, and because the REDO is "Non-persistent" powering off the VM loses any changes.

[chrisdearden]

Thanks Tom - every day is a School day ! I don't recall any way to take the disks out of that mode and keep the VM online either , so no sneaky Copy jobs.

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, Tom is right, if you're running SB jobs, then you cannot backup/replication powered on VMs from the lab, as VM disks will be marked as independent. If you need to move this VM I would suggest using File Copy jobs, might do the trick.

[tsightler]

While it might be possible to use a File Copy job to copy the base disk, I don't think this will help with what the OP wanted to accomplish as that's really no different than simply restoring the VM since the base disk does not contain the current VM state. All of the changes that occur to the VM in the vLab are written to the REDO file which will be "in-use" and not able to be copied with a File Copy job while the VM is powered on and powering off the VM will cause all of the changes to be lost. I'm not sure if there's any way to preserve a VM in this state, although I'll admit I've never tried, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a way right now. Perhaps it would be possible to "suspend" the VM and then copy it, but would you really be able to reregister it and use it in the future? Might have to test this out.