VMWare Consolidated Backup integration with Data Protector 6.0

With the rapid adoption of virtualization technologies within the enterprise comes enhanced disaster recovery options. One of these such options is VMWare consolidated backup, a license for which is included in each ESX Server edition. The only caveat is that now you must integrate the VMWare consolidated backup framework with your backup software.


Integrating VCB with Data Protector requires the completion of several key steps, the first of which is disabling Windows automatic drive letter assignment. This can be accomplished by running diskpart utility from the command line interface and entering the following commands:

1. Run the diskpart utility by typing 'diskpart' at the command line prompt.
2. Disable the automatic drive-letter assignment by typing 'automount disable' the following at the diskpart prompt.
3. Clean out entries of previously mounted volumes from the registry by typing 'automount scrub' the following at the diskpart prompt.
4. Exit the diskpart utility by typing 'exit' at the diskpart prompt.

The next step in the integration process is the installation and configuration of the VMWare consolidated backup framework on the VCB Proxy server. Each vendor supplies it's own VCB integration package, you can download the Data Protector VCB integration files from the following location:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3241177&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=3241176&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54

If the link above is no longer functional simply go to Google and type in ‘data protector vcb’ and you’ll find the link.

After downloading and extracting the VCB integration files, copy the vcbmount.js, vmwarepreexec.cmd, and vmwarepostexec.cmd files to the ‘bin’ directory of the Data Protector installation on the VCB Proxy host.
Next, a file named ‘vmware_passwd’ must be created in the ‘config’ directory of the VCB installation directory on the backup proxy host. Edit the file using Wordpad and add the fully qualified name of the virtual center server as well as the username and password of an account that has been configured with the appropriate virtual center permissions. If the ESX servers are not managed by a virtual center server then you will be required to add an entry for each ESX server as well as a corresponding username and password for each server.
For Example:


virtualcenter.demo.local administrator password
esx.demo.local root password

Next, create a directory where all the VM backup jobs are supposed to reside in. Be aware that the amount of disk space available will dictate how many VM’s you can backup within a backup job.

Next, the config.js file will need to be modified to include the information specific to the virtual infrastructure. The file will be located in the ‘config’ directory of the VCB installation directory on the backup proxy host. The following values will need to be modified:

BACKUPROOT=”M:\\vcbproxy”;
HOST=”virtualcenter.demo.local”;
USERNAME=”user name”;
PASSWORD=”password”;



At this point launch the Data Protector Cell Manager and define the backup specification that will include the pre and post exec scripts. Using the documentation included with the Data Protector integration package you can define the pre and post exec commands.
Pre-Exec Command example: vmwarepreexec.cmd -a vcbtest -r m:\vcbproxy -t fullVM
Once the backup specification has been defined you can proceed to present the VMFS volumes to the VCB Proxy server. I usually create a test LUN and deploy a couple of test virtual machines from template just to verify that the VCB integration has been successfully configured without the risk of presenting production VMFS volumes to a Windows server. After successfully testing a VCB backup of a single virtual machine it's time to move on to multiple or all the virtual machines within your virtual infrastructure.
It is at this point where a undocumented problem will surface and cause your testing to fail. There is one file that requires modification but that you will not find in any documentation pertaining to Data Protector and VMWare Consolidated Backup. Data Protector uses a configuration file named 'global' which defines several parameters that cannot be modified with the GUI. One such parameter is:
# ScriptOutputTimeout=TimeoutInMinutes

# Default: 15 minutes
# this timeout is used by the Backup SM. The session pre-exec
# or post-exec script should send some output at least every
# ScriptOutputTimeout minutes, or the session gets aborted by
# the Session Manager.
This parameter will most ceratinly cause a VCB backup to fail is the job takes longer than 15 minutes. Once the 15 minute mark is exceeded the job will simply fail and the job log will contain error messages and codes that will not provide any indication as to what is the actual source of the problem. After searching in vain online for any knowledgebase articles or forum posts of someone who had experienced the same problem I finally found the global file in the C:\Program Files\OmniBack\NewConfig\Server\Options\ directory. Once I had modified the ScriptOutputTimeout parameter to 240 minutes I was able to successfully backup several virtual machines in one backup job.
ScriptOutputTimeout=240

# Default: 15 minutes
# This timeout is used by the Backup SM. The session pre-exec
# Or post-exec script should send some output at least every
# ScriptOutputTimeout minutes, or the session gets aborted by
# The Session Manager.