NetBackup for VMware: notes and restrictions
Note the following about NetBackup for VMware:
NetBackup for VMware supports FIPS mode for SSL communication when using VDDK. This can be enabled by adding the VDDK_FIPS_MODE = ENABLED entry to the
bp.conffile on VMware access hosts.NetBackup for VMware does not support the option on the policy Attributes tab.
NetBackup supports these features as follows:
For Instant Recovery, use the nbrestorevm command.
For SLP management of snapshots, use Replication Director.
For more information, see the NetBackup Replication Director Solutions Guide.
NetBackup for VMware cannot back up the data on an independent disk.
NetBackup for VMware does not back up standard iSCSI LUNs that are connected to the virtual machine. If the virtual machine has an iSCSI LUN, the backup succeeds but the drive that represents the LUN is not backed up.
Note: NetBackup for VMware supports datastores over iSCSI.
Several notes and limitations apply to Linux virtual machines.
VMware virtual machine templates are for cloning virtual machines: They cannot be turned on and used as functioning VMs. As a result, VMware has imposed the following restrictions on backup and restore of virtual machine templates:
A virtual machine template cannot be captured in a snapshot. NetBackup backs up the template to the designated storage unit.
Block level incremental backup (BLIB) cannot be used when backing up a virtual machine template. As a result of this restriction, NetBackup Accelerator cannot be used to back up VMware virtual machine templates.
A virtual machine template cannot be backed up over a SAN. You must configure the NetBackup policy to use a local network transfer type, such as nbd. Likewise, the restore of a template must be conducted over a local network. You can use the Query Builder in the NetBackup policy to create rules for automatic selection of virtual machine templates.
NetBackup supports non-ASCII characters in virtual machine objects. Examples of objects are file and folder names, annotations, floppy image name, parallel port or serial port file name, CD-ROM ISO name, and so on.
Support for these characters is as follows:
The backup host and the restore host may be the same computer.
Windows operating systems on the NetBackup primary server, the backup host, and the restore host do not assume non-ASCII characters in VM display name if the system locales of Windows hosts are not set to UTF-8. Even if the system locale is not set to UTF-8, a backup of the VMware virtual machine whose display name contains any non-ASCII characters may work. However, a restore from the VMware virtual machine backup that has non-ASCII characters in its display name needs a Linux or UNIX restore host which uses UTF-8 character encoding.
The UNIX and Linux operating systems on the NetBackup primary server, the backup host, and the restore host must use UTF-8 character encoding.
The name that NetBackup uses to select a VM for backups cannot contain non-ASCII characters. The field in the backup policy identifies the name type that NetBackup uses to select VMs. For example, if you specify the as the , the display name of each VM that you back up cannot contain non-ASCII characters.
See Primary VM identifier options (VMware).
and names never contain non-ASCII characters.
For security purposes, VM names have some restrictions.
See NetBackup character restrictions for the Primary VM identifier.
For dual-boot virtual machines, NetBackup does not support the following policy options: Enable file recovery from VM backup, Exclude deleted blocks, Exclude swap and paging files, Exclude boot disk, Exclude all data disks.
NetBackup does not support the following exclude disks options for Replication Director backups: Exclude boot disk, Exclude all data disks, Perform custom attribute based exclusion, Specific disks to be excluded.
To back up a virtual machine while Storage vMotion migrates its files, NetBackup must conduct the backup through the vCenter server.
See Conflict between NetBackup and VMware Storage vMotion with vSphere 5.0 or later.
Several notes and limitations apply to the automatic selection of virtual machines for backup (Virtual Machine Intelligent Policy).
See NetBackup requirements for automatic virtual machine selection.
Several notes and limitations apply to the hotadd transport mode.
Note the following information about NetBackup for VMware compression and encryption:
NetBackup's compression or encryption options
NetBackup for VMware does not support NetBackup's compression or encryption options (in the NetBackup policy attributes).
Granular file recovery and single file restore (SFR) on the VM
NetBackup for VMware granular file recovery and SFR supports Windows NTFS file compression but the restored file or folder is uncompressed.
NetBackup for VMware granular file recovery and SFR supports file-level compression (such as zip or lzh), and the file or folder is restored as the original compressed file.
NetBackup for VMware granular file recovery and SFR does not support Windows NTFS file encryption nor any type of encryption that is set in the guest OS (such as BitLocker).
VM volume recovery
NetBackup for VMware VM volume recovery supports any type of compression or encryption that they are set in the guest OS (such as BitLocker).
For limitations for the Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server applications, see the respective guides for those workloads.
Several notes and limitations apply to the VMware restores.
In vSphere, if your virtual environment has IPv6 addresses, use only the fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) that are mapped to IPv6 addresses on the DNS server.