compatibility Veeam - VMware Fault Tolerance

[vbussiro]

As you can't snapshot a fault tolerant vm, I guess I cannot backup a fault tolerant vm, right ? I tried with 3.1.1 and VCB SAN mode, it failed. Maybe a special procedure ?

[Gostev]

No, it is impossible to backup FT VM with any tools at this time
http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... 1688#p6900

[riccardo]

Hi,
does veeam backup 5.0 support vsphere Fault Tolerance?
Thanks

[Gostev]

At the moment, no image-level backup solution supports fault tolerance, because VMware does not support creating snapshots on such VMs, which is a requirement for image-level VMware backup. vStorage API for Data Protection can only work with snapshots (its functions require passing snapshot ID as mandatory parameter). Thanks!

[joergr]

Riccardo,

VMware FT has still two main problems (where VMware is working on):

a) it can have only one single vcpu,
b) it cannot have any snapshot.

The only way to really backup a FT enabled vm is to backup it with some imaging tool (for example drive snapshot by tom ehlert) from within the guest or if using newer windows servers you could use windows backup to create a bare level somewhere to the network.

Best regards,
Joerg

[PeterCox]

The V5 release notes contain the statement - 'Processing of vSphere Fault-Tolerant (FT) VMs is not supported.'

Can someone explain why this is a restriction and how one goes about backing up and/or replicating a VM guest with FT enabled?

Replication to a DR site is the minimum requirement in our environment.

[Bunce]

Assuming you can't snapshot them, you can't back them up using any product that relies on snapshots.

You'll need a guest agent.

[Gostev]

Talk to VMware they have been promising this for a while now.

[johnny@datafant.se]

[merged]

Hello,

I was just told from your support that I cannot use VB to backup FT-enabled vm:s even if the vm:s have FT disabled.
Why is this ?
Vmware suggests to temporarily disable FT when I, for instance, want to clone a FT protected vm.
So why haven´t you made it possible ?

Regards,

Johnny

[Vitaliy S.]

Johnny,

As soon as you're able to create snapshot for FT VMs then you can use Veeam B&R to backup those VMs.

[johnny@datafant.se]

[merged]

Hello,

In current version of VB, you cannot backup FT-protected vm:s even if FT is disabled.
You have to "Turn Off" FT to make this possible.

Will this be possible in next version/build of VB ?

Regards,

Johnny

[Vitaliy S.]

No, because you cannot create snapshot for VMs with FT disabled, and all VM image based backup solution rely on snapshots. You need to turn FT off to make it work.

[felixx4]

[merged]

Hi,

Just wondering what the best way to back up FT VM's in Vsphere. Thanks!

[dellock6]

Until VMware does not release some vSphere version with the ability to snapshot FT VMs, best (and only) way is still to have an agent inside the VM and backup the operating system from inside.

Luca.

[SFBCIC]

[merged]

I have found in KB1178 that VB&R v5 did not support FT VM's. Has this been resolved in any updates in v6?

[Gostev]

No news on that from VMware for 2 years now... I am starting to think this may simply be an impossible limitation for them to overcome (just like some other current limitations of FT).

[trafsta]

So unfortunately it appears that I am one of many to discover that VMWare Fault Tolerance VMs do not allow snapshots and therefore Veeam (and other snapshot-driven backup solutions) cannot backup FT VMs. That said, I read this article:

How to Backup Fault Tolerant VMs in vSphere 4
http://www.petri.co.il/backup-fault-tol ... here-4.htm

And was wondering if anyone has attempted this and would care to comment on their success with it. I think I am going to attempt it. We are a Hyper-V environment which just purchased our first two SANs (EqualLogic PS4100XV/E) and we are in the process of migrating to VMWare vSphere v5.1 so we have hit a few bumps along the way but for the most part this is the last thing we have to overcome (FT backups).

Essentially from what I gather, if you backups start at say 8pm, you have to use Windows Task manager to 'turn off' the FT on the FT VMs (not just 'disable') a few minutes before the backups start via a script (vSphere CLI), and then Veeam will back them up correctly, afterwhich you can have a "Post job activity" in the Veeam job to start a batch file that launches a script via vSphere CLI to turn FT back on for whatever VMs you require.

Messy? Yes... but hopefully this allows us to have the best of both worlds (we are for the most part a 9-5 shop so if I can have FT turned on from 9-5 and just disable it during the 2-5hr backup window each night then I am happy with that).

Please share your comments and experiences on this

Oh, also, I found this interesting from the article above: "...if you are using a third party application such as Veeam and have an active support agreement with the vendor, then you should contact them first to see if they have their own solution." I haven't *yet* contacted support on this as I suspect they don't have a Veeam-supported or endorsed solution (at least none that I have seen via Veeam Forum searches) but perhaps I will contact them when time permits...

[dellock6]

Pardon my self-promotion, I recently wrote about the same topic on my blog, if you want to read it:

http://www.vuemuer.it/en/?p=3783

Luca.

[trafsta]

Just a note about my post two posts up. I have set this up on my Veeam server and it works quite well (disable FT via task scheduler scheduled vSphere CLI [Perl] script, Veeam B&R does its backup, Veeam post activity reenables FT). Too bad Veeam doesn't have a "Pre job activity" in addition to the "Post job activity". Hopefully this is on their todo list for future feature requests (I wonder where the best place is to request feature requests for Veeam V&R? By opening a support ticket?).

On a side note I read this on Luca Dell'Oca's (post above this one) blog:
"During the last VMworld US 2012, VMware showed the future version of FT, that will allow multi-processors and snapshots"

So hopefully this workaround will only be necessary for another 3-6 months or so... beeing new to VMWare I don't know how quick they are to release new versions (especially new major version releases, once a year or what?). But I guess time will tell...

[dellock6]

Well, it's a "technical preview" so basically there is no guarantee even this feature will be implemented at all, but for sure customers' requests are huge sinec day1 they launched the actual FT, so for sure they are working on it; they told me that, simply put, is not so easy at all to do it.

Luca.

[foggy]

I wonder where the best place is to request feature requests for Veeam V&R? By opening a support ticket?

Right on these forums. Consider this one is already filed.

[trafsta]

Haha awesome thanks

[tikitiboo]

Hi,
I have few VMs on a fail over cluster and trying to backup a virtual machine using veeam but its says
Task failed Error: 'virtual machine name ' ('vm-71') cannot be processed: fault-tolerance enabled.

The thing is FT already disabled!

Many Thanks

[foggy]

You cannot backup FT VMs, please see above for possible workarounds.

[tikitiboo]

The problem is even though I turn off the FT I get the same error!
Task failed Error: 'virtual machine name ' ('vm-71') cannot be processed: fault-tolerance enabled.

Thanks

[foggy]

Just to clarify, are you turning FT off completely or just disabling it?

[tikitiboo]

FT OFF.

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, this is expected. FT should be disabled completely to create a snapshot.

[tikitiboo]

Thanks. Disabled or Off the outcome is the same. Thats why i can't figure it out!

[foggy]

Then I suggest contacting support so they could verify your environment and probably suggest the reasons of this behavior.