Dell EMC NetWorker

Version 19.2.x

VMware Integration Guide

REV 02
March 2020
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2 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

CONTENTS

Figures 9

Tables 11

Preface 13

Chapter 1 Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy

appliance 17
Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance............. 18
Components in the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution with vProxy
appliance........................................................................................................... 18
System requirements........................................................................................ 19
Compatibility information..................................................................................22
Port requirements.............................................................................................22
NetWorker VMware Protection Solution best practices with the vProxy
appliance...........................................................................................................24
Performance and scalability.............................................................................. 26
Configuration checklist..................................................................................... 28
Basic configuration.............................................................................. 29
Data Domain system configuration.......................................................29
NetWorker configuration..................................................................... 29
Virtual machine configuration...............................................................29
vProxy FLR Limitations........................................................................ 30
vProxy limitations and unsupported features.................................................... 30
Accessing Knowledge Base Articles.................................................................. 35
IPv6 Considerations.......................................................................................... 35
Remote Authentication Support for FLR and HTML 5 vCenter plug-in ............ 35

Chapter 2 Deploy the vProxy appliance and configure the NetWorker datazone
37
Deploying the vProxy appliance........................................................................ 38
Deploy the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server........................................ 38
Deploy the vProxy OVA on an ESXi host.............................................. 40
VMware vCenter server management............................................................... 41
Add the vCenter server using NMC's VMware View............................. 41
Add the vCenter server using the NetWorker Management Web UI.....43
Configuring and registering the vProxy appliance............................................. 44
Configure and register the vProxy in NMC...........................................44
Add and configure the vProxy in the NetWorker Management Web UI....
46
Installing the vCenter plug-in............................................................................ 47
Install the vCenter plug-in using VMware View in NMC....................... 48
Install the vCenter plug-in using the NetWorker Management Web UI....
50
Updating the vCenter plug-in............................................................... 51

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 3

Contents

Accessing the HTML-5 or flash-based vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator

Active Directory user.........................................................................................51
Creating a dedicated vCenter user account and VM Backup and Recovery role...
52
Create vCenter user account............................................................... 52
Create a customized role..................................................................... 53
vSphere Client user accounts.............................................................. 56
Migrating policies from VMware Backup appliance to vProxy appliance............57
Migration pre-requisites....................................................................... 57
Policy migration to vProxy by using NMC............................................ 58
Policy migration to vProxy by using the command line.........................59
Renaming a NetWorker server with legacy VMware Backup appliance....
59
Resetting the admin account password ........................................................... 60
Upgrading the vProxy appliance....................................................................... 60
Limitations........................................................................................... 62
Troubleshooting Redeployment Failures.............................................. 62

Chapter 3 Protecting virtual machines 65

Overview of protection policies.........................................................................66
Preparing the NetWorker data zone..................................................................67
Configure the Data Domain System..................................................... 67
VMware backups in the NetWorker Management Web UI................................ 68
Policies, workflows, and actions in NetWorker Management Web UI...68
Create a policy using the NetWorker Management Web UI..................68
Create a workflow using the NetWorker Management Web UI............ 70
Create an action using the NetWorker Management Web UI............... 72
Create a save set group using the NetWorker Management Web UI.... 82
Create a VMware group using the NetWorker Management Web UI....83
Create a rule using the NetWorker Management Web UI.....................85
vProxy backups in NMC....................................................................................86
Default data protection policies in NMC's NetWorker Administration
window.................................................................................................87
Create a VMware policy in NetWorker Administration..........................87
Create a workflow for a new policy in NetWorker Administration........ 89
Create a workflow for an existing policy in NetWorker Administration....
91
Create or edit a VMware group in NetWorker Administration.............. 93
Enabling a VMware group with Dynamic Association and applying rules...
95
Create a VMware backup action in NetWorker Administration.............98
Create a clone action in NetWorker Administration............................ 103
Creating an action for Microsoft SQL Server application-consistent
protection...........................................................................................105
Starting, stopping, and restarting policies.......................................... 106
Visual representation of VMware policy and associated actions..........107
VMware View in NMC.........................................................................108
vProxy backup workflows in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC NetWorker interface
.........................................................................................................................113
Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Client..................... 113
Start a vProxy policy in the vSphere Client Dell EMC NetWorker
interface..............................................................................................115
Add virtual machines to a vProxy policy in the vSphere Client Dell EMC
NetWorker interface............................................................................117

4 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

 Contents

vProxy workflows in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery

interface...........................................................................................................118
Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Web Client............. 119
Starting a vProxy policy in the vSphere Web Client............................120
Adding virtual machines to a vProxy policy workflow in the vSphere
Web Client...........................................................................................121
Additional vProxy backup configuration options............................................... 121
Configure a backup to support VMware encryption............................ 122
Configure a backup to support vSAN encryption................................ 123
Enabling or disabling Changed Block Tracking.................................... 123
Enable the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server application-consistent
protection........................................................................................................124
Updating the Microsoft VM App Agent and FLR Agent software.....................129
Troubleshooting Data Protection Policies........................................................129
Backup operations.............................................................................. 129
Managing command execution for VM Proxy Agent operations on Linux
........................................................................................................... 133
vProxy backup log files....................................................................... 133
NMC function to collect vProxy log bundle information......................134
vProxy Log Aggregation Management Tool........................................ 135
Enabling vProxy Log Aggregation....................................................... 135
Disabling Log Aggregation.................................................................. 136
Updating the Log Aggregation Parameters......................................... 137
Viewing vProxy Information................................................................ 137
Logs for SQL application-consistent data protection..........................138

Chapter 4 Recover virtual machines and data 139

Preparing the NetWorker datazone for recovery.............................................140
Entering management credentials for the Data Domain resource (instant
recovery and User mode file-level restore only)................................. 140
File-level restore as an Active Directory user...................................... 141
Active Directory user access to the vCenter plug-in and NMC........... 143
vProxy recovery in NMC..................................................................................144
Recovering a virtual machine using the NMC Recovery wizard...........144
vProxy recovery in the NetWorker Management Web UI................................. 161
Revert (or rollback) a virtual machine backup..................................... 161
Recover to a new virtual machine....................................................... 162
Instant Restore of a virtual machine................................................... 163
Virtual Disk (VMDK) recovery.............................................................164
Emergency Recovery..........................................................................165
File Level recovery..............................................................................166
Monitor recovery operations in the NetWorker Management Web UI.168
vProxy restore from legacy VMware Backup appliance backups..................... 169
vProxy file-level restore and SQL restore in the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client..................................................................................................170
Pre-requisites for file-level restore and SQL restore...........................170
File-level restore and SQL restore limitations..................................... 176
Using the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client for file-level restore
and SQL restore..................................................................................179
vProxy recovery in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC NetWorker interface..........191
Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Client..................... 191
Recovery to the original virtual machine............................................. 193
Recovery to a new virtual machine..................................................... 195
Virtual disk recovery (restore to an existing virtual machine)............. 198
Instant recovery of a virtual machine................................................. 200

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 5

Contents

vProxy recovery in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery

interface......................................................................................................... 202
Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Web Client............ 202
Recovery to the original virtual machine............................................ 203
Recovery to a new virtual machine.....................................................204
Virtual disk recovery.......................................................................... 205
Instant recovery of a virtual machine................................................. 207
vProxy recovery log files....................................................................208
vProxy backups and restores using Direct Fiber channel................................. 210
Configuring Direct Fibre Channel (DFC) for vProxy............................210

Chapter 5 VADP Recovery (legacy) 213

Software and hardware requirements..............................................................214
Limitations and unsupported features..............................................................214
Limitations to vCenter on non-English versions of Windows...............215
Limitation for VADP proxy host on non-English versions of Windows. 215
Transport modes............................................................................................. 215
Independent persistent disks cannot be recovered..........................................216
Configuring the VADP proxy host and Hypervisor resource.............................216
Creating a Hypervisor resource from the NetWorker server............... 217
Creating a NetWorker client for the VADP Proxy host by using the
Client properties windows...................................................................217
Creating a VADP User role in vCenter............................................................. 219
Creating a VADP Proxy role................................................................ 219
Assigning the VADP User role to the user specified in the NetWorker
Hypervisor resource........................................................................... 219
Minimum vCenter permissions needed to recover using VADP.......... 220
Recovering VADP Backups.............................................................................. 221
File based recovery of a VM................................................................221
Image level (single step) recovery of a full VM...................................223
VADP Planning and Best Practices..................................................................227
Recommendations and considerations for VADP recovery................. 227
Selection of physical vs. virtual proxy................................................ 228
Recommendations for Data Domain systems..................................... 229
Network and Firewall port requirements............................................ 229
Support for tape drives in a virtual machine....................................... 230
Recommendations and considerations for transport modes................231
VADP proxy access to LUNs.............................................................. 234

Appendix A Backup and recovery of the vCenter server 235

vCenter deployments overview.......................................................................236
Best practices for backup and restore............................................................ 236
Protecting an embedded PSC.........................................................................236
Restore an embedded PSC with Emergency Recovery...................... 237
Protecting external deployment models.......................................................... 238
vCenter server appliance(s) with one external PSC where PSC fails. 239
vCenter server appliance is lost but the PSC remains........................ 239
vCenter server appliance with multiple PSCs where one PSC is lost, one
remains.............................................................................................. 240
vCenter server appliance remains but all PSCs fail.............................240
vCenter server appliance remains but multiple PSCs fail....................240
vCenter server appliance fails............................................................. 241
vCenter server restore workflow.................................................................... 242
Platform Services Controller restore workfow................................................ 243

6 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

 Contents

Additional considerations................................................................................ 243

Command reference....................................................................................... 244
Shutting Down VBA........................................................................................ 244

Appendix B NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on Amazon Web

Services 247
Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on AWS..... 248
Prerequisites...................................................................................................248
Deploy the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server in VMware Cloud on AWS......... 250
NetWorker VMware Protection for VMware Cloud on AWS best practices..... 251
Unsupported NetWorker operations............................................................... 253
Limitations...................................................................................................... 253

Appendix C Regular expressions for NetWorker vProxy dynamic policies rule

definitions 255
Regular expression syntax accepted by dynamic policy rule definition............ 256

Appendix D EMC Backup and Recovery plug-in for Vmware Backup appliance
restores 261
FULLVM (Image-level) Restore...................................................................... 262
Performing a FULLVM restore........................................................... 262
Canceling a FULLVM restore............................................................. 263
Instant Access restore (for Data Domain systems only).....................263
Restore from last backup................................................................... 265
Direct to host recovery...................................................................... 266

Glossary 269

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Contents

8 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

FIGURES

1 Components in a NetWorker VMware Protection Solution ............................................... 18

2 Port requirements for NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance............ 23
3 Install vCenter Plugin in NMC........................................................................................... 48
4 vCenter plug-in for Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client........................................ 49
5 vCenter plug-in for Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client.........................................51
6 Hosts and Clusters in the vSphere Web Client..................................................................56
7 Migrating a VMware Backup appliance policy to vProxy in NMC...................................... 58
8 Migrate Operation Results dialog...................................................................................... 59
9 Data Protection Policy...................................................................................................... 67
10 Platinum policy configuration............................................................................................ 87
11 Changing the Backup Optimization mode in the vProxy protection group.........................94
12 Create a new rule to apply to a VMware group..................................................................97
13 Specify vProxy Options page.......................................................................................... 100
14 VMware protection policy in the Protection window........................................................107
15 VMware protection policy save sets in Media window..................................................... 107
16 Add a vCenter server to VMware View in NMC............................................................... 108
17 Map view of VMware environment in NMC...................................................................... 110
18 Cluster with child elements in VMware View.................................................................... 110
19 Filtering results in VMware View....................................................................................... 111
20 VMware table view........................................................................................................... 112
21 Add group in VMware View.............................................................................................. 113
22 Accessing Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client..................................................... 114
23 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Client................................................ 114
24 Dell EMC NetWorker Basic Tasks pane............................................................................ 115
25 Policies pane with available vProxy policies......................................................................116
26 Policy backup options...................................................................................................... 116
27 Recent Tasks pane........................................................................................................... 116
28 Policies pane with available vProxy policies...................................................................... 117
29 Edit a vProxy policy..........................................................................................................118
30 Backup sources in the Editing backup policy dialog.......................................................... 118
31 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Web Client........................................ 119
32 Backup pane with vProxy policy...................................................................................... 120
33 Backup sources in the Editing backup policy window....................................................... 121
34 NSR Data Domain Properties...........................................................................................140
35 Virtual machine recovery in the NMC Recovery wizard................................................... 145
36 Select the Virtual Machine to Recover............................................................................ 146
37 Select the Target Backup (individual virtual machine)..................................................... 147
38 Select the Target Backup (multiple virtual machines)......................................................147
39 Select the Virtual Machine Recovery method.................................................................. 147
40 Choose Disks to Revert................................................................................................... 149
41 Select Alternate Recovery Sources................................................................................. 149
42 Configure the Instant Recovery....................................................................................... 151
43 Configure the virtual machine recovery........................................................................... 152
44 Configure the Virtual Disk Recovery................................................................................ 154
45 Configure the Emergency Recovery................................................................................ 155
46 Select Alternate Recovery Sources for file level recovery............................................... 157
47 Mount the save set for file level recovery........................................................................158
48 Select the files and folders to recover............................................................................. 159
49 Deploy FLR Agent if not found ........................................................................................ 171
50 Manage Authentication service users.............................................................................. 175
51 Application Administrators user group properties ........................................................... 175
52 VMware FLR Users user group properties....................................................................... 176
53 Select backups to restore from....................................................................................... 180

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 9

Figures

54 Select restore location..................................................................................................... 181

55 Select items to restore.....................................................................................................181
56 Restore Monitoring..........................................................................................................182
57 Select the backup(s) to restore from.............................................................................. 183
58 Select restore location.....................................................................................................183
59 Select items to restore.................................................................................................... 184
60 Total items available for recovery.................................................................................... 184
61 Restore Monitoring..........................................................................................................185
62 Select App Backups page................................................................................................ 188
63 Restore Target page........................................................................................................188
64 Restore Options page...................................................................................................... 190
65 Restore Monitoring.......................................................................................................... 191
66 Accessing Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client.....................................................192
67 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Client................................................192
68 Dell EMC NetWorker Basic Tasks pane........................................................................... 193
69 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups.......................................................194
70 Select Restore from the Action drop-down..................................................................... 194
71 Restore to original location.............................................................................................. 195
72 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups.......................................................196
73 Select Restore from the Action drop-down..................................................................... 196
74 Restore to new virtual machine........................................................................................197
75 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups.......................................................198
76 Select Restore from the Action drop-down..................................................................... 199
77 Restore virtual disks to existing virtual machine.............................................................. 199
78 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups...................................................... 200
79 Select Restore from the Action drop-down..................................................................... 201
80 Instant Restore................................................................................................................201
81 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Web Client....................................... 202
82 Virtual machines for recovery in the Restore pane..........................................................203
83 Select a restore point......................................................................................................204
84 Restore to original location............................................................................................. 204
85 Restore options for the new virtual machine recovery.................................................... 205
86 Select VMDK backup to restore......................................................................................206
87 Set Restore Options for VMDK recovery........................................................................ 206
88 Set Instant Access restore options................................................................................. 208
89 Finish Instant Access recovery........................................................................................208
90 Apps and Modules tab in NMC.........................................................................................218
91 Recover Options dialog................................................................................................... 222
92 VMware vCenter restore.................................................................................................225
93 vCenter server restore workflow.....................................................................................242
94 PSC restore workflow..................................................................................................... 243
95 Enable internet access for Forwarders............................................................................250
96 Add a vCenter Server to VMware View with Deployed in Cloud enabled......................... 252
97 NSR VMware Proxy Properties.......................................................................................253
98 Restore tab in EMC Backup and Recovery user interface............................................... 262
99 Select a backup...............................................................................................................264
100 Set instant access options.............................................................................................. 265
101 Ready to complete.......................................................................................................... 265
102 Emergency Restore window............................................................................................267

10 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

TABLES

1 Revision history................................................................................................................. 13
2 Style conventions.............................................................................................................. 15
3 NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance requirements................................20
4 Incoming port requirements.............................................................................................. 22
5 Outgoing port requirements.............................................................................................. 22
6 Performance and scalability factors.................................................................................. 26
7 Minimum required vCenter user account privileges ..........................................................53
8 Location of the vProxy redeployment log files ................................................................. 62
9 Schedule icons..................................................................................................................99
10 Schedule icons................................................................................................................ 104
11 MSVMAPPAGENT binaries called by vProxy................................................................... 125
12 Supported characters in SQL database names................................................................ 128
13 SQL Skipped Database Cases and Descriptions............................................................... 132
14 Backup log files................................................................................................................134
15 FLR privilege requirements.............................................................................................. 173
16 Recovery log files............................................................................................................209
17 Application information values ........................................................................................ 217
18 VADP recovery privileges ...............................................................................................220

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 11

Tables

12 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

Preface

As part of an effort to improve its product lines, Dell EMC periodically releases revisions of its
software and hardware. Therefore, some functions that are described in this document might not
be supported by all versions of the software or hardware currently in use. The product release
notes provide the most up-to-date information on product features.
Contact your Dell EMC technical support professional if a product does not function correctly or
does not function as described in this document.
Note: This document was accurate at publication time. Go to Dell EMC Online Support
(https://support.emc.com) to ensure that you are using the latest version of this document.
Purpose
This document describes the integration of VMware with NetWorker.
Audience
This guide is part of the NetWorker documentation set, and is intended for use by system
administrators who are responsible for setting up and maintaining backups on a network.
Operators who monitor daily backups will also find this guide useful.
Revision history
The following table presents the revision history of this document.
Table 1 Revision history

Revision Date Description

02 March 05, 2020 A section on FLR support is included in the topic vProxy
limitations and unsupported features.

01 November 15, 2019 First release of this document for NetWorker 19.2.

Related documentation
The NetWorker documentation set includes the following publications, available on the Support
website:
l NetWorker E-LAB Navigator
Provides compatibility information, including specific software and hardware configurations
that NetWorker supports. To access E-LAB Navigator, go to https://
elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/elnhome.
l NetWorker Administration Guide
Describes how to configure and maintain the NetWorker software.
l NetWorker Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) User Guide
Describes how to use the NetWorker software to provide data protection for NDMP filers.
l NetWorker Cluster Integration Guide
Contains information related to configuring NetWorker software on cluster servers and clients.
l NetWorker Installation Guide
Provides information on how to install, uninstall, and update the NetWorker software for
clients, storage nodes, and servers on all supported operating systems.
l NetWorker Updating from a Previous Release Guide
Describes how to update the NetWorker software from a previously installed release.

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 13

Preface

l NetWorker Release Notes

Contains information on new features and changes, fixed problems, known limitations,
environment and system requirements for the latest NetWorker software release.
l NetWorker Command Reference Guide
Provides reference information for NetWorker commands and options.
l NetWorker Data Domain Boost Integration Guide
Provides planning and configuration information on the use of Data Domain devices for data
deduplication backup and storage in a NetWorker environment.
l NetWorker Performance Optimization Planning Guide
Contains basic performance tuning information for NetWorker.
l NetWorker Server Disaster Recovery and Availability Best Practices Guide
Describes how to design, plan for, and perform a step-by-step NetWorker disaster recovery.
l NetWorker Snapshot Management Integration Guide
Describes the ability to catalog and manage snapshot copies of production data that are
created by using mirror technologies on storage arrays.
l NetWorkerSnapshot Management for NAS Devices Integration Guide
Describes how to catalog and manage snapshot copies of production data that are created by
using replication technologies on NAS devices.
l NetWorker Security Configuration Guide
Provides an overview of security configuration settings available in NetWorker, secure
deployment, and physical security controls needed to ensure the secure operation of the
product.
l NetWorker VMware Integration Guide
Provides planning and configuration information on the use of VMware in a NetWorker
environment.
l NetWorker Error Message Guide
Provides information on common NetWorker error messages.
l NetWorker Licensing Guide
Provides information about licensing NetWorker products and features.
l NetWorker REST API Getting Started Guide
Describes how to configure and use the NetWorker REST API to create programmatic
interfaces to the NetWorker server.
l NetWorker REST API Reference Guide
Provides the NetWorker REST API specification used to create programmatic interfaces to the
NetWorker server.
l NetWorker 19.2 with CloudBoost 19.2 Integration Guide
Describes the integration of NetWorker with CloudBoost.
l NetWorker 19.2 with CloudBoost 19.2Security Configuration Guide
Provides an overview of security configuration settings available in NetWorker and Cloud
Boost, secure deployment, and physical security controls needed to ensure the secure
operation of the product.
l NetWorker Management Console Online Help
Describes the day-to-day administration tasks performed in the NetWorker Management
Console and the NetWorker Administration window. To view the online help, click Help in the
main menu.
l NetWorker User Online Help
Describes how to use the NetWorker User program, which is the Windows client interface, to
connect to a NetWorker server to back up, recover, archive, and retrieve files over a network.

14 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

 Preface

Note: References to Data Domain systems in this documentation, in the UI, and elsewhere in
the product include PowerProtect DD systems and older Data Domain systems.
Special notice conventions that are used in this document
The following conventions are used for special notices:
NOTICE Identifies content that warns of potential business or data loss.

Note: Contains information that is incidental, but not essential, to the topic.

Typographical conventions
The following type style conventions are used in this document:

Table 2 Style conventions

Bold Used for interface elements that a user specifically selects or clicks,
for example, names of buttons, fields, tab names, and menu paths.
Also used for the name of a dialog box, page, pane, screen area with
title, table label, and window.

Italic Used for full titles of publications that are referenced in text.
Monospace Used for:
l System code
l System output, such as an error message or script
l Pathnames, file names, file name extensions, prompts, and
syntax
l Commands and options

Monospace italic Used for variables.

Monospace bold Used for user input.

[] Square brackets enclose optional values.

| Vertical line indicates alternate selections. The vertical line means or

for the alternate selections.

{} Braces enclose content that the user must specify, such as x, y, or z.

... Ellipses indicate non-essential information that is omitted from the

example.

You can use the following resources to find more information about this product, obtain support,
and provide feedback.
Where to find product documentation
l https://www.dell.com/support
l https://community.emc.com
Where to get support
The Support website https://www.dell.com/support provides access to product licensing,
documentation, advisories, downloads, and how-to and troubleshooting information. The
information can enable you to resolve a product issue before you contact Support.
To access a product-specific page:
1. Go to https://www.dell.com/support.

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 15

Preface

2. In the search box, type a product name, and then from the list that appears, select the
product.
Knowledgebase
The Knowledgebase contains applicable solutions that you can search for either by solution
number (for example, KB000xxxxxx) or by keyword.
To search the Knowledgebase:
1. Go to https://www.dell.com/support.
2. On the Support tab, click Knowledge Base.
3. In the search box, type either the solution number or keywords. Optionally, you can limit the
search to specific products by typing a product name in the search box, and then selecting the
product from the list that appears.
Live chat
To participate in a live interactive chat with a support agent:
1. Go to https://www.dell.com/support.
2. On the Support tab, click Contact Support.
3. On the Contact Information page, click the relevant support, and then proceed.
Service requests
To obtain in-depth help from Licensing, submit a service request. To submit a service request:
1. Go to https://www.dell.com/support.
2. On the Support tab, click Service Requests.
Note: To create a service request, you must have a valid support agreement. For details about
either an account or obtaining a valid support agreement, contact a sales representative. To
find the details of a service request, in the Service Request Number field, type the
service request number, and then click the right arrow.
To review an open service request:
1. Go to https://www.dell.com/support.
2. On the Support tab, click Service Requests.
3. On the Service Requests page, under Manage Your Service Requests, click View All Dell
Service Requests.
Online communities
For peer contacts, conversations, and content on product support and solutions, go to the
Community Network https://community.emc.com. Interactively engage with customers, partners,
and certified professionals online.
How to provide feedback
Feedback helps to improve the accuracy, organization, and overall quality of publications. You can
send feedback to DPAD.Doc.Feedback@emc.com.

16 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

CHAPTER 1
Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection
with the vProxy appliance

This chapter contains the following topics:

l Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance.................................. 18

l Components in the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution with vProxy appliance.............. 18
l System requirements............................................................................................................. 19
l Compatibility information...................................................................................................... 22
l Port requirements................................................................................................................. 22
l NetWorker VMware Protection Solution best practices with the vProxy appliance...............24
l Performance and scalability.................................................................................................. 26
l Configuration checklist..........................................................................................................28
l vProxy limitations and unsupported features.........................................................................30
l Accessing Knowledge Base Articles.......................................................................................35
l IPv6 Considerations.............................................................................................................. 35
l Remote Authentication Support for FLR and HTML 5 vCenter plug-in .................................35

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 17

Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy

appliance
NetWorker provides you with the ability to perform virtual machine protection and recovery by
using the NetWorker VMware Protection solution with the vProxy appliance, also known as NVP.
NVP features the following:
l Uses standalone data-mover proxy appliances, or vProxy appliances, to backup and restore
virtual machines that run in a virtualized infrastructure, with the ability to offload the data
mover from NetWorker and run the backup as a virtual workload.
l NetWorker directly manages the vProxy appliances without the use of an external node for
proxy management and load balancing.
l Stores the virtual machine backups as raw virtual machine disk files (VMDKs) on the Data
Domain device, which reduces overhead. NetWorker does not convert the backup to any
backup streaming formats.
l Provides the ability to clone virtual machine backups. When you use streaming devices such as
tape, NetWorker converts the save set directories format (SSDF) to Common Data Storage
Format (CDSF) during a clone operation, and converts back to SSDF on Data Domain for
recovery from streaming devices.
l Provides user interfaces to perform image-level recovery or file-level recovery.

Components in the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution

with vProxy appliance
The following section provides a high-level overview of the components in the NetWorker VMware
Protection Solution with the vProxy appliance.
Figure 1 Components in a NetWorker VMware Protection Solution

18 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

 Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

The solution contains the following components:

l vProxy appliances—Provide the data movement services between the VMware host and the
target protection storage, for example Data Domain.
l NetWorker server—Provides the ability to manage vProxy appliances, configure data
protection policies for backup and clone operations. Integrates with file-level restore to provide
centralized management in a virtual environment.
l NetWorker Management Web UI and NMC—Provides the ability to start, stop, and monitor
data protection policies and perform recovery operations.
l Dell EMC Data Protection Restore client—Provides the ability to perform file-level restore by
using a web interface.
l vCenter plug-in—Backup and recovery operations for VMware policies. Displays as Dell EMC
NetWorker in the vSphere Client or VM Backup and Recovery in the vSphere Web Client.
l DDR1 and DDR2—Data Domain appliances that receive and clone backup data in SSDF format.
l Tape device—Media that receives backup data in CDSF format.

System requirements
The following table lists the required components for NetWorker VMware Protection with the
vProxy appliance.
When you install or upgrade NetWorker and deploy the vProxy appliance, ensure that the
NetWorker server and storage node are at the same version, and that you use the latest version of
the vProxy appliance.

Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide 19

Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Note: For more compatibility details and the most up-to-date versions that are supported, see
the NetWorker compatibility matrix at https://elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/
modernHomeDataProtection.

Table 3 NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance requirements

Component Requirements

NetWorker l NetWorker 19.2 server software with NMC The

NetWorker storage node should be the same version as
the NetWorker server.
l The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires
the NetWorker server and NetWorker Authentication
service to be installed on the same machine.
l Dell EMC Data Protection Restore client requires
NetWorker server and NetWorker Authentication
service to be installed on the same machine.

vProxy Appliance Version 4.0. System requirements for the vProxy include:
l CPU: 4 * 2 GHz (4 virtual sockets, 1 core for each
socket)
l Memory: 8 GB
l Disks: 2 disks (59 GB and 98 GB)
l Internet Protocol: IPv4 only or IPv6 only; dual stack not
supported
l SCSI controller: Maximum 4
l NIC: One vmxnet3 NIC with one port

vCenter server l 6.0, 6.0U1, 6.0U2, 6.0U3, 6.5, 6.5U1, 6.5U2, 6.5U3, 6.7,
6.7U1, 6.7U2, 6.7U3
l Version 6.5 and later is required to perform Microsoft
SQL Server application-consistent protection.
l Linux or Windows platform, or VC appliance
Note: The NetWorker compatibility matrix at https://
elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/
modernHomeDataProtection provides detailed
information about NetWorker and vCenter/vSphere
version compatibility.

ESX/ESXi server l 6.0, 6.0U1, 6.0U2, 6.0U3, 6.5, 6.5U1, 6.5U2, 6.5U3, 6.7,
6.7U1, 6.7U2, 6.7U3,
l Version 6.5 and later is required to perform Microsoft
SQL Server application-consistent protection.
l Automatically enables Changed Block Tracking (CBT)
on each virtual machine.
Note: The NetWorker compatibility matrix at https://
elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/
modernHomeDataProtection provides detailed

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 Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Table 3 NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance requirements (continued)

Component Requirements

information about NetWorker and vCenter/vSphere

version compatibility.

VMC on AWS VMC on AWS: vProxy is compatible with SDDC version 1.6,
1.7 and 1.8

VMware Tools l VMware Tools version 10 or later VMware Tools version

10.1 or later is required to perform Microsoft SQL
Server application-consistent protection.
l Open VM Tools, version support as outlined in the
VMware Software Compatibility Guide.

Data Domain l A minimum of one configured DD Boost device is

required. Also, you must specify one pool that contains
the DD Boost device.
l Data Domain system operating system at DDOS version
60.x, 6.1.x, 6.2.x.
l A Data Domain user account with administrator
privileges, which you use to manage file-level restore
and instant access restore.
l NFS v3 is enabled and running. This is required for the
file-level restore and instant recovery operations.
Note:
l The NetWorker compatibility. matrix at https://
elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/
modernHomeDataProtection provides detailed
information about NetWorker and DD Boost version
compatibility
l Ensure that the NFS “default-export-version” is set
to 3 on the Data Domain by running the following
command on Data Domain console:

sysadmin@XXXXXXXX# nfs option set

default-export-version 3

You can check the default-export-version value by

running the following CLI command on the Data
Domain console

sysadmin@XXXXXXXX# nfs option show all

JRE The minimum Java requirement is Java 8 build 211.

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Compatibility information
The NetWorker Online Compatibility matrix provides software compatibility information for the
NetWorker release, which includes NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance.

The guide is available at https://elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/modernHomeDataProtection.

Note: For compatibility information related to the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server
application-consistent protection, refer to the NMM support matrix.

Port requirements
The NetWorker VMware Protection solution requires the ports that are outlined in the following
tables.
Note: The vProxy appliance does not support the use of a non-default vCenter HTTPS port. To
perform data protection operations using the vProxy appliance, ensure that your vCenter
server uses the default 443 HTTPS port.

Table 4 Incoming port requirements

From To Port Purpose

NetWorker server vProxy appliance 9090 NetWorker VMware

Protection web
service calls to initiate
and monitor backups,
image recoveries, and
granular recoveries.

NetWorker server vCenter server 443 VMware View in

NMC NetWorker
Administration

NetWorker server ESXi server 443 Emergency restore,

vProxy redeployment

vCenter server NetWorker server 9090 vSphere Client's VM

Backup and
Recovery plug-in

Dell EMC Data NetWorker server 9090 File-level recovery in

Protection Restore the Dell EMC Data
Client interface Protection Restore
Client

ESXi servers Data Domain 111, 2049, 2052 File-level recovery

and instant recovery

Virtual machines Data Domain 111, 2049 SQL application-

consistent backup

Table 5 Outgoing port requirements

From To Port Purpose

vProxy Appliance DNS 53 Name resolution

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 Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Table 5 Outgoing port requirements (continued)

From To Port Purpose

vProxy Appliance Data Domain 22, 111, 131, 161, 2049, Data Domain
2052 management

vProxy Appliance ESXi server 443, 902 Backup and recovery

operations

vProxy Appliance vCenter server 443 vProxy registration,

backup, and recovery
operations
Note: Using a
non-default
vCenter port for
HTTPS is not
supported.

vProxy Appliance Target Virtual 9613 vProxy FLR

Machine operations
Note: Port 9613 is
used for FLR
operations only
when available. If
port is not
available, then it
will fallback to
older method
through VIX API.

Figure 2 Port requirements for NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

NetWorker VMware Protection Solution best practices with

the vProxy appliance
Observe the following best practices when using the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution with
the vProxy appliance.
Software recommendations
Review the following software recommendations:
l Ensure that the NetWorker server and storage node are at the same version, and that all the
vProxy appliances you deploy are compatible with this version.
l The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.
l Install VMware Tools on each virtual machine by using the vSphere Web Client. VMware
Tools add additional backup and recovery capabilities that quiesce certain processes on the
guest operating system prior to backup. For Linux operating systems, ensure that you install a
supported Open VM Tools package, as outlined in the VMware Software Compatibility Guide.
l Installation of third-party tools or applications in the virtual appliance for the purposes of
monitoring the appliance status and protecting the appliance from computer viruses can have a
negative impact on system performance. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not install
any additional tools or applications in the appliance.
l Dell EMC Data Protection Restore client requires NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.
Configuration recommendations
l Ensure that the vCenter server's Datastore Browser feature (enableHttpDatastoreAccess)
is enabled to allow the backup and restore operations to browse the datastores in the vSphere
environment. The feature is enabled by default, but you can verify that the vCenter vpxd.cfg
file does not contain the enableHttpDatastoreAccess entry or that it is set to True. For
further details, see the VMware Knowledge Base article at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/
2101567.
l vProxy remote site configurations with a storage node communication latency greater than 50
millisecond require a storage node in the remote site.
l For best practices related to SQL Server application-consistent protection, review the
software and security requirements in the section Enable the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL
Server application-consistent protection.
l During policy configuration, assign virtual machines to a protection group based on logical
grouping to allow for better scheduling of backups that help you avoid resource contention and
create more organized logs for review.
l When you plan the backups, ensure that NetWorker VMware Protection supports the disk
types that you use in the environment. Currently, NetWorker VMware Protection does not
support the following disk types:
n Independent (persistent and non-persistent)
n RDM Independent - Virtual Compatibility Mode
n RDM Physical Compatibility Mode
For RDM Dependent - Virtual Compatibility Mode, vProxy supports backup and restore with
the following limitations:
n Recover to New Virtual Machine recovers the vRDM disk as a regular thick eager zeroed
VMDK disk to the datastore selected during the restore.

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n Instant Restore of Virtual Machine will recover all the disks in a VM with vRDM disk as
regular thick eager zeroed VMDK disks.
n Revert a Virtual Machine does not support the Revert VM configuration option if the
backup includes a vRDM disk. Ensure that you do not select this option during such
restores.
n If all the disks and vRDM disk are restored to the same datastore, then Recover to New
Virtual Machine will recover all the disks in a VM with vRDM disk as regular thick eager
zeroed VMDK disks.
l The vProxy Appliance uses Changed Block Tracking (CBT) by default. If CBT is disabled on the
virtual machine, then it enables CBT automatically. If you add a disk to the virtual machine
after the first full backup, for the next policy run a full backup will be performed automatically
for the newly added disk, and an incremental backup will be performed for the existing disk.
For information about disabling CBT, see the section Enabling or disabling Changed Block
Tracking.
l When backing up thin-provisioned Virtual Machines or disks for Virtual Machines on NFS
datastores, an NFS datastore recovery does not preserve thin provisioning. VMware
knowledge base article 2137818 at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2137818 provides more
information.
l It is recommended that you set an appropriate NetWorker server/storage parallelism value,
according to the available resources, to reduce queuing. For example, five vProxy appliances
with backup and clone operations require more than 125 parallel sessions. Therefore, setting
the parallelism for the NetWorker server to 128 or higher (while also setting the server with
32+ GB memory and 8+ CPUs) will suit such an environment. The NetWorker Performance
Optimization Planning Guide provides more details.
l If you require a larger number of parallel image backups, also consider setting the maximum
number of vCenter SOAP sessions to larger value. This requires careful planning and additional
resources on the vCenter Server You can configure this by modifying the following line in the
vCenter vpxd.cfg file:
<vmacore><soap><maxSessionCount> N </maxSessionCount></soap></vmacore>
This applies specifically to SDK sessions as opposed to VI client sessions.
l Each Virtual Machine backup to a Data Domain system consumes more than one session on the
Data Domain device. The default device configuration is target sessions=20 and max
session=60, however it is recommended that you configure additional devices for more than
10 parallel backups.
l Virtual Machines with extremely high IO may stop responding during consolidation due to the
ESXi forced operation called synchronous consolidate. Plan your backups of such Virtual
Machines according to the amount of workload on the Virtual Machine.
l When you work with the vCenter database either directly or by using scripts, do not change
the name attribute for the vmfolder object. VMware knowledge base article at https://
support.emc.com/kb/190755 provides more information.
l Resource contention can occur at various points during the backup cycle. When NetWorker
runs larger policies, issues due to contention of resources can occur, which impact all running
operations. Adjust your resources and times for other larger policies to avoid overlaps, and
avoid resource contention.
For example, you configure one pool that is named Bronze, with one device. If you set up a
policy where every day at 10 pm two policies called 'Bronze1' and 'Bronze2' with 400 virtual
machines each start writing to the device in the 'Bronze' pool, then the long wait for device
availability may cause unexpected delays or timeouts. To fix this, set the policy start times 4
hours apart and add more devices, to allow for stable backups.
Transport mode recommendations
Review the following recommendations for transport mode settings:

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

l Use hotadd transport mode for faster backups and restores and less exposure to network
routing, firewall, and SSL certificate issues. The vProxy appliance currently supports a
maximum of 25 concurrent hotadd sessions. To support hotadd mode, deploy the vProxy on an
ESXi host that has a path to the storage that holds the target virtual disk(s) for backup.
l Hotadd mode requires VMware hardware version 7 or later. Ensure that all virtual machines
that you back up with Hotadd mode are using Virtual Machine hardware version 7 or later.
l For sites that contain many virtual machines that do not support hotadd requirements, NBD
transport mode is used. This can cause congestion on the ESXi host management network.
Plan your backup network carefully for large scale NBD installs. You may consider configuring
one of the following options:
n Set up Management network redundancy.
n Set up backup network to ESXi for NBD.
n Set up storage heartbeats. http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmw-vsphere-
high-availability.pdf provides more information.
l Avoid deploying VMs with IDE virtual disks; using IDE virtual disks degrades backup
performance. Use SCSI virtual disks instead whenever possible.
Note: You cannot use hotadd mode with IDE Virtual disks and therefore backup of these
disks will be performed using NBD mode.
l If you have vFlash-enabled disks and are using hotadd transport mode, ensure that you
configure the vFlash resource for the vProxy host with sufficient resources (greater than or
equal to the virtual machine resources), or migrate the vProxy to a host with vFlash already
configured. Otherwise, backup of any vFlash-enabled disks will fail with the error "VDDK Error:
13: You do not have access rights to this file," and the error "The available virtual flash
resource '0' MB ('0' bytes) is not sufficient for the requested operation" on the vCenter
server.
l If you only want to use one transport mode, ensure that you set the maximum sessions value
for the other transport mode to 0. For example, if you want to use hotadd mode only set
hotadd = 25 and nbd = 0. If you want to use NBD mode only, set hotadd = 0 and nbd = 10.
l In order for backup and recovery operations to use Hotadd mode on a VMware Virtual Volume
(VVol) datastore, the vProxy should reside on the same VVol as the virtual machine.

Performance and scalability

Performance and scalability of the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution depends on several
factors, including the number of vCenter servers and proxies and the number of concurrent virtual
machine backups. The following table provides information on these scalability factors and
maximum recommendations, in addition to concurrency recommendations for sessions created
from backups of the vProxy appliance. The count of sessions is driven by the number of proxies,
clone jobs, and other backups running through this server. Each vProxy Appliance can run up to 25
sessions.

Table 6 Performance and scalability factors

Component Maximum Recommended Notes

limit count

Number of concurrent 25 13 It is recommended to use 13 hotadd sessions to

hotadd backups per proxy achieve optimal performance.

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Table 6 Performance and scalability factors (continued)

Component Maximum Recommended Notes

limit count

Number of concurrent 25 It is recommended to use hotadd transport mode

NBD backups per proxy for optimal performance. When using VMware
NBD mode, use of 10G network is recommended.

Number of concurrent 48 (10G VMware uses Network File Copy (NFC) protocol
NBD backups per vCenter network) to read VMDK using NBD transport mode. You
server need one VMware NFC connection for each VMDK
file being backed up. The VMware Documentation
provides more information on vCenter NFC
session connection limits.

Virtual machines 100 100 Can be achieved with a combination of the number
concurrent backups per of proxies multiplied by the number of configured
vCenter server hotadd sessions per vProxy.

Number of proxies per 8 8 proxies with 12-13 hotadd sessions on each

vCenter proxy can protect 100 virtual machines
concurrently. If more than 8 proxies are required
per vCenter, configure the hotadd limits on the
proxies to ensure that no more than 100 proxy
streams run concurrently against any given
vCenter.

Number of workflows per 64 8 Ensure that you do not to exceed 2000 virtual
VMware policy machines per VMware policy.

Number of virtual 2000 Ensure that you do not to exceed 2000 virtual
machines per workflow machines per VMware policy.
Note that the maximum of 2000 virtual machines
per workflow is only applicable to the first FULL
backup to Data Domain, and does not apply to
CBT-based incremental backups of the virtual
machines.
However, ensure that you do not exceed 100
connections per vCenter at any time during the
backup window.

Number of vCenter 5 3 Per policy you can use 5 vCenter servers in the
servers per policy respective workflows and trigger concurrent
backups.

Number of concurrent 50 It is recommended to use hotadd transport mode

recoveries for recoveries. For large concurrent restores, it is
highly recommended that multiple target
datastores are used for optimal performance

Number of files/ 20000 or File-level recovery is recommended for quickly

directories per file level less recovering a small set of files. Image-level or
recovery (User and Admin VMDK-level recoveries are optimized and
mode) recommended for recovering a large set of files/
folders.

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Table 6 Performance and scalability factors (continued)

Component Maximum Recommended Notes

limit count

Number of parallel instant 32 You can perform up to 32 parallel instant recovery

access sessions sessions using nsrvproxy_recover, provided
that you satisfy the following prerequisites:
l For the backups being restored, you must
select Performance backup optimization
mode during VMware type group creation in
NMC.
l If you are using DDOS version 6.0.x, then
minimum Data Domain OS version 6.0.0.30 is
required
l Data Domain platforms supported include
DD6300 (EOS-T2), DD6800 (EOS-T3),
DD9300 (EOS-T4), and DD9800.
l The ESXi host requires the following default
values to be updated to the maximum
supported:
Under NFS, update NFS.MaxVolumes.
Under Net, update Net.TcpipHeapSize.
Under Net, update Net.TcpipHeapMax.
The VMware knowledgebase article at https://
kb.vmware.com/kb/2239 provides more
information. Additionally, refer to the VMware
Documentation for concurrent virtual machine
migration limits.

Total number of virtual 2000 1000 You can run multiple vProxy policies concurrently
machines in a single as long as the total number of concurrent backup
NetWorker policy streams does not exceed the vCenter limits
indicated in this table.
In the case of a single vCenter, stagger the
schedules for policies to ensure that all the
backups for a policy complete before the backups
of the next policy begin.

Backup Optimization During creation of a VMware type group in NMC,

modes you can select a backup optimization mode of
either Capacity or Performance. Performance
mode results in additional space use on the Data
Domain device (around 20%) but significantly
improves random I/O performance for instant
access restores.

Configuration checklist
The following configuration checklist provides best practices and troubleshooting tips that might
help resolve some common issues.

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Basic configuration
l Synchronize system time between vCenter, ESX/ESXi/vSphere, and the vProxy appliance
l Assign IPs carefully — do not reuse any IP address
l Use FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names) everywhere
l For any network related issue, confirm that forward and reverse DNS lookups work for each
host in the datazone.

Data Domain system configuration

l All Data Domain systems should be upgraded to a supported DDOS version for the NetWorker
VMware Protection solution.
l The Data domain Retention Lock feature for vProxy backup and clone actions requires DDOS
version 6.1.
l Ensure that the Data Domain system does not reach the MTree limit and max-streams limit.
l Ensure that only devices from the same Data Domain system host appear in Data Domain
system pool when used in any Action.
l Check the NFS settings and ensure that NFS v3 is enabled and running. If NFS v4 is enabled,
ensure NFS v3 is also set to enabled in order to avoid issues with file-level restore operations
or instant recovery operations.
l For virtual machines within in application-consistent data protection policy, network zoning
must be configured to enable network connectivity between the virtual machines and the Data
Domain system.

