Issue with Veeam B&R and NSX networks while restoring VM's

[stevenrodenburg1]

Hello,

I've noticed the following issue (with both 9.5 P2 and P3). When a VM is restored, two problems popup:
1. Every VM that I've ever restored where I selected a "NSX Virtual wire", ends up in a state where the "Network adapter" says "Data unavailable" after the restore. One needs to edit the VM's properties in vCenter and select the (same) NSX virtual network and then it's ok.
2. one can select a cluster as the destination, yet the "network selector" is always host-based (cannot select a dvSwitch or NSX network on the cluster level). Not really a problem, more a GUI inconsistency. But, selecting a host instead of a cluster and later on in the restore-wizard, selecting the same host when choosing which NSX network to attach to, does not fix the problem.

Environment: NSX 6.3.x on vSphere 6.5 U1 (do not have other versions at my disposal).

[anthonyspiteri79]

Hey there Steven.

I've just gone through a couple of tests in my lab and I couldn't replicate the issue you described in point 1.

I did a Full VM Restore both over the top and to a new location and selected the same and a different NSX virtual wire and in all cases didn't get the Data unavailable condition.

Couple of things to check:

- What specific version of NSX are you running?
- What version is your Distributed Switch?

End of the day VBR should just see the virtual wire as a vCenter Port Group and restore as such.

[stevenrodenburg1]

Hello Anthony,

"- What specific version of NSX are you running?"
6.3.5 at the moment (upgraded recently). Used to be 6.3.2 in the months before.

"- What version is your Distributed Switch?"
6.5.0 on vCenter Appliance is 6.5.0 U1 (6.5.0.10100)

"End of the day VBR should just see the virtual wire as a vCenter Port Group and restore as such."
Oh and it does. And I can select the NSX wire just fine. It's just that the end-result is always the "data unavailable" state of network adapters and the error message in vCenter is "You have insufficient permissions to view the attached network, or the network does not exist."

[anthonyspiteri79]

Hey Steven.

Yea those are same versioning as in my lab. I can't replicate the issue so my thinking is the problem is at your end with your vCenter not mapping/creating the interface correctly.

Out of interest what user are you connecting to the vCenter with from VBR? Only ask cause of this thread I just found: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/298516

[stevenrodenburg1]

The permissions of my personal account are not the problem. So I too thought, maybe it's the permissions of the @vsphere.local account that Veeam uses to connect to vCenter. It is a member of the local "Administrators", "ComponentManager.Administrators" and "SystemConfiguration.Administrators" groups. It is not a member of anything inside NSX. Maybe that's the problem?
Does your "veeam-user" have any permissions inside NSX?

Update: I ran a test-restore and selected a normal dvSwitch network this time (so nothing NSX) and it does not work either... It appears to be an issue with vCenter itself somehow, and has nothing to do with the combo Veeam + NSX.

[anthonyspiteri79]

Good to hear it's not specifically NSX related though not good that you have the issue. First port of call from here should be VMware support and then work backwards from there.

[stevenrodenburg1]

Yeap will open a case with VMware. I essentially cannot restore anything anymore, without it ending up with a "Data unavailable condition" on the VM's network adapters.

In the meanwhile, could you edit the thread's title as it's a bit harsch and "finger pointy" right now. Maybe from:
"Veeam B&R cannot handle NSX networks while restoring VM's"
to
"Issue with Veeam B&R and NSX networks while restoring VM's"

[anthonyspiteri79]

One of the Forum Admins can look at that, and thanks for the thought there