Agent for VMware Version 6.91.3631 Release Notes, March 7, 2012
CONTENTS 1 OVERVIEW... 3 1.1 Release History... 3 1.2 Supported Platforms... 3 2 FEATURES... 4 2.1 Features and Benefits... 4 3 INSTALLATION NOTES... 6 3.1 Installation Requirements... 6 3.2 Conditional Requirements... 6 3.3 Licensing Requirements... 6 3.4 Installing/Uninstalling/Upgrading... 7 4 FIXES and KNOWN ISSUES... 8 4.1 Fixes in This Release... 8 4.2 Known Issues... 8 5 PRODUCT SUPPORT... 12 5.1 Technical Support... 12 5.2 Product Updates... 12 5.3 Documentation... 12
1 OVERVIEW This document contains release notes for the 6.91 Agent for VMware. This Agent provides recovery protection for VMware vsphere environments without requiring the VMware ESX Console. The 6.91 Agent for VMware can back up and restore multiple virtual machines (VMs). An Agent is not required to be installed on every Virtual Machine you wish to back up. The Agent for VMware is pre-installed on a VM and is called a Virtual Recovery Appliance (VRA). The appliance ships in an Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) file, which deploys directly in a vsphere environment. The older VMware Agent Plug-In cannot exist in the same environment as the new VMware Agent. You can manage the Agent with Windows Agent Console 6.91 or Web Agent Console 6.90. Note: Full Administrator rights are required for the Appliance to allowbackups and restores of virtual machines. 1.1 Release History Version 6.91.3631, March 7, 2012, Second release Version 6.90.3585, December 19, 2011, First release 1.2 Supported Platforms VMware vsphere ESX and VMware vsphere ESXi hosts: - Version 4.0 update 2 - Version 4.0 update 3 - Version 4.1 - Version 4.1 update 1 - Version 5.0 VMware vsphere vcenter servers, such as: - Version 4.0 update 2 - Version 4.0 update 3 - Version 4.1 - Version 4.1 update 1 - Version 5.0
2 FEATURES The Agent for VMware can back up and restore multiple virtual machines (VMs) simultaneously in VMware vsphere 4/5 environments without requiring the VMware ESX Console. The Agent for VMware can also restore individual VMDKs. As the 6.91 Agent for VMware is deployed on its own VM, an Agent is not required to be installed on every Virtual Machine you wish to back up. Control and configuration of your backups and restores is done through Windows Agent Console or Web Agent Console in much the same manner as the other Agents. The Agent for VMware allows you to back up your VMs toa secure, remote Vault. The Agent for VMware is pre-installed on a VM and is referred to as a Virtual Recovery Appliance (VRA). Note: Backups and restores of physical Raw Disk Mapping (RDMs) are not supported. Backups of virtual RDMs are supported, and virtual RDMs are restored as regular disks. 2.1 Features and Benefits New features for the 6.91 release: - Added support for Web Agent Console 6.90 registration, configuration and daily usage. Support for pure ESXi environments - One solution for all your data protection needs. - Leverages our technology to protect virtual and physical machines. - Fully compatible with vsphere 4.0, 4.1 and vsphere 5.0. - Agentless solution - the appliance protects all VMs without requiring Agent software on the individual VMs. - Backup and restore VM templates which saves time and effort. - Cost effective solution - does not require additional hardware or VMware licenses. - Option to back up to your data center, Cloud or a hybrid. Changed Block Tracking (CBT) - Provide tracking of changes that happened since the last backup. - No need to scan every VM for every backup operation performed. - Dramatically reduces amount of data to be backed up. - Fast and efficient synthetic backups.delivered in Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) format. - Pre-installed, turnkey solution. - Simple deployment using a single technology platform. - Simple configuration from the management console.
Fast and Flexible Restores - Full recovery of any protected VM. - Fast return to operations with just a few clicks. - Flexible recovery options enable you to restore a virtual machine to its original or alternate location. Supports Storage vmotion and vstorage - Allows for continuous backups. - No need to re-seed. - With Storage vmotion, after moving a VM, deltas can continue to be used for backups. A re-seed is not required. Hot backups - Back up VMware virtual machines while they are online and running. - Business-critical applications continue to run uninterrupted. Centralized management - Use one Windows-based or Web-based management console to set backup schedules, retentions, and restores. - Restore VMs from anywhere in the world, with a simple management interface. Supports backup and restore of virtual RDM (Raw Disk Mapping) disks - Backup Virtual RDM disks as regular VMDKs. - Restore Virtual RDM disks back as regular VMDKs.