NetWorker configuration
l Ensure that the relevant devices are mounted.
l Ensure that vProxy IP addresses are populated in DNS, and that the NetWorker server has
name resolution for the vProxy host names.
l The vCenter plug-in requires the NetWorker server and NetWorker Authentication service to
be installed on the same machine.
l Wait until you successfully configure a policy before you run the policy.
l A message appears after successful vProxy registration in NMC.
l Dell EMC Data Protection Restore client requires NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

Virtual machine configuration

l Ensure that the virtual machine network is zoned for access to Data Domain.
l Ensure that the virtual machine has name resolution for the Data Domain system, if applicable.
l Ensure that the virtual machine firewall has port rules for Data Domain.
l Ensure that Microsoft SQL Server instances are enabled for data protection using a SYSTEM
account, as described in the software and security requirements section of the topic Enable
the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server application-consistent protection.

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vProxy FLR Limitations

File-level restore does not support the following virtual disk configurations:
l LVM (Logical Volume Management) thin provisioning
l LVM having any PV (Physical Volume) not allocated to a VG (Volume Group)
l Unformatted disks
l FAT16 file systems
l FAT32 file systems
l Extended partitions (Types: 05h, 0Fh, 85h, C5h, D5h)
l Two or more virtual disks that are mapped to single partition
l Encrypted partitions
l Compressed partitions
l Ubuntu/Debian ext4 file systems
l BTRFS subvolumes
l Raw disks without any file system
l RAID configured SLES Operating System

vProxy limitations and unsupported features

Before you deploy the NetWorker VMware Protection Solution with the vProxy appliance, review
the following limitations and unsupported features.
vCenter server using nondefault HTTPS port is not supported.
The vProxy appliance does not support the use of a nondefault vCenter HTTPS port. To
perform data protection operations using the vProxy appliance, ensure that your vCenter
server uses the default 443 HTTPS port.

VMware limitations by vSphere version

VMware limitations for vSphere 6.0 and later versions are available at https://
configmax.vmware.com/home.

vCenter plug-in requires NetWorker server and NetWorker Authentication services running on
the same machine.
The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) does not support running the NetWorker server
and NetWorker Authentication service on different machines. Ensure that both are running on
the same machine.

Limitations to SQL Server application consistent data protection

Review the SQL Server application-consistent protection support limitations in the section
Enable the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server application-consistent protection.

Network configuration settings do not get restored with virtual machine after recovery of a vApp
backup.
Network configuration settings are not backed up with the virtual machine as part of a vApp
backup in NetWorker. As a result, when you restore a vApp backup, you must manually
reconfigure the network settings.

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vCenter version that is not updated in RAP database after upgrade

When you upgrade vCenter, the vCenter version does not get updated immediately in the RAP
database since NetWorker does not periodically query vCenter. After the upgrade, refresh
VMware View in NMC's Administration window for the vCenter version to update.

Concurrent vProxy workflow on the same virtual machine is not supported when not using a
vCenter server
NetWorker does not support running multiple vProxy workflows concurrently (backup, image-
level recovery, or file-level restore operations) on the same virtual machine when not using a
vCenter server in your environment.

Data Domain system requires REPLICATION license when clone of VMware backup that is
performed to same system as the backup
When cloning VMware backups using NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy
appliance, if the clone is performed to the same Data Domain system as the backup, a
REPLICATION license is required on the Data Domain system.

No new policies can be created or run with VMware Backup appliance.

After upgrading to a NetWorker 19.2 release with the vProxy appliance, new policies can only
be created with the vProxy appliance. You cannot run or edit existing VMware Backup
Appliance policies, and once you delete a VMware Backup appliance policy, it is no longer
available.

Virtual machine. alert "VM MAC conflict" is displayed after successful recovery of virtual
machine
After performing a successful recovery of a virtual machine through vCenter version 6, an
alert may appear to indicate a "VM MAC conflict" for the recovered virtual machine, even
though the new virtual machine will have a different and unique MAC address. You must
manually acknowledge the alert or clear the alert after resolving the MAC address conflict.
This alert can be triggered even when the MAC address conflict is resolved.
The VMware release notes at http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsphere/60/
vsphere-vcenter-server-60u2-release-notes.html provide more information.

Emergency recovery cannot be performed until vProxy registration event successful with
NetWorker.
When deploying a new vProxy that is not yet registered with NetWorker, wait for the
registration event to complete successfully with NetWorker before performing an emergency
recovery in the NMC Recovery wizard. The event appears in the logs and in NMC.

Datastore names cannot contain special characters.

Using special characters in datastore names can cause problems with the vProxy, such as
failed backups and restores. Special characters include the following: % & * $ # @ !
\ / : * ? " < > | ;, and so on.

Backups fail for resource pools that are re-created with the same name as deleted pool
When you delete a resource pool in vCenter and then re-create a resource pool with the same
name, backups fail. Reconfigure the protection group with the newly created resource pool.

Data Domain SMT not supported

The NetWorker VMware Protection Solution does not support Data Domain SMT. You can
create different DDBoost users to segregate access to specific DD Boost devices. However
DD Admin credentials are required for performing instant access and file-level restore
workflows.

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Only hotadd and NBD transport modes supported

The NetWorker VMware Protection Solution supports only the hotadd and NBD transport
modes. The hotadd mode is the default transport mode. If you want to use both modes, the
maximum sessions value for each must be set to the same nonzero value. For example, set
hotadd = 13 and nbd = 13. If you only want to use one transport mode, ensure that you set the
maximum sessions value for the other transport mode to 0. For example, if you want to use
hotadd mode only, set hotadd = 25 and nbd = 0.
Note: If upgrading to NetWorker 18.1 and later from a previous release where the hotadd
and nbd transport modes were configured with different nonzero values for maximum
sessions, ensure that you change these settings to the same nonzero value. Setting
different nonzero values for both transport modes is not supported in NetWorker 18.1 and
later.

Specify NBD for datastores if proxies should use NBD mode only.
For proxies that only use NBD transport mode (proxies where you specify a value greater than
0 for the NBD maximum sessions limit), you must also specify the datastores for which you
want the proxy to perform only NBD backups to ensure that any backups of virtual machines
running on these datastores are always performed using NBD mode. This also ensures that the
same NBD-only proxies are never used for backups of virtual machines residing on any other
datastores.

Backup of individual folders within a Virtual Machine is not supported.

The NetWorker VMware Protection Solution only supports image-level backup and disk-level
backup. You cannot perform backups of individual folders within the Virtual Machine.

Retries, Retry Delay, and the Inactivity Timeout options for VMware backup action are not
supported.
The Retries, Retry Delay, and the Inactivity Timeout options that appear during creation of
a VMware backup action in the NetWorker Management Web UI and NMC are not
supported. You can ignore these options when creating the backup action.

VMware View in the NetWorker Administration map view does not display when configuration for
Virtual Machines within the vCenter is incomplete
When you use VMware View, the map view does not appear when the configuration for one or
more Virtual Machines in the vCenter is incomplete. To avoid this issue, delete the incomplete
Virtual Machine configurations from vCenter.

I/O contention when all Virtual Machines on a single data store

I/O contention may occur during snapshot creation and backup read operations when all
Virtual Machines reside on a single datastore.

No automatic migration tool to move from previous solution to NetWorker VMware Protection
with the vProxy appliance
An automatic migration tool to move from the previous virtual machine backup solution to the
NetWorker VMware Protection with vProxy appliance solution does not exist.

VMware snapshot for backup is not supported for independent disks.

When using independent disks, you cannot perform VMware snapshot for backup.

Cannot select a vProxy or the cloned vProxy when you create a VMware group
When you create a protection group, you cannot select vProxy or clones of the vProxy from
the hosts list. To use the clone vProxy as a normal virtual machine, clear the annotation string
This is EMC Backup and Recovery vProxy Appliance in the Notes section of the
cloned vProxy virtual machine.

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Restricted data zones not supported

NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance does not currently support the
protection of virtual machines within a Restricted Data Zone. When you create a VMware
policy in NMC, ensure that you leave the Restricted Data Zone field blank.

RDM Dependent - Virtual Compatibility Mode limitations

For RDM Dependent - Virtual Compatibility Mode, vProxy supports backup and restore with
the following limitations:
l Recover to New Virtual Machine recovers the vRDM disk as a regular thick eager zeroed
VMDK disk to the datastore selected during the restore.
l Instant Restore of Virtual Machine recovers all the disks in a VM with vRDM disk as
regular thick eager zeroed VMDK disks.
l Revert a Virtual Machine does not support the Revert VM configuration option if the
backup includes a vRDM disk. Ensure that you do not select this option during such
restores.
l If all the disks and vRDM disk are restored to the same datastore, then Recover to New
Virtual Machine will recover all the disks in a VM with vRDM disk as regular thick eager
zeroed VMDK disks.

Datastore cluster does not display in the Datastore selection drop-down of NMC Recovery
wizard for Virtual Machine Recovery or Virtual Disk Recovery types.
If a vCenter server contains a datastore cluster, the datastore cluster name does not display
for selection during image-level recoveries using either the Virtual Machine Recovery or
Virtual Disk Recovery types in the NMC NetWorker Administration Recovery wizard. When
performing the recovery to a datastore cluster, ensure that you select any valid datastore
within the cluster that contains enough free space to accommodate the virtual machine.

File level restore, emergency restore, or Instant access restore on dual network adapter vProxy is
supported only if VMkernel port is connected to backup subnet/VLAN.
To use Instant Access restore, emergency restore, and file-level restore with vProxy having
dual network adapter or multiple isolated VLANs configured, the destination ESXi requires a
VMkernel port that is connected to the backup subnet/VLAN.

Registration of a vProxy to multiple NetWorker servers is not supported.

You cannot register a vProxy to multiple NetWorker servers. You must unregister the vProxy
from previous Networker server before registering it to another NetWorker server. If you are
unable to register the vProxy with another Networker server, then check vProxy state and
ensure that it is in the UNREGISTERED state.

vProxy DFC limitations

The following features are unavailable for virtual machines that are configured with
DirectPath:
l Hot adding and removal of virtual devices
l Suspend and resume.
l Record and replay
l Fault tolerance
l High availability
l DRS (limited availability. The virtual machine can be part of a cluster, but cannot migrate
across hosts)
l Snapshots
Taking above limitations into consideration, configure your vProxy for VMDirect capability.

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

Location of vProxy logs in NetWorker server running on Windows

The logs related to vProxy for NetWorker running on Windows server are found in the
following locations instead of vproxy/logs folder:
l The nsrvisd logs are present in <networker install dir>\nsr\vproxy\nsrvisd.
l The recycle logs are present in <networker install dir>\nsr\vproxy\recycle.

Emergency recover operation using NWUI the existing/registered vProxies are not listed.
If user tries to perform emergency recover in IPV6 environment, then it is recommended to
use ESXI host FQDN instead of IPV6 address in NMC and NWUI.

Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client requires NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication services running on the same machine.
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client does not support running the NetWorker server
and NetWorker Authentication service on different machines. Ensure that both the
NetWorker server and NetWorker Authentication service are running on the same machine.

Recovered virtual machine fails to turn on if the source virtual machine is attached to a
dvportgroup which no longer exists
A recovered virtual machine fails to turn on if the source virtual machine is attached to a
dvportgroup which no longer exists. This issue affects the following types of restore
operations:
l Instant access recovery
l Virtual machine recovery
l Emergency recovery
To avoid this issue, manually edit the virtual machine settings and assign the required network
connection before powering on the recovered virtual machine.

Restore of VM with active directory does not update the GenerationID

When a VM with Active Directory role is restored using a backup, it retains the same vm
GenerationID as that of Source VM. This could lead to a potential data loss (USN rollback)
scenario. You can restore by performing the following steps:
1. Perform Restore as New of the Active Directory VM and do not choose the option to turn
on automatically.
2. After restore completes take a snapshot when it is in powered off state.
3. Perform a revert to the snapshot, and delete the snapshot.
4. Power on the VM and the generationID will be updated.

When the vCenter is renamed to a different hostname, NetWorker server treats the vCenter
server as a new resource
Perform the following steps to rename the vCenter to a different hostname:
1. Create a hypervisor resource in NetWorker server pointing to the new hostname of the
vCenter.
Note: If you need the old backups, then retain both vCenter resources in NetWorker
until savesets of older vCenter expires.
2. Configure new vCenter groups and workflows and map to the required VMs in the new
vCenter.

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3. Reconfigure the existing vProxy resources in NetWorker to point to the new vCenter.
4. Use NWUI H5 interface to restore any of the older vCenter backups.
Note: Restore of vCenter backup using vCenter plug-in is not supported.

Accessing Knowledge Base Articles

Additional troubleshooting information is available through the Featured VMware Documentation
Sets website at https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/. Select Support > Search Knowledge
Base.

IPv6 Considerations
In IPv6 enabled VMware environment, the following components should not have any unreachable
IPv4 entries in the DNS server:
l NetWorker server FQDN
l vProxy appliance FQDN
l Data Domain FQDN
l vCenter FQDN
l ESXi FQDN
The FQDNs listed above should return only AAAA records from the DNS and should not have any
unreachable IPv4 records in the DNS.

Remote Authentication Support for FLR and HTML 5 vCenter

plug-in
The Remote Authentication support for FLR and HTML 5 vCenter plug-in for vProxy is introduced
in NetWorker 19.3.
The proposed feature enables end users to use a Remote AuthC server and support the operations
with vProxy.
l You can login to FLR WebUI using remote Authc and perform FLR.
l You can login to vCenter plug-in H5 using remote Authc and perform backups and restores
using the plug-in.
Note:
l To use the remote authentication, you should select the advanced option in the login
screen and enter the remote Authentication hostname and port number.
l If the Authentication server is remote, then you cannot install vCenter plug-in using NMC .
To install vCenter plug-in, use NWUI.
l NetWorker 19.3 and later, does not support Flash plug-in. You cannot use remote
Authentication with vCenter Flash plug-in. Instead, use HTML5 plug-in.

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance

36 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

CHAPTER 2
Deploy the vProxy appliance and configure the
NetWorker datazone

This chapter contains the following topics:

l Deploying the vProxy appliance.............................................................................................38

l VMware vCenter server management.................................................................................... 41
l Configuring and registering the vProxy appliance..................................................................44
l Installing the vCenter plug-in.................................................................................................47
l Accessing the HTML-5 or flash-based vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator Active
Directory user........................................................................................................................ 51
l Creating a dedicated vCenter user account and VM Backup and Recovery role....................52
l Migrating policies from VMware Backup appliance to vProxy appliance................................ 57
l Resetting the admin account password ................................................................................60
l Upgrading the vProxy appliance............................................................................................60

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Deploy the vProxy appliance and configure the NetWorker datazone

Deploying the vProxy appliance

You can deploy the vProxy appliance from either of the following:
l The vCenter server.
l The ESXi host.
Registration and configuration of the vProxy appliance must then be completed in the NMC
NetWorker Adminstration window's VMware Proxy Configuration wizard, or the NetWorker
Management Web UI.

Deploy the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server

When deploying the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server, configure the host with a trusted SSL
certificate, and then perform the following steps to deploy the OVA for the vProxy host from a
vCenter server by using the vSphere Web Client.
Before you begin
Install or upgrade to the latest version of the VMware Client Integration Plug-in. This plug-in is
required to run the vSphere Web Client. Download information is provided in the knowledgebase
article at https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2145066.
Procedure
1. Log in to the vSphere Client with an administrator account.
2. In the Main menu, expand vCenter and then expand Hosts.
3. Right-click the ESXi host on which you will deploy the OVA and select Deploy OVF
template.
4. On the Source window, type a URL path to the OVA package or click Browse and navigate
to the OVA package location, and then click Next.
5. On the Review details window, review the product details such as the product name,
version, vendor, publisher, and download size, and then click Next.
6. On the Accept License Agreements window, the EULA appears. Review the EULA and
then click Accept.
7. On the Select name and folder window, specify a name for the virtual appliance, and
optionally the inventory location, for example a datacenter or VM folder. Click Next.
8. On the Select storage window, select disk format and the destination datastore on which
to store the virtual appliance files and then click Next.
It is recommended that you select Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed to ensure that amount of
storage space allocated to the virtual appliance is available.
9. (Optional) On the Select resource window, select the host, vApp, or resource pool in which
to deploy the OVA, and then click Next.
10. On the Select networks window, select the Source and Destination networks to use with
the appliance.
Note: Ensure that the destination network(s) are mapped to the correct source
network, otherwise vProxy will fail to register to the NetWorker server. The source
network VM Network should map to your “vProxy Production network” portgroup,
which is the network portgroup with access to the backup application server, vCenter,
and ESXi hosts. In case of multiple networks, vProxy registration in NetWorker server,
should be done using only the "vProxy Production network" IP address or FQDN.

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Otherwise, ensure that you assign the networks according to the following
considerations:
l If the Data Domain backup data uses a separate private or isolated physical network,
use the optional VM Network 2 and map this network to your desired destination
network portgroup.
l If the Data Domain backup data uses a separate private or isolated physical network,
VM Network 2 should map to the “vProxy Backup Data network” portgroup, which
is the network with access to the Dell EMC Data Domain, as indicated in the
description when the network is selected.

11. Select IPv4 or IPv6 from the IP protocol drop-down, and then click Next.
12. On the Customize template window, specify the following attributes, and then click Next.
a. Expand Networking properties, and then perform the following tasks:
l In the Network IP address field, specify an IPv4 or IPV6 address for the vProxy
appliance.
l In the Default gateway field, specify the IPV4 or IPV6 address of the gateway host.
l In the Network Netmask/Prefix field, specify the netmask for an IPv4 Network IP
address, or the prefix length for an IPv6 Network IP address.
Note: Similar to the Select networks window, if dual NIC is configured, specify
values for both VM Network and VM Network 2. If a single NIC is configured, then
specify a value only for VM Network and ignore VM Network 2.

b. Expand DNS settings, and then perform the following tasks:

l In the DNS field, specify the IP address of the DNS servers, separated by commas.
l In the FQDN field, specify the fully qualified domain name of the vProxy appliance.

c. Expand Timezone settings and then perform the following tasks:

l In the Timezone setting field, select the timezone.
Note: To set a timezone outside of the list supported by the vProxy appliance,
you need to change the timezone manually. SSH into the vProxy appliance using
root credentials and run the following command: /usr/bin/timedatectl set-
timezone new-timezone.
l (Optional) In the NTP field, specify the NTP server address if you want to time sync
the vProxy with the NTP server. If you do not specify the NTP server address, then
the vProxy will time sync with the ESXi host.

d. Expand Password settings, and then perform the following tasks:

l In the Root password field, specify a new password for the root account.
l In the Admin password field, specify a new password for the admin account.
Note: The passwords for the root and admin account should be between 8 and 20
characters in length. Specifying a new password is mandatory when deploying the
vProxy using vCenter, otherwise the vProxy appliance fails to power on. Ensure that
you change the default passwords of both the root and admin account during
deployment.

13. On the Ready to Complete window, review the deployment configuration details. If you will
immediately configure the appliance, select Power on after deployment, and then click
Finish.

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The Deploying window appears and provides status information about the deployment.
Note: If you are deploying vProxy on an ESXi 6.0 directly using vSphere client then you
do not have an option to set the vProxy password during deployment. You must change
the default passwords from the console window of the vProxy appliance or use the
default passwords to configure vProxy once deployed . The default password for root
account is “changeme” and for admin account is “a3dp@m8n”.

Deploy the vProxy OVA on an ESXi host

Perform the following steps to deploy the OVA for the vProxy host from an ESXi host.
Before you begin
Download the vProxy OVA package specific to your platform from the NetWorker downloads page
at https://support.emc.com/downloads/1095_NetWorker.
Procedure
1. Log into the ESXi host with an administrator account.
2. From the File menu, select Deploy OVF Template.
3. On the Source window, type a URL path to the OVA package or click Browse and navigate
to the OVA package location, and then click Next.
4. On the OVF Template Details window, review the product details such as the product
name, version, vendor, publisher, and download size, and then click Next.
5. On the Accept License Agreements window, the EULA appears. Review the EULA and
then click Accept.
6. On the Name and Location window, specify a name for the virtual appliance, and optionally
the inventory location, for example a datacenter or VM folder. Click Next.
7. If the location you selected in the previous step has more than one available host, the Host /
Cluster window appears. Select the ESXi host or cluster on which you want to deploy the
virtual appliance, and then click Next.
8. On the Resource Pool window, perform one of the following tasks, and then click Next.
l When you deploy the virtual appliance in a cluster with multiple hosts, select the specific
host in the cluster on which to deploy the virtual appliance.
Note: If DRS is enabled, the target host is automatically selected.

l When you deploy the virtual appliance on a host with a resource pool or vApp, select the
resource pool or vApp on which to deploy virtual appliance.

9. On the Storage window, select the destination datastore on which to store the virtual
appliance files, and then click Next.
10. On the Disk Format window, select the disk format.
It is recommended that you select Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed to ensure that amount of
storage space allocated to the virtual appliance is available.
11. On the Network Mapping window, select the Source and Destination networks to use with
the appliance, and then click Next.
12. On the Ready to Complete window, review the deployment configuration details. If you will
immediately configure the appliance, select Power on after deployment, and then click
Finish.
The Deploying window appears and provides status information about the deployment.
Note: If you are deploying vProxy on an ESXi 6.0 directly using vSphere client then you
do not have an option to set the vProxy password during deployment. You must change

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 Deploy the vProxy appliance and configure the NetWorker datazone

the default passwords from the console window of the vProxy appliance or use the
default passwords to configure vProxy once deployed . The default password for root
account is “changeme” and for admin account is “a3dp@m8n”.

Configure the network settings

After you deploy the vProxy appliance on the ESXi host, configure the network settings from a
console window.
Procedure
1. From the vSphere Client application, open a console window on the vProxy appliance or
use ssh to connect to the appliance from a host that has network access to the vProxy
appliance.
2. Log in to the appliance with the root account.
The default password for the root account is specified during vProxy deployment.
3. Use the /opt/emc/vproxy/bin/config_network.sh command to configure the
network settings.
For example: /opt/emc/vproxy/bin/config_network.sh fqdn IP address netmask/
prefix gateway "dns_server1, dns_server2, ... dns_serverN"
where:
l fqdn is the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the appliance.
l IP address is the IPv4 or IPV6 address of the appliance.
l Specify the netmask for an IPv4 Network IP address, or the prefix length for an IPv6
Network IP address.
l gateway is the name or address of IPV4 or IPV6 address of the gateway host.
l " dns_server1, dns_server2, ... dns_serverN" is a comma-separated list of IPV4 or IPV6
IP addresses or host names for the DNS servers, enclosed in quotes.
The config_network.sh man page provides more information about how to use the
config_network.sh command.
Note: After you configure these settings, any subsequent network configuration
changes, including DNS name resolution, require a restart of all vProxy services.

VMware vCenter server management

Add the vCenter server to create the client resource for configuring vProxy backups.
Networker provides two options to add, edit or delete the vCenter server:
l VMware View in NMC's NetWorker Administration window.
l The NetWorker Management Web UI.
When you add a vCenter server, the NetWorker server also creates a client resource for the
vCenter server. You will use this client resource to configure VMware backups.

Add the vCenter server using NMC's VMware View

You can also use VMware View in NMC's NetWorker Administration window to add a vCenter
server. To add the vCenter server, perform the following.
Before you begin
Ensure that the vCenter server is added to NetWorker using either the FQDN matching the one
configured in the vCenter server, or the actual IP address of the vCenter server. Using a different

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Deploy the vProxy appliance and configure the NetWorker datazone

FQDN alias or shortname alias for the vCenter server when adding it to NetWorker is not
supported for the vCenter plug-in.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the left navigation pane, expand the NetWorker server, right-click VMware View, and
then select Add vCenter.
The Add vCenter window appears.
3. In the Host Name field, specify the FQDN of the vCenter server.
4. In the User Name field, specify a vCenter user account that has permissions to perform
backups.
5. In the Password field, specify the password for the account for the vCenter server.
6. If the vCenter server is deployed in the Cloud, select the Deployed in Cloud checkbox, and
then click OK.
Note: When you select Deployed in Cloud, a parameter displays in the backup action
logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When the checkbox is not selected, the
parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
7. Click OK.

Edit a vCenter server using VMware View in NMC

You can also use VMware View in NMC's NetWorker Administration window to edit a vCenter
server that has been registered with NetWorker to update the credentials stored in the vCenter
resource.
Procedure
1. In the left pane of the Protection window, expand VMware VIew to view the vCenter
servers.
2. Right-click the desired vCenter server and select Modify vCenter.
The Modify vCenter dialog displays, with the Hostname field greyed out as this field
cannot be changed in this dialog.
3. In the Username field, specify a new vCenter user account that has permissions to perform
backups.
4. In the Password field, specify the password for this vCenter user account.
5. If the vCenter server is deployed in the Cloud and this option is currently unselected, select
the Deployed in Cloud checkbox.
Note: When you select Deployed in Cloud, a parameter will appear in the backup action
logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When the checkbox is not selected, the
parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
6. Click OK.
Results
The changes will appear automatically in the visual representation of the vCenter in the right pane
of VMware View.
Note: If you want to delete a vCenter resource from NetWorker, right-click the vCenter under
VMware View and select Remove.

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Add the vCenter server using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to add a vCenter server to perform data
protection of vProxy virtual machines and objects, edit an existing vCenter server's configuration
options, or delete a vCenter server. To add the vCenter server, perform the following.
Before you begin
Ensure that the vCenter server is added to NetWorker using either the FQDN matching the one
configured in the vCenter server, or the actual IP address of the vCenter server. Using a different
FQDN alias or shortname alias for the vCenter server when adding it to NetWorker is not
supported for the vCenter plug-in.
Procedure
1. If not already logged in to the NetWorker Management Web UI, open a web browser and
type an address that points to the NetWorker server or NetWorker Management Console IP
and indicates nwui, for example, https://<NetWorker server IP address>:9090/nwui.
The NetWorker login page displays.
2. In the NetWorker login page:
a. Type the Username and password credentials for the administrator user.
b. Type the NetWorker server IP address.
c. Type the port that will be used for communication between the NetWorker server and
the vCenter server.
d. Click Log in.
The landing page displays options for Monitoring, Protection, and Recovery in the left
pane.
3. Select Protection > VMware vCenters.
4. In the Protection window's VMware vCenters pane, click + Add.
The Add vCenter dialog displays.
5. In the Hostname field, specify the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter server.
6. In the Username field, specify a vCenter user account that has permissions to perform
backups.
7. In the Password field, specify the password for the vCenter user account.
8. If the vCenter server is deployed in the Cloud, select the Deployed in Cloud checkbox.
Note: When you select Deployed in Cloud, a parameter will appear in the backup action
logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When the checkbox is not selected, the
parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
9. Click Save.
An entry for the added vCenter server will appear automatically in the Protection window's
VMware vCenters pane. If an entry for the added vCenter does not appear, click the
Refresh icon. You can also use the Refresh icon to refresh the vCenter inventory.
Results
When you select one of the available vCenter resources, the vCenter inventory displays in the right
pane of the window in a tree structure that allows you to view all virtual machines and entities, and
select individual items to view the entity's properties. Additionally, you can toggle a switch to
displays all entities (protected and unprotected) in the tree, display only entries that are currently

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protected by a policy, or display only unprotected entities. An entity that is already protected
appears blue and bolded.

Edit a vCenter server using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can also use the NetWorker Management Web UI to edit a vCenter server that has been
registered with NetWorker to update the credentials stored in the vCenter resource.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > VMware vCenters in the left pane.
2. Select the desired vCenter server, and then click Edit.
The Edit vCenter dialog displays, with the Hostname field greyed out as this field cannot be
changed in this dialog.
3. In the Username field, specify a new vCenter user account that has permissions to perform
backups.
4. In the Password field, specify the password for this vCenter user account.
5. If the vCenter server is deployed in the Cloud and this option is currently unselected, select
the Deployed in Cloud checkbox.
Note: When you select Deployed in Cloud, a parameter will appear in the backup action
logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When the checkbox is not selected, the
parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
6. Click Save.
Results
The changes will appear automatically in the VMware vCenters pane. If the changes do not
appear, click the Refresh icon.
Note: If you want to delete a vCenter resource from NetWorker, select the entry in the
VMware vCenters pane and click the Delete icon.

Configuring and registering the vProxy appliance

Networker provides multiple options to configure and register a deployed vProxy appliance:
l The NMC NetWorker Administration window's VMware Proxy Configuration wizard.
l The NetWorker Management Web UI.

Configure and register the vProxy in NMC

To complete the configuration of a vProxy OVA that was deployed on an ESXi host or a vCenter
server, use the NMC NetWorker Administration window's VMware Proxy Configuration wizard
wizard.
About this task
Note that you can also use the procedure described in the section Additional method to add and
configure the vProxy in NMC.
Procedure
1. Log in to the NMC GUI as an administrator of the NetWorker server.
2. On the taskbar, click the Enterprise icon .
3. In the navigation tree, highlight a host:

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a. Right-click NetWorker.
b. Select Launch Application. The NetWorker Administration window appears.
4. On the taskbar, click the Devices button .
5. In the Device window's left navigation pane, right-click VMware Proxies and select New
VMware Proxy Wizard.
The VMware Proxy Configuration wizard wizard opens on the Select the Configuration
Method page.
6. On the Select the Configuration Method page, select Register VMware Proxies, and
then select the vCenter/ESXi server. Click Next.
The Select the VMware Proxies to Configure and Register page displays. On this page,
the VMware Proxy Selection pane displays the location of the deployed but unregistered
vProxy appliance(s) within the vCenter/ESXi server.
7. Select the checkbox next to the vProxy appliance(s) you want to configure.
8. (Optional) If you want to override the common configuration options for the selected
vProxy, click the Edit button to open the Configure VMware Proxy dialog. When finished,
click OK to save the settings.
VMware Proxy Configuration Wizard reports the status as failed if total hotadd sessions
exceeds 100 per vCenter. Registering of vProxy using the VMware Proxy Configuration
Wizard through NWUI or NMC incorrectly reports the status as failed if total hotadd
sessions for all the vProxies combined exceeds 100 per vCenter. This failed status can be
ignored because the registration actually succeeds. The status appears as failed in order to
alert the user that the total hotadd sessions have exceeded the recommended limit of 100
hotadd sessions per vCenter. Refer to the section "Performance and Scalability" for
recommended limits.
9. Click Next.
The VMware Proxies Configuration and Registration Summary page displays.
10. Verify that the details are correct, and then click Configure.
Results
The jobs created for all vProxy registrations display in a table on the Check Results page, where
you can view the status, as well as the logs, for each entry. If you want to close the wizard, you
can also monitor the progress in the Monitoring pane of the Devices window. To view the details
of the job at any time, right-click an entry in the Monitoring pane and select View Log.

Additional method to add and configure the vProxy in NMC

You can also use the following method in NMC to add and configure the deployed VMware proxy
host as a device on the NetWorker server. Note that this procedure is not required if you already
configured the vProxy by using the VMware Proxy Configuration wizard.
Procedure
1. Log in to the NMC GUI as an administrator of the NetWorker server.
2. On the taskbar, click the Enterprise icon .
3. In the navigation tree, highlight a host:
a. Right-click NetWorker.
b. Select Launch Application. The NetWorker Administration window appears.
4. On the taskbar, click the Devices button .

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5. In the expanded left navigation pane, right-click VMware Proxies and select New.
The Create NSR VMware Proxy dialog displays.
6. On the General tab, specify the FQDN of the vProxy appliance in the Name field.
Note: Any additional fields on this tab are optional.

7. On the Configuration tab, configure the following options:

a. From the vCenter menu, select the vCenter server on which you deployed the vProxy
appliance.
b. Specify a value in the Maximum NBD sessions or Maximum hotadd sessions attribute,
using the guidelines in the section "Performance and Scalability."
l Maximum NBD sessions—Defines the maximum virtual machine sessions that the
vProxy appliance supports when you use the NBD transport. Datastores should be
defined in the vProxy properties when using this setting to restrict NBD to these
datastores only.
l Maximum hotadd sessions—Defines the maximum number of virtual disks that
NetWorker can concurrently hotadd to the vProxy appliance. The default value is 13.
The maximum value for this attribute is 25.

When specifying the maximum sessions value for the transport modes, ensure that at
least one transport mode is set to a value greater than 0. If you want to enable only one
of the transport modes, set the maximum sessions for the transport mode you do not
want to use to 0. NetWorker displays a warning message if you are exceeding 100 hotadd
sessions per vCenter. Refer to the section "Performance and Scalability" for
recommended limits.

c. In the User ID field, specify the admin user account.

d. In the Password field, specify the password for the admin user account on the vProxy
appliance. This will be the password that was used during the vProxy deployment.
Note: Any additional fields on this tab not specified here are optional.

8. Click OK.

Add and configure the vProxy in the NetWorker Management Web UI

After deploying the OVA for the vProxy host, perform the following steps to add and configure the
vProxy by using the NetWorker Management Web UI.
Before you begin
Before adding the vProxy, ensure that you add the vCenter server by using the steps in the section
Add the vCenter server using the NetWorker Management Web UI.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Management Web UI, select Protection in the left pane, and then select
VMware Proxies.
The VMware Proxies pane opens on the Proxies tab, which displays any vProxies that have
already been configured. You can choose to display hidden columns by clicking the blue icon
in the lower left corner of the table.
2. In the Proxies tab, click + Add.
The Selection page appears.

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3. On the Selection page, ensure that you select the correct vCenter.
All vProxies in that vCenter inventory will display.
4. Use the Select Proxies field to select one or more vProxies, and then click Next.
5. On the Configuration page, configure the host names for the vProxies you want to register
and specify the following configuration options:
a. Select the vCenter server on which you deployed the vProxy appliance.
b. Specify the admin user account.
c. Specify the password for the admin user account on the vProxy appliance. This is the
password that was used during the vProxy deployment.
d. Specify a value in the Maximum NBD sessions or Maximum hotadd sessions attribute,
using the guidelines in the section "Performance and Scalability."
l Maximum NBD sessions—Defines the maximum virtual machine sessions that the
vProxy appliance supports when you use the NBD transport. Datastores should be
defined in the vProxy properties when using this setting to restrict NBD to these
datastores only.
l Maximum hotadd sessions—Defines the maximum number of virtual disks that
NetWorker can concurrently hotadd to the vProxy appliance. The default value is 13.
The maximum value for this attribute is 25.

When specifying the maximum sessions value for the transport modes, ensure that at
least one transport mode is set to a value greater than 0. If you want to enable only one
of the transport modes, set the maximum sessions for the transport mode you do not
want to use to 0.

VMware Proxy Configuration Wizard reports the status as failed if total hotadd sessions
exceeds 100 per vCenter. Registering of vProxy using the VMware Proxy Configuration
Wizard through NWUI or NMC incorrectly reports the status as failed if total hotadd
sessions for all the vProxies combined exceeds 100 per vCenter. This failed status can be
ignored because the registration actually succeeds. The status appears as failed in order
to alert the user that the total hotadd sessions have exceeded the recommended limit of
100 hotadd sessions per vCenter. Refer to the section "Performance and Scalability" for
recommended limits.
6. Click Finish.

Results
When vProxy registration is initiated, a notification displays at the top of the window that a
request was submitted. You can monitor the status and progress of the registration from the
Tasks tab on this page.
Once registration is complete, you can use the vProxy for backups of VMware protection policies.
You can also edit the configuration settings for the vProxy by clicking the Edit icon, or remove the
vProxy by clicking the Delete icon.

Installing the vCenter plug-in

After you add the vCenter host, install either the HTML5 or flash-based vCenter plug-in to enable
virtual machine backup and recovery in the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client.
NetWorker provides two options to install the vCenter plug-in:
l The NetWorker Management Web UI.
l VMware View in NMC's NetWorker Administration window.

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Install the vCenter plug-in using VMware View in NMC

Perform the following steps when using VMware View in NMC to install either the HTML5 or
flash-based vCenter plug-in to enable virtual machine backup and recovery in the vSphere Client
or vSphere Web Client.
Before you begin
l Ensure that the vCenter server is added to NetWorker using either the FQDN matching the
one configured in the vCenter server, or the actual IP address of the vCenter server. Using a
different FQDN alias or shortname alias for the vCenter server when adding it to NetWorker is
not supported for the vCenter plug-in.
l The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the left navigation pane, expand the NetWorker server and click VMware View.
3. In VMware View, right-click on the vCenter you added and select Install vCenter plugin.
The vCenter Plugin Install dialog displays.
Figure 3 Install vCenter Plugin in NMC

4. If a security warning appears, click Continue to dismiss the warning.

5. Select the Plugin Type that you want to install. HTML5 will install the Dell EMC
NetWorker interface in the vSphere Client. FLASH will install the VM Backup and
Recovery interface in the vSphere Web Client.
6. Provide the required HTTP port configured for the vCenter server, and leave the default
value of 443 for the HTTPS port. Note that the vProxy appliance only supports the 443 port
for HTTPS.
7. Click Install.
Results
When the vCenter plug-in is validated, log in to the vSphere Client for the vCenter to verify the
installation. If the installation was successful, depending on the plug-in type selected an entry for

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Dell EMC NetWorker or VM Backup and Recovery appears in the Menu drop-down in the task
bar, as shown in the following, and also appears in the left navigation pane when you select Home.
Figure 4 vCenter plug-in for Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client

Note: If you installed the HTML-5 based plug-in, you can use the vcui log file available
at /nsr/authc/logs/vcui.log to assist with troubleshooting issues with the Dell EMC
NetWorker interface. If you installed the flash-based plug-in, you can use the ebr-server
log file available at /nsr/authc/logs/ebr-server.log to assist with troubleshooting
issues with the VM Backup and Recovery interface.

Remove and reinstall the HTML5-based vCenter plug-in from the vSphere Client
In vSphere version 6.5 and later, the html-5 based vCenter plug-in appears as Dell EMC
NetWorker in the vSphere Client. If you need to remove the HTML5-based plug-in and then
reinstall the plug-in, perform the following steps.
Procedure
1. Stop the vSphere Client services.
2. Log into vCenter Server's MOB at http://vcenter-server/mob.
3. Click the content link.
4. Click the ExtensionManager link.
5. Click the UnregisterExtension link.
6. Enter the value com.dell.emc.nw and click the Invoke Method link.
7. Enter the value com.emc.networker.backup and click the Invoke Method link.
8. Enter the value com.emc.networker.recover and click the Invoke Method link.
9. On the vCenter server, manually remove the plug-in from the /vsphere-client-
serenity folder. The path is /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages/
vsphere-client-serenity on Linux, and C:\ProgramData\VMware
\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client\vc-packages\vsphere-client-
serenity on Windows.
10. Restart the vSphere Client services.
11. Perform the steps in the section Install the vCenter plug-in for the vSphere Client to re-
install the HTML5-based plug-in, and verify that the Dell EMC NetWorker interface
appears in the vSphere Client.

Remove the flash-based vCenter plug-in from the vSphere Web Client
In NetWorker 9.2.x and earlier versions, the vCenter plug-in for vProxy backup and recovery is a
flash-based plug-in that appears as VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane of the vSphere

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Web Client. vSphere versions 6.5 and later and NetWorker 19.2 both this plug-in and the html-5
based vCenter plug-in that appears as Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Web Client. If
upgrading to NetWorker 19.2 and you no longer require the flash-based plug-in, perform the
following steps in order to manually remove VM Backup and Recovery from the vSphere Web
Client.
Procedure
1. Stop the vSphere Web Client services.
2. Log into vCenter Server's MOB at http://vcenter-server/mob.
3. Click the content link.
4. Click the ExtensionManager link.
5. Click on the UnregisterExtension link.
6. Enter the value com.emc.networker and click the Invoke Method link.
7. Enter the value com.emc.networker.backup and click the Invoke Method link.
8. Enter the value com.emc.networker.recover and click the Invoke Method link.
9. On the vCenter server, manually remove the plug-in from the /vsphere-client-
serenity folder. On vCenter 6.0 and 6.5, the path is /etc/vmware/vsphere-
client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity on Linux, and C:\ProgramData
\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client\vc-packages\vsphere-
client-serenity on Windows.
10. Restart the vSphere Web Client services.

Install the vCenter plug-in using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to install either the HTML or flash-based
vCenter plug-in to enable virtual machine backup and recovery in the vSphere Client or vSphere
Web Client. Perform the following steps.
Before you begin
l Ensure that the vCenter server is added to NetWorker using either the FQDN matching the
one configured in the vCenter server, or the actual IP address of the vCenter server. Using a
different FQDN alias or shortname alias for the vCenter server when adding it to NetWorker is
not supported for the vCenter plug-in.
l The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > VMware vCentersin the left pane.
2. In the Protection window's VMware vCenters pane, click the Install icon.
The Install vCenter Plugin dialog displays.
3. Select the Plugin Type that you want to install. HTML will install the Dell EMC NetWorker
interface in the vSphere Client for vSphere version 6.5. Flash will install the flash-based
VM Backup and Recovery interface in the vSphere Web Client for vSphere versions 6 and
earlier.
4. For the HTTPS port that is configured for the vCenter server, leave the default value of
443. Note that vProxy only supports using port 443 for HTTPS.
5. Type the username and password for the NetWorker administrator user.
6. Click Install.

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Results
When the vCenter plug-in is validated, log in to the vSphere Client for the vCenter to verify the
installation. If the installation was successful, depending on the plug-in type selected an entry for
Dell EMC NetWorker or VM Backup and Recovery appears in the Menu drop-down in the task
bar, as shown in the following, and also appears in the left navigation pane when you select Home.
Figure 5 vCenter plug-in for Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client

Note: If you installed the HTML-5 based plug-in, you can use the vcui log file available
at /nsr/authc/logs/vcui.log to assist with troubleshooting issues with the Dell EMC
NetWorker interface. If you installed the flash-based plug-in, you can use the ebr-server
log file available at /nsr/authc/logs/ebr-server.log to assist with troubleshooting
issues with the VM Backup and Recovery interface.

Updating the vCenter plug-in

When you upgrade the NetWorker server to NetWorker 19.1, you must also upgrade the HTML-5
or flash-based vCenter plug-in to the latest version for NetWorker 19.1.
The steps to upgrade the vCenter plug-in are the same as the installation procedure, as described
in the sections Install the vCenter plug-in using VMware View in NMC and Install the vCenter plug-
in using the NetWorker Management Web UI. Note that the plug-in installation process will
automatically initiate an upgrade of the plug-in if an earlier version already exists on the vCenter
server.

Accessing the HTML-5 or flash-based vCenter plug-in as a

non-administrator Active Directory user
You can only access the HTML-5 or flash-based vCenter plug-in if you are an NetWorker
administrator or a non-administrator Active Directory user with appropriate privileges in
NetWorker. The following procedure describes how to access the plug-in as a non-administrator
Active Directory user.
Before you begin
Install the vCenter plug-in. The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides instructions.
Procedure
1. Create a vmwareAdmin group in NetWorker that contains the following privileges at a
minimum:
l View Security Settings

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l View Application Settings

l Remote Access All Clients
l Operate NetWorker
l Monitor NetWorker
l Operate Devices and Jukeboxes
l Recover Local Data
l Recover Remote Data
l Backup Local Data

2. Create an Active Directory user within your desired security group.

3. Add the user and group to the NetWorker Management Console's External Roles attribute.
For example:
CN=VMwareTeam,CN=Users,DC=vproxy,DC=com
cn=VMwareUser,cn=Users,dc=vproxy,dc=com
where VMwareTeam is the security group name, and VMwareUser is the Active Directory
user name.
4. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as the Active Directory user, in the format <tenant>
\<domain>\<userid>. For example:
default\vproxy\VMwareUser

Results
The Active Directory user that you create using these steps will only have access to the HTML-5
or flash-based vCenter plug-in, and cannot be used to log in to the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client or the NetWorker Management Console. If you also need to provide access to
these applications, then add those required privileges as described in the section File-level restore
as a domain user.

Creating a dedicated vCenter user account and VM Backup

and Recovery role
It is strongly recommended that you set up a separate vCenter user account at the root level of
the vCenter that is strictly dedicated for use with NetWorker VMware Protection. Use of a generic
user account such as “Administrator” might make future troubleshooting efforts difficult as it
might not be clear which “Administrator” actions are actually interfacing, or communicating, with
the NetWorker server. Using a separate vCenter user account ensures maximum clarity if it
becomes necessary to examine vCenter logs.

