Changing vPower NFS Datastore

[tchuyev]

Hi,

How do you modify the vPower NFS datastore after installation, without having to reinstall the product ?
Cheers.

[Arnold]

I changed the location in the registry and then restarted the vPower NFS service. This seems to work OK

HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam Backup and Replication

then on the right change the NFSDefaultRootPath

But if this is not the way please let me know....I don't want to break things

[tchuyev]

It did the trick changing the path from the registry, thanks

However, I'm facing the following issue (which existed beforehand anyway) :
I'm trying to create a new Virtual Lab and from the last screen (Applying Configuration), I get the following error message: "Mounting vPower NFS datastore (Could not find a part of the path 'W:\VEEAM\NFS'.)" ; "Failed to create Virtual Lab (Could not find a part of the path 'W:\VEEAM\NFS'.)"

All permissions are correct...
The path is valid from the Veeam machine

Any ideas? A way to figure out how to troubleshoot this? (logs aren't telling much more)

[Arnold]

No problem

When you are creating the Vritual Lab and going through the options, at the start it asks you for a Datastore, are you selecting your VeeamNFS datastore at this stage?

Have you tried selecting a different randong Datastore?

[Gostev]

One reason of this failure could be W: being mapped drive.

[tchuyev]

Spot on: I had to use UNC path (\\srvaddress\share) to make things work!
A mapped drive just would not work.

Then after, I was able to manually add the NFS share at the ESX level.
Thanks

[Gostev]

Great. Mapped drive is per-user (stored in HKCU), so while you can see it while being logged on interactively, the Veeam Backup service account cannot. Thanks.

[pcruces]

[merged]

Hi, after change in the registry the value: "NFSDefaultRootPath" and remount the NFS on ESX, it gets the same root path.
I try to restart the Veeam services, including NFS, but no changes happens.

Othe cuestion, is it possible to change the default root to a mapp ? ("NFSDefaultRootPath" value for example \\server\folder\)

Regards

[tsightler]

I have the same issue, changing the NFSDefaultRootPath doesn't seem to do anything, although I'm still researching.

[Gostev]

Pretty impossible for this setting not to work as that's where setup writes the setting you specify.
a) Make sure you restart vPower NFS (and other Veeam services, just in case)
b) Make sure you specify at least one subfolder (not just volume root alone)
c) Some weird permission issue on that folder
d) Do you have this folder pointing to some unusual location which may be causing the issue?
e) 5am my time, I can hardly think any more

[tsightler]

It seems obvious I know, but so far it seems to completely ignore this key no matter what I do. Always points to the original location. I haven't been able to restart the other Veeam services because of running jobs, but it still seems hard to believe that this would be it.

I was originally trying to point it at a share, so permissions could have been an issue (although I didn't even see it hitting the share in the logs), but I just created a simple directory called C:\Test and tried to point it there. No go. The service still works, and files dropped on the vPower NFS share show up in their original location. It's as if it's completely ignoring the setting.

[Gostev]

I will ask dev/QC on Monday if they can think of anything else.

[Gostev]

OK, it appears that the setting above is only used when NFS share is first created (which happens during first mount). Once the share is created, it will be using the settings it was created with forever. And looks like in your case, you are trying to change an existing NFS share.

For that, you want to browse to the following registry key, and edit localFolderPath value.

Code: Select all

HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam NFS/Shared Folders/{GUID}

[tsightler]

Yep, I had already discovered it. To add a little complication the "Veeam NFS" node is under the "Wow6432Node" on 64-bit systems because the VeeamNFSSvc.exe is a 32-bit application even on an otherwise 64-bit install. Once I realized it was a 32-bit application it was easier to find the key.

[ccoope@cmers.com]

[merged]

After initially installing our Veeam B&R 5.0.2, we moved around some storage and got access to a larger SAN repository. Is there a way to change the location of the vPower NFS folder, which apparently can only be configured during initial install? Being able to change the VBRCatalog folder would also be great, but not really critical.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Hi Chris, see above. There is also existing topic about Moving VBRCatalog. Thanks.

