Troubleshooting vmdk restore to existing VM
For virtual disk restores and in-place restores to an existing VM, be aware of the following:
If the VMDKs cannot be attached to the target VM, the restored VMDKs are retained on the temporary VM. The name of the temporary VM is available in the job details in NetBackup. In the following job details example, the temporary VM name is vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4_1465584674:
06/10/2016 13:51:17 - Info bpVMutil (pid=3400) Restoring [datastore1] vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4/vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4_4.vmdk to [datastore1] vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4/vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4_4-1465584677.vmdk 06/10/2016 13:51:38 - Info bpVMutil (pid=3400) Successfully created virtual machine vCenter60vm1_rhel6.4_1465584674 with specified disks. 06/10/2016 13:51:41 - requesting resource @aaaab
You can access the data on the temporary VM.
If the temporary VM is retained after a restore failure, the restore job contains a message similar to the following:
06/14/2016 15:29:06 - Info bpVMutil (pid=5225) attachDisksToExistingVM: Unable to attach restored disks to target VM vCenter60vm2_rhel6.4 06/14/2016 15:29:06 - Info bpVMutil (pid=5225) attachDisksToExistingVM: Temporary VM with restored virtual disks was left in place, it can be used to access restored data
By default, NetBackup retains the temporary VM if the disks are not attached. To change that behavior, set the DeleteRestoredVMOnError field to Yes in the restore parameters file.
After a restore to an existing VM, the next backup of the VM backs up the restored virtual disks. This backup may show a warning during collection of the Changed Block Tracking (CBT) information.
For an In-place disk restore, raw devices (RDMs) and independent disks are not deleted or replaced during restore. If the controller for these disks conflicts with the disks being restored, the restore fails. The following example messages are job details from a failed in-place restore:
May 07, 2020 10:26:21 AM - Warning bprd.sfr (pid=2425) Unable to attach the restored disks to requested VM May 07, 2020 10:26:21 AM - restored from image InPlaceDiskRestoreDemo_1588837243; restore time: 0:00:50 May 07, 2020 10:26:21 AM - end Restore; elapsed time 0:00:50 May 07, 2020 10:26:21 AM - Info bpVMutil (pid=2673) attachDisksToExistingVM: Controller scsi0-1 not available to perform in-place disk restore. Aborting restore. The requested operation was partially successful(1)