Create vCenter user account

Procedure
1. From a web browser, type the following:
https://<IP_address_vCenter_Server>:5480

The VMware vCenter Server Appliance login page appears.

2. Enter the vCenter root user credentials to log in.
3. In the VMware vCenter Server Appliance Console, click the Summary tab, and then click
the Stop button next to the Server service in the vCenter pane.

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4. Click the SSO tab, and then select Embedded from the SSO deployment type drop-down
list.
5. Assign a password, and click Save settings.
6. Click the Summary tab, and then click the Start button next to the Server service in the
vCenter pane.
7. Log out of the session.
8. From a web browser, enter the following to connect to the vSphere Web Client:
https://<IP_address_vCenter_Server>:9443/vSphere-client/

9. Login as user administrator@vsphere.local with the password you created in step 5.

10. Navigate to Home > Administration > SSO Users and Groups.
11. On the Users tab, click the green +.
The New User window appears.
12. In the Username field, specify a username (for example, VM Backup and Recovery).
13. In the Password and Confirm Password fields, specify a password.
You can leave the First name, last name and password fields blank.
14. Click OK.

Create a customized role

Procedure
1. In the vSphere Web Client, open Administration > Role Manager and click on the green
+.
The Create Role dialog appears.

2. Type the name of this role (for example, Admin1).

3. Select all the privileges listed in the following table and click OK. This vCenter user account
must have these privileges at a minimum.

Table 7 Minimum required vCenter user account privileges

Setting vCenter required privileges

Alarms l Create alarm

l Modify alarm

Datastore l Allocate space

l Browse datastore
l Configure datastore
l Low level file operations
l Move datastore
l Remove datastore
l Remove file
l Rename datastore

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Table 7 Minimum required vCenter user account privileges (continued)

Setting vCenter required privileges

Extension l Register extension

l Unregister extension
l Update extension

Folder l Create folder

Global l Cancel task

l Disable methods
l Enable methods
l Licenses
l Log event
l Manage custom attributes
l Settings
l Set custom attribute

Host l Configuration > Storage partition

configuration

Network l Assign network

l Configure

Resource l Assign virtual machine to resource pool

l Migrate powered off virtual machine
l Migrate powered on virtual machine

Sessions l Validate session

Tasks l Create task

l Update task

vApp l Export
l Import
l vApp application configuration

Virtual Machine

Configuration l Add existing disk

l Add new disk
l Add or remove device
l Advanced
l Change CPU count
l Change resource
l Configure managed by

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Table 7 Minimum required vCenter user account privileges (continued)

Setting vCenter required privileges

l Disk change tracking

l Disk Lease
l Extend virtual disk
l Host USB device
l Memory
l Modify device settings
l Raw device
l Reload from path
l Remove disk
l Rename
l Reset guest information
l Set annotation
l Settings
l Swapfile placement
l Upgrade virtual machine compatibility

Guest Operations l Guest operation modifications

l Guest operation program execution
l Guest operation queries

Interactions l Configure CD media

l Console interaction
l Device Connection
l Guest operating system management by
VIX API
l Power off
l Power on
l Reset
l VMware Tools install

Inventory l Create new

l Register
l Remove
l Unregister

Provisioning l Allow disk access

l Allow read-only disk access
l Allow virtual machine download
l Mark as Template

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Table 7 Minimum required vCenter user account privileges (continued)

Setting vCenter required privileges

Snapshot Management l Create snapshot

l Remove Snapshot
l Revert to snapshot

vSphere Client user accounts

Before you can use the vCenter user account with NetWorker VMware Protection, or before you
can use the Single Sign-on (SSO) admin user with the vProxy appliance, you must add these users
as administrator on the vCenter root node. Users who inherit permissions from group roles are
not valid.
About this task
Note: In high-security environments, you can restrict the vCenter user account permissions
required to configure and administer the vProxy appliance. Table 7 on page 53 provides the
account permission categories.
The following steps allow you to configure a VM Backup and Recovery user or SSO admin user by
using the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. From a web browser, access the vSphere Web Client using the following URL:
https://<Ip_address_vCenter_server>:9443/vsphere-client/

2. Log in with administrative rights.

3. In the left panel of the vSphere Web Client window, select vCenter > Hosts and Clusters.
Figure 6 Hosts and Clusters in the vSphere Web Client

4. Select the Manage tab and then click Permissions.

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Note: When assigning permissions, the vSphere Web Client places the curser in the
location last used. Depending on what level was selected the last time you used this
window, permissions might not get applied to the root level of the vCenter. For example,
if the last item you selected in this window was Cluster Name, permissions will be
assigned at the Cluster level. Review carefully to ensure that permissions get assigned
at the root level of the vCenter.

5. Click the Add permission ( ) icon.

The Add Permission dialog box opens.
6. In the Users and Groups pane, click Add....
The Select Users/Groups dialog box appears.

7. From the Domain drop-down list, select domain, server, or SYSTEM-DOMAIN.

8. Select the user that will administer VM Backup and Recovery, or the SSO admin user, and
then click Add.
If the VM Backup and Recovery user belongs to a domain account, the account appears in
the format “SYSTEM-DOMAIN\admin” format. If the user name appears in the format
“admin@SYSTEM-DOMAIN”, then tasks related to the backup job may not appear on the
Running tab of the Recent Tasks window.

9. Click OK.
10. From the Assigned Role drop-down list, select the role you created.
11. Confirm that the Propagate to children box is checked.
12. Click OK.

Migrating policies from VMware Backup appliance to vProxy

appliance
New NetWorker installations only use the NetWorker VMware Protection solution with the vProxy
appliance. Backup operations with the VMware Backup appliance (VBA) are not supported,
although you can use the vProxy appliance to perform recoveries from VBA backups within the
NetWorker Management Web user interface. When you upgrade from a NetWorker 9.0.x and
earlier release, you must migrate to use only the vProxy appliance, which requires workflow
migration is required to convert existing VMware Backup appliance policies to vProxy appliance
policies.
This migration involves two stages—a check that occurs prior to migration to ensure all the
compatibility prerequisites are satisfied, and then the actual migration to convert existing VMware
Backup appliance protection groups and policies to the vProxy appliance. You can initiate the
policy migration by using the command line or NMC.
Note: NetWorker does not support the migration of workflows and policies from a VMware
Backup appliance deployed in a NetWorker release previous to NetWorker 9.0 that uses GSAN
internal storage.

Migration pre-requisites
When you migrate a VMware Backup appliance policy to a vProxy policy, a pre-check occurs
automatically to determine that compatibility requirements are met.
These requirements include verification of the following items:

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l The Data Domain OS (DD-OS) is DDOS version 6.0.0.30, 6.0.1-10, or 6.1.x and later DDOS
versions. Note that use of the DD Retention Lock feature on vProxy backup and clone actions
requires DDOS 6.1.x and later.
l The NetWorker server and storage node version are the same.
l The vProxy is available on the vCenter server, and is the correct version for the NetWorker
release. For NetWorker 19.1, this is version 4.0.x.
l The vCenter server is a minimum of version 6.0.
If this check discovers any compatibility issues that can cause problems migrating all policies, the
issues are reported and migration is cancelled. If using the command line to migrate policies, you
can specify a force flag (-f) to ignore these errors and proceed with the migration to correct any
issues afterwards, however it is recommended that the pre-check requirements be met prior to
proceeding with the migration. Issues discovered during the pre-check will be logged and displayed
even when using the force flag.

Policy migration to vProxy by using NMC

You can use the NetWorker Management Console (NMC) Administration window to migrate
VMware Backup appliance policies and workflows to vProxy, or perform a pre-check before
migrating.
Procedure
1. In the NMC Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the left pane, expand Policies to view the VMware policy.
3. (Optional) Right-click the vmware policy and select Policy Migration > Analyze from the
drop-down if you want to perform a compatibility pre-check before migration.
4. Right-click the vmware policy and select Policy Migration > Migrate to start the migration.
Figure 7 Migrating a VMware Backup appliance policy to vProxy in NMC

Note: If a pre-check failure occurs upon initiating the migration, a prompt appears to
confirm that you want to ignore the errors and proceed. It is recommended that you
resolve any pre-check errors, including unsupported software versions, before
completing the migration in order for backups to complete successfully.

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Results
A Migrate Operation Results dialog box opens which provides a real-time report of the
analyzation and the migration until the process completes. You can then choose to export a log of
the analyzation or migration as a report by clicking Export Log File.
Figure 8 Migrate Operation Results dialog

Policy migration to vProxy by using the command line

You can also migrate VMware Backup appliance policies and workflows to vProxy by using the
nsrvbaupgrade command line utility, which additionally allows you to perform a pre-migration
check before migrating. The command line supports multiple policies for each run.
Before you begin
To perform a pre-check only before migrating, run nsrvbaupgrade -c. It is recommended that
you resolve any pre-check errors, including unsupported software versions, before completing the
migration in order for backups to complete successfully.
Procedure
1. Open a command prompt.
2. Specify the nsrvbaupgrade command in the following format:
nsrvbaupgrade –p policy [-c] [-f] [-v] where:
l -p policy specifies one or more policies to migrate
l -c runs the pre-check only
l -f forces the migration to ignore a pre-check failure
l -v specifies verbose mode

Renaming a NetWorker server with legacy VMware Backup appliance

When a NetWorker 8.2.x release is upgraded to NetWorker 9.1 or later, if you plan to change the
NetWorker server name or domain name, restore of legacy backups using the VMware Backup
appliance will fail. This occurs because when you change the name, the NetWorker sever is in the
new domain and the VMware Backup appliance is in the old domain.
In order to ensure that the new domain can access the legacy VMware Backup appliance backups,
perform the Disaster Recovery procedures for the VMware Backup appliance, which are provided
in NetWorker 18.1 and earlier versions of the NetWorker VMware Integration Guide.

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Resetting the admin account password

The vProxy appliance locks the admin account when you try to log in to the appliance with an
incorrect password three consecutive times.
About this task
Perform the following steps to unlock the admin account and reset the password.
Procedure
1. From the vSphere Client application, open a console window on the vProxy appliance or
use ssh to connect to the appliance from a host that has network access to the vProxy
appliance.
2. Log in to the appliance with the root account.
The default password for the root account is specified during vProxy deployment.
3. Use the pam_tally2 command to unlock the admin account.
For example:

pam_tally2 --user admin --reset

Output similar to the following appears:

Login Failures Latest failure From
admin 5 04/22/13 21:22:37 123.456.789

4. Use the passwd command to reset the admin password

For example:

passwd admin

The pam_tally2 man page provides more information about the pam_tally2
command and how to configure the maximum number of login attempts for a user
account.

Upgrading the vProxy appliance

When you upgrade the NetWorker server to NetWorker 19.x, you must also upgrade the vProxy
appliance to the latest version for NetWorker 19.x. You can automatically update the vProxy
appliance version from the NetWorker server CLI.
Before you begin
Ensure that the root and admin password length of the previously deployed vProxy is in between 8
to 20 characters. You must also update the vProxy resource in NetWorker with the updated
vProxy admin password.
About this task
The nsrvproxy_mgmt command supports out-of-place upgrade of any version of vProxy. The
command ensures that the same configurations are retained post redeployment such as, vProxy
VM name in the vCenter, user configured specific MAC addresses in the firewall restrictions in the
datazone, dual NIC configurations, hotadd and NBD session limits.
The nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy command performs the following operations:

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l Unregister the original vProxy from the NetWorker Server.

l Power off the original vProxy in the vCenter.
l Disconnects all the network connections of the vProxy.
l Renames the vProxy to a temporary name of <originalvProxyName.timestamp> in the vCenter.
l Resets the MAC address of all the network adapters of the original vProxy. The original vProxy
MAC address is assigned to the redeployed vProxy.
l Redeploy the vProxy with same configuration as that of original vProxy using the latest OVA
and power it on.
l On a successful redeployment, original vProxy is deleted, and the updated vProxy is registered
on the NetWorker Server.
l If there is redeployment failure, the command performs a rollback, reverts to original vProxy
configuration and registers the old vProxy to NetWorker server.
Procedure
1. Download the ova file from the support site and place it in the following location:

Operating System Location

Windows C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\vproxy\vproxy_ova
\ovas\
Linux /nsr/vproxy_ova/ovas/

l In Windows, you must manually create the ovas folder.

l In Linux, you must manually create the vproxy_ova/ovas directory.

2. Redeploy the vProxy:

Deployment Procedure
type
Single vProxy For a single vProxy deployment, open a command prompt, and then run
deployment the nsrvproxy_mgmt command in the following format:
nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h vProxy-host-name -z vProxy-root-
password [-x] [-f] [-u comments] [-t timeout in minutes] [-D
debug-level]

Sequential For sequential redeployment, you must create a batch file or a shell script.
deployment For example, to initiate three sequential deployments run the following
batch file or shell script.
l On a windows platform, to initiate sequential redeployment you must
create a batch file.

nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b075 -z Welcome@123 -f

nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b076 -x -f
nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b077 -z P@ssw0rd123 -f

l On a linux platform, to initiate sequential redeployment you must create

a shell script.

[root@blrv160b181 /]# cat sample.sh

#!/bin/bash
nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b075 -z Welcome@123 -f

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Deployment Procedure
type

nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b076 -x -f

nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy -h blrv027b077 -z P@ssw0rd123 -f

Where
l -t specifies the maximum timeout value for any active vProxy session to get over and
then start the redeployment. The default timeout value is ten minutes.
l -x can be used when the vProxy admin password is same as that of root.
l -z is used when specifying the vProxy root password
l -h vProxyIP/FQDN is the vProxy hostname that was used for registration and exists in
the RAP resource.
l -f is used to disable the confirmation prompt.
l -D is used to set the debug level. By default, the debug level is 0.
l -u is used to display the comments.

Results
vProxy is successfully redeployed.

Limitations
The vProxy redeployment using nsrvproxy_mgmt redeploy command has a few limitations.
l Redeployment is performed in thin provisioning mode only. If the original vProxy is on thick
provisioning, then post deployment the disk mode is changed to thin provisioning.
l Concurrent vProxy redeployment is not supported. You can sequentially redeploy multiple
vProxy using a script.
l vProxy redeployment is not supported for vProxies that are directly deployed in the ESXi
bypassing the vCenter. If the vProxy is deployed on the ESXi bypassing the vCenter, then you
must manually redeploy the vProxy.
l The root and admin password length of the vProxy should be in between 8–20 characters only.
Before redeployment, you must change the root and admin password and update the vProxy
resource in NetWorker with the updated vProxy admin password.
l Deploying new vProxies using CLI is not supported

Troubleshooting Redeployment Failures

You can use the vProxy redeployment log files on the NetWorker server to troubleshoot
redeployment failures.

Table 8 Location of the vProxy redeployment log files

Log file Location on NetWorker server Description

<job-uuid>.log l Linux: /nsr/logs/adhoc/ vProxy management job log file

nsrvproxy_mgmt is created during the
redeployment of the associated
vProxy.

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Table 8 Location of the vProxy redeployment log files (continued)

Log file Location on NetWorker server Description

l Windows: C:\Program Files

\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs
\adhoc\nsrvproxy_mgmt

vproxy_upgrade l Linux: /nsr/logs/adhoc/ Associated nsrvisd log file is

_session_<vProx nsrvproxy_mgmt created during redeployment of
yidentifier>_<job the vProxy.
uuid> l Windows: C:\Program Files
\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs
\adhoc\nsrvproxy_mgmt

nsrvisd- l Linux: /opt/nsr/vproxy/logs/ Associated nsrvisd detailed log

daemon.log nsrvisd file is created.

l Windows: C:\Program Files

\EMC NetWorker\nsr\vproxy
\nsrvisd

ProxySessions- l Linux: /nsr/logs/adhoc/ Associated ProxySessions log file

<uuid>.log nsrvproxy_mgmt is created during redeployment
of the vProxy.
l Windows: C:\Program Files
\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs
\adhoc\nsrvproxy_mgmt

Nsrvisd logs l Linux: /opt/nsr/vproxy/logs/ Associated inventory sessions

nsrvisd log file is created.

l Windows: C:\Program Files

\EMC NetWorker\nsr\vproxy
\nsrvisd

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CHAPTER 3
Protecting virtual machines

This chapter contains the following topics:

l Overview of protection policies............................................................................................. 66

l Preparing the NetWorker data zone...................................................................................... 67
l VMware backups in the NetWorker Management Web UI..................................................... 68
l vProxy backups in NMC........................................................................................................ 86
l vProxy backup workflows in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC NetWorker interface................113
l vProxy workflows in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface............ 118
l Additional vProxy backup configuration options................................................................... 121
l Enable the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server application-consistent protection...... 124
l Updating the Microsoft VM App Agent and FLR Agent software......................................... 129
l Troubleshooting Data Protection Policies............................................................................ 129

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Overview of protection policies

A protection policy allows you to design a protection solution for your environment at the data
level instead of at the host level. With a data protection policy, each client in the environment is a
backup object and not simply a host.
Data protection policies enable you to back up and manage data in a variety of environments, as
well as to perform system maintenance tasks on the NetWorker server. You can use either the
NetWorker Management Web UI or the NMC NetWorker Administration window to create your
data protection policy solution.
A data protection policy solution encompasses the configuration of the following key NetWorker
resources:
Policies
Policies provide you with a service-catalog approach to the configuration of a NetWorker
datazone. Policies enable you to manage all data protection tasks and the data protection lifecycle
from a central location.
Policies provide an organizational container for the workflows, actions, and groups that support
and define the backup, clone, management, and system maintenance actions that you want to
perform.
Workflows
The policy workflow defines a list of actions to perform sequentially or concurrently, a schedule
window during which the workflow can run, and the protection group to which the workflow
applies. You can create a workflow when you create a new policy, or you can create a workflow for
an existing policy.
A workflow can be as simple as a single action that applies to a finite list of Client resources, or a
complex chain of actions that apply to a dynamically changing list of resources. In a workflow,
some actions can be set to occur sequentially, and others can occur concurrently.
You can create multiple workflows in a single policy. However, each workflow can belong to only
one policy. When you add multiple workflows to the same policy, you can logically group data
protection activities with similar service level provisions together, to provide easier configuration,
access, and task execution.
Protection groups
Protection groups define a set of static or dynamic Client resources or save sets to which a
workflow applies. There are also dedicated protection groups for backups in a VMware
environment or for snapshot backups on a NAS device. Review the following information about
protection groups:
l Create one protection group for each workflow. Each group can be assigned to only one
workflow.
l You can add the same Client resources and save sets to more than one group at a time.
l You can create the group before you create the workflow, or you can create the group after
you create the workflow and then assign the group to the workflow later.
Actions
Actions are the key resources in a workflow for a data protection policy and define a specific task
(for example, a backup or clone) that occurs on the client resources in the group assigned to the
workflow. NetWorker uses a work list to define the task. A work list is composed of one or several
work items. Work items include client resources, virtual machines, save sets, or tags. You can
chain multiple actions together to occur sequentially or concurrently in a workflow. All chained
actions use the same work list.

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When you configure an action, you define the days on which to perform the action, as well as other
settings specific to the action. For example, you can specify a destination pool, a retention period,
and a target storage node for the backup action, which can differ from the subsequent action that
clones the data.
When you create an action for a policy that is associated with the virtual machine backup, you can
select one of the following data protection action types:
l Backup — Performs a backup of virtual machines in vCenter to a Data Domain system. You
can only perform one VMware backup action per workflow. The VMware backup action must
occur before clone actions.
l Clone — Performs a clone of the VMware backup on a Data Domain system to any clone
device that NetWorker supports (including Data Domain system or tape targets). You can
specify multiple clone actions. Clone actions must occur after the Backup action.
You can create multiple actions for a single workflow. However, each action applies to a single
workflow and policy.
The following figure provides a high level overview of the components that make up a data
protection policy in a datazone.
Figure 9 Data Protection Policy

Preparing the NetWorker data zone

Review the following requirements.
l Before you configure backup and clone operations, create a DD Boost device and configure the
Data Domain management host in NetWorker.
l Before you use file-level restore and instant access restore, enable NFS on the Data Domain
System.

Configure the Data Domain System

The Data Domain system must be configured with DD Boost and NFS before configuring vProxy
policies.
Procedure
1. Use a web browser to log in to the Data Domain System Manager as the system
administrator user.
2. In the left navigation pane, select Protocols > DD Boost.
3. On the Settings tab that is located near the top of the page, perform the following tasks:
a. Ensure that the DD Boost Status is Enabled.

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b. If it does not appear, add the appliance to the Allowed Clients table:
a. Click the + (Add) button that is located above the table and to the right.
b. In the Client field, specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the host.
c. In the Authentication mode list, select None.
d. In the Encryption Strength list, select None.
e. Click OK.

Note: By default, all clients (*) are allowed to access DD Boost.

c. If it does not exist, add the DD Boost user to the Users with DD Boost Access table:
a. Click the + (Add) button that is located above the table and to the right.
b. In the User list, select an existing local user, or select Create a new Local User and
then create a user account.
c. Click Add, and then click Close.

4. For file-level restore and instant access restore only, on Protocols, select NFS, ensure that
NFS status is enabled, and then click OK.
The vProxy appliance dynamically creates and deletes the NFS shares, as required.

VMware backups in the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to create VMware protection policies for the
vProxy appliance, and then schedule backups of these policies.
Setting up and configuring data protection policies for the vProxy appliance in NetWorker involves
the following tasks:
l Create a policy.
l Creating a VMware protection group.
l (Optional) Create rules.
l Create a workflow.
l Creating one or more action(s).

Policies, workflows, and actions in NetWorker Management Web UI

In NetWorker Management Web UI, you must use the Policy wizard to create policies, workflows,
and actions.
The following topics provide more information:
l Create a policy using the NetWorker Management Web UI
l Create a workflow using the NetWorker Management Web UI
l Create an action using the NetWorker Management Web UI

Create a policy using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to create data protection policies.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.

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The available data protection policies that you can use appears. The details of the selected
policy appear in the right pane.
2. Click ADD.
The Create Policy wizard appears.
3. Under Basic Configuration, in the Name field, type a name for the policy.
4. In the Description box, type a description for the policy.
5. Select a restricted datazone (RDZ) from the Restricted Data Zone list to specify a RDZ for
the directive.
6. Select Enable Protection Period to specify the protection period.
7. Enter the protection period value in minutes, hours, days, months, or years.
8. Click NEXT.
9. Under Notifications, from the Notify list, select an appropriate notification option.
l To avoid sending notifications, select Ignore.
l To send notifications with information about each successful and failed workflow and
action after all the actions in the policy complete, select On Completion.
l To send a notification with information about each failed workflow and action after all
the actions in the policy complete, select On Failure.
10. Under Notify, when you select the On Completion option or On failure option, the
Command box appears. Use this box to configure how NetWorker sends the notifications.
You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the Protecting virtual machines
policy_notifications.log file is located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in
the C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail application
on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:
nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:
mail -s subject recipient
l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"
l On Windows, to send a notification email, type the following command:
smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver
recipient2@mailserver...
where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes that
the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

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11. Click FINISH.

After you finish
You can now create the workflow, group, and actions for the policy.

Edit a policy using the NetWorker Management Web UI

To edit a policy using the NetWorker Management Web UI, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears.
2. Select the policy that you want to modify, and click EDIT.
l Under Basic Configuration, make the required changes.
l Under Notification, make the required changes.
3. Click Save.
Note: If you want to delete a policy, select the policy that you want to delete, and click
Delete.

Create a workflow using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can create a workflow after you create a new policy, or you can create a workflow for an
existing policy.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears.
2. Click on an existing policy or the policy that you created.
The details of the selected policy appear in the right pane.
3. Click ADD.
4. Under Basic Configuration, in the Name field, type a name for the workflow, or use the
default name.
The maximum number of allowed characters for the Name field is 64. This name cannot
contain spaces or special characters such as + or %.
5. In the Description box, type a description for the workflow.
6. Under Schedule, do the following:
a. Select AutoStart to start the workflow at the time that is specified in the Start time
attribute.
b. Use the Start Time spin boxes to specify the time to start the actions in the workflow.
c. Use the Interval attribute spin boxes to specify how frequently to run the actions that
are defined in the workflow over a 24-hour period. The default Interval attribute value is
24 hours, or once a day. When you select a value that is less than 24 hours, the Interval
End attribute appears. To specify the last start time in a defined interval period, use the
spin boxes.
d. Use the Restart Window attribute spin boxes to specify the duration of time in which
NetWorker can manually or automatically restart a failed or canceled workflow.

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7. Under Notifications, from the Notify list, select an appropriate notification option.
l To use the notification configuration that is defined in the policy resource to specify
when to send a notification, select Set at policy level.
l To send notifications with information about each successful and failed workflow and
action after all the actions in the policy complete, select On Completion.
l To send a notification with information about each failed workflow and action after all
the actions in the policy complete, select On Failure.
8. Under Notify, when you select the On Completion option or On failure option, the
Command field appears. Use this field to configure how NetWorker sends the notifications.
You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the Protecting virtual machines
policy_notifications.log file is located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in
the C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail application
on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:
nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:
mail -s subject recipient
l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"
l On Windows, to send a notification email, type the following command:
smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver
recipient2@mailserver...
where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes that
the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

9. Click NEXT.
10. Under Associate Group, do one of the following to assign the workflow to a group:
l Select an existing group, and click FINISH to create a workflow.
l Click ADD to create a group. The section Create a VMware group using the NetWorker
Management Web UI provides more information on creating groups.
After you finish
Create the actions that will occur in the workflow.

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Edit a workflow using the NetWorker Management Web UI

To edit a workflow using the NetWorker Management Web UI, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears.
2. Click on an existing policy to view the workflows associated with the policy.
3. Select the workflow that you want to modify, and click EDIT.
l Under Basic Configuration, make the required changes.
l Under Notification, make the required changes.
l Under Associate Group, make the required changes.
4. Click Save.
Note: If you want to delete a workflow, select the workflow that you want to delete, and
click Delete.

Create an action using the NetWorker Management Web UI

Actions are the key resources in a workflow for a data protection policy and define a specific task,
for example, a backup or a clone. An action is the task that occurs on the client resources in the
group assigned to the workflow. You can chain multiple actions together to occur sequentially or
concurrently in a workflow.
Before you begin
Create the required policy and workflow.
About this task
To create an action:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears. The details of the selected
policy appear in the right pane.
2. Click on an available policy to create a new workflow or view existing workflows.
3. Click on an existing workflow to create an action. The action type can be one of the
following:
l Backup (Backup Subtype—VMware (vProxy))—Performs a backup of virtual machines
in vCenter to a Data Domain system. You can only perform one VMware backup action
per workflow. The VMware backup action must occur before clone actions.
l Clone—Performs a clone of the VMware backup on a Data Domain system to any clone
device that NetWorker supports (including Data Domain system or tape targets). You
can specify multiple clone actions. Clone actions must occur after the Backup action.
Note:
l If you have a VMware group associated with the workflow, the first action that you
can create is always a backup action, followed by any number of clone actions.

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l If you have a clone protection group (for example, Save Set ID) associated with the
workflow, you can only create clone actions.
l If you do not have any groups associated with the workflow, you can either create a
backup or a clone action.

l The section Create a VMware backup action using the NetWorker Management Web UI
provides more information on creating VMware backup actions.
l The section Create a clone action using the NetWorker Management Web UI provides
more information on creating clone actions.

Create a VMware backup action using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to create a VMware backup action.
Before you begin
Create the required policy and workflow.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears. The details of the selected
policy appear in the right pane.
2. Click on an available policy to create a new workflow or view existing workflows.
3. Click on an existing workflow with the appropriate group association, or create a new
workflow, and click ACTION.
4. From the ACTION list, select Backup > VMWare to create a VMware backup action.
5. Under Basic Configuration, in the Name field, type the name of the action, or use the
default name.
The maximum number of characters for the action name is 64.
6. In the Description field, type a description for the action.
7. To ensure that the action runs when the policy or workflow that contains the action is
started, select Enabled. To prevent the action from running when the policy or workflow
that contains the action is started, clear this option. By default, this option is selected.
8. Click NEXT.
9. From the Destination Storage Node list, select the storage node that contains the devices
where you want to store the backup data.
Note: When you deploy the vCenter server in the Cloud, a parameter displays in the
backup action logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When not deployed in the
Cloud, the parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.

10. From the Destination Pool, select the media pool in which to store the backup data.
11. Specify the NetWorker Retention Period value.
After the retention period expires, the save set is removed from the client file index and
marked as recyclable in the media database during an expiration server maintenance task.
12. Select Apply Lock under DD Retention Lock to enable retention lock for the virtual
machines included in this backup action. Note that the device used for backing up these
virtual machines must also have DD Retention lock enabled.
13. Use the Lock Period spin boxes to specify the duration the virtual machines will remain on
the Data Domain device before the retention lock expires.

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14. Click NEXT.

15. Under VMware-specific Configuration, select one of the following vProxy options:
l Automatic—Select this option to allow NetWorker to choose the vProxy host for
backups.
l Manual—Specify this option to select the vProxy host that NetWorker users for
backups. Provide the name of the vProxy host in the vProxy Name field.
16. Under Application Consistency, select Quiesce Application to enable application-
consistent protection as part of the policy backup action, which includes protection of the
Microsoft SQL Server. You can then select from the Basic and Advanced options.
l Select the Basic option to create a backup copy for applications during virtual machine
quiescing. No additional processing is performed.
l Select the Advanced option to create an SQL server application-consistent backup
during virtual machine quiescing, and optionally create a transaction log backup for all
SQL Server instances.
When you select the Advanced option, the following additional options appear:
l Transaction Log Backup—Select this option, if you want to perform a transaction log
backup of SQL databases in the virtual machine as part of the policy backup action.
Note: During SQL Server configuration, the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM login must be
granted SQL login and SQL sysadmin role rights in order to perform transaction log
backups.
l Quiesce Timeout—Specify the amount of time, in minutes, to wait for the quiesce
operation on the virtual machine to time out before failing. If not selected, the backup
action proceeds even if quiescing was not performed, unless a validation problem occurs.
If an application-consistent backup cannot complete due to a problem with validation,
the backup action fails even if this option is not selected.
l System Administrator Username and System Administrator Password—Specify the
virtual machine credentials for a user with administrative privileges. All virtual machines
in the workflow must use the same System Administrator username/password.
Note: If you select the Advanced option, application-consistent processing is applied for
all virtual machines within the parent workflow. When selecting this option, ensure that
the policy's workflow and client groups are provisioned specifically for virtual machines
that require advanced application-consistent protection. NetWorker will always attempt
to perform advanced application processing for virtual machines in a workflow that
contains a backup action with advanced application processing enabled.

17. Click NEXT.

18. Select a schedule configuration:
l Select—Allows you to select a pre-defined schedule that is applicable to the selected
action type, or create a new schedule. Click ADD SCHEDULE to create a new schedule.
The section “Create a schedule using the NetWorker Management Web UI” in Networker
Administration Guide provides more information on creating schedules.
Note: For VMware backup actions, you can only select or create a VMware type
schedule.
l Define—Allows you to define a schedule.

For Define, do the following:

a. Specify a weekly or monthly recurrence schedule for the action.

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l To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Weekly.

l To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Monthly.

b. Click on each day to specify the type of backup to perform.

The backup levels for NetWorker includes the following:
l Full—Perform a full backup on the specified day. Full backups include all files,
regardless of whether the files changed.
l Incr—Perform an incremental backup on the specified day. Incremental backups
include files that have changed since the last backup of any type (full or incremental).
l Logs Only—Perform a backup of only database transaction logs.
l Skip—Do not perform a backup on the specified day.

To perform the same type of backup on each day, click , and select one of the
following:
l Make All Full
l Make All Incremental
l Make All Logs Only
l Make All Skip

c. (Optional) Select Override Options to configure overrides for the task that is scheduled
on a specific day.
Note: If you select this option, you must configure the overrides using either fixed
dates or recurring dates.

d. Click NEXT.
19. Under Schedule Overrides, do the following:
a. In the Recurring Pattern attribute, if the status is Not Available, click ADD. Otherwise,
click VIEW/EDIT to specify recurring patterns. Then, select the backup level, and define
the override schedule to occur on a specific day, week, month, quarter, or year.
The selected date is highlighted with a different color and an asterisk (*).

b. To specify a fixed date pattern, select the month and year, and then click on each day to
specify the backup level.
The selected date is highlighted with a different color.

Note:
l You can select multiple override dates.
l In the case of a fixed date pattern, to clear an override schedule, click on the day
that you want to clear the override for and select Clear Selection. The Clear
Selection option is not applicable in the case of a recurring pattern.
l If the fixed and the recurring pattern is on the same day, the fixed pattern gets
preference. However, if you clear the fixed override schedule, the recurring
pattern is displayed.

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l When creating overrides, you cannot select the previous month and year. You
also cannot create fixed overrides for the days before the current day because
the option to change the level is disabled.
l When editing overrides, you can clear existing fixed overrides for the days before
the current day. However, you cannot set any new overrides because the option
to change the level is disabled.

20. Click NEXT.

21. Under Notifications, from the Notify list, select an appropriate notification option.
l To avoid sending notifications, select Ignore.
l To send notifications on completion of the action, select On Completion.
l To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.
22. Specify the Command to configure how NetWorker sends the notifications. You can use the
nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the Protecting virtual machines
policy_notifications.log file is located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in
the C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail application
on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:
nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:
mail -s subject recipient
l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"
l On Windows, to send a notification email, type the following command:
smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver
recipient2@mailserver...
where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes that
the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

23. Click NEXT.

24. From the Start Time list, select one of the following options to specify the time to start the
action. Use the spin boxes to set the hour and minute values.
l Set at Workflow level—Do not enforce an action start time. The action will start at the
time defined by the workflow.
l Absolute—Start the action at the time specified by the values in the spin boxes.
l Relative—Start the action after the period of time defined in the spin boxes has elapsed
after the start of the workflow.

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25. In the Parallelism field, specify the maximum number of concurrent operations for the
action. The default value is 100.
26. From the On Failure list, specify what to do when a job fails:
l To continue the workflow when there are job failures, select Continue.
l To abort the current action if there is a failure with one of the jobs, but continue with
subsequent actions in the workflow, select Abort Action.
l To abort the entire workflow if there is a failure with one of the jobs in the action, select
Abort Workflow.
27. In the Retries field, specify the number of times that NetWorker should retry a failed
backup action, before NetWorker considers the action as failed. When the Retries value is 0,
NetWorker does not retry a failed backup action. The default value is 1. The number of
retries can be set to a maximum of 24.
28. In the Retry Delay field, specify a delay in seconds to wait before retrying a failed backup
action. When the Retry Delay value is 0, NetWorker retries the failed backup action
immediately. The default value is 1. Retry delay can be set to a maximum of 3600 seconds.
Note: The Retries and the Retry Delay options are enabled only if you select theManual
option under Select vProxy in the VMware-specific Configuration page.

29. In the Soft Limit field, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the initiation
of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
30. In the Hard Limit field, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin
terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
31. Click NEXT.
The Action Configuration Summary appears.
32. Review the settings that you have configured, and then click FINISH.
After you finish
(Optional) Create a clone action to automatically clone the save sets after the backup. A clone
action is the only supported action after a backup action in a workflow.

Create a clone action using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to create a clone action.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears. The details of the selected
policy appear in the right pane.
2. Click on an available policy to create a new workflow or view existing workflows.
3. Click on an existing workflow with the appropriate group association, or create a new
workflow, and click ACTION.
4. From the ACTION list, select Clone to create a clone action.
5. Under Basic Configuration, in the Name field, type the name of the action, or use the
default name.
The maximum number of characters for the action name is 64.
6. In the Description box, type a description for the action.

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7. To ensure that the action runs when the policy or workflow that contains the action is
started, select Enabled. To prevent the action from running when the policy or workflow
that contains the action is started, clear this option. By default, this option is selected.
8. If the action is part of a sequence of actions in a workflow path, from the Driven By list,
select the action that should precede this action.
9. Click NEXT.
10. Select the Delete source save sets after clone completes option to instruct NetWorker to
delete the data from the source volume after cloning to the destination volume completes.
This is equivalent to staging the save sets.
11. Under Devices and Volumes, define the volumes and devices to which NetWorker sends
the cloned data:
a. From the Source Storage Node list, select the source storage node for a clone action,
that is, the storage node from which clone data is read.
b. From the Destination Storage Node list, select the storage node with the devices on
which to store the cloned save sets.
c. From the Destination Pool list, select the target media pool for the cloned save sets.
12. Specify the NetWorker Retention Period value.
After the retention period expires, the save set is removed from the client file index and
marked as recyclable in the media database during an expiration server maintenance task.
13. If you want to have the same retention period as that of the backup action, select Keep
Retention Same as Backup.
Note: If you select this option, you cannot configure the NetWorker retention period.

14. Select Apply Lock under DD Retention Lock to enable retention lock for the virtual
machines included in this clone action.
15. Use the Lock Period spin boxes to specify the duration the virtual machines will remain on
the Data Domain device before the retention lock expires.
16. Click NEXT.
17. (Applicable only for a second clone action) In the Filter Savesets section, you can do the
following:
a. To define the criteria that NetWorker uses to create the list of eligible save sets to clone,
select Define Filters. The eligible save sets must match the requirements that are
defined in each filter. NetWorker provides the following filter options:
l Time —In the Time section, specify the time range in which NetWorker searches for
eligible save sets to clone in the media database. Use the spin boxes to specify the
start time and the end time. The Time filter list includes the following options to
define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the time criteria:
n Accept—The clone save set list includes save sets that are saved within the time
range and meet all the other defined filter criteria.
n Reject—The clone save set list does not include save sets that are saved within
the time range and meet all the other defined filter criteria.
l Backup Levels —In the Backup Levels section, specify the backup levels that you
want to include or exclude, when NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in
the media database. The Levels filter list includes the following options, which define
how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the backup level filter
criteria:

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n Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible save sets with the selected
backup levels.
n Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible save sets with the
selected backup levels.
l Save Sets —In the Save Sets section, specify whether to include or exclude
ProtectPoint and Snapshot save sets, when NetWorker searches for eligible save sets
to clone in the media database. The Save Set filter list includes the following options,
which define how NetWorker determines save set eligibility, based on the save set
filter criteria:
n Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible ProtectPoint save sets or
Snapshot save sets, when you enable the ProtectPoint checkbox or Snapshot
checkbox.
n Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible ProtectPoint save sets
and Snapshot save sets when you enable the ProtectPoint checkbox or Snapshot
checkbox.
l Clients —In the Client section, specify a list of clients to include or exclude, when
NetWorker searches for eligible save sets to clone in the media database. The Client
filter list includes the following options, which define how NetWorker determines save
set eligibility, based on the client filter criteria:
n Accept—The clone save set list includes eligible save sets for the selected clients.
n Reject—The clone save set list does not include eligible save sets for the selected
clients.

18. If you do not want to define a filter criteria, select Do Not Filter, and click NEXT.
Note: The Filter Savesets feature is available only in the case of a second clone action.

19. Select a schedule configuration:

l Select—Allows you to select a pre-defined schedule that is applicable to the selected
action type, or create a new schedule. Click ADD SCHEDULE to create a new schedule.
The section Create a schedule using the NetWorker Management Web UI in NetWorker
Administration Guide provides more information on creating schedules.
Note: For clone actions, you can only select or create an execute type schedule.

l Define—Allows you to define a schedule.

For Define, do the following:

a. Specify a weekly or monthly recurrence schedule for the action.

l To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Weekly.
l To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Monthly.

b. Click on each day to specify the type of backup to perform.

l Execute—Perform a clone action on the specified day.
l Skip—Do not perform a clone action on the specified day.

To perform the same type of backup on each day, click , and select one of the
following:
l Make All Execute

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l Make All Skip

c. (Optional) Select Override Options to configure overrides for the task that is scheduled
on a specific day.
Note: If you select this option, you must configure the overrides using either fixed
dates or recurring dates.

d. Click NEXT.
20. Under Schedule Overrides, do the following:
a. In the Recurring Pattern attribute, if the status is Not Available, click ADD. Otherwise,
click VIEW/EDIT to specify recurring patterns. Then, select the backup level, and define
the override schedule to occur on a specific day, week, month, quarter, or year.
The selected date is highlighted with a different color and an asterisk (*).
b. To specify a fixed date pattern, select the month and year, and then click on each day to
specify the backup level.
The selected date is highlighted with a different color.

Note:
l You can select multiple override dates.
l In the case of a fixed date pattern, to clear an override schedule, click on the day
that you want to clear the override for and select Clear Selection. The Clear
Selection option is not applicable in the case of a recurring pattern.
l If the fixed and the recurring pattern is on the same day, the fixed pattern gets
preference. However, if you clear the fixed override schedule, the recurring
pattern is displayed.
l When creating overrides, you cannot select the previous month and year. You
also cannot create fixed overrides for the days before the current day because
the option to change the level is disabled.
l When editing overrides, you can clear existing fixed overrides for the days before
the current day. However, you cannot set any new overrides because the option
to change the level is disabled.

21. Click NEXT.

22. Under Notifications, from the Notify list, select an appropriate notification option.
l To avoid sending notifications, select Ignore.
l To send notifications on completion of the action, select On Completion.
l To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.
23. Specify the Command to configure how NetWorker sends the notifications. You can use the
nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the Protecting virtual machines
policy_notifications.log file is located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in
the C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail application
on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:

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nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:
mail -s subject recipient
l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"
l On Windows, to send a notification email, type the following command:
smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver
recipient2@mailserver...
where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes that
the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

24. Click NEXT.

25. From the Start Time list, select one of the following options to specify the time to start the
action. Use the spin boxes to set the hour and minute values.
l Set at Workflow level—Do not enforce an action start time. The action will start at the
time defined by the workflow.
l Absolute—Start the action at the time specified by the values in the spin boxes.
l Relative—Start the action after the period of time defined in the spin boxes has elapsed
after the start of the workflow.
26. (Optional) Select Concurrent to enable concurrent operations for the action.
27. From the On Failure list, specify what to do when a job fails:
l To continue the workflow when there are job failures, select Continue.
l To abort the current action if there is a failure with one of the jobs, but continue with
subsequent actions in the workflow, select Abort Action.
l To abort the entire workflow if there is a failure with one of the jobs in the action, select
Abort Workflow.
28. In the Soft Limit field, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the initiation
of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
29. In the Hard Limit field, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin
terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
30. Click NEXT.
The Action Configuration Summary appears.
31. Review the settings that you have configured, and then click FINISH.
After you finish
(Optional) Create a clone action to automatically clone the save sets again after this clone action.

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Edit an action using the NetWorker Management Web UI

To modify an action, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Policies.
The available data protection policies that you can use appears. The details of the selected
policy appear in the right pane.
2. Click on an available policy to view existing workflows.
3. Click on an existing workflow to view the actions associated with the workflow.
4. Select the action that you want to modify, and click EDIT.
5. Make the required changes, and click SAVE.
The action is successfully updated.

Create a save set group using the NetWorker Management Web UI

A save set group defines a static list of save sets for cloning or for snapshot index generation.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Groups.
Groups that have already been created appears. The details of the selected group appears in
the right pane.
2. Click ADD.
The Create Group wizard appears.
3. In the Name field, type a name for the group.
4. (Optional) In the Description box, type a description of the group.
5. Select a restricted datazone (RDZ) from the Restricted Data Zone list to specify a RDZ for
the directive.
6. From the Type list, select Save Set.
7. (Optional) From the Policy list, select a policy that you want to assign the group to.
8. (Optional) From the Workflow list, select a workflow that you want to assign the group to.
Note: The applicable workflows corresponding to the selected policy are only available
for selection.

9. Specify a Filter Type.

l Static- Represents the save set ID list.
l Dynamic - Represents the save set query.
If the filter type is Static:

a. Click NEXT.
b. Enter a list of comma separated save set IDs, and click ADD.
Note: You can also use the search function to filter the save set IDs from the
Selected Saveset ID List.

c. Click FINISH.

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If the filter type is Dynamic:

a. Use the Maximum number of Clones spin boxes to specify the number of clones that
can be created for the save set.
b. Click NEXT.
c. (Optional) Specify one or more of the basic save set criteria.

Filter criteria Description

Time Specify the start date and time range for the
save sets.
To specify the current date and time as the end
date for the range, select Up To Now.
To specify a time period, select Up to.

Levels Specify a backup level.

Name Specify a list of comma separated save set

names.

d. Click the + icon to add a filter, and click the - icon to remove a filter.
e. Click NEXT.
f. (Optional) Select the save set resource filter.