[twashburn]

Has anyone had a situation where the location reset to the original NFS share location when you run an instance recovery job?
I'm seeing this even though I've made changes to both "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam Backup and Replication/NFSDefaultRootPath" and "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam NFS/Shared Folders/{GUID}/localFolderPath"
First I tried changing just this key "HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam NFS/Shared Folders/{GUID}/localFolderPath" but either way the path resets on the localFolderPath key to the original path when I run the job.

[twashburn]

Disregard, for some reason the changes finally stuck......

[kbachman]

How can I change the default location of the Veeam\NFS folder used in the Instant recovery process. I need this to be in a different location on the same server with more free space.

[slpace]

I believe that the Veeam\NFS store is the same for Instant Recovery as it is for the SureBackup. The NFS folder is where Veeam publishes .vmdk for access during this process both processes. I've learned the hard way this folder needs to be fairly large at least 100GB in order to run multiple VMs in SureBackup. 100 GB is the recommended size for the C:\ when doing the install if you look at the user guide carefully. Unfortunately when we installed veeam we only used 30 GB drives. The redo logs are for any changes made to thes .vmdks I made a seperate datastore for them with 20GB of space.

Also when changing the registry key, you need to restart the whole machine as mine didn't pick up the changes right away. After that it worked like a gem.

[spgsit5upport]

I do not even have HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam NFS/Shared Folders/{GUID} created during default 5.2 installation...

It stopped on HKLM/SOFTWARE/Veeam/Veeam NFS/Shared Folders

Any idea why?

It can be changed by a script - http://vpowercli.net/2011/10/21/changin ... nfs-paths/

But the NFS server service does NOT show any exports (is that normal?)

Seb

[Vitaliy S.]

Are you trying to use native tool that comes with Microsoft NFS server to show vPower NFS exports? I believe it is expected not to see any exports from vPower NFS Server in this case.

[spgsit5upport]

No, I am trying to use vPower NFS to export my ISO folder

Seb

[millerjohnson]

Currently we have the PowerNFS Datastore on one of the volumes of the backup server. We would like to move this to a larger, unused volume. Is this possible and if so how?

We are running Veeam 6.5.0.128.

[Andreas Neufert]

vPower NFS Location is now part of the Repository wizard.
From Backup and Replication Main Screan - Go to left menue - Backup Infrastructure - Repository
change your repositories, there is a own page for vPower NFS.

Choose a vPower NFS Server that has fast Connections to your ESX(i) host vmkernel Interfaces.

I recommend to add the vPower NFS share to a very fast storage space.

[Doug.Butler]

I'm interested in using the vPower NFS folder on the Veeam backup server, for my ISO library (as others have suggested they do). However on my install, it appears this folder is on the system volume (C:) of the machine. I would like to move it, just the same as others have talked about doing.

The most recent post indicates that in the current version (I am running 6.5) you can directly edit the location of the vPower NFS folder under "Backup Infrastructure / Backup Repositories" but I do not currently see any entry in there for the vPower or Instant Recovery NFS folder.

Anyone know where to go to relocate the vPower folder?

[Doug.Butler]

Disregard! I was able to figure it out. The way to modify the location of the vPower NFS folder is to add (or, I suppose, edit) a Repository. One of the steps in the wizard for adding a repository lets you change the location of the vPower NFS root. Nicely, I found that when I changed it in the Wizard, Veeam actually went out and updated the settings on the host where the vPower NFS datastore was registered - I did not need to delete and re-add. Nice!

[Andreas Neufert]

Hi Doug,

thank you for the Feedback. Yes, you have to edit an existing Repository that are on a server that holds the NFS Share. The changed Setting is global for all repositories on that (same) Server.
It is a good idea to place that on fast SCSI Raid 10 disks or (cheap) ssd. This cna help to reduce Storage Latency and write throughput at Instant VM Recovery or VirtualLab situations.

CU Andy