3 INSTALLATION NOTES 3.1 Installation Requirements Hardware See the VMware website for supported and recommended hardware platforms. Software * VMware vsphere version 4.0 update 3, or, * VMware vsphere version 4.1 update 1, or, * VMware vsphere version 5.0 * Web Agent Console version 6.90 or, * Windows Agent Console version 6.91 * Vault version 6.22 and above. To ensure successful backups and restores in N:1 replicated environments, the Vault must be at version 6.31 or above, or version 6.22 with a hotfix that can be obtained by contacting support. 3.2 Conditional Requirements None 3.3 Licensing Requirements For Vault versions 6.22 and above, the Agent for VMware will claim at least three licenses from the Vault. The Agent for VMware will claim a Server Agent license, a VMWare Plug-In license and 1 VMware Cluster license (called ESXFarm ) for each ESX/ESXi host within the environment. For Example: For a vcentre with 15 VM hypervisors (ESX/ESXi hosts), the VRA will claim 15 Cluster licenses, 1 ESX license and 1 Server Agent license.
3.4 Installing/Uninstalling/Upgrading The Agent for VMware is pre-installed on a VM and is called a Virtual Recovery Appliance (VRA). The appliance ships in an Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) file, which installs directly in a vsphere environment. The downloadable ova filename is: AgentForVMware_6.91.3631.ova For Installing/Uninstalling/Upgrading procedures, please refer to the Agent for VMware User Guide. The VMware Quick Start Guide can also be referred to for installation procedures. Documentation is available from your service provider.
4 FIXES and KNOWN ISSUES 4.1 Fixes in This Release Previously with the 6.90 Agent, copying or propagating schedules from other jobs which have QFS enabled could cause backups to be invalid. This could occur when Schedule.cfg entries with QFS enabled were copied manually. The Agent does not support the QFS option. NOTE: This has been fixed in this release.upgrading to the 6.91 Agent will create valid safesets as QFS will beignored regardless of the Schedule.cfg setting. (22389/22290) Upon Restore, the list of available HOSTS may appear truncated (when multiple datacenters exist in your vcenter) and only display hosts under a single datacenter. This has been fixed in this release. (22041) When more than 1 datacenter exists under the vcenter, double datastores will appear in the restore wizards. This has been fixed in this release. (22040) If you increase the size of a VMDK, backups may fail with CRC errors. Backup VM with extended VMDK failed with CRC corrupted error. This has been fixed in this release. (22005) Incorrect message may appear in the log when Restoring to an AlternateLocation: "REST-I-04838 Restore to original location".this has been fixed in this release. (21634) Special characters in VM names can cause problems, including recoveryfailures. This has been fixed in this release. (21117) 4.2 Known Issues When the VRA hostname is longer than 20 characters, backups fail with "Validation failed: failed to validate computer". The VRA hostname must be restricted to a maximum 20 characters. (22388) VMs with special characters in their names may display differently in the backup browse than they do in the restore browse. Upon restore, therestore Log may indicate that the VM name has been renamed and that the Datastore Folder created is also incorrect. However, in VMware, the restored VM appears correctly. (22281) If you attempt to restore a single VMDK to a local or shared datastore that does not have access to the original host, the restore will fail. (22267) VMDK restore of a single VMDK is checking for the entire size of the original VM space and will fail if there is less space than on the original, even if the single VMDK is smaller than the available space. (22265)
When a VM contains a physical RDM disk in a multi-vmdk configuration, the backup skips the physical RDM, but restores partially. Upon restore, all the non-physical RDM VMDK's are restored correctly. However, asthere is a missing VMDK, the generation of the.vmx file fails. (22260) Backing up and Restoring a VM with multiple (small) thin provisioned disks may change their provision type. After deleting and restoring thevm, the second disk will remain thick provisioned. When the second disk is larger, it will remain thin provisioned after the restore. (22255) If the original datastore of a VM is no longer present, the restore log indicates it is restoring to original location but restores to an alternate datastore. (22233) If you perform a help on ntp show, it incorrectly tells you that this option turns off NTP. The command ntp show actually displays a list of ntp servers currently configured. (22232) For Web Agent Console users created with "Force to change password" enabled, Web Agent Console register fails with "Registration to Web-based Agent Console failed." WORKAROUND: Log into Web Agent Console with the user which has the Force change password enabled. The new password will be then be set. Switch back to the VRA CLI and use the Web Agent Console register command. Registration will succeed. (22216) When performing a re-registration to the Vault, if you had other Vaults previously created, the vcenter tab in Agent Configuration will be removed. When the vcenter tab is empty, the synch operation will fail to complete. WORKAROUND: Populate the vcenter tab in order for Synchronize to recover the delta information. (22028) When a VRA is installed in a vcenter that already has the older VMware Plug-In installed and registered to a Vault, the VRA will fail to claim a group license unless the VRA is registered to a different location under the same customer. (21996) The following characters cannot be used and are not supported