Resource filter Description

Clients Select client resources associated with the save

set.

Workflows Select the workflow used to generate the save

set.

Policies Select the policy used to generate the save set.

Actions Select the action used to generate the save set.

Groups Select the group associated with the save set.

SourcePools Select the pool on which the save set is stored.

g. Click FINISH.

Create a VMware group using the NetWorker Management Web UI

A VMware group allows you to define the virtual machines or virtual disk files to back up within the
policy/workflow.
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Groups.
Groups that have already been created appears. The details of the selected group appears in
the right pane.
2. Click ADD.
The Create Group wizard appears.
3. In the Name field, type a name for the group.

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4. (Optional) In the Description box, type a description of the group.

5. Select a restricted datazone (RDZ) from the Restricted Data Zone list to specify a RDZ for
the directive.
6. From the Type list, select VMware.
7. (Optional) From the Policy list, select a policy that you want to assign the group to.
8. (Optional) From the Workflow list, select a workflow that you want to assign the group to.
Note: The applicable workflows corresponding to the selected policy are only available
for selection.

9. Select a backup optimization mode.

l Capacity - Use for variable segment sizing.
l Performance - Use for fixed segment sizing.
10. (Optional) Select the Dynamic Association checkbox if you plan to apply rules that will
determine which virtual machines and containers are dynamically included in the group
based upon the rule criteria.
11. Click NEXT.
12. From the vCenter list, select a vCenter server that contains the VMware objects that you
want to protect, or click ADD VCENTER to add a vCenter server.
13. Select a pre-defined rule that you want to apply for any VMware objects that are
dynamically included in the group based upon the rule criteria, or click ADD RULE to create
a new rule and click EDIT RULE to modify an existing rule. The section Create or edit a rule
using the NetWorker Management Web UI provides more information on creating and
editing rules.
14. Under Include/Exclude Resources, select the objects (Datacenter, ESXi host, virtual
machine, resource pool, vApp, or disk) to include in the group and to view a consolidated list
of virtual machines selected statically and evaluated by a rule. You can also exclude virtual
machines or disks.
15. Click Preview to view a list of the static and dynamic virtual machines and objects that have
been added to the group.
16. Click Finish.

Edit a group using the NetWorker Management Web UI

To edit a group using the NetWorker Management Web UI, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Groups.
Groups that have already been created appears.
2. Select the group that you want to modify.
The details of the group such as the type, sub type, the backup optimization mode, and the
VMware resources appears in the right pane.

Note: You cannot change the name of the group.

3. Click EDIT, and make the required changes.

4. Click Save.

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Note: If you want to delete a group, select the group that you want to delete, and click
Delete.

Create a rule using the NetWorker Management Web UI

You can use the NetWorker Management Web UI to create a rule.
About this task
To create a rule, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Rules.
Rules that have already been created appears. The details of the rule such as the datasource
type, condition, and usage also appears in the right pane.
2. Click ADD.
The Add Rules wizard appears.
3. In the Name field, type a name for the rule.
4. Select the Datasource Type from the drop-down. The default Datasource Type is VMware.
5. (Optional) In the Description box, you can specify more information about the rule.
6. Select a restricted datazone (RDZ) from the Restricted Data Zone list to specify a RDZ for
the directive.
7. Specify a matching condition. You can select All as the match type, if the item has to meet
all of the rules criteria or select Any to include the item, if the item meets any of the criteria.
a. Specify the VMWare object type. You can select one of the following:
l Virtual Machine
l ESXi Host/Cluster
l Virtual App
l Virtual Machine Folder
l Datacenter
l Resource Pool

b. Specify the object type properties that the rule uses to determine a match. It can be the
object's name, path, or tag. The available properties depend on the object type.
l Virtual Machine - name, vSphere tag
l ESXi Host/Cluster - path, vSphere tag
l Virtual App - name, vSphere tag
l Virtual Machine Folder - name, path, vSphere tag
l Datacenter - name, path, vSphere tag
l Resource Pool - path, vSphere tag

c. Select an operator to further define how a match is made based on the selected object
type property. The operator value can be one of the following:
l equals
l not equals

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l contains
l not contains
l starts with
l does not start with
l ends with
l does not end with
l regular expression

d. Click the Browse icon to select the vCenter server and vSphere tag and click OK to exit
the dialog.
Note: This option is available only if you select the vSphere tag property type in the
definition.

e. Click the + icon to add a rule definition, and click the - icon to remove a rule definition.
8. Click Create.
The Rule is successfully created.
9. Repeat steps 1 through 7 for any additional rules that you want to create.
Note: You can associate a rule to a group, if dynamic selection is enabled when creating
groups. The section Create a VMware group using the NetWorker Management Web UI
provides more information on creating groups.

Edit a rule using the NetWorker Management Web UI

To edit a rule, perform the following:
Procedure
1. Select Protection > Rules.
Rules that have already been created appears. The details of the rule such as the datasource
type, condition, and usage also appears in the right pane.
2. Select the rule that you want to modify, and click EDIT.
3. Make the required changes, and click SAVE.
The rule is successfully updated.

Note:
l You cannot change the name of a rule.
l If you want to delete a rule, select the rule that you want to delete, and click Delete.
However, a rule cannot be deleted, if it is associated with a group.

vProxy backups in NMC

You can use the NMC NetWorker Administration window to create VMware protection policies
for the vProxy appliance, and then schedule backups of these policies.
Setting up and configuring data protection policies for the vProxy appliance in NetWorker involves
the following tasks:

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l Create a policy.
l Create a workflow.
l Create a VMware protection group.
l (Optional) Create dynamic associations to apply rules.
l Create one or more action(s).

Default data protection policies in NMC's NetWorker Administration window

The NMC NetWorker Administration window provides you with pre-configured data protection
policies that you can use immediately to protect the environment, modify to suit the environment,
or use as an example to create resources and configurations. To use these pre-configured data
protection policies, you must add clients to the appropriate group resource.
Note: NMC also includes a pre-configured Server Protection policy to protect the NetWorker
and NMC server databases.
Platinum policy
The Platinum policy provides an example of a data protection policy for an environment that
contains supported storage arrays or storage appliances and requires backup data redundancy.
The policy contains one workflow with two actions, a snapshot backup action, followed by a clone
action.
Figure 10 Platinum policy configuration

Gold policy
The Gold policy provides an example of a data protection policy for an environment that contains
virtual machines and requires backup data redundancy.
Silver policy
The Silver policy provides an example of a data protection policy for an environment that contains
machines where file systems or applications are running and requires backup data redundancy.
Bronze policy
The Bronze policy provides an example of a data protection policy for an environment that
contains machines where file systems or applications are running.

Create a VMware policy in NetWorker Administration

If you do not want to use the default "Gold" policy for the protection of virtual machines, you can
create a new VMware policy by using the following procedure in the NMC NetWorker
Administration window.
Procedure
1. On the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the expanded left pane, right-click Policies, and then select New.
The Create Policy dialog box appears.
3. On the General tab, in the Name field type a name for the policy.
The maximum number of characters for the policy name is 128.

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Note: This name cannot contain spaces or special characters such as + or %. After you
create a policy, the Name attribute is read-only.

4. In the Comment box, type a description for the policy.

5. From the Send Notifications list, select whether to send notifications for the policy:
l To avoid sending notifications, select Never.
l To send notifications with information about each successful and failed workflow and
action after all the actions in the policy complete, select On Completion.
l To send a notification with information about each failed workflow and action after all
the actions in the policy complete, select On Failure.
6. In the Send notification attribute, when you select the On Completion option or On failure
option, the Command box appears. Use this box to configure how NetWorker sends the
notifications. You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file or you
can send an email notification.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the policy_notifications.log file is
located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in the C:\Program Files\EMC
NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail
application on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:

nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:

mail -s subject recipient

l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:

/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"

l On Windows, to send a notification email, type the following command:

smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver

recipient2@mailserver...

where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes
that the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

7. In the Restricted Data Zones tab, leave the Restricted Data Zone field blank. NetWorker
VMware Protection with the vProxy appliance does not currently support the protection of
virtual machines within a Restricted Data Zone.
8. Click OK.

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After you finish

You can now create the workflow, group, and actions for the policy.

Create a workflow for a new policy in NetWorker Administration

Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the left pane, expand Policies, and then select the policy that you created.
3. In the right pane, select Create a new workflow.
4. In the Name field, type the name of the workflow.
The maximum number of allowed characters for the Name field is 64.
l Legal Characters: _ : - + = # , . % @
l Illegal Characters: /\*?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}

5. In the Comment box, type a description for the workflow.

The maximum number of allowed characters for the Comment field is 128.
6. From the Send Notifications list, select how to send notifications for the workflow:
l To use the notification configuration that is defined in the policy resource to specify
when to send a notification, select Set at policy level.
l To send notifications with information about each successful and failed workflow and
action, after the workflow completes all the actions, select On Completion.
l To send notifications with information about each failed workflow and action, after the
workflow completes all the actions, select On Failure.
7. In the Send notification attribute, when you select the On Completion option or On failure
option, the Command box appears. Use this box to configure how NetWorker sends the
notifications. You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file or you
can send an email notification.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the policy_notifications.log file is
located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in the C:\Program Files\EMC
NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages, or use the smtpmail
application on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:

nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:

mail -s subject recipient

l For NetWorker Virtual Edition (NVE), to send an email notification, type the following
command:

/usr/sbin/sendmail -v recipient_email "subject_text"

l On Windows, type the following command:

smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver recipient1@mailserver

recipient2@mailserver...

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where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes
that the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

8. In the Running section, perform the following steps to specify when and how often the
workflow runs:
a. To ensure that the actions that are contained in the workflow run when the policy or
workflow starts, in the Enabled box, leave the option selected. To prevent the actions in
the workflow from running when the policy or workflow that contains the action starts,
clear this option.
b. To start the workflow at the time that is specified in the Start time attribute, on the
days that are defined in the action resource, in the AutoStart Enabled box, leave the
option selected. To prevent the workflow from starting at the time that is specified in the
Start time attribute, clear this option.
c. To specify the time to start the actions in the workflow, in the Start Time attribute, use
the spin boxes.
The default value is 9:00 PM.

d. To specify how frequently to run the actions that are defined in the workflow over a 24-
hour period, use the Interval attribute spin boxes. If you are performing transaction log
backup as part of application-consistent protection, you must specify a value for this
attribute in order for incremental transaction log backup of SQL databases to occur.
The default Interval attribute value is 24 hours, or once a day. When you select a value
that is less than 24 hours, the Interval End attribute appears. To specify the last start
time in a defined interval period, use the spin boxes.

e. To specify the duration of time in which NetWorker can manually or automatically restart
a failed or canceled workflow, in the Restart Window attribute, use the spin boxes.
If the restart window has elapsed, NetWorker considers the restart as a new run of the
workflow. NetWorker calculates the restart window from the start of the last incomplete
workflow. The default value is 24 hours.
For example, if the Start Time is 7:00 PM, the Interval is 1 hour, and the Interval End is
11:00 PM., then the workflow automatically starts every hour beginning at 7:00 PM. and
the last start time is 11:00 PM.

9. To create the workflow, click OK.

After you finish
Create the actions that will occur in the workflow, and then assign a group to the workflow. If a
workflow does not contain a group, a policy does not perform any actions.

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Create a workflow for an existing policy in NetWorker Administration

A policy can contain one or more unique workflows.
Before you begin
l Create a policy for the workflow.
l (Optional but recommended) Create a group of client resources or save sets to assign to the
workflow.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the expanded left pane, select Policies.
3. Select the policy for the workflow.
4. In the right pane of the window, select the Workflows tab.
5. Right-click an empty area of the Workflows tab and select New.
The New Workflow dialog box appears.
6. In the Name field, type the name of the workflow.
The maximum number of allowed characters for the Name field is 64.
l Legal Characters: _ : - + = # , . % @
l Illegal Characters: /\*?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}

7. In the Comment box, type a description for the workflow.

The maximum number of allowed characters for the Comment field is 128.
8. From the Send Notifications list, select how to send notifications for the workflow:
l To use the notification configuration that is defined in the policy resource to specify
when to send a notification, select Set at policy level.
l To send notifications with information about each successful and failed workflow and
action, after the workflow completes all the actions, select On Completion.
l To send notifications with information about each failed workflow and action, after the
workflow completes all the actions, select On Failure.
9. In the Send notification attribute, when you select the On Completion option or On failure
option, the Command box appears. Use this box to configure how NetWorker sends the
notifications. You can use the nsrlog command to send the notifications to a log file or you
can send an email notification.
The default notification action is to send the information to the
policy_notifications.log file. By default, the policy_notifications.log file is
located in the /nsr/logs directory on Linux and in the C:\Program Files\EMC
NetWorker\nsr\logs folder on Windows.
Use the default mailer program on Linux to send email messages or the smtpmail
application on Windows:
l To send notifications to a file, type the following command, where
policy_notifications.log is the name of the file:

nsrlog -f policy_notifications.log
l On Linux, to send an email notification, type the following command:

mail -s subject recipient

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l On Windows, type the following command: smtpmail -s subject -h mailserver

recipient1@mailserver recipient2@mailserver...
where:
n -s subject—Includes a standard email header with the message and specifies the
subject text for that header. Without this option, the smtpmail program assumes
that the message contains a correctly formatted email header and nothing is added.
n -h mailserver—Specifies the hostname of the mail server to use to relay the SMTP
email message.
n recipient1@mailserver—Is the email address of the recipient of the notification.
Multiple email recipients are separated by a space.

10. In the Running section, perform the following steps to specify when and how often the
workflow runs:
a. To ensure that the actions that are contained in the workflow run when the policy or
workflow starts, in the Enabled box, leave the option selected. To prevent the actions in
the workflow from running when the policy or workflow that contains the action starts,
clear this option.
b. To start the workflow at the time that is specified in the Start time attribute, on the
days that are defined in the action resource, in the AutoStart Enabled box, leave the
option selected. To prevent the workflow from starting at the time that is specified in the
Start time attribute, clear this option.
c. To specify the time to start the actions in the workflow, in the Start Time attribute, use
the spin boxes.
The default value is 9:00 PM.

d. To specify how frequently to run the actions that are defined in the workflow over a 24-
hour period, use the Interval attribute spin boxes. If you are performing transaction log
backup as part of application-consistent protection, you must specify a value for this
attribute in order for incremental transaction log backup of SQL databases to occur.
The default Interval attribute value is 24 hours, or once a day. When you select a value
that is less than 24 hours, the Interval End attribute appears. To specify the last start
time in a defined interval period, use the spin boxes.

e. To specify the duration of time in which NetWorker can manually or automatically restart
a failed or canceled workflow, in the Restart Window attribute, use the spin boxes.
If the restart window has elapsed, NetWorker considers the restart as a new run of the
workflow. NetWorker calculates the restart window from the start of the last incomplete
workflow. The default value is 24 hours.
For example, if the Start Time is 7:00 PM, the Interval is 1 hour, and the Interval End is
11:00 PM., then the workflow automatically starts every hour beginning at 7:00 PM. and
the last start time is 11:00 PM.

11. In the Groups group box, specify the protection group to which the workflow applies.
To use a group, select a protection group from the Groups list. To create a protection
group, click the + button that is located to the right of the Groups list.
12. The Actions table displays a list of actions in the workflow. To edit or delete an action in the
workflow, select the action and click Edit or Delete. To create one or more actions for the
workflow, click Add.
The Actions table organizes the information in sortable columns. Right-click in the table to
customize the attributes that appear.

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13. To create the workflow, click OK.

Create or edit a VMware group in NetWorker Administration

A VMware group allows you to define the virtual machines or virtual disk files to back up within the
policy/workflow.
Before you begin
Ensure that you perform the steps in the section Adding the vCenter host to VMware View and
creating the vCenter client resource, and confirm that the map appears.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the expanded left pane, right-click Groups and select New from the drop-down, or right-
click an existing group and select Edit from the drop-down.
The Create Group or Edit Group dialog box appears, with the General tab selected.
3. In the Name attribute, type a name for the group.
The maximum number of characters for the group name is 64.
l Legal Characters: _ : - + = # , . % @
l Illegal Characters: /\*?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}

Note: After you create a group, the Name attribute is read-only.

4. From the Group Type list, select VMware.

5. From the Sub-Type list, select ALL.
NetWorker does not support other sub-types in this configuration.
6. From the Optimization drop-down, select a backup optimization mode. Capacity is for
variable segment sizing, while Performance is for fixed segment sizing.
7. In the Comment field, type a description of the group.
8. From the Policy-Workflow list, select the workflow that you want to assign the group to.
Note: You can also assign the group to a workflow when you create or edit a workflow.

9. (Optional) Select the Dynamic Association checkbox if you plan to apply rules that will
determine which virtual machines and containers are dynamically included in the group
based upon the rule criteria. The section Enabling a VMware group with Dynamic
Association and applying rules in NMC provides more information on enabling a policy/group
with Dynamic Association and applying rules.
10. From the vCenter drop-down, select the vCenter server that contains the VMware objects
that you want to protect, and then select the objects (Datacenter, ESX host, virtual
machine, resource pool, vApp, or disk) to include in this group. Any objects selected here
will be considered static objects, which means that the items will be included in the group
until unselected, even when Dynamic Association is enabled.
Note: If the vCenter list is empty, cancel the task and, using the NMC Protection
window, right-click VMware View in the left pane, and select Refresh.

11. (Optional) If the group as Dynamic Association enabled, from the Rule drop-down, select a
pre-defined rule that you want to apply for any VMware objects that will be dynamically
included in the group based upon the rule criteria, or click + to open the Create Rule
window and create a new rule. The section Enabling a VMware group with Dynamic

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Association and applying rules in NMC provides more information on associating a VMware
group with rules.
12. Click Preview All Virtual Machines to view a list of the static and dynamic virtual machines
and objects that have been added to the group. In this window, you can also unselect a
virtual machine or VMDK to exclude the item from the backup. When an object is
unselected, an entry for the object appears in the Excluded VM list.
13. Click OK to exit the Preview Virtual Machines window, and then click OK to finish creating
or editing the group.

vProxy backup optimization modes

NetWorker supports two types of backup optimization modes for vProxy backup to Data Domain
systems—Optimized for Capacity, and Optimized for Performance. You can apply the
optimization mode to vProxy protection groups during backup.
The Optimized for Capacity mode uses variable size segmentation, which produces more
overhead in data processing due to the higher deduplication rate, but reduces the capacity
consumed on the Data Domain system. Virtual machines backed up prior to NetWorker 9.1 use the
Optimized for Capacity mode.
Optimized for Performance provides performance improvements when you back up virtual
machines using Changed Block Tracking (CBT) and replicate data to a Data Domain system, and is
particularly effective when backing up large VMDK files. Although Optimized for Performance
results in additional space use on the Data Domain device (around 20%), this mode significantly
improves random I/O performance for instant access restores.
New and upgraded installations of NetWorker use the Optimized for Capacity mode by default.
For a vProxy protection group, you can change this setting to Optimized for Performance by
using NMC, nsradmin, or nsrpolicy. The following figure displays the backup optimization
setting within a vProxy protection group in NMC.
Figure 11 Changing the Backup Optimization mode in the vProxy protection group

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Software and storage requirements for Optimized for Performance mode

Using Optimized for Performance requires DDOS version 6.0.0.30 and later. A warning log
message will be generated. Also, cloning of Optimized for Performance save sets is supported
only between DDOS platforms that natively support this mode.
Requirements when changing backup optimization modes
Changing a virtual machine from one backup optimization mode to another (for example, from
Optimized for Capacity to Optimized for Performance) requires performing a new full level-
zero backup as the starting point for subsequent backups. Ensure that the Data Domain device has
sufficient capacity. Since backups for each optimization mode must coexist during this period,
backups will consume twice the usual storage capacity until the last Optimized for Capacity
backup expires, as defined by the retention period. After this, storage consumption will return to
normal.

Enabling a VMware group with Dynamic Association and applying rules

When you create or edit a VMware protection group, enabling the Dynamic Association option for
the group will allow you to assign rules. Rules can be used to determine which virtual machines and
containers will be protected by the group in addition to any objects that have been manually
selected for inclusion. You can use the NMC NetWorker Administration window or the
NetWorker Management Web user interface to create rules and assign rules to a group. These
operations are not supported from the command line or the vCenter plug-in.

A VMware group with Dynamic Association enabled can include both static and dynamic objects:
l Virtual machines and containers from the vCenter that are manually selected when you create
or edit the group in NMC are known as static objects, because their inclusion in the group does
not change unless you unselect an item.
l Virtual machines and containers that are only included in the group according to the rules
assigned when you create or edit the group in NMC are known as dynamic objects, because
their inclusion in the group can change over time based on whether the items continue to
match the rule criteria.
When creating or editing the group, you can preview both static and dynamic contents to ensure
that the protection policy will include all the virtual machines and containers that you want protect
in the backup. Additionally, you can specify a virtual machine exclusion list for the VMware
protection group to exclude particular virtual machines or VMDKs from being backed up as part of
the group.
When a VMware protection group is associated with one or more rules, the rules are executed
against the vCenter inventory when the policy backup is started in order to filter the group
contents according to the rule criteria.
Creating and viewing tags in the vSphere Web Client
In order to support the dynamic selection of VMware objects based on the user-defined rules
created in NMC, vSphere tags in the vSphere Web Client allow you to attach metadata to the
objects in the vSphere inventory to make these objects easier to sort and search. Tags are
supported in vSphere versions 6.5 and later.
When you create a tag in the vSphere Web Client, the tag can be assigned to a category in order
to group related tags together. When defining a category, you can also specify the object types
the tags will be applied to, and whether more than one tag in the category can be applied to an
object. Within a single rule, there is a maximum limit of 50 rule definitions applicable to tags and
categories, as shown in the following example where Category is the category name and Bronze is
the tag name:
l Category:Category1,Tag:Bronze1

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l Category:Category2,Tag:Bronze2
l Category:Category3,Tag:Bronze3
l and so on up to Category:Category50,Tag:Bronze50
In the above example, if the number of characters associated with category name or tag name are
more than 9 or 7 characters respectively, then the maximum limit for rule definitions in a single rule
will be further reduced from 50. Exceeding the maximum limit for rule definitions will result in no
virtual machines being backed up as part of this group, since there will be no members associated
with the group. As a best practice, it is recommended to keep the number of rule definitions within
a single rule to 10 or less and, in cases where there are a large number of rule definitions within a
single rule, it is also recommended to keep the number of characters in category/tag names to 10
or less.
The vSphere Web Client displays any tags that have been created for the vCenter under Tags &
Custom Attributes in the left pane. When you click Tags & Custom Attributes, select the Tags
tab. A table lists the available tags. Click on a tag link in the table to view the objects associated
with this particular tag.
Note: Once virtual machines are associated with tags, the association will not be reflected in
the NMC NetWorker Administration window's VMware View until the timeout period has
completed. The default timeout for NetWorker to fetch the latest inventory from vCenter is 15
minutes.
Rules in the NMC NetWorker Administration window
Rules are used to automatically map VMware objects (virtual machines and containers) to a group
by using one or more filtering mechanisms, according to the following supported rule criteria:
l Type: The VMware object type. Available selections include VM, VApp, VM Folder, Datacenter,
Host/Cluster, or Resource Pool.
l Properties: The object type properties that the rule uses to determine a match. These
properties include the object's name, path or a tag that you've created, and available
properties depend on the object type, as specified below.
Host/Cluster - Path, tag
VMfolder - Name, path, tag
Datacenter - Name, path, tag
ResourcePool - Path, tag
VirtualMachine - Name, tag
vApp - Name, tag
l Operator: Uses the object type properties to further define how a match is made. Available
selections include Equals, DoesNotEqual, StartsWith, DoesNotStartWith, Contains,
DoesNotContain, EndsWith, DoesNotEndWith, or Regular expression.
For example, for an object type VirtualMachine with the Name property selected, you can select
"equals" to create a rule where the virtual machine will only be included in the group when the
entire name is specified, or "contains" to include the virtual machine in the group whenever a
specific text string appears in the virtual machine name.
Additionally, if you create multiple rules, you can select All from the Match type drop-down if the
item has to meet all of the rules criteria in order to be included in the group, or select Any from the
drop-down to include the item if the item meets any of the criteria.
Note: Rule definitions for NetWorker vProxy policies with dynamic association enabled can
contain regular expressions. The appendix Regular expressions for NetWorker vProxy dynamic
policies rule definitionsdescribes the acceptable rules, syntax, and grammar to use when
writing such regular expressions.

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Create a rule in NMC and associate the rule to a VMware group

To create a rule or access existing rules in NMC, and apply these rules to a VMware group,
perform the following.
Before you begin
Create the VMware group and associate the group with a policy/workflow, as outlined in the
previous sections.
About this task
Rules can only be applied to VMware groups in NMC when you enable the Dynamic Association
option. When a group is enabled with Dynamic Association, rules are executed against the
vCenter inventory to determine which VMware objects will be dynamically added to the VMware
protection group's contents, based on matching the rule criteria.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection, and then select Rules in the
left navigation pane.
Any rules that have already been created appear in the right pane.
2. Right-click Rules and select New from the drop-down.
The Create Rule window displays.
Figure 12 Create a new rule to apply to a VMware group

3. In the General tab, type a name for the rule, and select the Datastore Type from the drop-
down. The default Datastore Type is VMware.
4. In the Rule Definition pane, click Add.
5. In the Rule Definition pane:
a. For the Type column's drop-down, select the object type, for example, VirtualMachine.
b. For the Property column's drop-down, select from one of the available options, for
example, Tag.
c. For the Operator column's drop-down, select from one of the available options, for
example, Equals.

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d. Click Browse to display a list of all the categories and tags that have been created on
that vCenter server. Select the tag you want to apply to the rule and click OK to exit the
dialog.
Note: Tags are only supported in vSphere versions 6.5 and later.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for any additional rules you want to create.
Note: If adding multiple rules, in order to specify whether to apply more than one rule to
the group, select either All or Any from the Match Type drop-down.

7. When finished adding rules, return to the Protection window and right-click the desired
group in the left pane, and then select Properties from the drop-down. The Edit Group
window displays.
8. If not already selected, select the Dynamic Association checkbox, and then select any
virtual machine(s) in this workflow that you want to include in the group regardless of the
rules applied. These objects are known as static objects.
9. Select the desired rule from the Rule drop-down that you want to apply to the other virtual
machines in the workflow to determine which objects will be dynamically included.
10. Click Preview All Virtual Machines to view a list of the static and dynamic virtual machines
and objects that have been added to the group. In this window, you can also unselect a
virtual machine or VMDK to exclude the item from the backup. When an object is
unselected, an entry for the object appears in the Excluded VM list.
11. Save the changes in the Edit Group window, and close the window.
Results
When you select the specific VMware group in the Protection window, the vCenter Objects
Selected field displays the list of virtual machines that are statically selected. Similarly, Protected
VMs in VMware View only displays the virtual machines that are statically protected.

Create a VMware backup action in NetWorker Administration

A VMware backup is a scheduled backup of virtual machines within a vCenter. The following
section provides details for creating a VMware backup action for vProxy. The NetWorker
Administration Guide provides information about other action types.
Before you begin
Create the policy and workflow that contain the action.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the expanded left pane, select the policy's workflow, and then perform one of the
following tasks in the right pane to start the Policy Action wizard:
l If the action is the first action in the workflow, select Create a new action.
l If the workflow has other actions, right-click an empty area of the Actions pane, and
then select New.
The Policy Action wizard opens on the Specify the Action Information page.
3. In the Name field, type the name of the action.
The maximum number of characters for the action name is 64.
l Legal Characters: _ : - + = # , . % @
l Illegal Characters: /\*?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}

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4. In the Comment field, type a description for the action.

5. To ensure that the action runs when the policy or workflow that contains the action is
started, in the Enabled box, select the option. To prevent the action from running when the
policy or workflow that contains the action is started, clear this option.
Note: When you clear the Enabled option, actions that occurs after a disabled action do
not start, even if the subsequent options are enabled.

6. From the Action Type list, select Backup.

7. From the secondary action list, select VMware (vProxy).
8. If you create the action as part of the workflow configuration, the workflow appears
automatically in the Workflow box and the box is dimmed.
9. Specify the order of the action in relation to other actions in the workflow:
l If the action is part of a sequence of actions in a workflow path, in the Previous box,
select the action that should precede this action.
l If the action should run concurrently with an action, in the Previous box, select the
concurrent action, and then select the Concurrent checkbox.
10. Specify a weekly, monthly, or reference schedule for the action:
l To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Define option under Select
Schedule and period as Weekly by day.
l To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Define option under Select
Schedule and period as Monthly by day.
l To specify a customized schedule to the action, select Select option under Select
Schedule and choose a customized schedule using the drop down menu that is already
created under NSR schedule resource.
11. Click the icon on each day to specify the backup level to perform.
Backup levels for NetWorker VMware Protection include the following.
Note: Any backup level that displays in the wizard but is not identified in this table is not
supported for VMware.

Table 9 Schedule icons

Icon Label Description

Full Perform a full backup on this

day. Full backups include all
files, regardless of whether
the files changed. In the case
of virtual machine backup,
this is a virtual machine disk
(VMDK) backup to Data
Domain.

Incr Uses the previous backup and

leverages changed block
tracking to write only
incremental blocks to a new
backup that is independent of
other backups.
Note: Since the backup is
performed to Data

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Table 9 Schedule icons (continued)

Icon Label Description

Domain, the resulting

backup on the target
device is a new full
backup because
NetWorker uses Data
Domain virtual synthetics
technology to create a
synthetic full backup.

Skip Do not perform a backup on

this day.

Logs only Perform a backup of only

database transaction logs.
To perform the same type of backup on each day, select the backup type from the list and
click Make All.
Note: A full backup is required initially if performing application-consistent backup of
virtual machines as part of this action.

12. Click Next.

The Specify vProxy Options page appears.
Figure 13 Specify vProxy Options page

13. From the Destination Storage Node box, select the storage node that contains the devices
where you want to store the backup data.

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Note: When you deploy the vCenter server in the Cloud, a parameter displays in the
backup action logs that indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When not deployed in the
Cloud, the parameter indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
14. From the Retention spin boxes, specify the amount of time to retain the backup data.
After the retention period expires, the save set is removed from the client file index and
marked as recyclable in the media database during an expiration server maintenance task.

15. Select the Apply DD Retention Lock checkbox to enable retention lock for the virtual
machines included in this backup action. Note that the device used for backing up these
virtual machines must also have DD Retention lock enabled in the NMC Device Properties
window, or DD Retention Lock must be enabled during device creation.
16. In the DD Retention Lock Time box, specify the duration the virtual machines will remain on
the Data Domain device before the retention lock expires. During this time, these virtual
machine backups cannot be overwritten, modified, or deleted for the duration of the
retention period, although the backups can be mounted and unmounted. The retention time
period set here must fall within the minimum and maximum values set for the Data Domain
Mtree, and should be lower than or equal to the NetWorker Retention Period.
17. In the vProxy section, select one of the following options:
l Auto vProxy Selection—Select this option to allow NetWorker to choose the vProxy
host for backups.
l Manual vProxy Selection—Specify this option to define the vProxy host that
NetWorker users for backups. Provide the name of the vProxy host in the vProxy Name
field.
18. From the Destination Pool box, select the media pool in which to store the backup data.
Only pools configured with a DDBoost device appear in the drop-down.
19. In the Application Consistency section, select the Quiesce Application checkbox to enable
application-consistent protection as part of the policy backup action, which includes
protection of the Microsoft SQL Server. You can then select from the Basic and Advanced
options.
l Select the Basic option to create a backup copy for applications during virtual machine
quiescing. No additional processing is performed.
l Select the Advanced option to create an SQL server application-consistent backup
during virtual machine quiescing, and optionally create a transaction log backup for all
SQL Server instances.
When you select the option, the following fields display:
l Transaction Log Backup—Select this checkbox if you want to perform a transaction log
backup of SQL databases in the virtual machine as part of the policy backup action. Note
that if you enable transaction log backup, you must also set a value for the Interval
attribute in the Workflow properties for this action, as specified in the section "Creating
a workflow in a new policy."
Note: During SQL Server configuration, the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM login must be
granted SQL login and SQL sysadmin role rights in order to perform transaction log
backups.
l Quiesce Timeout—Specify the amount of time, in minutes, to wait for the quiesce
operation on the virtual machine to time out before failing. If not selected, the backup
action will proceed even if quiescing was not performed, unless a validation problem
occurs. If an application-consistent backup cannot complete due to a problem with
validation, the backup action will fail even if this checkbox is not selected.

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l System Administrator Username and Password—Specify the virtual machine

credentials for a user with administrative privileges. All virtual machines in the workflow
should use the same System Administrator username/password.
Note: Selecting the Advanced option will apply application-consistent processing for all
virtual machines within the parent workflow. When selecting this option, ensure that the
policy's workflow and client groups are provisioned specifically for virtual machines that
require advanced application-consistent protection. NetWorker will always attempt to
perform advanced application processing for virtual machines in a workflow that
contains a backup action with advanced application processing enabled. The section
Creating an action for application-consistent data protection provides more information.
20. Click Next.
The Specify the Advanced Options page appears.
21. Although the Retries, Retry Delay, and the Inactivity Timeout options appear, this action
does not support these options and you can ignore these values.
22. In the Parallelism field, specify the maximum number of concurrent operations for the
action.
23. From the Soft Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the
initiation of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
24. From the Hard Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin
terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
25. (Optional) Configure overrides for the task that is scheduled on a specific day.
To specify the month, use the navigation buttons and the month list box. To specify the
year, use the spin boxes. You can set an override in the following ways:
l Select the day in the calendar, which changes the action task for the specific day.
l Use the action task list to select the task, and then perform one of the following steps:
n To define an override that occurs on a specific day of the week, every week, select
Specified day, and then use the lists. Click Add Rules based override.
n To define an override that occurs on the last day of the calendar month, select Last
day of the month. Click Add Rules based override.
Note:
n You can edit or add the rules in the Override field.
n To remove an override, delete the entry from the Override field.
n If a schedule is associated to an action, then override option is disabled.

26. From the Send Notifications list box, select whether to send notifications for the action:
l To use the notification configuration that is defined in the Policy resource to send the
notification, select Set at policy level.
l To send a notification on completion of the action, select On Completion.
l To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.

27. Click Next.

The Action Configuration Summary page appears.
28. Review the settings that you specified for the action, and then click Configure.

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After you finish

(Optional) Create a clone action to automatically clone the save sets after the backup. A clone
action is the only supported action after a backup action in a workflow.

Create a clone action in NetWorker Administration

A clone action creates a copy of one or more save sets. Cloning allows for secure offsite storage,
the transfer of data from one location to another, and the verification of backups.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Administration window, click Protection.
2. In the expanded left pane, select the policy's workflow, and then perform one of the
following tasks in the right pane to start the Policy Action wizard:
l If the action is the first action in the workflow, select Create a new action.
l If the workflow has other actions, right-click an empty area of the Actions pane, and
then select New.
The Policy Action wizard opens on the Specify the Action Information page.
3. In the Name field, type the name of the action.
The maximum number of characters for the action name is 64.
l Legal Characters: _ : - + = # , . % @
l Illegal Characters: /\*?[]()$!^;'"`~><&|{}

4. In the Comment field, type a description for the action.

5. To ensure that the action runs when the policy or workflow that contains the action is
started, in the Enabled box, select the option. To prevent the action from running when the
policy or workflow that contains the action is started, clear this option.
Note: When you clear the Enabled option, actions that occurs after a disabled action do
not start, even if the subsequent options are enabled.

6. From the Action Type list, select Clone.

7. If you create the action as part of the workflow configuration, the workflow appears
automatically in the Workflow box and the box is dimmed.
8. Specify the order of the action in relation to other actions in the workflow:
l If the action is part of a sequence of actions in a workflow path, in the Previous box,
select the action that should precede this action.
l If the action should run concurrently with an action, in the Previous box, select the
concurrent action, and then select the Concurrent checkbox.
9. Specify a weekly, monthly, or reference schedule for the action:
l To specify a schedule for each day of the week, select Define option under Select
Schedule and period as Weekly by day.
l To specify a schedule for each day of the month, select Define option under Select
Schedule and period as Monthly by day.
l To specify a customized schedule to the action, select Select option under Select
Schedule and choose a customized schedule using the drop down menu that is already
created under NSR schedule resource.
10. Specify the days to perform cloning:

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l To clone on a specific day, click the Execute icon on the day.

l To skip a clone on a specific day, click the Skip icon on the day.
l To check connectivity every day, select Execute from the list, and then click Make All.
The following table provides details on the icons.

Table 10 Schedule icons

Icon Label Description

Execute Perform cloning on this day.

Skip Do not perform cloning on

this day.

11. Click Next.

The Specify the Clone Options page appears.
12. In the Data Movement group box, define the volumes and devices to which NetWorker
sends the clone data.
a. From the Destination Storage Node list, select the storage node with the devices on
which to store the cloned save sets.
b. In the Delete source save sets after clone completes, select the option to instruct
NetWorker to remove the source save set information from the client file index, and to
mark the save set as recyclable in the media database during a Server expiration
maintenance action. Clear this option to allow the source save sets to expire based on
the defined retention time.
c. From the Destination Pool list, select the target media pool for the cloned save sets.
d. From the Retention list, specify the amount of time to retain the cloned save sets. After
the retention period expires, the save sets are marked as recyclable during an expiration
server maintenance task.
13. Click Next.
The Specify the Advanced Options page appears.
14. Configure advanced options, including notifications and schedule overrides.
Note: Although the Retries, Retry Delay, or the Inactivity Timeout options appear, the
clone action does not support these options and ignores the values.

15. In the Parallelism field, specify the maximum number of concurrent operations for the
action. This value should not exceed 25.
16. From the Failure Impact list, specify what to do when a job fails:
l To continue the workflow when there are job failures, select Continue.
l To abort the entire workflow if there is a failure with one of the jobs in the action, select
Abort workflow.

Note: If any of the actions fail in the workflow, the workflow status does not appear as
interrupted or cancelled. NetWorker reports the workflow status as failed.

17. From the Send Notifications list box, select whether to send notifications for the action:

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l To use the notification configuration that is defined in the Policy resource to send the
notification, select Set at policy level.
l To send a notification on completion of the action, select On Completion.
l To send a notification only if the action fails to complete, select On Failure.

18. From the Soft Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to stop the
initiation of new activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
19. From the Hard Limit list, select the amount of time after the action starts to begin
terminating activities. The default value of 0 (zero) indicates no amount of time.
20. Optional, in Start Time specify the time to start the action.
Use the spin boxes to set the hour and minute values, and select one of the following
options from the drop-down list:
l Disabled—Do not enforce an action start time. The action will start at the time defined
by the workflow.
l Absolute—Start the action at the time specified by the values in the spin boxes.
l Relative—Start the action after the period of time defined in the spin boxes has elapsed
after the start of the workflow.

21. (Optional) Configure overrides for the task that is scheduled on a specific day.
To specify the month, use the navigation buttons and the month list box. To specify the
year, use the spin boxes. You can set an override in the following ways:
l Select the day in the calendar, which changes the action task for the specific day.
l Use the action task list to select the task, and then perform one of the following steps:
n To define an override that occurs on a specific day of the week, every week, select
Specified day, and then use the lists. Click Add Rules based override.
n To define an override that occurs on the last day of the calendar month, select Last
day of the month. Click Add Rules based override.
Note:
n You can edit or add the rules in the Override field.
n To remove an override, delete the entry from the Override field.
n If a schedule is associated to an action, then override option is disabled.

22. Click Next.

The Action Configuration Summary page appears.
23. Review the settings that you specified for the action, and then click Configure.
After you finish
(Optional) Create a clone action to automatically clone the save sets again after this clone action.
Another clone action is the only supported action after a clone action in a workflow.

Creating an action for Microsoft SQL Server application-consistent protection

You can create a backup action with SQL Server application-consistent protection of virtual
machines by using the Policy Action wizard in NMC. When you enable a VMware backup action
with this feature, you can run full backups of SQL databases as part of the VMware image-level
backup, and also perform incremental backups of the transaction log.
SQL Server application-consistent protection is enabled in the Specify the vProxy and
Application Protection Options page of the Policy Action wizard by selecting the Application

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Protection checkbox and then selecting an Application Protection Type, as outlined in the steps
for Create a VMware backup action.
SQL Server application-consistent protection enables the following backup operations:
l SQL Server backup—Select this option in the Policy Action wizard in NMC to perform image-
level (FULL) backup with application-consistent processing. This backup will request VMware
Tools to perform a FULL quiesce type for applications running in the virtual machine in order to
provide a full backup of the Microsoft SQL Server instances within the virtual machine. Upon
completion of the virtual machine image snapshot, the Microsoft VM App Agent is called to
catalog this backup, writing the catalog to the Data Domain system.
l Transaction log backup—Select this option in the Policy Action wizard in NMC to perform
transaction log backups of SQL Server databases for all SQL Server Instances in the virtual
machine. Note that if you perform transaction log backup, you must also set the Interval
attribute in the policy's Workflow Properties window in NMC. The transaction log backup of
SQL databases is separate from the virtual machine image-level backup, as no virtual machine
image-level backup occurs during the transaction log backup. Transaction log backup files will
be saved to the backup folder for the current save set on the Data Domain system. Databases
that do not support transaction log backup are filtered out.
The process for creating a policy with SQL Server application-consistent protection of virtual
machines in NMC is very similar to creating a policy with the VMware backup action, with the
following exceptions:
l You must provision a new policy and workflow exclusively for SQL clients that require SQL
Server application-consistent protection.
l You must provision a new policy and workflow exclusively for SQL clients that have different
security accounts, for example, system administrator username and/or password.
l It is recommended that the virtual machines included in the group for the dedicated workflows
are not contained within multiple workflows.
Creating a workflow with an SQL Server application-consistent backup action will perform a full
image-level backup. Ad-hoc (on demand) runs of this workflow will also create full backups, even
when started at off-schedule times. If you also select transaction log backup in the Policy Action
wizard, the transaction log backup will occur as part of incremental backups after the initial full
backup, at the interval set in the workflow properties.

Starting, stopping, and restarting policies

The workflows in a policy can run automatically, based on a schedule. You can also manually start,
stop, and restart specific workflows by using the the NMC NetWorker Administration
Monitoring window.
About this task
You can restart any failed or canceled workflow. Note, however, that the restart must occur within
the restart window that you specified for the workflow. Additionally, for a VMware backup, if you
cancel a workflow from NetWorker Administration and then want to restart the backup, ensure
that you restart the workflow from the NetWorker Administration window. If a workflow that
was started from NetWorker Administration is restarted from the vSphere Web Client, the
backup fails.
Procedure
1. In the Monitoring window, select the workflow or actions.
2. Right-click and then select Start, Stop, or Restart.
A confirmation message appears.
Note: You cannot stop, restart, or start individual actions.

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3. Click Yes.

Visual representation of VMware policy and associated actions

A visual representation of the VMware backup policy with its associated workflow and actions
appears in the lower panel of the Protection window.
Figure 14 VMware protection policy in the Protection window

The Media window displays the save sets contained within the policy. If the save sets are
additionally part of an application-consistent policy, a green check mark appears in the VM App
Consistent column.
Figure 15 VMware protection policy save sets in Media window

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VMware View in NMC

VMware View provides an overview of the vCenter environment. You can access VMware View
from the NetWorker Administration Protection window.
If you have not yet added a vCenter server to VMware View, right-click VMware View in the right
pane, and select Add vCenter from the drop-down. The Add vCenter dialog displays.
Figure 16 Add a vCenter server to VMware View in NMC

In the Host Name field, type the IP address of the host, and provide the vCenter Server username
and password credentials. Additionally, if the vCenter server is deployed in the Cloud, select the
Deployed in Cloud checkbox, and then click OK.
Note: When you select Deployed in Cloud, a parameter displays in the backup action logs that
indicates HypervisorMode: VMC. When the checkbox is not selected, the parameter
indicates HypervisorMode: vSphere.
When you add the vCenter server to VMware View, the following actions occur:
l A visual (map) or tabular representation of the vCenter environment appears in the VMware
View window.
l A client resource is created for the vCenter server with the vProxy backup type.
Using VMware View, you can also assign the policies you created in "VMware data protection
policies in NMC." to the vCenter objects.
Note: Upon refresh of VMware View in NMC in a large VMware vCenter environment, the
background process nsrvim consumes a high amount of memory on the NetWorker server. For
example, nsrvim can consume up to 7 GB RAM in a site with 200 ESXi hosts and more than
4000 virtual machines in a single vCenter. This memory is used to load vCenter inventory data
into local structures. If this occurs, depending on the scale of the VMware environment,
allocate more RAM to the NetWorker server to reduce the impact of this memory
consumption. As a best practice allocate at least 2GB of RAM per 1000 VMs on a given
vCenter.
The following sections describe the options that are available in VMware View.

