VM/VCB Tivoli Backup Help

[tsmhelum]

I am also working with VM/VCB for the first time

Can anyone help with the following steps? they need to be performed to prepare to backup and restore VMs using the VCB server:

Set up TSM scheduling to automate the backup/restore process of VM files
and full VM images.

Scripting in TSM to include flat file backups so that TSM clients can
eventually be removed off of the VMs. (any example of what the script would look like)

Any, Comments, Help, Suggestions or/and examples are welcome.

Thanks in advance

Virtual Machines - are Windows 2000 servers

sni400- Windows tivoli client 5.4.0.2
sni409 - Windows tivoli client 5.3.5
sni 410- Windows tivoli client 5.3.5

Virtual center server and VCB proxy are both Windows 2003 thay have Windows 5.5.2 clients installed

TSM Server 5.3
AIX 6.1

 

[Polen]

You might want to get the TSM 6.1 Windows Client version to perform Full VM backups, then you can just setup a Scheduled Task on the VCB Windows server to execute the "dsmc backup vm" command to schedule your backups.

-Polen

 

[tsmhelum]

Thanks Polen

I just need to put the 6.1 TSM Client on the Proxy server correct? The Virtual machines are all 2000 I do not believe that they fit the requirement for the TSM 6.1 client. Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks again!

 

[Polen]

Correct, the TSM CLient only needs to be installed on the Proxy. Then you can perform full VM backups on any VM with any OS version.

 

[tsmhelum]

Pollen,

Good ..Thanks again!

This is what we have been asked to do. So installing the TSM 6.1 client should cover this without the need to do any scripting or anything Correct?


I need to set up TSM backup schedule to do Virtual machine file-level backup on VCB server SNI275

The VCB environment is setup and tested.

To do Full VM backup's, scripting needs to be done to invoke VCB to copy VM to SNI275 and then TSM to backup.

SNI275 is the Proxy Server Windows 2003 Standard TSM client 5.5.2

VM 1 – Windows 2000 SP4 TSM Client 5.3.5
VM 2 - Windows 2000 SP4 TSM Client 5.3.5
VM 3 - Windows 2000 SP4 TSM Client 5.3.5

 

[Polen]

To do Full VM backup's, scripting needs to be done to invoke VCB to copy VM to SNI275 and then TSM to backup.

With 6.1 you don't need to do this, but you will need to create a Windows Schedule Task/s to execute the backup command.

dsmc.exe backup vm -vmlist=vm1,vm2,vm3

I do beleive you can set schedules from the main TSM backup server, but I have no experience with that.

-Polen

 

[tsmhelum]

Polen, thanks again for your help!

I don't have any experience with this VM Stuff but I noticed we are getting more requests for it.

I have to figure out the the following also,

create a Windows Schedule Task/s to execute the backup command.

dsmc.exe backup vm -vmlist=vm1,vm2,vm3

set schedules from the main TSM backup server hopefully there is some documentation on this.

Thanks again

 

[tsmhelum]

Hello,

Does the Virtual servers being backed up in the vmlist have to be Backed up on the same TSM Server as the proxy server?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tsmhelum]

Hello

If I want to do Virtual machine file-level and Full backups on a VCB server how do perform both actions using the 6.1 client GUI? For some reason the option box under Backup Type doesn't allow me to choose both.



In the future I'd like to have it all managed from one server (VCB) SNI175; does anyone know how you can do this with Tivoli? Is there at least a good manual to explain VM/VCB tivoli backups using TSM client V6.


Thanks in advance

 

[Yan972]

Hello,

A documentation that i found quite usefull is named "Setting Up VMware Consolidated Backup". I found it on the VMware web site.
I had to answer the same questions as you and finally, here's what i did:

_ For VM File-level backup, the TSM server (6.1) schedules a command to be run on the VCB proxy (which resides in the TSM baclient directory on the VCB). It contains the "vcbmounter" command used to access the datas from the VM to be saved, and the "dmsc inc" command to save exactly what i need (to avoid the use of inclexcl list...).
(The "backup vm" command works also but you can't tell her what you want to save; it refers to the inclexcl list.)
That works well.

_ For VM Full backup, it's quite the same: this time, use the "backup vm" with the "-vmbackuptype=fullvm" parameter.
But you must have enough space on your VCB proxy to hold *all* the VM files (including the snapshots, log fles, etc...) corresponding to the VM you want to backup.
Be aware that a TSM restore of a full VM will be done on the VCB proxy, and that, as far as i know, the VMware Converter has to be used.
I gave up that solution and now (because i needed a "hot" recovery site), i copy only the usefull VM files to my recovery site using scp, then with a Linux TSM client, i backup the VM directly to TSM, without the use of VCB.

HTH,

Yan

 

[tsmhelum]

Hi Yan..Thanks for the information

This is what I did,

I have set up a schedule on the 5.5.3 tsm server, its suppose to run a Macro called BackupVM.Macro in the baclient directory on the VCB server for file level backups


Here is my schedule I setup




Policy Domain Name: PRODUCTION
Schedule Name: VM_DAILY_BACKUP
Description: vm_backup for sni275
Action: Macro
Options:
Objects: BackupVM.Macro
Priority: 5
Start Date/Time: 11/24/09 00:03:38
Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Schedule Style: Classic
Period: 24 Day(s)
Day of Week: Any
Month: Any
Day of Month: Any
Week of Month: Any
Expiration:
Last Update by (administrator):

Here is the only command in the macro which by the way I used notepad to create)>>> backup vm


for Full-VM backups can I setup a different dsm.opt file with
the following in it for full backups?

VMBACKUPTYPE FULL

 

[Jeff_Jeske]

Since this thread had run its course I would like to take it a bit off topic.....What are the operational advantages of this approach to VM backups?

We have about 1200 windows tsm clients. In the last year we have P2V'd 50% of those with a goal of 80% by the end of 2010. At this point we treat every VM client as a physical machine running only the normal incr backup.

We see no performance issues running 50 nodes on a blade. We still see restore speeds of 30GB an hour via 1GB copper. Accessing and recovering the clients is identical to physical machines thus standardizing documentation for operations.

This approached combined with VMOTION provides excellent DR coverage. What are the perks to doing it VCB?