Hi Jason.  VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is a VMware supplied backup API.  If you are using a NetBackup version before 6.5 then the VCB integration is provided via a VMware created “Integration Module”.  This module is simply a collection of _javascript_-based scripts designed to provide basic integration between NetBackup and VCB. 

NetBackup 6.5 (and later) provides direct integration with VCB and therefore the VCB “Integration Module” is no longer required.  If you upgraded to NetBackup 6.5 or later and did not uninstall the “Integration Module”, this could be the cause of your contention issue.  If this is the case, when a NetBackup policy is started the “Integration Module” and NetBackup will simultaneously attempt to create a snapshot and the backup will fail (only one VCB-style snapshot can exist at a time).  If you feel this is the case, I would highly recommend that you completely uninstall the Integration Module (including any pre- and post-processing scripts you might have created).  If the Integration Module is the cause of your contention, this should clear up this issue.

-George Winter

We use ESX's VCB to backup the vm's running on ESX hosts. When we moved to Netbackup 6.5.2 we decided to try and use "Netbackup VCB Integrated" and move away from VCB.

From: Will Tucker [mailto:WTucker AT manh DOT com]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 1:13 PM
To: Leidy, Jason D; veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VCB vs Netbackup VCB Integrated

What are you guys using to successfully backup VMWare environments?
------Original Message------

From: Leidy, Jason D
To: veritas-bu
Sent: Jan 30, 2009 3:32 PM
Subject: [Veritas-bu] VCB vs Netbackup VCB Integrated

Folks,

        We recently attempted to move from VCB backups to "Netbackup VCB Integrated" for our ESX environment. We ran into a lot of contention issues, specifically with snapshots errors. Do VCB and "Netbackup VCB Integrated" use the same snapshot mechanism, I was under the impression that Netbackup VCB Integrated simply piggy backs off of what VCB uses? Many of these snapshot errors are in fact contention on the luns. We are just trying to determine why, if we use VCB, we don't have snapshot issues. We aren't running fewer backups in parallel in when using VCB vs Netbackup VCB Integrated, so we can rule that out. If VCB uses a different snapshot mechanism\technology than "Netbackup VCBi"…..then maybe that is a good starting point for trouble-shooting.

Jason