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Map view of the VMware environment

When you expand VMware View, a hierarchical display of the VMware environment appears. The
following containers appear:
l vCenters
l DataCenters within the vCenter
l Clusters within the DataCenter
l ESX servers
l Folders above the DataCenters and folders above ESX hosts/clusters
l vApps
l Resource Pools
You can use several operations to navigate within the map view:
l To zoom in and out of the map view, select the zoom icons on the map view icon bar or click on
the right details pane and scroll with the mouse wheel. You can also click the Zoom Area
button to select an area to zoom into, or click the Fit Content button to fit the entire display
into the right details pane. These operations are also available when you right-click the details
pane.
l To move the graphical display, left-click in the details pane and drag the mouse cursor.
l To expand or collapse any container in the map view to display or hide the child elements
associated with the container, double-click the container.
l To display an overview of the map view, select the Overview tab within the Overview pane.
The overview of the map view is particularly useful for large maps and allows you to quickly drill
down to specific areas in the map.
l To limit items displayed and search for specific items in the map view, use the Filter VM by
and Show functions, available from the Filter tab within the Overview pane.
When you click on any container, the hierarchical tree provides a detailed map view of that
container and all of its children. For example, select the top level virtualization node to display a
complete view of your VMware environment across all configured vCenters, or select an individual
ESX server or Cluster in the hierarchy to display the resource pool with all child elements
associated with that ESX server or Cluster including VMs, VMDKs, the vProxy appliance, and any
associated VMware backup policies to the right of these containers.
Lines connect each child element to the parent element, with child elements proceeding
hierarchically from left to right in the display, as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 17 Map view of VMware environment in NMC

To refine items displayed in the right details pane, select containers in the Virtualization node
hierarchy in the left pane. For example, if an individual Cluster is selected in the Virtualization
node, only child elements associated with that Cluster display.
Figure 18 Cluster with child elements in VMware View

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To filter the visible items to show only protected VMs, unprotected VMs, or overprotected VMs,
click the links located above the right pane, as shown in the following figure.
Note: When you enable a VMware group with Dynamic Association, the protected VMs
reflect those virtual machines that are statically protected, and does not include virtual
machines that get dynamically added to the group after rules are applied.
Figure 19 Filtering results in VMware View

Table view of the VMware environment

To switch to a view of the VMware environment in table form, right-click anywhere in the details
pane and select Table. The Table view functions like other table views in the Administration
window.
Note: Table view only displays information for virtual machines. It does not show any details
about VMDKs. You must use Map view to display those details.

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Figure 20 VMware table view

The filtering function works the same in Table view as in Map view. Links provided above the
details pane allow you to display only overprotected virtual machines, unprotected virtual
machines, or all virtual machines in the environment. The NetWorker Administration Guide provides
general information on using tables in the Administration window.
Note: In Table view, the Host field contains an undefined value for virtual machines or
containers that are part of a cluster. The Map view provides a link to the cluster.

Assigning protection groups to virtual machines

From within the map or table view of the VMware environment, you can assign protection groups
at any level, for example, you can assign a group to the entire datacenter, a cluster, a resource
pool, a virtual machine, or even a VMDK by using VMware View.
Procedure
1. Right-click on any container, or expand the container, and then right-click on an element
within VMware View.
2. Select Add to Group.
The available groups display, as shown in the following figure.

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Figure 21 Add group in VMware View

3. Select a group, and click OK.

VMware View refreshes and displays the new association.
4. To assign a group at the VMDK level, expand a virtual machine, right-click the VMDK that
you want to associate to the group, and select Add to Group.

Assigning a group to a disconnected ESX server

When you disconnect an ESX host from the vCenter server, the ESX still appears in VMware View.
You can assign a group to an ESX host that is disconnected from the vCenter server, however, if
you start the group, the group will remain in “interrupted” state until you reconnect the ESX back
to the vCenter server and run the group again.
Note: Disconnecting an ESX server from a vCenter server only temporarily disconnects the
server and does not remove the server. To permanently remove the ESX server from the
vCenter inventory, use the Remove command from vCenter.

vProxy backup workflows in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC

NetWorker interface
The NetWorker vProxy workflows can only be created in NMC, however, you can perform virtual
machine backups of these vProxy workflows, and add virtual machines to the vProxy workflows,
by using the Dell EMC NetWorker interface within the vSphere Client.
Dell EMC NetWorker appears in the left navigation pane of the vSphere Client after you install
the vCenter plug-in. The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides instructions.
Note: Backup and recovery operations in the vSphere Client Dell EMC NetWorker interface
are not supported for SQL Server advanced application-consistent protection policies.
Perform these operations from the NMC NetWorker Administration window or the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client.

Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Client

You must establish a connection to the NetWorker server before performing any vProxy backup
and recovery operations in the vSphere Client.
Before you begin
Dell EMC NetWorker only appears in the vSphere Client after you install the vCenter plug-in.
The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides instructions.

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Procedure
1. Login to the vSphere Client as an administrator, or as a non-administrator Active Directory
user that you created using the steps in the section Accessing the HTML-5 or flash-based
vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator Active Directory user.
2. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Dell EMC NetWorker, or select Dell EMC
NetWorker in the left pane.
Figure 22 Accessing Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client

A prompt displays in the right pane with fields required to connect to the NetWorker server.
3. For the NetWorker server, type the following information:
a. In the Username field, type the NetWorker administrator username.
b. In the Password field, type the NetWorker administrator password.
c. In the NetWorker Server field, type the IP address of the NetWorker server.
d. In the Port field, type 9090.
Figure 23 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Client

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Note: The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and
NetWorker Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

4. Click Log in.

Results
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Basic Tasks pane appears, as
shown in the following.
Figure 24 Dell EMC NetWorker Basic Tasks pane

Start a vProxy policy in the vSphere Client Dell EMC NetWorker interface
To start a vProxy backup policy by using the Dell EMC NetWorker interface in the vSphere
Client, perform the following steps.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2.
From the Basic Tasks pane, click Assign Backup Policy, or click the Protection icon
in the vertical navigation bar.
The vCenter server hosts associated with the NetWorker server display. When you select
one of these entries, a list of available vProxy policies that were created in NMC displays in
the right pane.

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Figure 25 Policies pane with available vProxy policies

3. Click the arrow to the left of a policy to expand and view the policy and workflow details.
You can click the Items link under the Workflow to display the virtual machines protected by
this workflow.
4. If you do not need to add or remove any virtual machines from the workflow, click the three
dots next to the policy and select Backup all sources or Backup only out of date sources
from the drop-down.
Figure 26 Policy backup options

Results
A dialog displays indicating that the policy was successfully started. To close the dialog, click OK.
You can then click the blue arrows in the lower right corner of the window to monitor the progress
of the policy in the Recent Tasks pane.
Figure 27 Recent Tasks pane

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Add virtual machines to a vProxy policy in the vSphere Client Dell EMC
NetWorker interface
Perform the following steps to edit a vProxy policy to add virtual machines to a workflow by using
the Dell EMC NetWorker interface in the vSphere Client.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2. Click Assign Backup Policy.
A list of available vProxy policies that were created in NMC displays in the right pane.
Figure 28 Policies pane with available vProxy policies

Note: The Backup tab in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery user
interface displays the last start time based on the start time of the backup for the virtual
machines in the policy. Therefore, if the same virtual machine is contained within
multiple policies, then the last start time displayed will be identical between the two
policies.
3. Click the arrow to the left of a policy to expand and view the policy and workflow details.
You can click the Items link under the Workflow to display the virtual machines protected by
this workflow.
4. To add virtual machines to the workflow, click the three dots next to the policy and select
Edit from the drop-down.

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Figure 29 Edit a vProxy policy

The Editing backup policy dialog displays with available backup sources.
5. Select any virtual machines or VMDKs in the inventory you want to protect with this
workflow, and then click Finish.
Figure 30 Backup sources in the Editing backup policy dialog

Note: If you add a virtual machine that has already been backed up by an existing
workflow to a new workflow within the VM Backup and Recovery plug-in in the vSphere
Web Client, the Last Start Time of the new workflow gets updated automatically in the
Backup tab, even if the workflow has not yet been started.

Results
Any virtual machines or VMDKs added to the workflow now appear when you click the Items link
under the workflow in the Policies pane.

vProxy workflows in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and

Recovery interface
The flash-based vCenter plug-in, which displays as the VM Backup and Recovery interface in the
vSphere Web Client, was introduced in NetWorker 9.1. New and upgraded users of NetWorker

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version 19.2 can still use this plug-in to run virtual machine backups from the vProxy workflows
created in NMC, and add virtual machines to those vProxy workflows.
VM Backup and Recovery appears in the left navigation pane of the vSphere Web Client when
you install the flash-based vCenter plug-in. The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides
instructions.
Note: Backup and recovery operations in the vSphere Web Client VM Backup and Recovery
interface are not supported for SQL Server advanced application-consistent protection
policies. Perform these operations from the NMC NetWorker Administration window or the
Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client.

Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Web Client

After installing the vCenter plug-in, you must establish a connection to the NetWorker server
before performing any vProxy operations in the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator, or as a non-administrator Active
Directory user that you created using the steps in the section Accessing the HTML-5 or
flash-based vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator Active Directory user.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
The required NetWorker connection information appears in the right pane.
Figure 31 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Web Client

3. Enter the following information for the NetWorker server:

a. In the Host field, type the IP address of the NetWorker server.
b. In the Port field, type 9090.
c. In the User field, type the NetWorker administrator username.
d. In the Password field, type the NetWorker administrator password.
Note: The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and
NetWorker Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

4. Click Connect.
Results
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane appears.

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Starting a vProxy policy in the vSphere Web Client

Perform the following steps to start a vProxy policy and workflow created in NMC by using the
vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane
appears.
2. Click the Backup tab to open the Backup pane.
Any vProxy policies created in NMC display.
Figure 32 Backup pane with vProxy policy

3. Highlight the policy and workflow you want to run and click Backup now in the top-right
corner.

Results
You can monitor the progress of the backup in the Running tab of the Recent Tasks pane.
Note: If you cancel a workflow from the vSphere Web Client and then want to restart the
backup, ensure that you restart the workflow from the vSphere Web Client. If a workflow
that was started from the vSphere Web Client is restarted from the NMC NetWorker
Administration window, the backup fails.

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Adding virtual machines to a vProxy policy workflow in the vSphere Web Client
Perform the following steps to add virtual machines to a vProxy workflow created in NMC by using
the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane. When a
connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane appears.
2. Click the Backup tab to open the Backup pane.
Any vProxy policies created in NMC display.
Note: The Backup tab in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery user
interface displays the last start time based on the start time of the backup for the virtual
machines in the policy. Therefore, if the same virtual machine is contained within
multiple policies, then the last start time displayed will be identical between the two
policies.
3. Highlight the policy whose workflow you want to add virtual machines to and click Edit in
the top-right corner.
The Editing backup policy window displays with available backup sources.
Figure 33 Backup sources in the Editing backup policy window

4. Select any virtual machines or VMDKs in the inventory you want to protect with this
workflow and click Finish.
Note: If you add a virtual machine that has already been backed up by an existing
workflow to a new workflow within the VM Backup and Recovery plug-in in the vSphere
Web Client, the Last Start Time of the new workflow gets updated automatically in the
Backup tab, even if the workflow has not yet been started.

Results
Any virtual machines or VMDKs added to the workflow appear under Sources in the bottom of the
Backup pane.

Additional vProxy backup configuration options

The following section provides additional configuration options for vProxy backups.

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Configure a backup to support VMware encryption

NetWorker supports encrypted virtual machine backups. When configuring a virtual machine
backup with VMware encryption, perform the following steps.
Before you begin
Review the known limitations for configuring a backup to support VMware encryption. To backup
or restore encrypted virtual machines, ensure that the vProxy appliance is also encrypted, and that
the vProxy is manually mapped to the backup policy.
About this task
The VMware vSphere Security Guide provides more information about virtual machine encryption.
Procedure
1. Establish encryption for the virtual machine.
a. Set up the Key Management Service (KMS).
b. Create a VM encryption policy.
c. Assign the encryption policy to the virtual machine(s) you want to encrypt.
2. Encrypt the vProxy appliance.
3. Open the /opt/emc/vproxy/conf/VixDiskLib.config file with a Linux text editor.
4. In the file, search for vixDiskLib.transport.hotadd.NoNFCSession and change the value to 0.
Changing this value to 0 overrides a VMware VDDK bug that inhibits hot-adding an
encrypted virtual machine. The VMware Release Notes provide more information.
5. Save and close the file.
6. Run the following:
systemctl restart vbackupd.service
7. Set the following additional permissions for the vCenter user account role, which is
described in the section Create a customized role:
Cryptographic operations > Add disk

Cryptographic operations > Direct access

Cryptographic permissions- Register VM

VMware encryption support limitations

The following limitations apply to backups with VMware encryption enabled.
l As a result of disabling NoNFCSession, backup and restore in VMware Cloud on Amazon Web
Services (AWS) is not supported. This VMware limitation is addressed in the VDDK update.
l When restoring from an encrypted virtual machine backup, the restored data is unencrypted.
l Restoring virtual machines requires that the target vCenter is configured for the same Key
Management Service (KMS) host as the source vCenter.
l Application-consistent quiesce snapshot backups on an encrypted virtual machine will fail back
to a file system-consistent snapshot. This process generates an error message in vCenter,
which can be ignored. This is a VMware limitation.
l When restoring a virtual machine as a new image, by default, new virtual machines are not
encrypted. If you want to apply encryption to the new virtual machine, apply the required
storage policy.

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In cases where a boot order other than the default was implemented before the image-level
backup was performed, the original boot order is not restored. In this instance, you must select
the correct boot device after the restore completes. Alternatively, you can enter the non-
default boot order to the VMX file so that the restored virtual machine starts without any
reconfiguration. This limitation does not affect virtual machines that use the default boot
order.

Configure a backup to support vSAN encryption

Backup and recovery functionality is supported for encrypted vSAN virtual machines, including the
restore of an encrypted vSAN virtual machine to a different vCenter that has a non-encrypted
datastore. The following steps describe how to configure a virtual machine backup with vSAN
encryption.
About this task
When performing backups or restores of virtual machines residing on vSAN datastores, it is highly
recommended to deploy the vProxy on a vSAN datastore. A vProxy deployed on any one vSAN
datastore can be used for backing up virtual machines from other vSAN or non-vSAN datastores
(encrypted or non-encrypted) by using hotadd or nbdssl transport modes, as applicable. Both
Capacity and Performance Optimization modes are fully supported for vSAN encrypted virtual
machines.
The VMware Administering VMware VSAN Guide provides more information about VSAN encryption.
When configuring a virtual machine backup with vSAN encryption, perform the following steps.
Procedure
1. Set the following permissions for the vCenter user account role, which is described in the
section Create a customized role:
Cryptographic operations > Add disk

Cryptographic operations > Direct access

2. Create the backup group.

Note: To back up the vSAN virtual machine, use the vProxy deployed in the vSAN
datastore.

Enabling or disabling Changed Block Tracking

The vProxy appliance uses changed block tracking (CBT) automatically upon the first virtual
machine backup so that only changed disk areas on the virtual machine get backed up. Some
virtual machines, however, do not support CBT and you may be required to disable CBT for those
virtual machines.
A vCenter administrator can control the application of CBT by using the custom field EMC vProxy
Disable CBT. You can set this custom field to true to disable CBT, or false to enable CBT. If you
do not set this field for a virtual machine, or the field is not present, CBT is enabled by default for
that virtual machine.
To set CBT for virtual machines, perform the following:
1. Log into the vSphere Client (vSphere versions 6 and earlier) or vSphere Web Client
(vSphere versions 6.5 and later) as an administrator.
2. Click on a virtual machine in the vCenter tree, and then click the Summary tab.
3. Edit the virtual machine attributes:
l In vSphere versions 6.x and earlier, click Edit in the Annotation box.

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l In vSphere versions 6.5 and later, click Edit under Custom Attributes.
4. Locate the EMC vProxy Disable CBT field, or create a string for EMC vProxy Disable CBT.
The string must match the field name exactly and is case-sensitive.
5. Set the value to true to disable CBT on the virtual machine, or to false (or leave the field
blank) to enable CBT on the virtual machine. Setting or resetting the field for one virtual
machine does not affect the other virtual machines in the vCenter.
6. Refresh VMware View in the NMC NetWorker Administration window.
Fixing CBT if corrupted on virtual machine
If CBT becomes corrupted on the virtual machine, warnings similar to the following appear in the
backup logs:

WARN: Change block tracking needs to be reset.

WARN: Change Block Tracking could not be reset, causing full backup: Second
attempt failed.
NOTICE: Change block tracking cannot be reset by proxy. Please remediate VM.

If these messages appear, you can use PowerCLI commands to disable and then enable CBT
without powering off the virtual machines as described in the VMware knowledgebase article at
https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?
cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1031873, or perform the
following steps to clean up CBT:
1. Power down the virtual machine.
2. Remove CBT flags.
3. Delete CTK files from the datastore.
4. Power ON the virtual machine.

Enable the Microsoft VM App Agent for SQL Server

application-consistent protection
The Microsoft Virtual Machine Application Agent (MSVMAPPAGENT) is a component of the
vProxy data protection solution that is bundled with the vProxy appliance OVA.
MSVMAPPAGENT is automatically deployed by the vProxy during a virtual machine application-
consistent backup and, if required, when restoring Microsoft SQL databases and SQL instance
backups to running virtual machines. After installation, the MSVMAPPAGENT package appears in
the Windows installer Add-Remove programs list.
The MSVMAPPAGENT allows for advanced application data protection of workloads residing on a
VMware ESXi server. This includes adding SQL virtual machines to an advanced application-
consistent protection policy to perform the following operations:
l SQL Server FULL backup to Data Domain—Configure a NetWorker policy's VMware backup
action with the Advanced Application Consistency option to perform SQL Server backup to a
Data Domain device as part of a VMware image-level backup. The SQL Server FULL backup is
performed during the in-guest quiesce by VMware Tools. After running the policy, the catalog
and index information for the SQL server backup is stored on the Data Domain device. When
the backup is performed as part of the VMware image-level backup, the SQL data files are
backed up as part of the VMDKs during the vProxy image backup. The sections Creating a
VMware backup action and Creating an action for Microsoft SQL Server application-consistent
protection provide more information.
l Transaction log backup—When configuring a NetWorker policy's workflow and VMware
backup action with the Advanced Application Consistency option, select Transaction log
backup to enable transaction log backups for SQL Instances running in the virtual machine, and

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set the Interval attribute in the backup policies workflow properties to specify the frequency of
backups. Backups are written directly to Data Domain under the SDSF backup folder that was
created by the NetWorker save set session. Transaction log backup is only performed for
databases in the proper state, otherwise databases are skipped. The section Create a VMware
backup action provides more information.
l Restore of SQL Server instance or individual SQL Server databases—The Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client includes an App mode that allows you to restore an entire SQL
Server instance to the original virtual machine and original instance, and restore individual SQL
Server databases to the original database on the original virtual machine, to multiple instances
on the same virtual machine, or to an alternate location (different virtual machines/SQL
instances on the same or a different vCenter), as well as the ability to roll-forward transaction
log backups. The section Restoring SQL Server application-consistent backups provides more
information.
During advanced application-consistent backup for both SQL Server FULL backup and transaction
log backup, vProxy installs or upgrades the vProxy Agent and MSVMAPPAGENT software
packages. On a new virtual machine without these software packages installed, the vProxy Agent
uses the VM Administrator Credentials from the backup action to install the vProxy Agent, using
the vCenter VIX API to copy packages into the guest virtual machine and run the install. Once the
vProxy Agent is installed in the virtual machine, vProxy communicates with the vProxy Agent to
install the MSVMAPPAGENT package.
On a system with vProxy and MSVMAPPAGENT already installed, vProxy performs a version
check of the MSVMAPPAGENT by running the Msvmagent_discovery.exe program to report
the installed program version and, if necessary, perform an upgrade if the vProxy software
repository contains a later version.
Note: Ensure that you manually uninstall in-guest agents (VM app agent for Microsoft
Applications) from an alternate virtual machine that is not protected by a SQL application-
consistent backup workflow. Also, if you are restoring to an alternate virtual machine that is
not protected by a SQL application-consistent workflow, note that the agents will not be
automatically uninstalled once the restore is complete. If you want to remove these agents,
you must manually uninstall the agents.
The following table provides a list of the MSVMAPPAGENT binaries that are called by the vProxy,
and the operations these binaries perform.
Table 11 MSVMAPPAGENT binaries called by vProxy

Binary Purpose When called

Msvmagent_discovery.exe Provides functions for listing Called by vProxy to report agent

program version and for validating version and determine if an upgrade
that SQL is installed and for listing is required. Also called by vProxy to
SQL Instances and databases. validate that SQL Server services are
running in the virtual machine. Also
called by vProxy to report running
SQL instances and databases to
support SQL alternate restore
selection.
Note: If
Msvmagent_discovery.exe
does not find running SQL Server
services, the program returns a
failure to the vProxy and the
overall NetWorker Application
Consistent backup workflow
cannot proceed. To resolve the

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Table 11 MSVMAPPAGENT binaries called by vProxy (continued)

Binary Purpose When called

issue, remove virtual machines

that do not have SQL from the
NetWorker Application
Consistent workflow. You can
also use the action logs to
diagnose the failure, and contact
Dell EMC support if required.

Msvmagentcatsnap.exe Catalogs the SQL VSS Full backup Called by vProxy once the virtual
that was performed by VMware machine image snapshot has
Tools as an App Agent VSS Full completed.
backup of SQL Server instances.
Catalog is written to Data Domain.

Msvmagent_appbackup.exe Performs transaction log backup. Called by vProxy for transaction log
backup workflows.
The Msvmagent_appbackup.exe
program will back up all SQL
instances in the virtual machine.
Msvmagent_appbackup.exe
performs transaction log backup
only, and does not create a virtual
machine image backup.

Msvmagent_snapshotrestore.e Performs restore of SQL VSS Full Called by vProxy during restore of
xe backup. SQL Database FULL backup.
Prior to the restore, the virtual
machine image backup is mounted on
the target virtual machine. The
Msvmagent_snapshotrestore.e
xe copies the VSS manifest
documents from the backup, and
uses those documents to perform a
VSS-aware restore of the SQL
database. The SQL database files are
copied from the mounted backup
VMDK to the original location of the
database, and during the VSS post
restore, the SQL VSS Writer
completes recovery of the backup. If
transaction logs are to be restored,
or if the NORECOVERY option has
been specified, the database will be
left in a NORECOVERY state. The
msvmagent_snapshotrestore.exe
command also supports SQL
Alternate restore and instructs SQL
the SQL instance to be restored and
to change database name and file
locations as selected by the
customer.

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Table 11 MSVMAPPAGENT binaries called by vProxy (continued)

Binary Purpose When called

Msvmagent_apprestore.exe Performs restore of individual SQL Called by vProxy during restore of

transaction log backup. the transaction log backup.
For each transaction log restore,
Msvmagent_apprestore.exe
receives the Data Domain path for
the backup and performs a SQL VDI
restore of the transaction log
backup. For intermediate transaction
logs, the database is left in the
NORECOVERY state. For the final
transaction log restore, the database
is either recovered or left in the
NORECOVERY state if you specify
this option. The STOPAT feature may
also be used for the final transaction
log restore if you specify this option.
The msvmagent_apprestore.exe
command also supports SQL
Alternate restore and instructs SQL
the SQL instance to be restored and
to change database name and file
locations as selected by the
customer.

MSVMAPPAGENT binaries are installed to C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT

\bin. Logs are located in C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\log.
Software and security requirements
In order to perform SQL Server application-consistent data protection for virtual machines, the
MSVMAPPAGENT requires the following:
l TheMSVMAPPAGENT runs under the SYSTEM account for data protection operations.
Configure all SQL Server instances in the virtual machine to grant NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
account rights to perform SQL database backup and recovery operations:
Add SYSTEM account to SQL logins.
Grant SYSTEM account the sysadmin role.
l Network connectivity, host name resolution, and firewall ports between the Data Domain
device and the virtual machines that are part of SQL Server application-consistent protection
policies and restore to alternate operations. This connectivity is required to allow
MSVMAPPAGENT to perform client direct operations to Data Domain.
l VMware vCenter server version 6.5 and later.
l VMware ESXi server version 6.5 and later.
l VMware Tools version 10.1 and later.
l Enable the UUID attribute (disk.EnableUUID=TRUE) in the vSphere Client.
l The virtual machine must use SCSI disks only, and the number of available SCSI slots must at
least match the number of disks. For example, a virtual machine with 7 disks will only require
one SCSI controller, but a virtual machine with 8 disks will require 2 SCSI controllers.
l The vProxy requires live network connectivity to the ESXi where the targeted SQL virtual
machine resides.

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Note: The MSVMAPPAGENT does not require installation of the NetWorker client.

The following table provides a list of special characters known to be supported in SQL database
names for English and non-English locales.
Table 12 Supported characters in SQL database names

Special character FULL and transaction log FULL and transaction log
backup restore

~ Tilde Supported Supported

- Hyphen Supported Supported

! Exclamation mark Supported Supported

{ Open curly bracket Supported Supported

% Percentage Supported Supported

} Close curly bracket Supported Supported

) Close parenthesis Supported Supported

( Open parenthesis Supported Supported

` Accent grave Supported Supported

@ At the rate Supported Supported

# Hash Supported Supported

_ Underscore Supported Supported

& Ampersand Supported Supported

^ Caret Supported Supported

\ Backslash Supported Supported

' Apostrophe Supported Supported

Note: Restore to an
alternate location for a
SQL database with an
apostrophe in the file
name or destination file
path will fail to restore.

$ Dollar Supported Supported

: Colon Supported Supported

. Period Supported Supported

Unsupported features and configurations

The following features and configurations are not supported for SQL application-consistent
protection:
l The MSVMAPPAGENT only supports stand-alone SQL Server instances, and does not support
SQL Server Always-On Availability Group and SQL Server Clustered Failover instances.
l The MSVMAPPAGENT does not support interoperability with other backup agents, including
SQL backup products from Dell EMC. If another backup product is running at the same time as
MSVMAPPAGENT, the MSVMAPPAGENT has safeguards to prevent issues. For example, if

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another product is performing in-guest backups, MSVMAPPAGENT may skip databases for
transaction log backups.
l If using the VM Backup and Recovery user interface in the vSphere Web Client for vSphere
versions earlier than 6.5, backup and recovery operations are not supported for SQL Server
advanced application-consistent protection policies. For SQL backups, perform these
operations from the NMC NetWorker Administration window or the Dell EMC NetWorker
user interface in the vSphere Client. For SQL recoveries, perform these operations from the
Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client.
Additionally, the following items are not supported due to VMware restrictions and feature
limitations:
l Changing pools between backup actions, for example, between a SQL full and transaction log
backup.
l Application-consistent quiescing for virtual machines with IDE disks.
l Dynamic disks on the virtual machine.
l Read-only volumes mounted on the SQL virtual machine.
l VMware encrypted virtual machines.
l VMware Fault Tolerant virtual machines.
l RDM storage.
The vProxy appliance performs validation of the environment for these VMware restrictions. If
validation fails, the VMware policy with SQL Server application-consistent data protection will not
run.

Updating the Microsoft VM App Agent and FLR Agent

software
The Microsoft VM App Agent and FLR Agent software required to perform advanced application-
consistent data protection and file-level restore operations on the client will be automatically
updated on the target virtual machine by the vProxy appliance during the file-level restore
operation. The vProxy detects the available software on the client and updates the Agent software
with the new version of software from its repository. If the update does not occur automatically,
contact a Dell EMC technical support professional for a procedure to update the vProxy software
repository with the latest version of the Agent software packages.

Troubleshooting Data Protection Policies

This section provides information about issues related to configuring Data Protection Policy
resources and with backup and recovery operations.

Backup operations
The following troubleshooting items provide some direction on how to identify and resolve
common issues with vProxy backups.

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SQL Server application-consistent backups fail with error "Unable to find VSS metadata files in
directory"
SQL Server application-consistent virtual machine backups might fail with the following error when
the disk.enableUUDI variable for the virtual machine is set to False.
Unable to find VSS metadata files in directory C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS
\MSVMAPPAGENT\tmp\VSSMetadata.xxxx.
To resolve this issue, ensure that the disk.enableUUDI variable for the virtual machines included in
an SQL Server application-consistent backup is set to True.

Failed to lock Virtual Machine for backup: Another EMC vProxy operation 'Backup' is active on VM
This error message appears when a backup fails for a virtual machine, when previous backups of
the virtual machine was abruptly ended and the VM annotation string was not cleared.
To resolve this issue, clear the annotation string value for the virtual machine.
1. Connect to the vCenter server and navigate Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.
2. Select the virtual machine, and then select the Summary tab.
3. Clear the value that appears in the EMC Proxy Session field.

“Loading backup job data”

This message can appear for up to five minutes when you select a large number of VMs
(approximately 100 VMs) for a single backup job. This issue can also apply to lock/unlock, refresh,
or delete actions for large jobs. This is expected behavior when you select a very large number of
jobs. This message disappears when the action is completed, which can take up to five minutes.

“The following items could not be located and were not selected {client name}.”
This error can occur when the backed up VM(s) cannot be located during Edit of a backup job.
This is a known issue.

Windows 2008 R2 VMs may fail to backup with “disk.EnableUUID” configured to “true.”
Windows 2008 R2 backups may fail if the VM is configured with the disk.EnableUUID parameter
set to true. To correct this problem, manually update the vmx configuration parameter
disk.EnableUUID to false by using the vSphere Web Client:
1. Shut down the VM by right clicking the VM and selecting Shut Down Guest OS.
2. Right click the VM and select Edit Settings.
3. Click VM Options.
4. Expand the Advanced section and click Edit Configuration.
5. Locate the name disk.EnableUUId and set the value to false.
6. Click OK on the next two pages.
7. Right click the VM and select Power On.
After you update the configuration parameter, the backups of the Windows 2008 R2 VM should
succeed.

When VMs are moved in or out of different cluster groups, associated backup sources may be lost
When you move hosts into clusters with the option to retain the resource pools and vApps, the
containers get recreated, not copied. As a result, the container is no longer the same container

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even though the name is the same. To resolve this issue, validate or recreate any backup jobs that
protect containers after moving hosts in or out of a cluster.

vMotion operations are not allowed during active backup operations

The vSphere vMotion feature enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one
physical server to another. You cannot run vMotion operations on the vProxy appliance or VMware
Backup appliance during active backup operations. This is expected behavior. Wait until all backup
operations have completed prior to performing a vMotion operation.

Backups fail if certain characters are used in the virtual machine name, datastore, folder, or
datacenter names
When you use spaces or special characters in the virtual machine name, datastore, folder, or
datacenter names, the .vmx file is not included in the backup. The vProxy appliance does not back
up objects that include the following special characters, in the format of character/escape
sequence:
l & %26
l + %2B
l / %2F
l = %3D
l ? %3F
l % %25
l \ %5C
l ~ %7E
l ] %5D

NSRCLONE failed for one or more savesets

This message appears during a clone action and NetWorker does not clone all save sets.

Error messages similar to the following also appear:

[CLONE SKIPPED SAVESETS]
ssid/cloneid;
Action clone 'name' with job id 5 is
exiting with status 'failed', exit code 1
NSRCLONE failed for one or more savesets

To resolve this issue, increase the values in the max target sessions and target sessions
attributes for the clone device. The NetWorker Administration Guide describes how to modify the
properties of a device.

Lock placed on virtual machine during backup and recovery operations continues for 24 hours if
vProxy appliance fails
During vProxy backup and recovery operations, a lock is placed on the virtual machine. If a vProxy
appliance failure occurs during one of these sessions, the lock gets extended to a period of 24
hours, during which full backups and transaction log backups will fail with the following error until
the lock is manually released:
Cannot lock VM 'W2K8R2-SQL-2014' (vm-522): Another EMC vProxy operation
'Backup' is active on VM vm-522.

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Workaround
To manually release the lock on the virtual machine:
1. Open the vSphere Web Client.
2. Select the virtual machine and select Summary.
3. Select Custom attribute and click Edit.
4. Remove the attribute EMC vProxy Session.

Trailing spaces not supported in SQL database names

Due to a VSS limitation, you cannot use trailing spaces within the names of SQL databases
protected by an application-consistent data protection policy.

SQL databases skipped during virtual machine transaction log backup

When an advanced application-consistent policy is enabled with transaction log backup, the
msvmagent_appbackup.exe program evaluates databases to determine if transaction log
backup is appropriate.
If transaction log backup is not appropriate for a database, the database will automatically be
skipped. Databases are skipped for the following reasons:
Table 13 SQL Skipped Database Cases and Descriptions

Case Description

Database has When a database has been restored, this database will be skipped during
been restored transaction log backup because there is no Backup Promotion.

System System databases are automatically skipped for transaction log backup.
Database

Database State Database is not in a state that allows backup. For example, the database is in
the NORECOVERY state.

Recovery Database is in SIMPLE recovery model, which does not support transaction
Model log backup

Other Backup Most recent backup for the database was performed by a different backup
Product product.

New Database Database was created after most recent full backup.

Backup Failure Database was in state to allow backup, backup was attempted, but backup
failed.

All skipped databases will be backed up as part of the next full backup. Also, a skipped database
will not result in msvmagent_appbackup.exe failure. The only instance in which
msvmagent_appbackup.exe would potentially fail is if all databases failed to back up.
The msvmagent_appbackup.exe program generates a history report of the databases, if the
database backup status was success/skipped/failed, and a reason if they were skipped or failed if
applicable. This history report is visible in the action logs for the vProxy, which are available as part
of the appbackup logs.
Note: For SQL virtual machine application-consistent data protection, the SQL and operating
system versions follow the NMM support matrix available at http://
compatibilityguide.emc.com:8080/CompGuideApp/.

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Increase the vCenter query timeout before starting a VMware backup action
Before starting a VMware backup action, NetWorker queries the vCenter server to determine if
any changes have occurred in the items selected for backup. You can increase the timeout value
by setting the NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT environment variable.
The amount of time for the query to complete depends on several factors, including the network
response time, the size of the vCenter, and the number of resources free on the NetWorker
server. The default timeout of the query is 30 minutes, after which the backup fails with the
following error:
nsrvproxy_save NSR warning Dispatcher: Request timed out
Perform the following steps to set the NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
environment variable to a higher timeout value. Note that the timeout value is in seconds. In this
example, a value of 2700 (or 45 minutes) is used.
1. Set up the environment variable:
l On Linux, add the following lines to the /nsr/nsrrc file:
NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=2700
export NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
l On Windows, add a new variable called NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
under Environment variables > System variables, and specify a value of 2700.
2. On the NetWorker server, connect to nsradmin:
nsradmin -p nsrexec
3. Select/Print the 'NSRLA' resource:
p type: nsrla
4. Append to the attribute:
append environment variable names: NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
5. Select/Print the 'NSRLA' resource again to verify your changes:
p type: nsrla
The last attribute should display as environment variable names:
NSR_HYPERVISOR_QUERY_REQUEST_TIMEOUT.

Managing command execution for VM Proxy Agent operations on Linux

The VM Proxy Agent automatically creates a PAM service file named vproxyra in the /etc/
pam.d system directory, if the file does not already exist.
This file, which allows you to manage command execution through the VM Proxy Agent, is
modeled on the corresponding vmtoolsd file. The settings in this file permit command execution
by any user who is able to perform VM Proxy-based operations on the guest virtual machine. A
system administrator can further modify this file to specify which users can perform VM Proxy
Agent operations, for example, file-level restore and SQL application-aware protection. For more
information on the configuration of PAM service files, see the system documentation for your
specific guest virtual machine operating system.

vProxy backup log files

You can use vProxy session log files to troubleshoot backup failures.
The following table provides information about the vProxy backup log files. located in /opt/emc/
vproxy/runtime/logs/vbackupd/ on the vProxy host. Note that old daemon and session
logs are located in /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/recycle/.

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Table 14 Backup log files

Log file Log location Description

Session <session-uuid>.log Contains processing details for a session. Sessions

logs display as “Recycled” when the session is deleted. The
log level is configured in the session request.

Daemon <daemon>- Records requests and problem events which may

logs engine.log require administrative action in vProxy or vCenter.
Error and Panic messages from the session logs are
also recorded in the daemon log. The log level is set
in /usr/lib/systemd/system/
<daemon>.service, for example, "--engine-log-level
<level>".

DD Boost <daemon>-boost.log The log level is set in /usr/lib/systemd/

backup system<daemon>.service, for example, "--boost-
log log-level <level>"

VDDK <daemon>-vddk.log The log level is set in /opt/emc/vproxy/conf/

backup VixDiskLib.config (vixDiskLib.transport.LogLevel
log = <level>)

On the NetWorker server, the location of log files for individual backups differ on Windows and
LINUX:
l Linux—/nsr/logs/policy/policy_name
l Windows—C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\logs\policy\policy_name
where policy_name is the name of the policy resource associated with the backup action.
Additional logging with the VMBackup broker
Debug logging of the vmbackup broker of nsrd is disabled by default. To turn on additional
logging, you can touch an empty file at <nsr>/tmp/vmbackup_logging. Enabling of additional
logging can be performed while other operations are in progress, and a NetWorker restart is not
required. To turn off additional logging, you can remove the same file.

NMC function to collect vProxy log bundle information

NetWorker 19.2 features an NMC function to collect vProxy log bundle information from a virtual
machine. To collect log bundle information, perform the following steps in NMC:
1. From NMC's NetWorker Administration, open the Devices window.
2. From the left pane, select VMware Proxies to display the virtual machine proxy devices.
3. Right-click the virtual machine that you want to collect log bundle information from, and then
from the menu, click Log Bundle.
4. (Optional) Collect the recycled logs from the pop-up window selection.
Note: Since the temporary log bundle download occurs on the NetWorker server, ensure that
there is sufficient space on the drive where the Networker server is installed.
Also, note that NMC cannot collect the log bundle when accessed from a remote machine that
cannot communicate with vProxy

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vProxy Log Aggregation Management Tool

vProxy Log Aggregation Management tool is a CLI tool that helps you perform the following
actions:
l Add or delete vProxies for log aggregation.
l Update log aggregation parameters.
l View log aggregation status of each vProxy.
When you add a vProxy, a periodic log aggregation is triggered and vProxy logs are aggregated in
the user provided directory path in NetWorker Server. The logs are continuously aggregated until
it is stopped.
vProxy Log Aggregation Management tool (nsrvproxy_log_mgmt) is available as binary bundled as
a part of VISD component. The vProxy logs can be aggregated in the NetWorker server by
enabling the LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED environment variable. The binaries are located in <NW
install path>/nsr/vproxy/bin/.
Note: If are using a centralized logging server, then you must configure the respective agents
in the NetWorker server to push the aggregated logs to the centralized logging server

Enabling vProxy Log Aggregation

The vProxy log aggregation helps you to aggregate vProxy logs in NetWorker Server.
Before you begin
Ensure that the system time should be in sync with the NetWorker server and the vProxy before
starting log aggregation.
Procedure
1. Enable the log aggregation by setting the environment variable
LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED = true.

Operating Procedure
system
Linux a. Update the bashrc file and /opt/nsr/vproxy/bin/
nsrvisdservice.sh script with the following:

$export LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED = true

b. Run the bashrc file, and restart the nsrvisd daemon.

Windows a. Set the environment variable LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED = true as

a system variable
b. Update the EMC NetWorker\nsr\vproxy\bin\nsrvisdservice
batch file with the following:

set LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED=true

c. Restart the nsrvisd daemon.

2. Add the “-logaggregation” to nsrvisdservice file.

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For example on Linux,

exec -a nsrvisd ${VISDBIN_DIR}/nsrvisd --program-log-level=${LOGLEVEL} -

i -inventory -p ${PORT} -proxymgmt -logaggregation -swrepo $
{VISD_SWREPOPATH}

On Windows,

%VISDBIN_DIR%\nsrvisd" --program-log-level=%LOGLEVEL% -i -inventory -p

%PORT% -proxymgmt -logaggregation -swrepo "%VISD_SWREPOPATH%

3. Add a vProxy.

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=<visd server hostname/IP> -

visdport=<visd port> addvProxy -host=<hostname/IP of vProxy> -
user=<vProxy username> -password=<password for vProxy user> -port=<port
number for vProxy> -interval=<refresh bundle interval in minutes> -
logstoragelocation=<absolute path to dump collected log bundle>

Note:
l You can use both a single “-” or double “--” when using the flags for
nsrvproxy_log_mgmt command.
l Repeat the step to add multiple vProxies.

For example,

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=10.x.x.4 -visdport=88 addvProxy -

host=15.x.x.13 -port=9090 -user=admin -password=Password123! -
logstoragelocation=/tmp/ -interval=10

Disabling Log Aggregation

You can disable the log aggregation by deleting the vProxy and unsetting the log aggregation
environment variable.
Procedure
1. Delete the vProxy.

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=<visd server hostname/IP> -

visdport=<visd port> deletevProxy -host=<hostname/IP of vProxy>

Note: If you want to delete multiple vProxies, then repeat this step.

For example,

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=10.x.x.4 -visdport=88 deletevProxy -

host=15.x.x.13

2. Disable the log aggregation.

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Operating Procedure
system
Linux a. Update the bashrc file and /opt/nsr/vproxy/bin/
nsrvisdservice.sh script with the following:

$export LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED = false

b. Run the bashrc file, and restart the nsrvisd daemon.

Windows a. You can disable the log aggregation by deleting the vProxy and changing
the log aggregation environment variable to “false”.
b. Update the EMC NetWorker\nsr\vproxy\bin\nsrvisdservice
batch file with the following command:

set LOG_AGGREGATION_ENABLED=false

c. Restart the nsrvisd daemon.

Updating the Log Aggregation Parameters

You can update the time interval parameter by using the nsrvproxy_log_mgmt command.
Procedure
1. Update the Parameters.

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=<visd server hostname/IP> -

visdport=<visd port> update -host=<hostname/IP of vProxy> -
interval=<time interval in minutes>

For example,

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=10.x.x.4 -visdport=88 update -

host=15.x.x.43 -interval=15

Viewing vProxy Information

You can view the vProxy information by using nsrvproxy_log_mgmt command.
Procedure
1. Viewing the vProxy Information.

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=<visd server hostname/IP> -

visdport=<visd port> show

For example,

./nsrvproxy_log_mgmt -visdserver=10.x.x.4 -visdport=88 show

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Hostname/IP:10.x.x.4
ProxyStatus:Active
Log Aggregation Location:/root/
Log Aggregation Interval:10
Last Log Collection Time:2019-10-17T01:58:08-04:00

Logs for SQL application-consistent data protection

The following section provides location information for all logs associated with SQL application-
consistent data protection.
Note: In order to increase the debug level for SQL application-consistent virtual machine
(MSVMAPPAGENT) backups, use dbgcommand, For example, dbgcommand -p <nsrd-
pid> Debug=9. Once you complete the debugging session, ensure that you reset the debug
level of nsrd to zero by running dbgcommand <nsrd-pid> Debug=0.

MSVMAPPAGENT logs
You can access logs related to MSVMAPPAGENT from the following locations:
l Discovery log: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs
\msvmagent_discovery.log
l FULL backup: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs\msvmcatsnap.log
l Transaction log backup: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs
\msvmagent_appbackup.log
l Restore of FULL backup: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs
\msvmagent_snapshotrestore.log
l Restore of transaction log backup: C:\Program Files\DPSAPPS\MSVMAPPAGENT\logs
\msvmagent_apprestore.log
vProxy logs
You can access these vProxy logs from the following locations:
l FULL and transaction log backups: /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/vbackupd/
BackupVmSessions-sessionnumber.log
l InspectBackup logs: /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/vsessionsd/inspectBackup-
sessionnumber.log
l Mount session logs: /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/vflrd/mount-
sessionnumber.log
l Browse session logs: /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/vflrd/browse-
sessionnumber.log
l Recover App sessions logs: /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/vflrd/application-
sessionnumber.log. Note that a few minutes after completion, these logs are moved
to /opt/emc/vproxy/runtime/logs/recycle/.

