Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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phild
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Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by phild »

Hi,

case number ID# 01737261

We have a file server that has been running in instant recovery for over a week whilst we had our IBM chassis sorted out, with no disk redirection on the instant recovery VM.
All was fine until this morning 21st March, when the server became unresponsive and everyone lost their network drives.

The only way to get it back was to kill the machine and restart it, where it hung again without even booting to the os, nowim not sure sure whether the other admin unpublished the VM or not as well in his attempt to get it back online.
He did mention that the previous production VM was showing as on in Vsphere at the same time as the recovery VM.

Whatever happened though it did come back up, but the data on it has been lost, and is now over a week out of date.

luckily we did replicate the data from it to the previous live VM on the 17th which we are now using as live so we have only lost Fridays data, but that is still bad enough.

I presume that instant recovery vm's dont have volatile memory and should retain data, so why would a server crash cause the data to disappear from the VM?

Does the data written to the recovery VM get stored in the NFS, and is it recoverable?

Thanks

phil
PTide
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Re: Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by PTide »

Hi,
I presume that instant recovery vm's dont have volatile memory and should retain data, so why would a server crash cause the data to disappear from the VM?<...>Does the data written to the recovery VM get stored in the NFS, and is it recoverable?<...>
All changes to virtual disks that take place while the Instantly-Recovered VM is running, are logged to auxiliary redo logs residing on the NFS server (backup server or backup repository). These changes are discarded as soon as a restored VM is removed, or merged with the original VM data when VM recovery is finalized. Please see helpcenter article for additional details about finalizing.

Thank you.
phild
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Re: Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by phild »

The recovered VM was never finalized or removed, so im hoping the redo logs are still available, but i cant find any info on how to read or check that they still exist.

cheers
Gostev
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Re: Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by Gostev »

Server crash will definitely never cause the loss of delta. Delta files are only deleted when the VM is unpublished. So, as longs as the VM was not unpublished, just powering the VM on will make it continue running off its latest state (March 21st). Do you see the instantly recovered VM in the vSphere Client and can you power it on? May be you are not powering on the correct VM?

Debug logs contain the information on who and when did what exactly.
phild
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Re: Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by phild »

I can see the server in the vsphere client, and it powers on fine.
I can also use the file level restore to view the files, but they are all over a week old, so something has removed the deltas.

If the vm was unpublished, is there any way to get the data back from the NFS?
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Re: Data loss after instant recovery VM went down

Post by foggy »

Again, please check whether this is actually the instantly recovered VM (since previously you mentioned that the production VM was also showing up in vSphere). When IR session is unpublished, VM is deleted along with all delta files created while it was running.

If you're not sure, please contact technical support for a closer look at your logs to verify whether the VM was actually unpublished and, if not, where its files are located.
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