for VM names: # & @ { } " / (21974/21415) The VRA OVA automatically deploys as thick provisioned in vcenter 4.0. (21970) When selecting multiple VMDKs from different VMs to restore to a specific directory on a datastore, each VMDK is restored to an automatically created separate directory (one for each VMDK). These new directories will be the VMDK name specified, appended with _X (X being a sequential number starting from 1 for each directory created). (21952) If you run a backup, then rename the item you backed up and then back itup right away, that backup may fail. The discovery process could be as long as 20 minutes before the backup can be run again. (21936) During a restore of a successfully backed up VM containing a physical RDM disk, the Agent attempts to restore and register the original VM rather than a copy if the original VM is powered on/registered. (21914) If your backup Job contains 2 or more VMs with identical names, the backup will fail. WORKAROUND: Use unique names for each VM and/or underlying Template and VMDK files. (21900)
When attempting to back up a Job to an alternate Vault location (mount point on VRA), that backup Job will wait for other backup Jobs to complete. (21876) If you restore a VM or TEMPLATE to a vcenter and the original VM is already registered (has not been deleted from disk), an attempt will be made to restore the VM to the host and datastore that is specified in the restore workflow/wizard. If Power On is selected for the VM after restore, the VM will be restored as a copy of the original and named {VMNAME}-vra-restored-{DATE}. If your original host is powered on andusing a static IP Address, you may encounter an IP Address conflict when the newly restored (copied) VM is powered on. (21873) Creating 32+ virtual disks within a VM will cause multiple VRAs in a vcenter to core dump. Current backups and subsequent backups fail. Recommendation: Use no more than 32 disks per virtual machine. WORKAROUND: Remove the VM that contains the high number of disks or reduce the number of disks. (21855) CBT cannot be set or enabled for SUSPENDED VMs. If CBT is already set (enabled), CBT will be used, even if the VM is suspended. VMs that are powered ON or OFF do not have this issue. (21846) If a snapshot from a previous backup fails or if a backup is terminated before snapshot creation has completed, the subsequent backup does not perform a snapshot and will fail. Recommendation: Do not manually remove the orphaned snapshot. WORKAROUND: Reboot the appliance. Upon reboot, the VRA will remove the orphaned snapshot. (21839/21632) In rare cases, the Virtual Restore Appliance locks the VM and does not remove the snapshot. You cannot delete the VM without restarting the VRA. (21824) When multiple.vmdk files of the same name are selected for restore, only one.vmdk is restored. WORKAROUND: Restore individual.vmdk files one at a time. (21791) CBT is not enabled if the VM contains a user level snapshot on the initial backup. An incorrect indication is given that CBT is enabled on the VM backup. WORKAROUND: The snapshot must be removed before CBT can be enabled. (21739) If your VM is powered on and registered to a vcenter, a restore set with file level logging may return only a two line restore log. (21687) VM backup may fail to create snapshot. The error message "Unable to obtain a file handle" is returned. Random VM's reporting unsuccessful:500 Server Closed without sending any data. WORKAROUND: - On the vcenter system, stop the "VirtualCenter Management Webservices" service. - Go to Start> All Programs > VMware > VMware Tomcat > Configure Tomcat. - Click the Java tab. - Increase the number in the "Maximum memory pool" field. (The number to be used here varies depending on the environment. Increase this value in small increments until the issue no longer persists). - Click OK.
- Restart the "VirtualCenter Management Webservices" service. (21668/21601) We cannot protect or prevent a VRA from performing concurrent backups of the same VM from the same VRA or another VRA. The user should avoid running concurrent backups of the same VM or Job from the same VRA oranother VRA. This can cause negative results in CBT and delta backups to be out of sync. (21659) The Safeset Properties Original Size value shown for a vsphere Job is displaying the size of the VM as though it is thick provisioned even when the VM is thin provisioned. (21604) On occasion when trying to register to a vcenter with a valid admin account on domain, you may receive the error message Agent host save error. WORKAROUND: Perform an "agent restart" and perform "vcenter register" again. (21561) Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed hard disks are restored as Thick Provisioned Lazy Zeroed. (21432) If you have a VM named VM*, and you create a filter using the asterisk as in VM*, the filter does not back up all VMs starting with VM as expected, but backs up only the 1 VM with the name VM*. (21418) Restoring Virtual Machines which resided in custom folders are restored to the main level instead of their original custom folders. (21241) After the backup process completes, it may take some time (various times up to 1 minute) before the VRA snapshots are removed. During this time, further backups of this VM will fail. (21016)
5 PRODUCT SUPPORT 5.1 Technical Support Complete contact information for your provider is available through the Support link. 5.2 Product Updates Product updates are available from your provider's website. 5.3 Documentation The available documentation for the Agent for VMware is: - Agent for VMware User Guide - Agent for VMware Quick Start Guide - AgentVMware.txt (this document) - Web Agent Console 6.90 Help All documentation is available from your service provider.