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Recover virtual machines and data

This chapter contains the following topics:

l Preparing the NetWorker datazone for recovery................................................................. 140

l vProxy recovery in NMC...................................................................................................... 144
l vProxy recovery in the NetWorker Management Web UI..................................................... 161
l vProxy restore from legacy VMware Backup appliance backups..........................................169
l vProxy file-level restore and SQL restore in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client.. 170
l vProxy recovery in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC NetWorker interface.............................. 191
l vProxy recovery in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface............. 202
l vProxy backups and restores using Direct Fiber channel......................................................210

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Preparing the NetWorker datazone for recovery

Before performing an image-level or file-level virtual machine recovery with NetWorker, review the
following sections.

Entering management credentials for the Data Domain resource (instant

recovery and User mode file-level restore only)
Before you perform an instant recovery of a virtual machine or file-level restore (User mode),
ensure that you provide the management credentials for the Data Domain resource. For instant
recovery, these credentials are required when performing the recovery using the NMC Recover
wizard or the VM Backup and Recovery interface in the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. In the NMC Administration window, click Devices.
The Devices window displays.
2. In the expanded left navigation pane, select Data Domain Systems.
3. In the right details pane, right-click the Data Domain system, and then select Properties.
The NSR Data Domain Properties window displays.
Figure 34 NSR Data Domain Properties

4. In the Access pane, type the management credentials.

a. In the Management host field, specify the hostname of the Data Domain system that is
used for management commands.

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b. In the Management user field, specify the username for a Data Domain user that has
admin access. For example, sysadmin. The Management user should have Data Domain
administrator privileges.
c. In the Management password field, specify the password of the management user.
d. In the Management port field, specify the management port. By default, the port is
3009.
Note: The NetWorker Data Domain Boost Integration Guide provides information about the
Cloud unit field and use of the Cloud tier device.

5. If required, in the Configuration pane, update the export path. It is recommended that you
leave this field blank, which sets the export path to the default path. The short name of the
NetWorker server is the default path.
If you do type a path in this field, ensure that the path has NFS permissions. When you log in
to the Data Domain resource, browse to the NFS section and add the Mtree device path
(the path to the NetWorker backup device) as a valid NFS path.
6. To save the changes, click OK.

File-level restore as an Active Directory user

In order to perform a file-level restore as an Active Directory (AD) user in the NMC NetWorker
Administration window's Recovery wizard or the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client, you
need to register a tenant user and provide the FLR AD user required permissions.
About this task
Note: The following steps include high level information for running authc_config. More
detailed steps might be required if configuring AD authentication in the NetWorker
environment. The NetWorker Security Configuration Guide provides more information.
Procedure
1. Log in to your AD server, and make note of objects related to this user (such as the
Organizational Units (OU) and Groups in the Active Directory server) that will be added as a
tenant user of NetWorker. You can use any third party AD viewer/browser to obtain the
required objects and their properties.
For example,

a. Create an OU proxy inside the domain.

b. Inside the OU proxy, create a group named vmware and another OU user.
c. Inside the OU user, create a user named ADuser and make this user a member of the
group vmware.
d. If you plan to use the command line to register the AD user to NetWorker, as described in
step two below, make note of the values for the following variables as you will require
these values for the registration commands:
l config-name
l config-server-address
l config-domain
l config-user-dn
l config-user-dn-password
l config-user-object-class

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l config-user-search-path
l config-user-id-attr
l config-group-search-path
l config-group-name-attr
l config-group-object-class
l config-group-member-attr
l config-active-directory

e. If you plan to use the NetWorker Management Console to register the AD user to
NetWorker, also described in step two below, make note of the following values as you
will require these values for the registration:
l Domain
l Port number
l Provider Server name
l User DN
l Group Object Class
l Group Search Path
l Group Name Attribute
l Group Member Attribute
l User Object Class
l User Search Path
l User ID Attribute

2. Register the AD domain user to NetWorker either using the command line or the NetWorker
Management Console user interface.
If using the command line:

a. Create a tenant user on NetWorker by running the authc_config command, as in the

following:
authc_config -u administrator -e add-tenant -D tenant-name=your tenant
name -D tenant-alias your selected aliases -p password

For example, to create a tenant user ADuser with the alias FLR, run authc_config -u
administrator -e add-tenant -D tenant-name=ADuser -D tenant-alias FLR -p
password

b. Obtain the tenant ID by running the authc_config command using the find-tenant
parameter. For example:
authc_config -u administrator -e find-tenant -D tenantname=ADuser -p
password

c. Register the AD domain user to NetWorker by running the authc_config command

using the add-config parameter and using the values obtained in Step1d, as in the
following:
authc_config -u administrator -e add-config -D config-tenant-id=tenant
ID number-D config-name=your tenant name -D config-server-address=ldap
IPv4/IPv6 address OU=proxy,DC=domain name,DC=com -D config-domain=domain
name -D config-user-dn=CN=Aduser,OU=user,OU=proxy,DC=domain name,DC=com

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-D config-user-dn-password=password -D config-user-objectclass=
inetOrgPerson -D config-user-search-path=OU=user -D config-userid-
attr=cn -D config-group-search-path=OU=user -D config-group-nameattr= cn
-D config-group-object-class=group -D config-group-memberattr= member -D
config-active-directory=y -p password

If using the NetWorker Management Console:

a. Click the Setup tab.

b. On the left pane of the Setup window, expand Users and Roles, right-click External
Authority and select New from the drop-down. The Add External Authentication
Authority dialog displays.
c. Provide a name for the external authority (for example, Aduser), select Active Directory
from the Server Type drop-down, and then fill in the required details with the values
obtained from Step1e.
d. Click OK.
3. In the NetWorker Management Console, click the Server tab.
4. On the Server window, select User Groups.
5. Add a user group (for example, ADuser group) with the following permissions:
l View Security Settings
l View Application Settings
l Remote Access All Clients
l Operate NetWorker
l Monitor NetWorker
l Operate Devices and Jukeboxes
l Recover Local Data
l Recover Remote Data
l Backup Local Data
6. Edit the new user to add the required AD user and AD group in the External Roles field. For
example, for a user named ADuser with the domain rideblr, add the following in the
External Roles field:
CN=Aduser,OU=user,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com
CN=vmware,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com

7. Log in to the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client as the AD user, in the format
<tenant>\<domain>\<userid>. For example, default\rideblr.com\ADuser.

Results
You can now perform file-level restore as an Active Directory user.

Active Directory user access to the vCenter plug-in and NMC

The Active Directory (AD) user that you create using the steps in the section "File-level restore as
a domain user" will only have access to the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client, and cannot
be used to log in to the vCenter plug-in or the NetWorker Management Console. If the AD user
also needs access to these applications, the following additional privileges are required.
vCenter plug-in additional privileges
If you require access to the vCenter plug-in as the same AD user:

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1. Launch the NMC NetWorker Administration window, and go to Server > User Groups > Edit
Security Administrators.
2. Add the AD user and group in the External Roles field. For example, for a user named ADuser
with the domain rideblr.com, type CN=Aduser,OU=user,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com for
the user and CN=vmware,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com for the group.
NetWorker Management Console additional privileges
If you require access to the NetWorker Management Console as the same AD user:
1. In the NetWorker Management Console, click the Setup tab.
2. On the Setup window, expand Users and Roles in the left navigation pane, and then select
NMC Roles. The roles display in the right pane.
3. For the Console User NMC Roles, add the AD user and group in the External Roles field. For
example, for a user named ADuser with the domain rideblr.com, type
CN=Aduser,OU=user,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com.
4. Navigate to the NMC Enterprise window, right-click the server and select Launch
Application to open the NMC NetWorker Administration window.
5. Click the Server tab to open the Server window, and then click User Groups in the left pane
to display the users in the right pane.
6. Add the AD user in the External Roles field under Application Administrators. For example,
for a user named ADuser with the domain rideblr.com, type
CN=Aduser,OU=user,OU=proxy,DC=rideblr,DC=com.

vProxy recovery in NMC

You can use the Recovery wizard in NMC to perform image level recovery, which allows you to
recover full virtual machines and VMDKs. You can also use the Recovery wizard to perform file-
level restore from a primary or cloned backup on a Data Domain device, but only as an
administrator.
In NMC's NetWorker Administration window, click Recover. From the Recover window, launch
the Recovery wizard by selecting Recover > New.

Recovering a virtual machine using the NMC Recovery wizard

About this task
When you click Recover in NMC's NetWorker Administration window and select Recover > New
from the menu, the Recovery wizard launches. Virtual Machine Recovery is the second recovery
type displayed.

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Figure 35 Virtual machine recovery in the NMC Recovery wizard

After selecting the Virtual Machine Recovery type, you can perform recovery of individual virtual
machines, or (for revert and virtual machine recovery options) recovery from multiple virtual
machines.
Procedure
1. In the Select the Recovery Type page, select Virtual Machine Recovery, and then select a
vCenter server to recover from using the Source vCenter server drop-down. Click Next.
2. In the Select the Virtual Machine to Recover page, enter the name of the source virtual
machine(s) to recover from, or perform a search for the virtual machine. Additionally, you
can use the tabs on this page to choose a single virtual machine or multiple virtual machines
from a selected backup, or browse the source vCenter to determine the required virtual
machine source. When you locate and choose the desired virtual machine(s), click Next.

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Figure 36 Select the Virtual Machine to Recover

3. In the Select the Target Backups page, select the virtual machine backup(s) you want to
restore from the Available Backups pane. This pane lists both primary backups and, if
available, clone copies. If you selected recovery from multiple virtual machines, you can
switch between virtual machines to browse each machine's available backups by using the
Virtual Machine Name drop-down. Click Next.

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Figure 37 Select the Target Backup (individual virtual machine)

Figure 38 Select the Target Backup (multiple virtual machines)

4. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery method page, select from one of the available
recovery options:
l Revert (or rollback) a virtual machine
l Instant Recovery of a virtual machine (direct restore from a Data Domain device)
l Virtual Machine recovery (recovery to a new virtual machine)
l Virtual Disk recovery (recover VMDKs to an existing virtual machine)
l Emergency recovery (recovery to an ESX host)
l File Level recovery (recover files from VMDKs to a file system, or as a download).
Figure 39 Select the Virtual Machine Recovery method

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Results
Subsequent wizard options change based on the recovery option selected, as described in the
following sections.

Revert (or rollback) a virtual machine backup

The first virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is to revert, or
rollback, a virtual machine backup. With a Revert a virtual machine backup recovery, you use an
existing virtual machine to rollback the VMDKs as a virtual machine.
About this task
Note: When you revert a virtual machine, the current virtual machine is removed in the
process. You cannot use the Revert a Virtual Machine recovery option when the ESXi has
been removed from the vCenter and then added back to the vCenter. In this case, use the
Virtual Machine recovery option instead.
To complete the Recovery wizard with the reverting a virtual machine method, perform the
following.
Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select Revert a Virtual Machine.
b. Click Next.
The Select Options to Revert a Virtual Machine page displays
2. In the Revert Type pane of the Select Options to Revert a Virtual Machine page:
a. Select Revert both VM configuration and data to revert both the configuration
information (such as operating system, virtual machine size) and data for a virtual
machine. When you select this revert type, the Delete existing disk on disk
configuration mismatch option appears in the Revert Options pane to allow you to
overwrite an existing disk if a configuration mismatch occurs.
b. Select Revert VM Data Only to revert only the virtual machine data without changing
the virtual machine configuration.
3. In the Revert Options pane of the Select Options to Revert a Virtual Machine page,
choose from the following options
a. Select Revert all disks on this virtual machine to rollback all VMDKs, or select Revert
one or more disks only and then select a specific disk drive to rollback only that disk.
b. Select the Power on virtual machine checkbox to power on the virtual machine after
the restore.
c. Select Delete existing disk on disk configuration mismatch if you want to be
presented with the option of deleting the existing disk if a disk configuration mismatch is
detected. Note that this option only appears when you select the Revert both VM
configuration and data revert type in step two.
d. Click Next.
Note: If the virtual machine is currently powered on, a dialog displays requesting
confirmation to power off the virtual machine. Additionally, if a change has occurred in
the virtual machine configuration since the backup, a warning message displays.

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Figure 40 Choose Disks to Revert

Note: The entire VMDK will be rolled back unless you have CBT enabled, in which case
only the changed blocks will be moved.

4. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:

a. Select the original backup or a clone copy if one is available.
b. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device, or recovering from a Data
Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the DD Boost clone pool.
c. Click Next.
Figure 41 Select Alternate Recovery Sources

5. In the Perform the Recovery page:

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a. Specify a name for the recovery and check the summary at the bottom of the page to
ensure all the details are correct.
b. Click Run Recovery.
Results
The Check the Recovery Results page will display the duration of the recovery, and a log file
entry when the reversion is complete.

Instant Recovery of a virtual machine

The next virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is instant recovery
of a virtual machine backup. With instant recovery, the virtual machine backup is read directly
from the Data Domain device and the VMDKs will be restored directly on a Data Domain device.
You can perform one instant recovery session at a time.
Before you begin
Before you begin, make note of the following:
l For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, enter the export path appropriately.
l Ensure that the free space on the Data Domain system is equal to or greater than the total disk
size of the virtual machine being restored, as the restore does not take into account the actual
space required after deduplication occurs. If there is insufficient disk space, an error appears
indicating "Insufficient disk space on datastore," and creation of the target virtual machine
fails.
l Ensure that you have at least one proxy that is not restricted to a specific datastore. For the
vProxy, select Properties and then select Configuration, and verify that datastores is left
blank.
l Do not perform an instant recovery of virtual machines in resource pools and other similar
containers that are part of a currently running protection group.
About this task
To complete the Recovery wizard with the instant recovery method, perform the following steps:
Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select Instant Recovery.
b. Click Next.
2. In the Configure the Instant Recovery Options page:
a. Select the location where you want to restore the virtual machine in the vCenter
environment.
This does not have to be the original location, and can also be on a different vCenter
server.

b. Ensure that you select the Power on virtual machine and Reconnect to network
options.
c. Click Next.

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Figure 42 Configure the Instant Recovery

3. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:

a. Select the original backup, or a clone copy if one is available.
b. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device, or recovering from a Data
Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the DD Boost clone pool.
c. Click Next.
4. In the Perform the Recovery page:
a. Specify a name for the recovery.
b. Check the summary at the bottom of the page to ensure all the details are correct.
c. Click Run Recovery.
Results
The Check the Recovery Results page will display the duration of the recovery, and a log file
entry when the instant recovery is complete. When the instant recovery is complete and ready for
use, you can then storage vMotion the virtual machine to a datastore, or perform a file level
recovery to the target file system, and then stop the completed instant recovery to free up those
resources.
To stop an instant recovery in NMC:
1. Navigate to the Recover window.
2. Right-click the entry for the recovery within the Recover sessions pane.
3. Select Stop from the drop-down.
Note: To optimize use of NetWorker and Data Domain resources, it is strongly recommended
that you stop the instant recovery session once you satisfy your recovery objectives.

Virtual machine recovery

The next virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is to perform a
recovery of a virtual machine backed up with the vProxy Appliance to a new virtual machine.
About this task
Note: Recoveries of virtual machines backed up with the VMware Backup Appliance should still
be performed with the EMC Backup and Recovery user interface in the vSphere Web Client.
To complete the Recovery wizard with the virtual machine recovery method, perform the
following.

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Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select Virtual Machine Recovery.
b. Click Next.
2. In the Configure the Virtual Machine Recovery page, select the location where you want
to restore the virtual machine in the vCenter environment
a. In the Destination pane, select the option to recover the new virtual machine to the
original location, or browse to select a new location on the same vCenter server or a
different vCenter server.
b. In the Recovery Options pane, choose a vProxy for the virtual machine recovery from
the Select vProxy drop-down, specify the name of the new virtual machine, and then
optionally select the virtual machine file datastore and folder where you want to recover
the files. You can recover the virtual machine to a Blue folder by using the VM Folder
drop-down, as shown in the following figure. The folder can be the default folder, or a
new folder.
Figure 43 Configure the virtual machine recovery

If you have a single disks, or multiple disks with multiple datastores, you can perform the
following:
l Choose to recover a collection of all the available hard drives.
l Select a different datastore than the original datastore.
l Select a different datatore for each disk you want to recover.
l Specify the datastore where the virtual machine configuration files reside.
Optionally, select the Power on virtual machine and Reconnect to network options to
power on and reconnect after the recovery, and then click Next.

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3. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:

a. Select the original virtual machine backup, or a clone copy if one is available.
b. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device, or recovering from a Data
Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the staging pool.
c. Click Next.
Note: If selecting a clone from Select Alternate Recovery Sources, additionally review
the "Selecting alternate recovery sources" section.

4. In the Perform the Recovery page:

a. Specify a name for the recovery and check the summary at the bottom of the page to
ensure all the details are correct.
b. Click Run Recovery.
Results
The Check the Recovery Results page will display the duration of the recovery, and a log file
entry when the virtual machine recovery is complete.

Virtual Disk Recovery

The next virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is to perform a
virtual disk, or VMDK, recovery. With VMDK recovery, the disks from the virtual machine backup
are recovered to an existing virtual machine.
About this task
To complete the Recovery wizard with the virtual disk recovery method, perform the following.
Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select Virtual Disk Recovery.
b. Click Next.
2. In the Configure the Virtual Disk Recovery page:
a. Select the virtual machine where you want to restore the VMDKs. This can be the
original virtual machine, or another existing virtual machine.
b. Select the desired disks from the Recovery Data pane, and select a datastore.
c. Click Next.

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Figure 44 Configure the Virtual Disk Recovery

3. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:

a. Select the original virtual disk backup, or a clone copy if one is available.
b. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device, or recovering from a Data
Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the staging pool.
c. Click Next.
4. In the Perform the Recovery page:
a. Specify a name for the recovery.
b. Check the summary at the bottom of the page to ensure all the details are correct.
c. Click Run Recovery.
Results
The Check the Recovery Results page will display the duration of the recovery, and a log file
entry when the disk recovery is complete.
Note: When you start a VMDK recovery, the virtual machine will be powered off automatically
without issuing a warning message.

Emergency Recovery
The next virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is an Emergency
Recovery. An Emergency Recovery is required when you need to restore the virtual machine to an
ESXi host.
Before you begin
Emergency Recovery requires a vProxy set up on the ESXi host prior to running the recovery.
Additionally, ensure that you disconnect the ESXi host from the vCenter server.

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About this task

Note: During an Emergency Recovery, the vProxy gets associated with the ESXi host and is
unavailable for other operations on the vCenter server. Wait until the recovery completes
before initiating any other operations on the vProxy.
To complete the Recovery wizard with the Emergency Recovery method, perform the following:
Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select Emergency Recovery.
b. Click Next.
2. In the Configure the Emergency Recovery page:
a. Specify the target ESXi server in the vCenter environment.
b. Click Connect.
Figure 45 Configure the Emergency Recovery

The Proxy Selection and Recovery Data panes get populated with the ESXi server details.
3. In the Proxy Selection pane, if a proxy is not discovered, add a new proxy which is deployed
in vCenter but not added to NetWorker.
4. For the disks in the Recovery Data pane:
a. Select a datastore.
b. Optionally, select the Power on virtual machine and Reconnect to network options.
c. Click Next.
5. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:
a. Select the original disk backup, or a clone copy if one is available.
b. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device, or recovering from a Data
Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the staging pool.

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6. In the Perform the Recovery page:

a. Specify a name for the recovery and check the summary at the bottom of the page to
ensure all the details are correct.
b. Click Run Recovery.
Results
The Check the Recovery Results page will display a progress bar with the duration of the
recovery, and a log file entry when the Emergency Recovery is complete.
Note: The progress bar may not update correctly when you perform an Emergency Recovery
directly to the ESXi host.

File Level recovery (Admin mode only)

The final virtual machine recovery option available in the NMC Recovery wizard is File Level
recovery. With file level recovery, you can recover individual files from backups of virtual machines
or VMDKs to a primary or secondary vCenter server, and for application-consistent backups, you
can also restore the transaction log from Data Domain to the SQL database.
Before you begin
NetWorker only supports file level recovery operations from a primary or cloned backup if the save
set is on a Data Domain device. If a cloned backup does not exist on the Data Domain device, you
must manually clone a save set from the tape device to Data Domain before launching the
Recovery wizard.
For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, type the export path appropriately. The section Entering management credentials for the
Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-level restore only) provides detailed
steps.
Additionally, if recovering to a virtual machine on a secondary vCenter, ensure that a vProxy
appliance has been deployed on the secondary vCenter server and configured with the NetWorker
server.
About this task
File level recovery in the NMC Recovery wizard can only be performed by an administrator.
Note: For file-level recovery of high-density file systems (more than few hundred files/
folders), it is recommended to use either the NetWorker Management Web UI or the Dell
EMC Data Protection Restore Client (User or Admin mode, as applicable) instead of the
NMC Recovery wizard.
To complete the Recovery wizard with the file level recovery method, perform the following:
Procedure
1. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery Method page:
a. Select File Level recovery.
b. Click Next.
2. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page:
a. Select the primary backup to recover from, or select the Recover the Virtual machine
from a clone on a Data Domain device option.
b. Select the clone copy that you want to recover files from.
c. Click Next.

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Note: If selecting a clone from Select Alternate Recovery Sources, additionally review
the section "Selecting alternate recovery sources".

Figure 46 Select Alternate Recovery Sources for file level recovery

3. In the Select the target Virtual Machine page:

a. Select the virtual machine that you want to recover the files to.
By default, the virtual machine that you selected for recovery in the Select the Virtual
Machine to Recover page is displayed.

b. To recover to another virtual machine in the vCenter, or recover to a virtual machine on a

secondary vCenter, select Browse the vCenter server to select a Virtual Machine to
recover to, and choose a vCenter from the drop-down to browse that vCenter's tree and
select a different virtual machine.
c. Click Next.
Note: Cross-platform recovery, for example from a Windows to a Linux virtual machine,
is not supported.

4. In the Mount The Saveset page:

a. Provide the username and password of the virtual machine where the files will be
restored to.
b. Click Start Mount.
c. If performing file level recovery as a domain user, provide the AD user details—no
operating system or local account is required if you have configured the AD/domain user.

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Figure 47 Mount the save set for file level recovery

When the Mount Results pane shows that the mount has succeeded, click Next.
Note: This user should have privileges to install the FLR Agent, which is required to
perform file level recovery. For Linux virtual machines, this requires the root user
account or an equivalent sudo local user account, as described in the section "FLR
Agent installation on Linux platforms" of the NetWorker VMware Integration Guide.

5. In the Select the Files and Folders to Recover page:

a. Browse through the folder structure to select the files you want to recover.
b. Click Next.

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Figure 48 Select the files and folders to recover

6. In the Select the Restore Location page:

a. Select the folder that you want to recover the files to, or create a folder.
b. Click Next.
Note: NetWorker does not currently support creating folders with spaces in the folder
name.

7. In the Perform the Recovery page:

a. Specify a name for the recovery.
b. To ensure all the details are correct, check the summary at the bottom of the page
c. Click Run Recovery.

Results
The Check the Recovery Results page displays the duration of the recovery, and a log file entry
when the file level recovery is complete.

Selecting alternate recovery sources in the NMC Recovery wizard

The NMC Recovery wizard contains a step for each virtual machine recovery method where you
can select an alternate source to recover from, for example, a clone copy on a Data Domain or
non-Data Domain device. If the primary source is present, it is recommended that you recover
from the primary source. However, if both the primary source and clone copies are present and
enabled and you want to recover from a clone copy, perform the following.
Procedure
1. In the Select Alternative Recovery Sources page, select the clone you want to recover
from, either a clone on a Data Domain device or non-Data Domain device.
Additionally, make note of the name indicated in the Volume column for all of the volumes
you do not want to recover from, as you will require this information in steps 5 and 6.

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2. Click Close to display the Save Progress dialog, and then specify a name for the recover
and click Save to save your progress.
3. In the NMC Administration window, click Devices to display the Devices window.
4. In the left navigation pane, select Devices. The list of devices displays in the right pane.
5. For each volume you do not want to recover from that you made note of in step 1, locate the
corresponding device, and make note of that device name.
6. For each device you identify as corresponding with those volumes, right-click the device and
select Unmount from the drop-down, and then also select Disable from the drop-down.
Note: Ensure that no backups are currently running to these devices prior to
unmounting.

7. In the NMC Administration window, click Recover to display the Recover window, and
locate the saved recovery
8. Right-click the saved recovery and select Open Recover.
The Recovery wizard re-opens on the Select Alternative Recovery Sources page.
9. In the Recovery Source pane of the Select Alternative Recovery Sources page, select
either Recover the virtual machine from a clone on a Data Domain device, or Recover
the virtual machine from a clone on a non-Data Domain device. Click Next.
Note: If you want to recover from a clone on a non-Data Domain device, manually
change the staging pool to a different pool, and ensure that your selected pool does not
already contain copies for this backup. If the primary source is present and you select a
clone to recover from using the same staging pool that contains the existing copy, the
recovery may become unresponsive.

10. In the Perform the Recovery page, specify a name for the recovery and check the
summary at the bottom of the page to ensure all the details are correct. Click Run
Recovery.
The Check the Recovery Results page will display the duration of the recovery, and a log
file entry when the recovery is complete.
11. In the NMC Administration window, click Devices to return to the Devices window, and in
the left navigation pane, select Devices to display the list of devices in the right pane.
12. For each device that you unmounted and disabled in step 6, right-click the device and select
Enable from the drop-down, and then select Mount from the drop-down.

Monitoring and verifying Virtual Machine recoveries

After selecting Run Recovery to complete the Recovery wizard, there are multiple ways you can
monitor the progress of the virtual machine recovery, and then verify when the recovery is
complete.
NMC Recover and Monitoring windows
To monitor the progress of the virtual machine recovery, use the Recover sessions pane in the
Monitoring window, or the Currently Running pane of the Recover window.
To verify that the virtual machine recovery is complete, use the Configured Recovers pane in the
Recover window.
Check the Recovery results in the NMC Recovery wizard
The final step of the Recovery wizard also allows you to check the recovery results. Upon
completion of the virtual machine recovery, an entry for the log file appears in the Recovery log
pane. Click Export log to save and view the log file.

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Recovery configuration information storage

When you create a recover configuration by using the Recovery wizard, NetWorker saves the
configuration information in an NSR recover resource in the resource database of the NetWorker
server. NetWorker uses the information in the NSR recover resource to perform the recover job
operation.
When a recover job operation starts, NetWorker stores:
l Details about the job in the nsrjobsd database.
l Output sent to stderr and stdout in a recover log file. NetWorker creates one log file for each
recover job.
NOTICE NetWorker removes the recover log file and the job information from the job
database based on value of the Jobsdb retention in hours attribute in the properties of the
NetWorker server resource. The default jobsdb retention is 72 hours.

vProxy recovery in the NetWorker Management Web UI

The NetWorker Management Web UI contains the same vProxy recovery functionality that is
available in the NetWorker Management Console through the Recovery wizard, including
support for all image-level recovery types and file-level recovery. Additionally, if you have legacy
VMware Backup appliance backups from a previous NetWorker release, you can use vProxy to
recover these backups within the NetWorker Management Web UI.
When logged in to the NetWorker Management Web UI, the landing page displays options for
Monitoring, Protection, and Recover in the left pane. If not already selected, select Recover,
and then select VMware Recovery.
In the VMware Recovery window's Select vCenter drop-down, choose the vCenter server that
contains the virtual machines or objects that you want to recover. A list of virtual machines
displays. When you select a virtual machine, the backup details display in a table within the
Backups and Clones pane. You can choose to display hidden columns, such as the virtual machine
UUID, type of backups, and last used vProxy by clicking the blue filter icon in the lower left corner
of the table. The backup type can be VBA, vProxy, or both.
From the Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the available primary or cloned backups,
and then select the Recovery drop-down to choose from one of the image-level recovery types
available, or file level recovery. Additionally, ensure that you specify the correct time range of the
backup(s) that you want to recover.

Revert (or rollback) a virtual machine backup

Select Revert to rollback one or more virtual machine disks (VMDKs) as a virtual machine to the
original virtual machine. Additionally, you can rollback the virtual machine configuration.
About this task
Note: You cannot use the Revert recovery type when the ESXi has been removed from the
vCenter and then added back to the vCenter. In this case, use the Virtual Machine recovery
method instead.
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.
2. From the Image Level drop-down, select Revert.
The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:

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a. From the Proxy drop-down, select Automatic to use the default vProxy appliance, or
choose another vProxy.
b. Select Power On to power on the virtual machine after the recovery completes.
Note: If the virtual machine is currently powered on, a dialog displays requesting
confirmation to power off the virtual machine. Additionally, if a change has occurred
in the virtual machine configuration since the backup, a warning message will display
on the Summary page.

c. Select Revert VM configuration to restore the virtual machine with the same
configuration details used at the time of backup. Additionally, select the Delete existing
disk on config mismatch option if you want to continue with the removal of the existing
disk if the configuration details do not match. If you do not select Revert VM
configuration, the recovery will revert only the virtual machine data without changing
the virtual machine configuration.
d. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
e. Click Next.
The Disk Selection page displays
4. In the Disk Selection page, choose one or more of the available hard disks, and then click
Next.
Note: The entire VMDK will be rolled back unless you have CBT enabled, in which case
only the changed blocks will be moved.

The Summary page displays.

5. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.

Recover to a new virtual machine

Select New Virtual Machine to recover a virtual machine backed up with the vProxy appliance to
a new virtual machine.
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.
2. From the Image Level drop-down, select New Virtual Machine.
The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:
a. From the Destination vCenter drop-down, select a different destination vCenter server
if required, or leave the default selection of the same vCenter server.
b. From the Proxy drop-down, select Automatic to use the default vProxy appliance, or
choose another vProxy.
c. In the Virtual Machine Name field, specify the name of the new virtual machine.
d. Select Power On to power on the virtual machine after the recovery completes.

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e. Select Reconnect NIC to reconnect the network interface card after the recovery
completes.
f. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
g. Click Next.
The Destination Location page displays.
4. In the Destination Location page, select the location where you want to recover the virtual
machine. If the target location contains a specific folder that you need to select, select the
desired folder from the VM Folder drop-down. Click Next.
The Disk Selection page displays.
5. In the Disk Selection page:
a. Use the VM Configuration Files drop-down to select the datastore where the virtual
machine configuration files will reside.
b. Select Use same datastore for all disks to use the same datastore that you selected for
the configuration files. This option is enabled by default. Clear this option to select one or
more of the available hard disks, and select a Destination Datastore for each selected
disk. The default Destination Datastore selected is the original datastore, however, you
can select a different datastore for each disk you want to recover.
6. Click Next.
The Summary page displays.
7. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.

Instant Restore of a virtual machine

When you select Instant Restore, the virtual machine backup is read directly from the Data
Domain device and the VMDKs will be restored directly on a Data Domain device. You can perform
one instant recovery session at a time.
Before you begin
Before you begin, make note of the following:
l For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, enter the export path appropriately.
l Ensure that the free space on the Data Domain system is equal to or greater than the total disk
size of the virtual machine being restored, as the restore does not take into account the actual
space required after deduplication occurs. If there is insufficient disk space, an error appears
indicating "Insufficient disk space on datastore," and creation of the target virtual machine
fails.
l Ensure that you have at least one proxy that is not restricted to a specific datastore. For the
vProxy, select Properties and then select Configuration, and verify that datastores is left
blank.
l Do not perform an instant recovery of virtual machines in resource pools and other similar
containers that are part of a currently running protection group.
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.

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2. From the Image Level drop-down, select Instant Restore.

The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:
a. From the Destination vCenter drop-down, select a different destination vCenter server
if required, or leave the default selection of the same vCenter server.
b. From the Proxy drop-down, select Automatic to use the default vProxy appliance, or
choose another vProxy.
c. In the Virtual Machine Name field, specify the name of the new virtual machine.
d. Select Power On to power on the virtual machine after the recovery completes.
e. Select Reconnect NIC to reconnect the network interface card after the recovery
completes.
f. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
g. Click Next.
The Destination Location page displays.
4. In the Destination Location page, select the location in the vCenter server where you want
to recover the virtual machine, and then click Next.
The Summary page displays.
5. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.
Note that the status might not update to "Completed" or "Succeeded" upon a successful instant
recovery. If this occurs, cancel the corresponding NetWorker restore task in the vSphere Client
and the status will update correctly in the NetWorker Management Web UI.
Note: To optimize use of NetWorker and Data Domain resources, it is strongly recommended
that you stop the instant recovery session once you satisfy your recovery objectives.

Virtual Disk (VMDK) recovery

Select Virtual Disk to recover the disks from the virtual machine backup to an existing virtual
machine.
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.
2. From the Image Level drop-down, select Virtual Disk.
The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:
a. From the Destination vCenter drop-down, select a different destination vCenter server
if required, or leave the default selection of the same vCenter server.
b. From the Proxy drop-down, select Automatic to use the default vProxy appliance, or
choose another vProxy.
c. Select Power On to power on the virtual machine after the recovery completes.

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d. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
e. Click Next.
The Virtual Machine Selection page displays.
4. In the Virtual Machine Selection page, select the location of the virtual machine in the
vCenter server where you want to recover the virtual disk(s), and then click Next.
Note: This location can be the original virtual machine, or another existing virtual
machine.

The Disk Selection page displays.

5. In the Disk Selection page, choose one or more of the available hard disks, and select a
Destination Datastore for each selected disk. The default Destination Datastore selected
is the original datastore, however, you can select a different datastore for each disk you
want to recover. Click Next.
The Summary page displays.
6. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.
Note: When you start a Virtual Disk recovery, the virtual machine will be powered off
automatically without issuing a warning message.

Emergency Recovery
Select Emergency when you need to restore the virtual machine to an ESXi host.
Before you begin
Emergency recovery requires a vProxy set up on the ESXi host prior to running the recovery.
Additionally, ensure that you disconnect the ESXi host from the vCenter server.
About this task
Note: During an Emergency Recovery, the vProxy gets associated with the ESXi host and is
unavailable for other operations on the vCenter server. Wait until the recovery completes
before initiating any other operations on the vProxy.
To complete the Recovery wizard with the Emergency Recovery method, perform the following:
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.
2. From the Image Level drop-down, select Emergency.
The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:
a. From the ESX Server drop-down, select the IP of the ESX server in the vCenter
environment where you want to restore the virtual machine backup.
b. Specify the root Username and Password for the ESX Server.
c. In the Virtual Machine Name field, specify the name of the new virtual machine.

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d. Select Power On to power on the virtual machine after the recovery completes.
Note: If the virtual machine is currently powered on, a dialog displays requesting
confirmation to power off the virtual machine. Additionally, if a change has occurred
in the virtual machine configuration since the backup, a warning message displays.

e. Select Reconnect NIC to reconnect the network interface card after the recovery
completes.
f. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
g. Click Next.
The VMware Proxy Configuration page displays.
4. In the VMware Proxy Configuration page:
a. For Proxy Selection Type, if the desired proxy has been discovered, select an existing
vProxy for the recovery. Alternatively, you can use a new vProxy that is deployed in the
vCenter but not yet added in NetWorker by selecting Register a new VMware Proxy.
b. From the Select Proxy drop-down, select one of the registered vProxies.
c. Click Next.
The Disk Selection page displays.
5. In the Disk Selection page:
a. Use the VM Configuration Files drop-down to select the datastore where the virtual
machine configuration files will reside.
b. Select Use same datastore for all disks to use the same datastore that you selected for
the configuration files. This option is enabled by default. Clear this option to select one or
more of the available hard disks, and select a Destination Datastore for each selected
disk. The default Destination Datastore selected is the original datastore, however, you
can select a different datastore for each disk you want to recover.
6. Click Next.
The Summary page displays.
7. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.
Note: The progress bar may not update correctly when you perform an Emergency Recovery
directly to the ESXi host.

File Level recovery

Select File Level to recover individual files from backups of virtual machines or VMDKs to a
primary or secondary vCenter server.
Before you begin
NetWorker only supports file level recovery operations from a primary or cloned backup if the save
set is on a Data Domain device. If a cloned backup does not exist on the Data Domain device, you
must manually clone the save set to Data Domain before launching the Recovery wizard.
For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, type the export path appropriately. The section Entering management credentials for the

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Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-level restore only) provides detailed
steps.
Also, if recovering to a virtual machine on a secondary vCenter, ensure that a vProxy appliance has
been deployed on the secondary vCenter server and configured with the NetWorker server.
About this task
Note:
l File level recovery in the NetWorker Management Web UI for a Windows virtual machine
can only be performed by an administrator of the target virtual machine. Note, however,
that a user who is a member of the Administrators group can perform the recovery when
the Run with Elevated Privileges option is enabled in the Mount Configuration page of
the Recover wizard.
l Dell EMC Data Protection Restore client requires NetWorker server and NetWorker
Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.
Procedure
1. In the VMware Recovery window's Backups and Clones pane, select from one of the
available primary or cloned backups, and then select the Recovery drop-down.
2. Select File Level.
The Recover wizard launches.
3. In the Configuration page:
a. From the Destination vCenter drop-down, select a different destination vCenter server
if required, or leave the default selection of the same vCenter server.
b. From the Proxy drop-down, select Automatic to use the default vProxy appliance, or
choose another vProxy.
c. Select Overwrite to overwrite files in the destination location that have the same name
as files being recovered.
d. Select Terminate mount session to release the disk mount after the recovery
completes.
e. If required, set a Debug level if you want to enable debug logs. The default level is 0.
f. Click Next.
The Destination Virtual Machine page displays.
4. In the Destination Virtual Machine page, the location of the original virtual machine backup
displays by default in blue. If you do not want to recover to the original location, go to the
desired virtual machine in the vCenter server where you want to recover the objects, and
click Next.
The Mount Configuration page displays.
5. In the Mount Configuration page:
a. Type the user credentials to access the virtual machine that you want to recover objects
to initiate the disk mount. This user should have privileges to install the FLR Agent,
which is required to perform file level recovery. For Linux virtual machines, you require
the root user account or an equivalent sudo local user account, as described in the
section "FLR Agent installation on Linux platforms" of FLR Agent requirements.
b. Optionally, select Keep FLR agent after installation if you do not want to remove the
FLR Agent from the virtual machine upon recovery completion.
c. Select Run with Elevated Privileges to allow a user who is a member of the
Administrators group to perform the recovery.

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Note: This feature is not supported for vProxy versions earlier than NetWorker 18.2,
even though the option is not grayed out.

d. Click Mount.
The disk mount initializes , and a progress bar displays.
Note: You cannot browse the contents of the virtual machine backup until the mounting
of the destination virtual machine completes successfully.
6. When the mount completes successfully, click Next.
The Source Data page displays.
7. In the Source Data page, select individual folders to browse the contents of the backup,
and select the objects that you want to recover. You can select all objects in a folder by
clicking the checkbox to the left of the Name field in the Contents pane.
When any objects in a folder are selected, that folder is selected in blue in the Folders pane.
After selecting the objects that you want to recover, click Next.

The Destination Location page displays.

8. In the Destination Location page, browse the folder structure of the destination virtual
machine to select the folder where you want to recover the objects. Click Next.
The Summary page displays.
9. In the Summary page, review the recovery details and then click Finish.
Results
The wizard exits and a message displays along the top of the VMware Recovery window to
indicate that a recovery request was submitted. Select Monitoring in the left pane to view the
duration and status of the recovery operation.
Note: File-level restore failures are not immediately reflected in the log files that are seen in
NetWorker Management Console UI. Wait for at least 2-3 minutes for the log files to get
reflected in the NetWorker Management Console UI.

Monitor recovery operations in the NetWorker Management Web UI

After initiating a recovery operation in the NetWorker Management Web UI, select Monitoring in
the left pane to view the status and progress of the recovery in the right pane.
In addition to the progress and completion status of individual recovery operations, a column
displays the recovery type. You can choose to display hidden columns by clicking the blue icon in
the lower left corner of the table.
If you need to troubleshoot recovery operations, you can view the vProxy logs by clicking the
menu in the first column and selecting View Messages from the drop-down.
To stop a recover operation that is in progress, click the menu in the first column and select STOP
from the drop-down. When prompted to confirm, click STOP. This option is available only for
VMware image level recovery and file-level restore.

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vProxy restore from legacy VMware Backup appliance

backups
If you have VMware Backup appliance (VBA) backups from previous Networker releases, you can
recover those backups from the NetWorker Management Web UI by using the vProxy. Running
VBA backups in NetWorker 18.2 and later is not supported.
About this task
Note:
l You can only perform image-level recoveries of legacy VBA backups (the Revert or New
Virtual Machine recovery types). Other types or recovery is not supported using the
NetWorker Management Web UI. You can, however, use the EMC Backup and Recovery
plug-in within the vSphere Web Client for other types of VBA recovery, as long as you still
have an active VBA instance.
l For the recovery of VBA backups, the staging pool must be a clone pool of type Data
Domain.
l VBA should be kept online until all savesets are expired; either manually or automatically. If
the VBA are offline, then the savesets on Data Domain will not be cleaned up.
l Once VBA savesets are expired, then VBA can be safely removed from NetWorker server.
l In case of accidental deletion of VBA appliance, you can perform the DR procedure of VBA
to get it back online and then expire the savesets; either manually or automatically.
l VBA restore fails, if RPS is not enabled in the NetWorker server. Ensure that you enable
RPS before you perform a VBA restore.
l The storage node and the NetWorker server must be of the same version. If an earlier
version of the storage node is present, ensure that you disable it, or upgrade to NetWorker
19.2.
l When NetWorker is upgraded from an earlier version to 19.2, ensure that you restart the
NetWorker server to complete the upgrade. (This is only applicable for VBA backups
because you might have backups with earlier NetWorker releases.)
l In the vSphere Web Client's EMC Backup and Recovery user interface, a VMware Backup
Appliance (VBA) restore from a clone copy on an AFTD or tape device fails when the
primary backup in the Data Domain system is not available. Use the vProxy appliance to
restore these VBA backups. This operation can be performed in the NetWorker
Management Web UI.
Procedure
1. In the NetWorker Management Web UI, go to Recover > VMware Recovery
The VMware Recovery window appears
2. From the Select vCenter drop-down, select a vCenter server.
A list of virtual machines in the vCenter displays.
3. Select the desired virtual machine, and then select one of the duration options from the
Showing results for drop-down in the Backups and Clones pane.
A list of primary and clone backups of the virtual machine that is performed within that
duration appear in a table within the Backups and Clones pane. The table contains a column
that allows you to identify which backups are legacy VBA backups.

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4. Click the filter icon in the lower left corner of the Backups and Clones pane, and select
VBA Backups and click OK.
A column appears in the table that allows you to identify which backups are legacy VBA
backups.
5. Select one of the available primary or cloned backups that indicate VBA, and then click the
Recovery drop-down.
6. From the drop-down, select Image Level, and then select the Revert or New Virtual
Machine recovery type. These are the only supported types for recoveries of VBA backups.
The Recover wizard launches.
7. Complete the Recover wizard according to the type you selected.
Note: When you select the staging pool for recovery, ensure that at least one volume
does not contain a copy of the selected save set. Alternatively, if a save set is already
recovered, then you can select the recovered save set for further recoveries of the
same virtual machine.

Results
When the recovery is initiated, the Networker performs resurrection on a staging pool to convert
the VBA backups to a vProxy-readable format, and then restores the virtual machine. The staging
pool should reside on a Data Domain system.

vProxy file-level restore and SQL restore in the Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client
You can also use the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client to perform granular recovery
from a primary or cloned vProxy backup on a Data Domain device. The Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client allows you to restore specific files and folders from virtual machines in User and
Admin modes, and also restore individual SQL databases from SQL server application-aware
backups. The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client is part of the NetWorker client
installation.
Note: Before you start a file-level restore, review the prerequisites in the section File-level
restore prerequisites, as well as File-level restore and SQL restore limitations to ensure that
you can perform file-level restores in your configuration.

Pre-requisites for file-level restore and SQL restore

Review the following information before performing a file-level restore or SQL restore in the Dell
EMC Data Protection Restore Client.

FLR Agent requirements

The FLR Agent is required for file-level restore operations, and gets installed automatically on the
target virtual machine when you initiate a file-level restore and provide the virtual machine
credentials.
If the request to install the FLR Agent was not successful and you initiate a file-level restore, the
following message appears.

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Figure 49 Deploy FLR Agent if not found

This message provides an option to deploy the FLR Agent by providing the appropriate credentials.
Review the user requirements in the following sections for Linux and Windows platforms to
determine which users are supported.
FLR Agent installation on Linux platforms
The FLR Agent installation on Linux virtual machines requires that you use the root account, or be
a user in the operating system's local sudousers list. If credentials for any other user are provided
for the target virtual machine, the FLR Agent installation fails, even if this user has privileges
similar to a root user.
To allow a non-root user/group to perform the FLR Agent installation, provide sudo access to the
following files at a minimum:
l rpm command (SLES, RHEL, CentOS) and dpkg command (Debian/Ubuntu)
l /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/postinstall.sh
l /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/preremove.sh
Note the following additional requirements:
l Using the local sudouser for the FLR Agent installation requires NetWorker 18.2 and later and
vProxy 3.0.1-1 or later. Any earlier versions will require you to use the root account for the FLR
Agent installation
l The sudo user/group must be configured for no password prompt
l The sudo user/group must be provided with the no requiretty option.
l To browse files for a file-level restore when you have user elevation enabled, you must have
appropriate authority in the guest virtual machine operating system, for example, being allowed
to run vflrbrowse via sudo without prompting for a password.
l To perform a file-level restore when you have user elevation enabled, you must have
appropriate authority, for example, being allowed to run vflrcopy via sudo without prompting
for a password.
Once you complete the FLR Agent installation on the target virtual machine using the root user
account or a sudouser with the minimum file access requirements, you can perform file-level
restore operations as a non-root user on supported Linux platforms. File-level restore on Linux is
only supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6 and 7, and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server
versions 11 and 12.
FLR Agent installation on Windows
FLR Agent installation on Windows virtual machines requires that you use administrative
privileges. If the provided credentials for the target virtual machine do not have administrative
privileges, theFLR Agent installation fails. Once you complete the FLR Agent installation on the
target virtual machine using administrative privileges, you can perform file-level restore using a
non-administrator user.

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FLR Agent installation on Windows for UAC-enabled Windows virtual machines

FLR Agent installation on a User Account Control (UAC) enabled Windows virtual machine
requires you to perform one of the following:
l Provide the credentials of the administrator user.
l Disable UAC during the FLR Agent installation, and then re-enable on completion.
On Windows versions 7, 8, and 10, the administrator account is disabled by default. To enable the
account, complete the following steps:
1. To activate the account, open a command prompt in administrative mode, and then type net
user administrator /active: yes.
2. To set a password for the administrator account, go to Control Panel > User Accounts and
select the Advanced tab. Initially, the account password is blank.
3. In the User Accounts pane, right-click the user and select Properties, and then clear the
Account is disabled option.
To disable UAC during the FLR Agent installation and then re-enable on completion of the
installation, complete the following steps:
1. Log in to the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client as an administrator user to initiate a
request to launch the FLR Agent installation window.
2. In the FLR Agent installation window, select the Keep vProxy FLR on target virtual machine
option.
3. Open regedit and change the EnableLUA registry key value at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft
\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System to 0x00000000. By default, this is set to
1.
4. Proceed with the FLR Agent installation.
5. Open regedit and reset the EnableLUA registry key to the previous value to re-enable UAC.

File-level restore and SQL database/instance level restore only supported from primary or clone
backup on a Data Domain device
NetWorker only supports file-level restore and SQL database/instance level restore operations
from a primary or cloned backup when the save set is on a Data Domain device.
If a cloned backup does not exist on the Data Domain device, you must manually clone a save set
from the tape device to Data Domain before launching the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore
Client.
If backups reside on a non-Data Domain Device such as Cloud Boost, tape, Cloud Tier, or AFTD,
the backups do not display in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client. In this case, use
NMC to identify and clone the save sets back to the Data Domain device.

Supported browser versions

Use of the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client may require upgrading your browser to the
latest version.
For example, the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client does not work on Mozilla FireFox
unless you install a minimum version of 43.0.3.
If you notice an error when logging in to the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client or are
unable to login, ensure your browser is up-to-date and then retry the login.

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Support for Debian or Ubuntu operating system

vProxy file-level restore is supported on the Debian/Ubuntu operating system. To configure the
Debian or Ubuntu guest operating system for file-level restore, perform the following steps.
About this task
Note: File-level restore is not supported on Debian/Ubuntu ext4 file systems.

Procedure
1. Log in to the system console as a non-root user.
2. Run the sudo passwd root command.
Enter the new password twice to set a password for the root account.
3. Run the sudo passwd -u root command to unlock the root account.
4. Specify the root user credentials in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client and
proceed to complete the file-level restore operation at least once.
While performing the file-level restore operation for the first time, remember to select Keep
FLR agent.

5. After performing the above steps at least once, you can revert the root account to the
locked state and use non-root account for future file-level restore requests. Non-root user
can lock the root account with the sudo passwd -l root command.

NetWorker privileges required by File-level restore and SQL database/instance level restore users
A new user group, VMware FLR Users, requires NetWorker privileges for User and Admin logins to
perform file-level restore and SQL database/instance level restore operations in the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client.
Specify the following privileges for the VMware FLR Users group by using the NMC NetWorker
Administration window or nsradmin.

Table 15 FLR privilege requirements

User Admin

Remote Access All Clients Remote Access All Clients

Operate NetWorker Operate NetWorker

Monitor NetWorker Monitor NetWorker

Operate Devices and Jukeboxes Operate Devices and Jukeboxes

Recover Local Data Recover Local Data

Backup Local Data Backup Local Data

View Security Settings

Operating system utilities required for file-level restore

On Linux and Windows, the installed operating system must include several standard utilities in
order to use file-level restore. Depending on the target operating system for restore and the types
of disks or file systems in use, some of these standard utilities, however, may not be included.
The following utilities and programs may be required for performing file-level restore.
On Windows:

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l msiexec.exe
l diskpart.exe
l cmd.exe
On Linux:
l blkid
l udevadm
l readlink
l rpm
l bash
Note: On Linux LVM, LVM2 rpm version 2.02.117 or later is required. Also, additional binaries
required on Linux LVM include dmsetup, lvm, and vgimportclone.

Create a user in the NetWorker authentication service (User mode file-level restore only)
When performing file-level restore in User Mode, you must create a user in the Networker
Management Console (NMC) using the Manage Authentication Service Users option, and make
note of the password as you will require this information when logging in to the Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client.
Before you begin
For file-level restores on Linux virtual machines, the root account or an equivalent sudo local user
account credentials is required for the target virtual machine in order to install the FLR Agent. The
section "FLR Agent installation on Linux platforms" of FLR Agent requirements provides more
details.
For file-level restores on Windows virtual machines, if the provided credentials for the target
virtual machine do not have administrative privileges, theFLR Agent installation fails. To perform a
file-level restore using a non-administrator user, ensure that the FLR Agent is already installed on
the target machine using administrative privileges.
Procedure
1. In the NMC NetWorker Administration window, click Server to open the Server window.
2. In the left navigation pane, highlight User Groups, and then right-click and select Manage
Authentication Service Users.

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Figure 50 Manage Authentication service users

3. In the Manage Authentication Service Users dialog box, click Add.

4. For the new user user1, provide a username, password and other details, and then select the
checkbox next to Users in the Group field and click OK.
5. Right-click Application Administrators and select Properties. In the User Group
Properties, create an entry for the user created in step 4 (for example, user1), in the
format user=user1,host=NW server FQDN.
Figure 51 Application Administrators user group properties

6. Right click VMware FLR Users and select Properties. In the User field, create an entry for
the user created in step 4 (for example, user1), in the format user=user1,host=NW server
FQDN.

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Figure 52 VMware FLR Users user group properties

Results
You can now use this new user to log into the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client.

File-level restore and SQL restore limitations

This section provides a list of limitations that apply to file-level restore and individual SQL database
and instance restore.
Compatibility requirements and unsupported configurations
Review the following limitations related to file-level restore compatibility requirements and
unsupported configurations.
l File-level restore and SQL instance restore in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client is
only supported on the platforms and versions that are identified in the online compatibility
guide, available at https://elabnavigator.emc.com/eln/modernHomeDataProtection.
l In order to perform a file-level restore as a domain user in the NMC NetWorker
Administration window's Recovery wizard or the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client,
you must register a tenant user and provide the FLR Domain user required permissions, as
described in the section File-level restore as a domain user.
l Update your web browser to the latest version. It is recommended that you use the Chrome or
Mozilla browser for file-level restore operations.
l Install VMware Tools version 10 or later. For best results, ensure that all virtual machines run
the latest available version of VMware Tools. Older versions are known to cause failures when
you perform browse actions during file-level restore or SQL restore operations. For Linux
operating systems, ensure that you install a supported Open VM Tools package, as outlined in
the VMware Software Compatibility Guide.
l You can perform file-level restore across vCenters as long as the vCenters are configured in
the same NetWorker server, and the source and target virtual machine have the same guest
operating system For example, Linux to Linux, or Windows to Windows.
l File-level restore from a Data Domain Cloud Tier device is not supported. To perform file-level
restores of data that resides only on this device, first clone the data to a Data Domain device,
and then recover the data from the Data Domain device.

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Platform-specific limitations
Review the following limitations specific to Linux and Windows operating systems.
l You can only restore files and/or folders from a Windows backup to a Windows machine, or
from a Linux backup to a Linux machine.
l When you enable Admin Approval Mode (AAM) on the operating system for a virtual machine
(for example, by setting Registry/FilterAdministratorToken to 1), the administrator
user cannot perform a file-level restore to the end user's profile, and an error displays
indicating "Unable to browse destination." For any user account control (UAC) interactions,
the administrator must wait for the mount operation to complete, and then access the backup
folders that are located at C:\Program Files (x86)\EMC\vProxy FLR Agent\flr
\mountpoints by logging into the guest virtual machine using Windows Explorer or a
command prompt.
l The FLR Agent installation on Linux virtual machines requires you to use the root account, or
be a local sudouser with the minimum required file access, as described in the section FLR
Agent requirements. Note that using the sudouser for the FLR Agent installation requires
NetWorker 18.2 or later and vProxy 3.0.1-1 or later. Any earlier versions require you to use the
root account for the FLR Agent installation. Once the FLR Agent installation is completed by a
root user, you can perform file-level restore operations as a nonroot user.
l Mounting a Linux virtual machine for file-level restore requires a local Linux account with
permissions to the file system files.
l When you perform file-level restore on Ubuntu/Debian platforms, you must enable the root
account in the operating system. By default, the root account will be in locked state.
l For file-level restores on Windows 2012 R2 virtual machines, the volumes listed under the
virtual machine display as "unknown." File-restore operations are not impacted by this issue.
l File-level restore of virtual machines with Windows dynamic disks is supported with the
following limitations:
n The restore can only be performed when recovering to a virtual machine different from the
original. Also, this virtual machine cannot be a clone of the original.
n The restore can only be performed by virtual machine administrator users.
n If Windows virtual machines were created by cloning or deploying the same template, then
all these Windows virtual machines may end up using the same GUID on their dynamic
volumes.
l File-level restore of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2016 virtual
machines is not supported on the following file systems:
n Deduplicated NTFS
n Resilient File System (ReFS)
n EFI bootloader
Restore operations and performance limitations
Review the following limitations related to file-level restore operations and performance
considerations.
l When a file-level restore or SQL restore operation is in progress on a virtual machine, no other
backup or recovery operation can be performed on this virtual machine. Wait until the file-level
restore session completes before starting any other operation on the virtual machine.
l When the backup chain for an SQL instance restore contains 30 or more transaction log
backups, a message indicating the required permissions to complete this action does not
display in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client. Check the flr-server log for an
error message similar to the following to determine what additional privileges are required:

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ERROR c.e.f.u.ProcessRestores - Failed restore attempt: Recover

request failed: Permission denied, user does not have 'Create
Application Settings' or 'Configure NetWorker' privilege to create
this resource - NSR recover.
l SQL instance restore fails in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client when the backup
chain contains more than 75 transaction log backups. In such scenarios, ensure that you
perform a SQL database restore for each database in the SQL instance one at a time.
l When you switch between different Data Domain devices for backup and clone operations, the
SQL transaction log backup does not get promoted to FULL on the primary backup device. As
a result, the transaction log backup fails with the error Previous backup path must be
specified for Transaction Log backup. Notes that this issue does not occur when
the same Data Domain device is used for the backup and clone.
If relabeling of the primary device has occurred, or you added a new Data Domain device, clear
the Tlog backup option for the Backup Action, and then run the SQL application-consistent
workflow. After the FULL backup and clone completion, reselect the Tlog backup option for
the Backup Action and run the SQL application-consistent workflow again. Subsequent
transaction log backups and clones complete successfully.
l For file-level restore of high-density file systems (more than few hundred files/folders), it is
recommended to use either the NetWorker Management Web UI or the Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client (User or Admin mode, as applicable) instead of the Recovery
wizard in the NMC NetWorker Administration window.
l A restore of individual SQL Server databases or instances in the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client will overwrite the existing database, even if your NetWorker version provides
an option where you can clear Overwrite the existing DB.
l A SQL database restore to alternate is only supported for restoring from a lower SQL version
to a higher SQL version.
l The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client incorrectly allows you to select a VMware
Backup appliance as a destination client for file-level restore.
l After migrating from the VMware Backup appliance to the vProxy appliance, the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client may continue to display VMware Backup appliance backups
along with the new vProxy backups for virtual machines. Note, however, that you will only be
able to perform file-level restore from the new vProxy backups.
l After migrating from the VMware Backup appliance to the vProxy appliance, new vProxy
backups of virtual machines that were previously backed up with the VMware Backup
appliance will not be visible in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client in Admin mode.
You must log in using User mode to view and recover from these backups.
l Browsing many files at once may cause Internet Explorer to become slow or unresponsive. The
Chrome and Mozilla browsers issue a warning when encountering a difficulty handling many
files, but Internet Explorer does not.
l In a large environment where many virtual machines appear in the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client, the navigation buttons (Back, Next, Finish) may appear small, requiring you
to zoom in to see the options. It is recommended that you use the latest versions of the
Chrome or Firefox browsers to avoid the issue.
l File-level restore supports direct restore from a cloned backup only if the clone copy is on a
Data Domain device.
l File-level restore does not restore or browse symbolic links.
l When you create partitions, fill the lower ordered indexes first. For example, you cannot create
a single partition and place it in the partition index 2, 3, or 4. You must place the single partition
in partition index 1.

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Using the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client for file-level restore and SQL
restore
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client, which you access through a web browser, allows
you to select specific virtual machine backups as file systems, and then browse the file system to
locate the directories and files you want to restore. The browser also allows you to restore
individual SQL databases and instances.
The login page of the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client features two tabs—an FLR tab
for virtual machine file and folder restore, and an App tab for SQL database and instance restore.
Additionally, the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client operates in one of two user modes:
l User—For file-level restore, a user account that can restore folders or files to the original
virtual machine, as described in the section Restoring specific folders or files to the original
virtual machine in User mode.
For SQL restore, a user account that can restore individual SQL databases and instances to the
original machine from the virtual machine you are logged into. This user can be an
Authentication Service user, as described in the section Restore of SQL Server application-
consistent backups.
l Admin—For file-level restore, a NetWorker administrator account or Authentication Service
user that can restore folders or files from a different virtual machine to any available
destination client, as described in the section Restoring specific folders or files from different
virtual machines in Admin mode.
For SQL restore, a NetWorker administrator account or Authentication Service user that can
restore individual SQL databases and instances to the original machine from any virtual
machine you have access to that contains an SQL Server application-consistent backup, or
restore to a different virtual machine, as described in the section Restore of SQL Server
application-consistent backups.
Note: When a file-level restore operation is in progress on a virtual machine, no other backup
or recovery operation can be performed on this virtual machine. Wait until the file-level restore
session completes before starting any other operation on the virtual machine.

Restoring specific folders or files to the original virtual machine in User mode
To restore specific folders and files to the original virtual machine on Windows and Linux virtual
machines, select the User tab in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client login page. In this
mode, you connect to the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client from a virtual machine that
has been backed up by the vProxy Appliance.
Before you begin
For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, enter the export path appropriately. The section Entering management credentials for
the Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-level restore only)provides
detailed steps.
Additionally, you must create a user in the NetWorker Authentication Service by using the
NetWorker Management Console (NMC), as described in the section Create a user in the
NetWorker authentication service (User mode file-level restore only).
Procedure
1. Open a browser from the virtual machine that the restored files will be recovered to, and
enter a URL that points to the NetWorker server host and indicates file-level restore. For
example:

https://NetWorker server:9090/flr

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Note: For User recoveries, you must connect to the NetWorker server from a web
browser on the virtual machine that will receive file-level restore data.

The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client login window appears.
2. Select the User tab and the FLR tab, and then log in to the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client with the user credentials of the virtual machine to which you are logged in.
This user account should also belong to the NetWorker user group "VMware FLR Users" in
order to be authorized to perform file-level restore. The section NetWorker privileges
required by File-level restore users provides more information.
When you log in, the Select Backups page displays with a list of backups for the local virtual
machine.
3. On the Select Backups page, use the drop-down list to view the available backups. You can
set the backup filter to view backups on a specific day or within a specific date range.
Highlight a backup and double-click or drag and drop to move the backup to the Selected
Items pane. Click Next.
Figure 53 Select backups to restore from

Note: When you click Next, if a folder hierarchy does not appear, the Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client may not support the file system in use on the virtual
machine. The section File-level restore limitations provides more information.

4. On the Restore Options page, navigate to the file system drive where you want to restore
the items and select an existing folder, or specify a new folder name in the restore
destination, and then click Next.

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Figure 54 Select restore location

Note: Additionally, you can select the Overwrite existing files and folders option if you
want to replace the existing files with the recovered files.

5. On the Select items to restore page, browse and select the files and folders available for
recovery. Note that you can sort items by Name, File size, or Date, and you can also search
for a specific file or folder name. To mark an item for recovery, double-click the item, or
drag and drop the item into the Selected Items pane.
Figure 55 Select items to restore

6. When finished selecting items, click Finish.

7. Click Yes when you are prompted to continue the restore.
8. To enable the polling feature so that you can monitor the status of the restore, click the
hourglass icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window and set to ON. By
default, the polling feature is set to OFF due to the memory consumption that occurs when
the server is queried every few seconds for the restore status.
9. Once the polling feature is enabled, you can monitor the status of the restore by clicking the

icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window.

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When you click the icon, the Restore Detail pane slides into view on the right side of
the window, displaying the ongoing restore operations. Clicking the entry displays the
progress of the restore and a recovery logs download option.
Figure 56 Restore Monitoring

Restoring specific folders or files from different virtual machines in Admin mode
To restore specific folders or files from a different virtual machine, select the Admin tab in the
Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client login page. Once connected, you can browse, select,
and restore files and folders from any virtual machine that you backed up with the vProxy
Appliance. You can then restore items to the virtual machine on which you are currently logged in,
or to any available destination virtual machine.
Procedure
1. Open a browser and specify a URL that points to the NetWorker server and indicates FLR,
as in the following example:
https://NetWorker server:9090/flr
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client login window appears.
2. Click the Admin tab and the FLR tab, and then log in to the Dell EMC Data Protection
Restore Client with the NetWorker Authentication Service User credentials.
Note: When using Admin mode, ensure that the user you specify for the NetWorker
server login has the correct privileges to use this option.

When you log in, the Select Backups page appears with a list of all the virtual machines that
were backed up by using the vProxy Appliance. The available backups appear under each
virtual machine, as shown in the following.

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Figure 57 Select the backup(s) to restore from

Note: After migrating from the VMware Backup appliance to the vProxy appliance, new
vProxy backups of virtual machines that were previously backed up with the VMware
Backup appliance will not be visible in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client in
Admin mode. You must log in using User mode to view and recover these backups.

3. On the Select Backups page, use the arrows to the right of the entry to view the available
backups. You can set the backup filter to view backups on a specific day or within a specific
date range. Highlight a backup and double-click or drag and drop to move the backup to the
Selected Items pane. Click Next.
4. On the Restore Options page, select a destination virtual machine.
A login dialog box similar to the following figure appears for the restore destination.
Figure 58 Select restore location

5. Log in to the destination virtual machine to initiate the mounting of the backup.

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6. After you successfully log in, select the restore location. If desired, specify a new folder
name in this location. Click Next.
Note: Additionally, you can select the Overwrite existing files and folders option if you
want to replace the existing files with the recovered files.

7. On the Select items to restore page, browse and select the files and folders available for
recovery. Note that you can sort items by Name, File size, or Date, and you can also search
for a specific file or folder name. To mark an item for recovery, double-click the item, or
drag and drop the item into the Selected Items pane.
Figure 59 Select items to restore

Within this window, you can also discover and select the total number of items available for
recovery by scrolling to the far right of the directory structure and right-clicking the icon
located on the vertical scroll bar, as shown in the following figure.
Figure 60 Total items available for recovery

8. When finished selecting items, click Finish.

9. Click Yes when you are prompted to continue with the restore.
10. To enable the polling feature so that you can monitor the status of the restore, click the
hourglass icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window and set to ON. By
default, the polling feature is set to OFF due to the memory consumption that occurs when
the server is queried every few seconds for the restore status.

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11. Once the polling feature is enabled, you can monitor the status of the restore by clicking the

icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window.

When you click the icon, the Restore Detail pane slides into view on the right side of
the window, displaying the ongoing restore operations. Clicking the entry displays the
progress of the restore and a recovery logs download option.
Figure 61 Restore Monitoring

Restoring SQL Server application-consistent backups (Windows platforms only)

NetWorker 19.2 allows you to restore an individual SQL database or an entire SQL instance for a
virtual machine that was backed up as part of a SQL Server application-consistent protection
policy. You can perform this restore to a running virtual machine, providing you with operational
recovery of SQL databases and disaster recovery of SQL instances. Additionally, alternate restore
allows you to restore to a database copy. Once you restore SQL database FULL backups, you can
also apply SQL database transaction log backups to those databases. The individual database or
instance restore target location can be the original location, or a new location on either the original
virtual machine or a different virtual machine, with the ability to select the SQL instance where the
database will be restored, the option to change the database name, and the option to select
specific folder locations for file and log placement. Note that the ability to select a different virtual
machine is only possible for individual SQL database restore. When performing SQL instance
restore, you are restricted to selecting the original virtual machine and original instance.
SQL restore functionality is provided in the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client by using
the App mode button on the login page. In App restore mode, the display of virtual machines and
their primary backups is limited to virtual machines that have application consistent backups. Once
a primary backup is selected, an additional index is loaded that allows you to browse and select the
SQL instances, databases, and the database backup versions.
The Backup Versions pane displays the database backup versions on the original virtual machine,
with a cumulative history of FULL and transaction log backups for that database for one cycle of
the backup policy. The Backup Versions pane refreshes with each full backup, and each
subsequent transaction log backup adds the transaction log backup versions. The cumulative
backup history allows you to select a database and associated backup regardless of the primary
backup that is selected. When you select a SQL instance or SQL database to restore and do not
select a specific backup version, the most recent backup version of the selected primary backup
will be restored automatically.
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client requires the virtual machine administrative
credentials during mounting of the primary FULL backup on the original virtual machine. During the
mount, NetWorker also installs or upgrades the FLR Agent and Microsoft VM App Agent, if
required, on the selected virtual machine

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The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client will discover and display the SQL instance on the
target virtual machine once the mount completes. If the target virtual machine does not have any
running SQL Instances, an error will be displayed. You may select the SQL instance from this
where you want to restore the database. The ability to select a different SQL Instance is only
possible for individual database restore, and when performing SQL Instance restore you are
restricted to selecting the original SQL Instance.
NetWorker automates the complete restore of SQL databases, restoring the database FULL and
any transaction log backups as a single operation according to the following sequence:
l The primary FULL database backup is identified, mounted on the original virtual machine, and
the SQL database files from the FULL backup are restored to the original database.
l If a transaction log backup was selected, the series of transaction logs that occurred after the
FULL backup to the selected transaction log are restored in sequence.
NetWorker automates the complete restore of SQL instances according to the following sequence:
l The master database is restored first, then msdn, then model. During this restore, the SQL
instance restarts in single-user mode as required by the Microsoft SQL Server to restore the
master database. When the restore completes, the SQL services restart in multi-user mode.
l Each remaining database is restored individually, and includes the backup versions present in
the currently selected backup.
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client provides the ability to monitor the restore
operations while in progress by enabling the Polling feature, which is disabled by default. Once

enabled, when you click the icon, the Restore Detail pane slides into view on the right side of
the window, displaying the ongoing restore operations. Clicking the entry displays the progress of
the restore and a recovery logs download option.

Restore specific SQL databases and instances to a running virtual machine

(Windows platforms only)
To restore specific SQL instances and databases to a running virtual machine in the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client, select the App button, and then select User or Admin. In User
mode, you can log in and connect to the virtual machine that was backed up as part of a SQL
Server application-consistent protection policy to restore to the original virtual machine. In Admin
mode, you can browse, select, and restore from any virtual machine that you backed up as part of
a SQL Server application-consistent protection policy. In both modes, you can restore the virtual
machine's SQL instance(s) to the original SQL instance, or an alternate SQL instance.
Before you begin
When planning to restore to an alternate instance between virtual machines in different domains,
ensure that DNS is resolved.
For the Data Domain resource, ensure that you provide the management credentials and, if
required, enter the export path appropriately. The section Entering management credentials for
the Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-level restore only)provides
detailed steps.
Additionally, if not using the NMC Administrator account to log in, you must create a user in the
NetWorker Authentication Service by using the NetWorker Management Console (NMC), as
described in the section Create a user in the NetWorker authentication service (User mode file-
level restore only), and you must configure Microsoft SQL Server instances in the original virtual
machine to allow SYSTEM account login and membership in the SQL sysadmin role.
Procedure
1. Open a browser from the virtual machine that the SQL databases or instances will be
recovered to, and enter a URL that points to the NetWorker server host and indicates file-
level restore. For example:

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https://NetWorker server IP:9090/flr

The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client login window appears.

2. Select the User or Admin tab, and then select the App tab.
Note: For User mode recoveries, you must connect to the NetWorker server from a web
browser on the virtual machine that the SQL database or instance will be restored to.

3. Type the user credentials, and then click Login.

l For User mode, type the NetWorker credentials. These can be your NMC credentials, or
the user account credentials specified for the NetWorker user group VMware FLR
Users. This user must belong to the VMware FLR Users group in order to be authorized
to perform SQL database or instance restore. The section NetWorker privileges required
by File-level restore users provides more information.
l For Admin mode, type the NetWorker credentials. When using this mode, ensure that
the user you specify for the NetWorker server login has the correct privileges to use this
option.
When you log in, the Select App Backups page displays with a list of virtual machines that
were backed up by the SQL Server application-consistent protection policy. The available
backups (primary backups) appear under each virtual machine, and include the virtual
machine FULL and transaction log backups, depending on the application-consistent policy
settings. For User mode, this will be limited to a list of backups for the local virtual machine.
Note: The polling feature, which enables monitoring of in-progress restore operations, is
turned off by default. To turn on the polling feature, click the hourglass icon located in
the upper right-hand corner of the window and set to ON.

4. On the Select App Backups page, use the arrows to the right of the entry to browse and
select from the available SQL Server application-consistent backups, including all SQL
instances, databases, and backup versions.
To select a backup version, expand the SQL instance and database to display the backup
versions pane, and then click the backup version item once or drag and drop the item to
move the backup to the Selected Items pane. You may be required to scroll right to view
the backup versions.

To select a SQL database or instance, drag and drop the entry to move the item to the
Selected Items pane. Note that you cannot drag and drop the SQL database or instance
when the entry has been expanded to view its children. If you expanded the entry, reselect
the virtual machine, and then select the SQL database or instance to enable drag-and-drop.

Note: The backup filter is set to the last seven days by default. You can expand the date
range further back if desired.

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Figure 62 Select App Backups page

When finished, click Next. The Restore Target page displays.

5. On the Restore Target page, select the running virtual machine to which you want to
restore the items. For an individual SQL database restore in User mode, you can only select
the original virtual machine as the restore target. For an individual SQL database restore in
Admin mode, you can select the original virtual machine or a different virtual machine as the
restore target. For SQL instance restore, you must select the original virtual machine as the
restore target.
The Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client prompts you to provide the system
administrative credentials of the target virtual machine to initiate the mount of the backup
and to verify that the vProxy FLR Agent and Microsoft VM App Agent are installed on this
virtual machine.
Figure 63 Restore Target page

When the mount completes, all SQL instances running on the selected virtual machine
display in this window.
Note: If the SQL Server is not installed, or there are no SQL instances running, an error
displays. If this occurs, log out of the Dell EMC Data Protection Restore Client to
cancel the mount.

6. Select the SQL instance where you want to restore the database, and then click Next.
The Restore Options page displays.

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7. On the Restore Options page, set the Diagnostic logging level, if required. The default
level is 0.
8. Select Leave the DB in recovery state if you want to activate the SQL Server
NORECOVERY database restore option, which places the database in a recovering state
upon completion of the restore and is useful for special situations such as restoring
transaction log backups taken by third-party applications. Note that this option is not
available for SQL instance restore. This option also overwrites the database and then leaves
the database in restoring state.
9. In the Target Database Name field, you can type a new name if you want to change the
name of the database, or leave the current name. By default, this field displays the name of
the database at the time of backup.
Note: If you change the database name, the new name must comply with the Microsoft
SQL Server rules for database naming. Also, if you change the name and another
database with the same name already exists on the target virtual machine and SQL
instance, a warning displays that this database will be overwritten if you proceed.

10. For the restore location, select from one of the following options under Restore files to:
l Original Location—Select this option to restore the database files to the original, or
current, location. This option is only available if the original virtual machine and SQL
instance were selected as the restore target. By default, the files are restored to the
database location as it was at the time of backup. Note, however, that if the database
file locations were changed after the backup, the files will be restored to the changed
location.
l Default data path—Select this option to restore the database files to the default data
path for the target SQL Server instance. Each SQL Server instance has a configuration
variable for the default database data path and log file path. When you select this option,
all SQL data files will be restored to the default data path, and all log files will be restored
to the default log path.
l Folder —Allows you to specify the folders where you want to restore the database and
log files. With this option, you can specify two folder locations on the target virtual
machine; one folder to store all the data files for the database, and another folder to
store all the log files for the database. Click Browse to navigate the file system on the
target virtual machine and select the desired folders. By default, both folder locations are
populated with the SQL default data paths for the target SQL Server instance. Note that
you can only select an existing folder and cannot create a new folder using the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client.

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Figure 64 Restore Options page

11. Select Restore Stop At Time if you want to restore transaction logs from the backup
version that occurred before the specified restore date and time. This option is only
available when you select a specific transaction log backup.
12. Click Restore.
Note: A restore of individual SQL Server databases or instances in the Dell EMC Data
Protection Restore Client will overwrite the existing database.

13. In the Restore Confirmation dialog, click Yes to continue the restore and overwrite the
existing database, or No to exit the restore.
If you changed the name of the database and another database with the same name already
exists on the target virtual machine and SQL instance, an additional warning displays that
this database will be overwritten if you proceed. If you changed the name of the database
and the name does not match any available databases on the target virtual machine and SQL
instance, an additional warning displays indicating that a new database will be created.
14. To enable the polling feature so that you can monitor the status of the restore, click the
hourglass icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window and set to ON. By
default, the polling feature is set to OFF due to the memory consumption that occurs when
the server is queried every few seconds for the restore status.
15. Once the polling feature is enabled, you can monitor the status of the restore by clicking the

icon located in the upper right-hand corner of the window.

When you click the icon, the Restore Detail pane slides into view on the right side of
the window, displaying the ongoing restore operations. Clicking the entry displays the
progress of the restore and a recovery logs download option. For SQL database restore, a
single line displays. For SQL instance restore, one line per database displays. In both cases,
the Target field indicates the database associated with the progress line.

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Figure 65 Restore Monitoring

vProxy recovery in the vSphere Client's Dell EMC NetWorker

interface
You can also perform virtual machine image-level recoveries of vProxy backups by using the
vSphere Client HTML-5 based Dell EMC NetWorker interface. Recoveries can be performed to
the original virtual machine or to a new virtual machine.
Dell EMC NetWorker appears in the left navigation pane of the vSphere Client after you install
the vCenter plug-in. The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides instructions.
Note: Backup and recovery operations in the vSphere Client Dell EMC NetWorker interface
are not supported for SQL Server advanced application-consistent protection policies.
Perform these operations from the NMC NetWorker Administration window or the Dell EMC
Data Protection Restore Client.

Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Client

You must establish a connection to the NetWorker server before performing any vProxy backup
and recovery operations in the vSphere Client.
Before you begin
Dell EMC NetWorker only appears in the vSphere Client after you install the vCenter plug-in.
The section Installing the vCenter plug-in provides instructions.
Procedure
1. Login to the vSphere Client as an administrator, or as a non-administrator Active Directory
user that you created using the steps in the section Accessing the HTML-5 or flash-based
vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator Active Directory user.
2. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Dell EMC NetWorker, or select Dell EMC
NetWorker in the left pane.

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Figure 66 Accessing Dell EMC NetWorker in the vSphere Client

A prompt displays in the right pane with fields required to connect to the NetWorker server.
3. For the NetWorker server, type the following information:
a. In the Username field, type the NetWorker administrator username.
b. In the Password field, type the NetWorker administrator password.
c. In the NetWorker Server field, type the IP address of the NetWorker server.
d. In the Port field, type 9090.
Figure 67 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Client

Note: The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and
NetWorker Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

4. Click Log in.

Results
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Basic Tasks pane appears, as
shown in the following.

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Figure 68 Dell EMC NetWorker Basic Tasks pane

Recovery to the original virtual machine

To start a vProxy image-level recovery to the original virtual machine by using the Dell EMC
NetWorker interface in the vSphere Client, perform the following steps.
Before you begin
Ensure that the virtual machine you want to restore to is in powered OFF state.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2.
From the Basic Tasks pane, click Restore Backup, or click the Restore icon in the
vertical navigation bar.
A list of existing virtual machine client backups for the selected vCenter server host displays
in the Client pane.

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Figure 69 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups

Note: If this list does not contain a virtual machine that was recently backed up, refresh
the window.
3. From the Client pane, click the radio button next to the virtual machine that you want to
recover.
A list of available restore points for that virtual machine displays in the right pane. You can
also specify a date range to view only the virtual machine backups that were performed
within that range.
4. Within the Restore pane, click the radio button next to the desired restore point.
5. In the top-right of the Restore pane, click the Action icon and select Restore from the
drop-down.
Figure 70 Select Restore from the Action drop-down

The Restore wizard opens on the Basic Config page.

6. From the Destination drop-down, leave the default Restore to original location selected.

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Figure 71 Restore to original location

7. (Optional) Select from the following options:

a. Power on vm—Select this checkbox to automatically power on the virtual machine after
the restore completes.
b. Reconnect nic—Select this checkbox to automatically reconnect the network interface
card after the restore completes.
8. Click Next.
9. In the Summary page, review the information and then click Finish to start the recovery.
Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Recent Tasks pane. Once the recovery
completes successfully, power ON the virtual machine to validate the recovery.

Recovery to a new virtual machine

To start a vProxy image-level recovery to a new virtual machine by using the Dell EMC
NetWorker interface in the vSphere Client, perform the following steps.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2.
From the Basic Tasks pane, click Restore Backup, or click the Restore icon in the
vertical navigation bar.
A list of existing virtual machine client backups for the selected vCenter server host displays
in the Client pane.

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Figure 72 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups

Note: If this list does not contain a virtual machine that was recently backed up, refresh
the window.
3. From the Client pane, click the radio button next to the virtual machine that you want to
recover.
A list of available restore points for that virtual machine display in the right pane. You can
also specify a date range to view only the virtual machine backups that were performed
within that range.
4. Within the Restore pane, click the radio button next to the desired restore point.
5. In the top-right of the Restore pane, click the Action icon and select Restore from the
drop-down.
Figure 73 Select Restore from the Action drop-down

The Restore wizard opens on the Basic Config page.

6. From the Destination drop-down, select Restore to new Virtual Machine.

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Figure 74 Restore to new virtual machine

7. (Optional) Select from the following options:

a. Restore Virtual Machine Configuration—Select this checkbox to restore this virtual
machine with the existing configuration settings.
b. Power on vm—Select this checkbox to automatically power on the virtual machine after
the restore completes.
c. Reconnect nic—Select this checkbox to automatically reconnect the network interface
card after the restore completes.
8. Click Next.
The Advanced Config page displays.
9. From the vCenter drop-down, select the destination vCenter server, and then specify a
name for the new virtual machine. Click Next.
The Location page displays.
10. Expand the vCenter server tree and select a destination for recovery within the vCenter
server, and then click Next.
The Host/Cluster page displays.
11. Select a host within the destination datacenter, and then click Next.
The Resource Pool page displays.
12. Select a resource pool, and then click Next.
The Datastore page displays.
13. From the Destination Datastore drop-down, select a datastore that is compatible with the
virtual machine, and then click Next.
14. In the Summary page, review the information and then click Finish to start the recovery.
Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Recent Tasks pane. Once the recovery
completes successfully, power ON the virtual machine to validate the recovery.

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Virtual disk recovery (restore to an existing virtual machine)

To start a VMDK recovery to an existing virtual machine by using the Dell EMC NetWorker
interface in the vSphere Client, perform the following steps.
About this task
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2.
From the Basic Tasks pane, click Restore Backup, or click the Restore icon in the
vertical navigation bar.
A list of existing virtual machine client backups for the selected vCenter server host displays
in the Client pane.
Figure 75 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups

Note: If this list does not contain a virtual machine that was recently backed up, refresh
the window.
3. From the Client pane, click the radio button next to the virtual machine that you want to
recover.
A list of available restore points for that virtual machine displays in the right pane. You can
also specify a date range to view only the virtual machine backups that were performed
within that range.
4. Within the Restore pane, click the radio button next to the desired restore point.
The Content pane displays the virtual disks available for recovery.
5. Select the checkbox next to the disk(s) in the Content pane that you want to recover.
When selected, the disk will appear in the Restore Selection pane.
6. Click the Action icon and select Restore from the drop-down.

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Figure 76 Select Restore from the Action drop-down

The Restore wizard opens on the Basic Config page.

7. From the Destination drop-down, select Restore to different (existing) virtual machine.
Figure 77 Restore virtual disks to existing virtual machine

8. (Optional) Select from the following options:

a. Reconnect nic—Select this checkbox to automatically reconnect the network interface
card after the restore completes.
b. Power on vm—Select this checkbox to automatically power on the virtual machine after
the restore completes.
9. Click Next.
The Advanced Config page displays.
10. In the Host/Cluster pane, select the location in the datacenter of the existing virtual
machine(s). A list of virtual machines for this location displays in the Virtual Machines
pane. You can click the + icon next to a virtual machine to view more details.
11. Click Next.
The Datastore page displays.
12. For each virtual disk listed in the Datastore pane, select a Destination Datastore from the
drop-down, and then click Next.
13. In the Summary page, review the information and then click Finish to start the recovery.
WARNING When you start a VMDK recovery, the virtual machine will be powered off
automatically without issuing a warning message.

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Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Recent Tasks pane. Once the recovery
completes successfully, power ON the virtual machine to validate the recovery.

Instant recovery of a virtual machine

To start an instant recovery to a new virtual machine by using the Dell EMC NetWorker interface
in the vSphere Client, perform the following steps.
Before you begin
Note the following before performing an instant recovery in the Dell EMC NetWorker interface:
l Ensure that you provide the management credentials for the Data Domain resource before you
initiate the recovery. If you do not configure the management credentials in NMC prior to the
recovery, the recovery will fail silent without an error message. The section Entering
management credentials for the Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-
level restore only) provides instructions.
l Ensure that you do not perform an instant recovery of virtual machines in resource pools and
other similar containers that are part of a currently running protection group.
l Ensure that the free space on the Data Domain system is equal to or greater than the total disk
size of the virtual machine being restored, as the restore does not take into account the actual
space required after deduplication occurs. If there is insufficient disk space, an error appears
indicating "Insufficient disk space on datastore," and creation of the target virtual machine
fails.
Procedure
1. In the vSphere Client, if not already selected, click Dell EMC NetWorker in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, links to Basic Tasks appear in
the right pane.
2.
From the Basic Tasks pane, click Restore Backup, or click the Restore icon in the
vertical navigation bar.
A list of existing virtual machine client backups for the selected vCenter server host displays
in the Client pane.
Figure 78 Restore pane with available virtual machine backups

Note: If this list does not contain a virtual machine that was recently backed up, refresh
the window.

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3. From the Client pane, click the radio button next to the virtual machine that you want to
recover.
A list of available restore points for that virtual machine display in the right pane. You can
also specify a date range to view only the virtual machine backups that were performed
within that range.
4. Within the Restore pane, click the radio button next to the desired restore point.
5. Click the Action icon and select Restore from the drop-down.
Figure 79 Select Restore from the Action drop-down

The Restore wizard opens on the Basic Config page.

6. From the Destination drop-down, select Instant Restore.
Figure 80 Instant Restore

7. Click Next.
The Advanced Config page displays.
8. Specify a name for the new virtual machine, and then click Next.
The Location page displays.
9. Expand the vCenter server tree and select a destination for recovery within the vCenter
server, and then click Next.
The Host/Cluster page displays.
10. Select a host within the destination datacenter, and then click Next.
The Resource Pool page displays.
11. Select a resource pool, and then click Next.
12. In the Summary page, review the information and then click Finish to start the recovery.

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Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Recent Tasks pane. Once the instant restore
completes, use storage vMotion to save the virtual machine, and then cancel the vSphere
NetWorker Recovery task to delete the datastore. Power ON the virtual machine to validate the
recovery.

vProxy recovery in the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and

Recovery interface
If using a vSphere version prior to 6.5, you can still use the vSphere Web Client's flash-based VM
Backup and Recovery interface to perform image-level recoveries to the original virtual machine
or to a new virtual machine.
In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left navigation pane. Once you
establish a connection to the required NetWorker server, click the Restore tab to open the
Restore pane.
Note: The Restore tab of the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery user interface
displays the clone copy as the primary copy when the primary copy is deleted from Networker.
You can perform a successful recovery from the VM Backup and Recovery user interface by
selecting the clone copy.

Connect to the NetWorker server in the vSphere Web Client

After installing the vCenter plug-in, you must establish a connection to the NetWorker server
before performing any vProxy operations in the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator, or as a non-administrator Active
Directory user that you created using the steps in the section Accessing the HTML-5 or
flash-based vCenter plug-in as a non-administrator Active Directory user.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
The required NetWorker connection information appears in the right pane.
Figure 81 NetWorker connection information in the vSphere Web Client

3. Enter the following information for the NetWorker server:

a. In the Host field, type the IP address of the NetWorker server.
b. In the Port field, type 9090.

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c. In the User field, type the NetWorker administrator username.

d. In the Password field, type the NetWorker administrator password.
Note: The vCenter plug-in (HTML5 or flash-based) requires the NetWorker server and
NetWorker Authentication service to be installed on the same machine.

4. Click Connect.
Results
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane appears.

Recovery to the original virtual machine

In the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface, use the following procedure to
perform an image-level recovery to the original virtual machine.
Before you begin
Ensure that the virtual machine you want to restore to is in powered OFF state.
Procedure
1. Login to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane
appears.
3. Click Restore to open the Restore pane.
A list of virtual machines available for recovery displays.
Figure 82 Virtual machines for recovery in the Restore pane

If you do not see the virtual machine backup listed, refresh the window.
Note: The Restore tab of the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery user
interface does not display any information in the Availability column for the vProxy
backups.
4. Browse the list of virtual machines and select the virtual machine backup you want to
recover. You can expand the virtual machine backup to view a list of restore points from
which to select.

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Figure 83 Select a restore point

5. Select one of the restore points by clicking the checkbox next to the backup time, and then
click Restore.
The Restore Backup wizard launches.
6. In the Set Restore Options page of the Restore Backup wizard, leave the default Restore
to original location selected and click Next.
Figure 84 Restore to original location

7. In the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to start the recovery.

Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Running tab of the Recent Tasks pane. Once
the recovery completes successfully, power ON the virtual machine to validate the recovery.

Recovery to a new virtual machine

In the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface, use the following procedure to
perform an image-level recovery to a new virtual machine.
Procedure
1. Login to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane
appears.
3. Click the Restore tab to open the Restore pane.
If you do not see the virtual machine backup listed, refresh the window.

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4. Browse the list of virtual machines and select the virtual machine backup you want to
recover. You can expand the virtual machine backup to view a list of restore points from
which to select.
5. Select one of the restore points by clicking the checkbox next to the backup time, and then
click Restore.
The Restore Backup wizard launches.
6. In the Set Restore Options page of the Restore Backup wizard, uncheck the default
Restore to original location.
7. Specify a name for the new virtual machine, and select a destination for recovery in the
vCenter server. You are not required to select the Choose button and can ignore the text
New or Existing.
Figure 85 Restore options for the new virtual machine recovery

8. Specify a datastore for the virtual machine, and then click Next.
9. In the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to start the recovery.
Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Running tab of the Recent Tasks pane. Once
the recovery completes successfully, power ON the virtual machine to validate the recovery.

Virtual disk recovery

In the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface, use the following procedure to
perform a VMDK recovery to an existing virtual machine.
About this task
Procedure
1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane
displays.
3. Click the Restore tab to open the Restore pane.
If you do not see the virtual machine backup listed, refresh the window.

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4. Browse the list of virtual machines and select the virtual machine backup that contains the
VMDK you want to recover. You can expand the virtual machine backup to view a list of
restore points from which to select.
5. Double-click one of the restore points to view the list of available VMDKs for the virtual
machine.
6. Select the VMDK you want to restore by selecting the checkbox next to the VMDK, and
then click Restore.
The Restore Backup wizard launches.
Figure 86 Select VMDK backup to restore

7. In the Select Backup page, verify that the correct VMDK is selected and click Next.
8. In the Set Restore Options page, uncheck the default Restore to original location and
then click Next.
9. Click Choose to browse the existing virtual machine where the VMDK needs to be restored
in the vCenter.
Figure 87 Set Restore Options for VMDK recovery

10. Specify a datastore for the VMDK, and then click Next.
11. In the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to start the recovery.

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Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Running tab of the Recent Tasks pane.
Note: When you start a VMDK recovery, the virtual machine will be powered off automatically
without issuing a warning message.

Instant recovery of a virtual machine

In the vSphere Web Client's VM Backup and Recovery interface, use the following procedure to
perform an instant access recovery to a new virtual machine.
Before you begin
Note the following before performing an instant access recovery in the VM Backup and Recovery
plug-in:
l Ensure that you provide the management credentials for the Data Domain resource before you
initiate the recovery. If you do not configure the management credentials in NMC prior to the
recovery, the recovery will fail silent without an error message. The section Entering
management credentials for the Data Domain resource (instant recovery and User mode file-
level restore only) provides instructions.
l Ensure that you do not perform an instant recovery of virtual machines in resource pools and
other similar containers that are part of a currently running protection group.
l Ensure that the free space on the Data Domain system is equal to or greater than the total disk
size of the virtual machine being restored, as the restore does not take into account the actual
space required after deduplication occurs. If there is insufficient disk space, an error appears
indicating "Insufficient disk space on datastore," and creation of the target virtual machine
fails.
Procedure
1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator.
2. In the vSphere Web Client, click VM Backup and Recovery in the left pane.
When a connection to the NetWorker server is established, the Getting Started pane
displays.
3. Click the Restore tab to open the Restore pane.
If you do not see the virtual machine backup listed, refresh the window.
4. Browse the list of virtual machines and select the virtual machine backup you want to
recover. You can expand the virtual machine backup to view a list of restore points from
which to select.
5. Select one of the restore points by selecting the checkbox next to the backup time, and
then click Instant Access.
The Restore Backup wizard launches.
6. In the Set Instant Access Options page, specify a name for the new virtual machine, and
select a destination for recovery in the vCenter server, and then click Next. You can ignore
the text New or Existing.

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Figure 88 Set Instant Access restore options

7. In the Ready to Complete page, click Finish to start the recovery.

Figure 89 Finish Instant Access recovery

Results
You can monitor the progress of the recovery in the Running tab of the Recent Tasks pane. Once
the instant access recovery completes, use storage vMotion to save the virtual machine, and
cancel the vSphere NetWorker Recovery task to delete the datastore. Power ON the virtual
machine to validate the recovery.

vProxy recovery log files

The vProxy appliance contains log files, which you can configure to display debug information.
The following table provides information about the vProxy recovery log files and how to enable
debugging.

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Table 16 Recovery log files

Log file Log location and name Logging levels

Primary For image level To modify the logging level:

recovery log recoveries, /opt/emc/
1. Edit the /usr/lib/systemd/system/
vrproxy/runtime/
vrecoverd.service file.
logs/vrecoverd/
vrecoverd- 2. Search for the for the ExecStart= string.
engine.log.
3. Edit the --program-log-level= argument with
For file-level recoveries or one of the following values:
SQL application-consistent
recoveries, /opt/emc/ l warn
vrproxy/runtime/ l info
logs/vflrd/vflrd-
l trace
engine.log.
l debug
4. Reload the unit config file into systemd:
systemctl daemon-reload
5. Restart the recovery engine: systemctl
restart vrecoverd.service

DD Boost For image level To modify the logging level:

recovery log recoveries, /opt/emc/
1. Edit the /usr/lib/systemd/system/
vrproxy/runtime/
vrecoverd.service file.
logs/vrecoverd/
vrecoverd-boost.log. 2. Search for the for the ExecStart= string.
For file-level recoveries or 3. Edit the --boost-log-level= argument with one
SQL application-consistent of the following values:
recoveries, /opt/emc/
vrproxy/runtime/ l none
logs/vflrd/vflrd- l error
boost.log.
l warn
l info
l trace
l debug
l all
4. Reload the unit config file into systemd:
systemctl daemon-reload
5. Restart the recovery engine: systemctl
restart vrecoverd.service

VDDK /opt/emc/vrproxy/ To modify the logging level:

recovery log runtime/logs/
1. Edit the /opt/emc/vproxy/conf/
vrecoverd/
VixDiskLib.config file.
vrecoverd-vddk.log
2. Edit the vixDiskLib.transport.LogLevel = to
specify one of the following values:
l 0—No logging

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Table 16 Recovery log files (continued)

Log file Log location and name Logging levels

l 1—Errors only
l 2—Warnings and Errors
l 3—Important information messages, errors
and warnings
l 4 —All messages, including debug
messages.
3. Restart the recovery engine: systemctl
restart vrecoverd.service

vProxy backups and restores using Direct Fiber channel

You can perform backup and recovery of the VMware virtual machines through fiber channel using
vProxy. vProxy uses the VMDirect passthrough capability of vSphere. You can enable DFC to
leverage on the FC connectivity to DD for vProxy backup and recovery.

Configuring Direct Fibre Channel (DFC) for vProxy

You can configure the DFC for vProxy by performing the following procedure:
Before you begin
l You must have a fiber channel connectivity established in between ESXI hosting the vProxy
and the Data Domain device.
l Fiber channel connectivity in between NetWorker storage node and Data Domain device.
Procedure
1. Configuring VMDirect path on vProxy.
a. Go to vSphere client, select the ESXI , and then select the vProxy where you want to
configure the DFC.
b. Power off the vProxy.
c. Select the vProxy, click Edit Settings.
d. Click Add Hardware, in the Add Hadware window select PCI Device, and click Next.
e. In the Specify the physical PCI/PCIe Device to connect to drop down menu, select the
Fiber channel PCI/PCIe device, and click Next.
f. Review the selected options and click Finish, then click OK.
g. Power On the vProxy.
The DFC path is enabled on vProxy.
2. Creating a DDBoost enabled device
a. In NMC, click Devices.
b. In the left panel, right-click Devices and select New Device Wizard.
c. On the Select the Device page, select Data Domain and click Next.

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d. On the Data Domain Preconfiguration Checklist page, click Next.

e. On the Specify the Data Domain Configuration Options page:
f. On the Specify the Data Domain Configuration Options page, Under Data Domain
System Name, Select Use an existing Data Domain System
g. In the Data Domain DDBoost Username field, type the username of the Data Domain
user.
h. In the Data Domain DDBoost Password field, type the password of the Data Domain
user.
i. On the Specify the Data Domain Configuration Options page, Under Data Domain
System Name, Select Use an existing Data Domain System
j. In the Data Domain DDBoost Username field, type the username of the Data Domain
user.
k. In the Data Domain DDBoost Password field, type the password of the Data Domain
user.
l. In the Data Domain Management Credentials, select use the DDBoost Credentials.
m. Click Next.
n. On the Select the Folder to Use as Devices page, click New Folder to create a folder
for the device.
o. Select the newly created folder.
p. Specify the required values in the other fields.
q. Click Next.
r. On the Configure Pool Information page, under Pool Type, select one of the following
pool types:
l Backup
l Backup Clone

s. Under Pool, perform one of the following tasks to select the pool:
l Select Create and use a new pool, and type the pool number in the text box.
l Select Use an existing pool, and select the pool from the drop-down list box.

t. Specify the required values in the other fields.

u. Click Next.
v. On the Select Storage Nodes and Fibre Channel Options page, select the storage
node.
w. Select Enable Fibre Channel for this device and type the Fibre Channel Host Name,
click Next.
x. On the Select SNMP Monitoring Options page, specify the required field values, and
click Next.
y. On the Review the Device Configuration Settings page, review the configuration
settings, and click Configure.
z. On the Device Configuration Results page, click Finish.

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CHAPTER 5
VADP Recovery (legacy)

Note: NetWorker 19.2 releases do not feature a new version of the VADP proxy. For VADP,
NetWorker 19.2 only supports recoveries that were configured in a previous release. The
NetWorker Online Compatibility Guide available on the Dell EMC Online Support site at
https://support.emc.com/products/1095_NetWorker provides the most up-to-date
compatibility information.
This chapter contains the following topics:

l Software and hardware requirements.................................................................................. 214

l Limitations and unsupported features.................................................................................. 214
l Transport modes..................................................................................................................215
l Independent persistent disks cannot be recovered.............................................................. 216
l Configuring the VADP proxy host and Hypervisor resource................................................. 216
l Creating a VADP User role in vCenter..................................................................................219
l Recovering VADP Backups.................................................................................................. 221
l VADP Planning and Best Practices...................................................................................... 227

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Software and hardware requirements

The software and hardware requirements for VADP include the following.
l One or more VADP proxy systems running any of the following 64-bit operating systems
(English versions only):
n Windows 2008 R2
n Windows 2012
l One or more vCenter servers running vSphere 6.0 with ESX 6.0 and vCenter 6.0.
l Perform the following prerequisites on the NetWorker server/proxy machine in order to run
vSphere version 6.0:
1. Since the registry key for SSL verification is not set by default, add the following keypath in
the registry:

'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Wow6432Node/VMware, Inc./VMware Virtual

Disk Development Kit'

Add a DWORD VerifySSLCertificates and set it to zero ('VerifySSLCertificates=0'). This

will disable SSL verification for all VDDK Hotadd operations.
2. Install .NET framework 3.5.1 or later on the proxy. In Windows 2008 R2, even though
the .NET framework is bundled with the operating system, ensure that you enable the
framework under Server Manager- > features.
3. Install VC++ runtime 9.0 (VC++2008 SP1) on the proxy. The following link provides more
details:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2092
l Network connectivity must be available between the VADP proxy server and the vCenter
Server managing the ESX server cluster. It also requires connection to the ESX server system.
l To connect to a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN, the VADP proxy requires a FC host bus adapter
(HBA).
l You must install the NetWorker 9.0.x client software on the VADP Proxy host.
l The NetWorker server requires NetWorker 19.2 software.
l The VADP proxy host must have access to the LUNs required for supported virtual machines.
Considerations vary depending on the environment, for example, physical and virtual
Compatibility RDMs are not supported and therefore do not require proxy access. The section
VADP proxy access to LUNs on page 234 provides more information.

Limitations and unsupported features

The following limitations apply to the VADP solution with NetWorker:
l NetWorker supports the recovery of non-English versions of guest operating systems for
virtual machines. However, if using non-English versions of the Windows operating system for
the vCenter or VADP proxy host, note the limitations in the sections Limitations to vCenter on
non-English versions of Windows on page 215 and Limitation for VADP proxy host on non-
English versions of Windows on page 215.
l Global directives (both encryption and compression directives) are not supported by
NetWorker for VADP recovery.

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l Image-level recovery from a CBT-based incremental backup is not supported.

Limitations to vCenter on non-English versions of Windows

The following limitations apply to non-English versions of the Windows operating system using
vCenter for VADP:
l The following names should always contain only English characters:
n Backup VM display name in the left pane of vCenter
n Backup VM hostname/FQDN
n vCenter Datacenter name
n vCenter Resource pool name
n ESX datastore names containing the VM configuration files and virtual disks.
l You can only restore VMs to the same language OS vCenter that you perform the backup
from. For example, you cannot recover a VM backed up from a Japanese OS vCenter onto an
English OS vCenter.
l You can only perform VADP recovery using the NetWorker User program. A command line
recovery of the entire image will not work for backups from a non-English vCenter.

Limitation for VADP proxy host on non-English versions of Windows

The following limitation applies to non-English versions of the Windows operating system for the
VADP proxy host:
On the machine where you launch the VADP recovery, install the NetWorker package in English
only without any language packages. You must unselect all the other language packages explicitly
during the NetWorker installation.
Note: Attempting to launch the VADP recovery dialog without following this procedure results
in the overwriting of the local system files, which can lead to machine corruption.

Transport modes
The VADP proxy host supports advanced transport modes for image-level recovery. You can set
the configured network transport mode to the following values during recovery:
l SAN (Storage Area Network)—Selecting this mode completely offloads the CPU, memory or
I/O load on the virtual infrastructure. The I/O is fully offloaded to the storage layer where the
data is read directly from the SAN or iSCSI LUN.

SAN mode requires a physical proxy with SAN access, and the VMs need to be hosted on
either Fibre Channel or iSCSI-based storage. The corresponding VMFS volumes must be visible
in the Microsoft Windows Disk Management snap-in of the VADP proxy host.
l Hotadd—In this mode, the I/O happens internally through the ESX I/O stack using SCSI hot-
add technology. This provides better I/O rates than NBD/NBDSSL. However, selecting this
mode places CPU, memory and I/O load on the ESX hosting the VADP proxy.

Hotadd mode requires a virtual proxy, and the ESX hosting the virtual proxy should have
access to all the datastores where the VMs are hosted So, if the datastores are SAN/
iSCSI/NFS and if the ESX server where the VADP proxy resides is separate from the ESX
server where the VMs are hosted, then:
n In the case of SAN LUNs the ESX hosting the proxy and the ESX hosting the VMs should
be part of the same fabric zones.

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n In the case of iSCSI LUNs the ESX hosting the proxy and the ESX hosting the VMs should
be configured for the same iSCSI-based storage targets.
n In the case of NFS datastores, the ESX hosting the proxy and the ESX hosting the VMs
should be configured for the same NFS mount points.
l NBD (Network Block Device): in this mode, the CPU, memory and I/O load gets directly placed
on the ESX hosting the production VMs, because the data has to move through the same ESX
and reach the proxy over the network. NBD mode can be used either for physical or virtual
proxy, and also supports all storage types.
l NBDSSL (Network Block Device with SSL): NBDSSL transport mode is the same as NBD
except that the data transferred over the network is encrypted. Data transfer in NBDSSL
mode can therefore be slower and use more CPU due to the additional load on the VADP host
from SLL encryption/decryption.

You can set multiple transport modes to be used by the VADP proxy host using the pipe symbol “|”
(for example, san|nbd|nbdssl).
By default, the transport mode field in the NetWorker User program is blank. Specify one
transport mode to use for recovery.
More information on configuring transport modes is provided in Configuring the VADP proxy host
and Hypervisor resource. The transport modes are outlined in the table Table 17 on page 217.

Independent persistent disks cannot be recovered

VADP does not support the recovery of independent persistent disks. If NetWorker detects these
disks, they are skipped and a message is logged that indicates the disks were skipped. If using
independent persistent disks, you must use traditional NetWorker recovery.

Configuring the VADP proxy host and Hypervisor resource

A NetWorker client must be created for the VADP proxy host when configuring the virtual clients
for recovery. The VADP proxy NetWorker client will be referred to by VM clients during VADP
recovery operations.
You can create a NetWorker client for the VADP proxy host manually by using the nsradmin
command.
Note: If multiple client instances of the same VADP proxy host exist in the NetWorker server,
ensure that all the instances have the same application information attributes related to VADP.
Manually copy the application information attributes into all the VADP proxy client instances.
Note, however, that when a virtual proxy is used, it cannot be created by copying the template
of other VMs that are being protected.
If vCenter is configured in the environment, there must be a Hypervisor resource for the vCenter
server hosting the VMs that use VADP. You may also need to create a Hypervisor resource if you
cannot use VMware View in the NMC NetWorker Administration window.
If vCenter is not configured in the environment, there must be a Hypervisor resource created for
each server in the environment.
You must create the corresponding Hypervisor resource in the NetWorker server prior to starting
the VADP recovery.

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Creating a Hypervisor resource from the NetWorker server

Procedure
1. Start the NetWorker administration program by running nsradmin. Use the help command
for help, or the visual command to enter full-screen mode.
2. Type the following:

nsradmin> create type:NSR Hypervisor;name:vCenter_FQDN_or_IP

nsradmin> vi
Select type: NSR hypervisor;
name: esx3-vc1.lss.emc.com;
comment: ;
service: [VMware VirtualCenter];
endpoint: "https://esx3-vc1.lss.emc.com/sdk";
username: "ajayads\\nemo"; ======================> vCenter info
password: *******;
command: nsrvim;
proxy: nemo220-3.lss.emc.com; ============> NW Server

Creating a NetWorker client for the VADP Proxy host by using the Client
properties windows
About this task

Table 17 Application information values

Attribute name Description Default value

VADP_HYPERVIS Specify the hostname of the VC server

OR configured as part of the NSR Hypervisor
This attribute is resource. If there are multiple VC servers
mandatory. configured as part of the NSR hypervisor
resource, specify their hostnames here.
For example:
VADP_HYPERVISOR=any.vc
VADP_HYPERVISOR=another.vc
VADP_TRANSPO Specify the transport mode to transfer Blank. If left blank, the default
RT_MODE data from a VMFS data store to a VADP values are selected in the
proxy server. The following options are order of the description list.
supported: You can specify multiple
modes by inserting a pipe ( | )
l SAN – Virtual disk data is read
symbol between each value as
directly off a shared storage device
shown in the following
that the virtual disk resides on. This
example:
requires VMFS storage on SAN or
VADP_TRANSPORT_MODE=
iSCSI and the storage device has to
san | Hotadd | nbdssl | nbd.
be accessible from both ESX and the
The order in which modes are
VADP proxy.
specified dictate the priority in
l Hotadd – This mode can be used which they are attempted. In
when VADP is used in a virtual proxy. the above example, the san
Because it uses the ESX I/O stack to mode is attempted first; if
move data, Hotadd is more efficient that fails the Hotadd mode is
than the transport mode NBD. attempted, and so on.

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Table 17 Application information values (continued)

Attribute name Description Default value

l NBDSSL – This mode is the same as

nbd except that the data transferred
over the network is encrypted. The
data transfer in nbdssl mode can be
slower and use more CPU than in the
nbd transport mode.
l NBD – VADP will use an over-the-
network protocol to access the
virtual disk. Data is read from the
storage device by the ESX host and
then sent across an unencrypted
network channel to the VADP proxy.
Please note that this mode does not
provide the offload capabilities of the
san mode (because data is still
transferred from the ESX host across
the network). However, nbd does not
require shared storage and also
enables VADP to be run inside a VM.

Procedure
1. In the NMC NetWorker Administration Protection window, right-click Clients, and select
New.
The Create Client dialog box displays.
2. Select the General tab.
3. In the Name attribute field, type the name of the proxy.
4. Select the Apps and Modules tab, shown in the following figure.
Figure 90 Apps and Modules tab in NMC

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5. In the Application Information field, type the following:

VADP_HYPERVISOR=any.vc
VADP_HYPERVISOR=another.vc
VADP_BACKUPROOT=G:\mnt
VADP_TRANSPORT_MODE=Hotadd

6. Click OK.

Creating a VADP User role in vCenter

The following section provides the steps required to create a VADP User role in the vCenter
server. Although it is possible to run VADP backup/recovery using Administrator privileges on
vCenter, this is not recommended from a security perspective. It is recommended to create a new
role specific to VADP in the vCenter server and assign it to the user specified in the Hypervisor
resource.

Creating a VADP Proxy role

About this task
The section Minimum vCenter permissions needed to recover using VADP on page 220 provides
more information.
Procedure
1. Log in to the vCenter Server with Administrator privileges using vSphere Client.
2. From the vCenter Server, select View > Administration > Roles.
3. Click Add Role.
4. Name the role VADP User.
5. Assign the required permissions to the VADP User role and click OK.

Assigning the VADP User role to the user specified in the NetWorker Hypervisor
resource
About this task
Note: Refer the appropriate VMware Basic System Administration or Datacenter
Administration Guide documentation for steps to assign a role to user.
VMware documentation can be found at http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/
Procedure
1. Log in to the vCenter Server with Administrator privileges using vSphere Client.
2. Select the vCenter server in the left pane.
3. Click the Permissions tab in the right pane.
4. Right-click inside the right pane and select Add Permission.
5. Add the NetWorker Hypervisor user and assign the VADP User role.
6. Ensure Propagate to Child Objects is enabled and click OK.

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Minimum vCenter permissions needed to recover using VADP

It is recommended to create a single VADP User role with the recovery privileges specified in the
following tables. You can then use the associated user for VADP recovery operations.
The following table provides VADP recovery privileges.

Table 18 VADP recovery privileges

Setting Privileges

Global l Cancel task

l Licenses
l Log Event
l Settings

Resource l Assign virtual machine to resource pool

Datastore l Allocate space

l Browse datastore
l Low level file operations
l Remove file
l Update virtual machine files (only found in
4.1 and later)

Virtual machine > Inventory l Create new

l Register
l Remove
l Unregister

Virtual machine > Configuration l Add existing disk

l Add new disk
l Add or Remove device
l Advanced
l Change CPU count
l Change Resource
l Disk change Tracking
l Disk Lease
l Extend virtual disk
l Host USB device
l Memory
l Modify device settings
l Raw device
l Reload from path
l Remove disk

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Table 18 VADP recovery privileges (continued)

Setting Privileges

l Rename
l Reset guest information
l Settings
l Swapfile placement
l Upgrade virtual machine compatibility

Virtual machine > Interaction l Power Off

l Power On
l Reset

Virtual machine > Provisioning l Allow disk access

l Allow read-only disk access
l Allow virtual machine download

Virtual machine > State l Create snapshot

l Remove snapshot
l Revert to snapshot

Network l Assign network

l Configure

Session l Validate session

Tasks l Create task

l Update task

Recovering VADP Backups

This section covers these topics:
l File based recovery of a VM on page 221
l Image level (single step) recovery of a full VM on page 223

File based recovery of a VM

File-level recovery (FLR) is supported only on VMs that have a Windows operating system with
the NTFS file system. FLR is not supported in the following configurations:
l Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 VMs with Resilient File System (ReFS)
l VM operating system containing GPT or dynamic disks
l VM operating system containing uninitialized disks
l VM operating system containing unformatted partitions
l VM operating system containing partitions without drive letters

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l VM configuration with Virtual IDE Disk Devices (only SCSI)

l VM configuration with independent disk mode

Performing a file based recovery on the local host

File based recovery on the local host running a VM client requires that the NetWorker client is
installed on the VM client.
About this task
To perform a file based recovery on the local host:
Procedure
1. Launch the NetWorker User program on the VM client.
2. Follow the procedure outlined in the NetWorker Administration Guide’s Recovery chapter.
Make sure to specify the restore path using the Recover Options dialog, illustrated in the
following figure.
If you click OK without specifying a restore path in the Recover Options dialog, a warning
message displays, indicating that restoring data to the proxy storage node from the VM
image can result in overwriting system files. To ensure overwriting of files does not occur,
enter a restore path prior to clicking OK.
Figure 91 Recover Options dialog

Performing a file based recovery using CIFS share

Before you begin
Ensure that the remote access list of the VM client includes either user@server or user@proxy and
that you add the proxies to the DD Boost access list. To add a client to the DDBoost access list,
run the following command from the DDBoost command line:

ddboost access add clients (- Add clients to a DD Boost access list)

ddboost access add clients client-list

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Procedure
1. Launch the NetWorker User program on the NetWorker server or VADP proxy.
2. Browse the file system for the VM client and select file to recover, as outlined in the
NetWorker Administration Guide’s Recovery chapter.
3. Set the destination directory to the CIFS share of the VM client.
4. Recover the files onto the CIFS share.
5. At the VM client, move the files from the CIFS share to the appropriate directory.

Performing a file based recovery using directed recovery

File based recovery using directed recovery requires that the NetWorker client is installed on the
VM client.
About this task
Procedure
1. Launch the NetWorker User program on the NetWorker server or VM client.
Note: The user must have the Remote Access All Clients privilege.

2. Select the VM client as the source client.

3. Select the target client as VM-client.
4. Select a destination folder.
5. Follow the procedure in the NetWorker Administration Guide’s Recovery chapter to select
files for recovery and perform the recovery.

Image level (single step) recovery of a full VM

This section describes how to perform an image level recovery (disaster recovery) of the full VM.
There are two methods of recovering a full VM:
l Performing an image level recovery from the NetWorker User program on page 224
l Performing an image level recovery from the command line on page 225

Recommendations and considerations

The following considerations apply when performing an image level recovery of a full VMware
virtual machine:
l For a remote VADP proxy client, image level recovery requires the members of the VADP proxy
client’s administrator group to be part of the remote access list of the VM clients or the
member should have the “Remote access all clients” privilege.
l The user must have VMware privileges to register or create VMs.
l Recovery of the full VM is only supported using save set recovery.
l Only level FULL of FULLVM save sets are supported for VM image recovery.
l The VADP proxy system must be running one of the following:
n Microsoft Windows 2008 R2
n Microsoft Windows 2012
l If any hardware level changes such as a new disk partition, are made to the VM, you must
perform a level full backup before you can perform an image level recovery of the full VM.
l The VM can recover to the same VMware ESX server or VMware vCenter (VC) taken at the
time of backup or to a different ESX or VC. Recovery to different resource pools and different

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datastores are also supported. A different datastore can be specified for each disk and a
configuration datastore can be specified to restore the configuration files.
l During the recovery of a full VM (FULLVM save set), the recovered VM will start in forceful
powered off state because of a VADP snapshot limitation.
l For non-Windows VMs: If using traditional NetWorker client-based backups along with VADP
image based backups for the same VM client, ensure that the browse policy for the client-
based backups does not exceed the frequency of VADP image based backups. This practice is
recommended because the indices of client-based backups may have to be removed prior to
image-level recovery.
For example, a Linux client has a schedule of daily level FULL client-based backups along with
monthly VADP image based backups. In this case, it is recommended to set the browse policy
of the client-based backups to a maximum of 1 month.
l If the image level backup of the VM being recovered was performed with the Encryption
directive, the current Datazone pass phrase by default is automatically used to recover the VM
image. If the current Datazone pass phrase was created after a password-protected backup
was performed, you must provide the password that was in effect when the VM image was
originally backed up.

Performing an image level recovery from the NetWorker User program

This procedure is supported on Windows XP and later Windows platforms only.
About this task
To perform an image level recovery of a full VM to the VMware ESX server or VMware vCenter
server:
Procedure
1. Launch the NetWorker User program on the NetWorker client or VADP proxy.
2. From the Operation menu, select Save Set Recover.
3. In the Source Client dialog box, select the VM client from where the save set originated and
click OK.
4. In the Save Sets dialog box, select the Save Set name for the full VM backup client
(FULLVM) and select a level FULL backup. Click OK.
Note: Only level full of FULLVM save sets are supported for VM image restore.

5. In the VADP Restore dialog box, type the following information depending on the type of
recovery and then click the Start button.
Restore to VMware vCenter (VC):

l VM DISPLAY NAME- Specify a new VM name to restore the backed up VM.

l vCenter Server - Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address of
the VC server.
l Data Center Name - Specify the name of the Data Center to use.
l ESX Server - Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address of the
ESX Server on which to perform the restore. By default, the source ESX server is
displayed in this field.
l Config Data Store - Specify the name of the datastore to which the VM configuration
data will be restored.
l Resource Pool Name - Specify the resource pool to use for the restore. Leave this field
empty to use the default pool.

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l Transport Mode - Specify the transport mode for recovery (SAN, Hotadd or NBD).
l Data Store — Specify the name of the datastore for each disk on the VM.
Results
The following figure depicts a VADP Restore dialog box that is set up for a VMware vCenter
restore.
Figure 92 VMware vCenter restore

Performing an image level recovery from the command line

The following describes how to perform a command line recover of a full VM to the VMware ESX
server or VMware vCenter (VC) server.
About this task
Procedure
1. Use the mminfo command to determine the save set ID of the level FULL FULLVM backup,
for example:
mminfo -avot -q "name=FULLVM,level=full"
Note: Only level FULL of FULLVM save sets are supported for VM image recovery.

2. Recover the full VM using the recover command, for example:

recover -S ssid [-d staging-location] -o VADP:host=VC
hostname[:port];VADP:transmode=transport mode;VADP:datacenter=datacenter
name;VADP:resourcepool=resource pool name; VADP:hostsystem=ESX
hostname;VADP:datastore=datastores
where

l ssid is the save set identifier of the FULLVM.

l staging-location is the staging location path to recover the FULLVM image to the proxy.
This value is needed only for a recovery to staging location and applies only to backups
taken before NetWorker 7.6 SP2.
l VC hostname is the VMware VC name that is used to perform the restore.
l port is the port used to log in to the web server of the VC host. If no value is entered, the
default port number is used.
l transport mode is the transport mode to use for recovery. For example,SAN.

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l datacenter name is the data center name where the VM is restored to.
l resource pool name is the resource pool that the restored VM is connected to.
l ESX hostname is the VMware ESX server machine name where the VMware VM needs
to be restored.
l datastores is the list of datastores that need to be associated with the configuration and
the disks of the VM that is being restored. They are name / value pairs separated with
hash (#) symbols. For example:

VADP:datastore=”config=stor1#disk1=stor2#disk2=stor3”

The following command depicts a command to recover the FULLVM with a ssid of
413546679. The recovery is directed to the ESX server named esxDemo1.emc.com.
Default values are used for the datacenter, resource pool, and datastores.

recover.exe -S 413546679 -o
VADP:host=esxDemo1.emc.com;
VADP:transmode=Hotadd

Recover VMs that have a mix of VADP image-level and traditional guest based backups
If your VMs have a mix of both VADP image level backups and traditional guest based (also known
as client based) backups, you may have to use the following recovery procedure.

Unable to browse guest based backups on non NTFS file systems

Traditional guest based (client based) backups are not browsable in the recovery GUI for VMs that
are running a non NTFS file system and that have a mix of VADP and guest based backups. This
issue does not apply to Windows VMs that are using NTFS. Additionally, save set recoveries are
not affected and can be performed in the usual way.
To work around the issue, a command line recovery that specifies the backup time must be
performed. Run the following commands from a command line on the VADP proxy or the VM:
To find the backup time:

mminfo -av -s networker_server -q "client=virtual_client"

To perform the recovery:

recover -t backup_time -s networker_server -c virtual_client

Example
The following VM (host name mars) has a mix of both VADP and traditional guest based backups.
This example shows how to recover a traditional backup save set on the VM by first locating the
time of the backup save set using the mminfo command and then by using that time with the
recover command. The host name of the NetWorker server in this example is jupiter.

C:\mminfo -av -s jupiter -q "client=mars"

volume type client date time size ssid fl lvl name
kuma-1 Data Domain mars 5/24/2011 10:38:39 PM 281 MB 1658578527 cb full /root
kuma-1.RO Data Domain mars 5/24/2011 10:38:39 PM 281 MB 1658578527 cb full /root
kuma-6 Data Domain mars 5/24/2011 10:59:22 PM 5243 MB 1440475890 cb full FULLVM
kuma-6.RO Data Domain mars 5/24/2011 10:59:22 PM 5243 MB 1440475890 cb full
FULLVM
C:\recover -t "5/24/2011 10:38:39 PM" -s jupiter -c mars

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Notice that in the previous example output from the mminfo command, the first two lines listed are
for traditional backup and the last two lines are for a VADP backup, which is denoted with the save
set name, FULLVM. The NetWorker Command Reference Guide provides more information about
using the recover command to mark (select) files and to perform the recovery.

Image level recovery to a different FARM or vCenter

When recovering to a different server within the same vCenter environment, or when recovering
to a different server within a different vCenter environment, you must select whether to keep the
same UUID, or create a new UUID.

Recovering a VM using SAN or Hotadd transport mode on Windows 2008

About this task
When recovering a VM using either the SAN or Hotadd transport mode on a Windows 2008
system, perform the following one-time configuration on the proxy host before initiating the
recovery:
Procedure
1. Open a command prompt on the proxy host.
2. Run the following command:

DISKPART

3. Enter SAN and check for the SAN policy.

4. If the policy indicates offline, enable the policy by entering the following:

SAN POLICY=OnlineALL

Note: After the recovery is successful, SAN POLICY can be changed back to the
default value (SAN POLICY=offline or SAN POLICY=offlineshared).

5. Restart the proxy for the change to take effect.

Results
You can now initiate the VM recovery using SAN or Hotadd mode.
Note: If recovery is initiated from a Windows machine other than the proxy, these steps need
to be performed on the machine where the recovery is initiated.

VADP Planning and Best Practices

This section covers topics related to best practices when using VADP.

Recommendations and considerations for VADP recovery

Be aware of the following recommendations and considerations before performing VADP recovery.
l Ensure that VC and ESX/ESXi are updated to the latest released update.
l VADP supports recovery via VMware VirtualCenter or vCenter. The section Software and
hardware requirements on page 214 provides more information on supported vCenter versions.

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Note: Recovery directly to a standalone ESX/ESXi host is not supported. The ESX/ESXi
must be connected to either VirtualCenter or vCenter.
l VADP does not support IPv6. Instructions for disabling IPv6 and using IPv4 are provided in the
section Network and Firewall port requirements on page 229.
l It is recommended to keep the vCenter and VADP proxy as separate machines to avoid
contention of CPU and memory resources.
l The vSphere Client does not need to be installed on the NetWorker server.
l Ensure the path specified in VixDisklib and VixMountAPI config files are enclosed in double
quotes as below:

tempDirectory="C:\Program Files\EMC NetWorker\nsr\plugins\VDDK\tmp"

These files are stored in the following location by default:

<NetWorker install folder>\nsr\plugins\VDDK\
Note: Double quotes should be specified in the path even though the path is already
present.
l It is recommended to use the VADP proxy host as the storage node. This provides the optimal
configuration for any given transport mode as data transfer occurs directly from the ESX/ESXi
datastore to the storage node.
l If reattaching RDM disks after recovery, make note of all LUNs that are zoned to the protected
VMs.

Selection of physical vs. virtual proxy

NetWorker supports the use of both physical proxy hosts and virtual proxy hosts for VMware
environments. Whether to use a physical or virtual proxy should be determined based on
performance requirements, and available hardware.

Proxy node sizing and performance considerations

The following proxy node sizing and performance considerations apply when using physical and
virtual proxies.
Note that there are no observed performance differences between physical and virtual proxies
when running on similar hardware.
l The maximum number of concurrent sessions when using a physical proxy is higher than that
of a virtual proxy. The section Recommendations and considerations for transport modes on
page 231 provides more information on concurrent sessions for specific transport modes.
l Recommendations for a physical proxy is 4 CPU cores with 8GB of RAM. Recommendations
for a virtual proxy is 4 vCPUs and 8GB vRAM per proxy, where each vCPU is equal to or
greater than 2.66 GHz.
l Number of virtual proxies per ESX host depends only on the type of hardware on which the
ESX has been installed.
l For lower-end ESX hosts, it is recommended not to mix I/O load on ESX (with the virtual proxy
and VMs residing on a single ESX), but to have a separate ESX for the virtual proxy.
l For high-end ESX hosts, it is recommended to have a maximum of 5 virtual proxies
concurrently running on a single ESX host.

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Recommendations for Data Domain systems

The following are recommendations for deploying NetWorker and Data Domain systems to back up
the virtualized environment.
l When using DD VTLs, SAN transport mode is required; as a result, the proxy host cannot be a
virtual machine.
l For DD Boost enabled VADP backups:
n The best CPU load and performance is observed with 4 concurrent backups per device.
However, a NetWorker 8.x DD Boost library supports a greater number of concurrent
backups (target sessions).
n Setting a lower number of parallel sessions to a single device does not result in optimal
performance.
n Setting a higher number of parallel sessions to a single device increases the CPU load
without any improvements to performance.
n It is recommended to have at least 400MB to 500MB of RAM for each virtual machine
being backed up if small to medium sized virtual machines are in use (virtual machines with
less than 100GB virtual disks attached). If the largest virtual machine being backed up has
more than 100GB of virtual disks attached, the RAM can be further increased.
l Better throughput is observed with DD Boost when there is less commonality between the
virtual machines being backed up. As a best practice, it is recommended that virtual machines
related to the same parent virtual machine template/clone should be part of different backup
groups, and these backup groups should have different start times.
l In the case of both Hotadd and SAN modes, a 20-40% improvement is observed in the backup
throughput for every additional proxy, provided the back-end storage where the virtual
machines reside is not a bottleneck.
l If using Hotadd mode:
n Refer to the section Recommendations and considerations for transport modes on page
231 for memory requirements. These requirements may increase depending on the size of
the virtual machine's virtual disks, as described in the RAM recommendation above.
n Virtual proxy parallelism should not be set to a value greater than 12. This limit can further
be decreased if the virtual machines have more than one disk attached. More information
related to best practices when using Hotadd mode is provided in the section
Recommendations and considerations for transport modes on page 231.
n In the case of multiple virtual proxies, it is recommended to consolidate all virtual proxies
under dedicated ESX/ESXi host(s) in the environment to minimize the impact on
production VMs during the backup window. These ESX/ESXi hosts should not be running
any other VMs.
n A maximum of 5 virtual proxies per one standalone ESX is recommended.
n A maximum of 3 virtual proxies per ESX is recommended in a DRS cluster for proxies.

Network and Firewall port requirements

Be aware of the following firewall and network requirements:
l If there is a firewall between the VADP proxy host and the servers that run VMs that you plan
to back up from the VADP proxy host, ensure that bi-directional TCP/IP connections can be
established on port 902 between the VADP proxy host and the servers.

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l If the Virtual Center or vCenter server uses a port other than the default port of 443, specify
the port in the endpoint attribute of NSRhypervisor field. Configuring the VADP proxy host and
Hypervisor resource on page 216 provides more information.
l VADP does not support IPv6. If vCenter is installed in a Windows 2008 system with IPv6
enabled (IPv6 is enabled by default) and the same system is also used as the VADP proxy,
VADP backups will hang.
Ensure that IPv6 is disabled on the following:
n vCenter
n ESX/ESXi
n VADP-Proxy
Note: ESX/ESXi refers to the actual host system and not the VMs to be backed up.

Disable IPv6 using Network Connections in the Control Panel, then add an IPv4 entry like
the following to the hosts file on the system where vCenter is installed:

<IPv4 address> <vCenter FQDN> <vCenter hostname>

After this entry has been added, run the following command in the VADP proxy host to
verify that the IPv4 address is being resolved:
C:\Users\Administrator>ping <vCenter hostname>

Support for tape drives in a virtual machine

In order to use tape drives (physical and virtual tape drives) in a virtual machine, specific
compatible hardware and VMware ESX/ESXi versions are required, and the drives must be
configured using VMDirectPath.
VMDirectPath allows device drivers in guest operating systems to directly access and control
physical PCI and PCIe devices connected to the ESX host in a hardware pass-through mode,
bypassing the virtualization layer.
The following section requires a working knowledge of VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi and virtual
machine configuration.

VMDirectPath requirements and recommendations

The following requirements and recommendations apply when using VMDirectPath:
l VMDirectPath requires Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) or AMD IP
Virtualization Technology (IOMMU). You may need to enable this option in the BIOS of the
ESX/ESXi system.
l The VM should be Hardware version 7. For example, vmx-07.
l The optimal VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per ESX/ESXi host is 8.
l The optimal VMDirectPath PCI/PCIe devices per VM is 4.

VMDirectPath restrictions
The following restrictions apply during the configuration of VMDirectPath:
l The ESX host must be rebooted after VMDirectPath is enabled.
l The VM must be powered down when VMDirectPath is enabled in order to add the PCI/PCIe
device directly to the VM.

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l Using Fibre Channel tape drives in a VM is not supported without VMDirectPath in production
environments due to the lack of SCSI isolation. Tape drives can be configured and used
without VMDirectPath, but the support is limited to non-production environments.
The VMware knowledge base article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010789 provides information on
configuring VMDirectPath.
The following features are not available for a VM configured with VMDirectPath, as the VMkernel
is configured without the respective device under its control when passed to a VM:
l vMotion
l Storage vMotion
l Fault Tolerance
l Device hot add (CPU and memory)
l Suspend and resume
l VADP Hotadd transport mode (when used as virtual proxy)
Note: If using VMDirectPath in a NetWorker VADP virtual proxy host, then the transport
modes are limited to either NBD or NBDSSL. This is due to a VMware limitation.
The following technical note provides additional information on VMDirectPath:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

Considerations for VMDirectPath with NetWorker

The following are considerations apply when using VMDirectPath with NetWorker:
l For virtual environments that must run backups to Fibre Channel connected tape devices
where there is a large amount of data in the VM, VMDirectPath can be used with NetWorker.
l 1 vCPU is sufficient to process 500 GB of data as long as the other VMs are not sharing the
physical core on the underlying ESX/ESXi hardware, and the vCPU has exclusive access to the
single core.
l If other VMs that reside on the same ESX/ESXi are sharing the underlying hardware (physical
CPU), it may be required to add more vCPU and dedicating underlying hardware by using CPU
affinity settings.
l To achieve optimal performance, it is recommended that the guest VM acting as the DSN has a
minimum of 4 GB of memory available with 2 vCPUs allocated.
l If multiple target sessions are needed in each device and 4 or more vCPUs are assigned to the
VM, ensure that there are enough devices available for backup operations. An insufficient
amount of devices can result in less throughput due to CPU scheduling overhead of the
Hypervisor.
l Ensure that the device drivers for the HBA are updated on the guest operating system.

Recommendations and considerations for transport modes

Following are recommendations for SAN, Hotadd and NBD/NBDSSL transport modes.

SAN transport mode considerations

The following recommendations and considerations apply when one of the VADP transport modes
is set to SAN (VADP_TRANSPORT_MODE=SAN):
l Prior to connecting the VADP proxy host to the SAN fabric, perform the steps in the section
Diskpart utility for SAN and Hotadd transport modes on page 234.

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l Memory usage per DD BOOST device should be approximately 500 MB.

Hotadd transport mode considerations

The following recommendations and considerations apply when one of the VADP transport modes
is set to Hotadd (VADP_TRANSPORT_MODE=Hotadd):
l Prior to running VADP backups using the virtual proxy host, perform the steps in the section
Diskpart utility for SAN and Hotadd transport modes on page 234.
l A minimum of 4 vCPUs must be allocated per virtual proxy, with 8GB vRAM per proxy and each
vCPU equal to or greater than 2.66 GHz.
l Memory usage per DD BOOST device should be approximately 300MB.
l The ESX server must be running ESX 3.5 update 4 or later.
l If there are multiple virtual proxies, it is recommended to host all the virtual proxies in a
dedicated ESX/ESXi server. This would keep the virtual proxy resource consumption of CPU
and memory isolated within that ESX/ESXi environment without impacting the production
VMs.
l VMs having IDE virtual disks are not supported for Hotadd mode. Instead, nbd mode is
recommended for these.
l The VM to restore and the VM where the restore is initiated must reside in the same VMware
datacenter.
l The virtual proxy might fail to unmount Hotadd disks. In such cases, you must manually
unmount the Hotadd disks from the virtual proxy. If any of the client VM disks are still attached
to the virtual proxy, perform the following:
1. Right-click the virtual proxy and go to Edit Settings.
2. Select each of the Hotadd disks and choose Remove.
Note: Ensure that you select Remove from virtual machine and not Remove and
delete… when unmounting.

NBD/NBDSSL transport mode considerations

The following recommendations and considerations apply when one of the VADP transport modes
is set to NBD or NBDSSL (for example, VADP_TRANSPORT_MODE=NBD):
l You can only run a concurrent backup of 20 virtual disks against a given ESX/ESXi. The limit
refers to the maximum number of virtual disks and is per ESX/ESXi host, irrespective of the
number of proxies being used in the environment.
Due to this limitation, it is recommended to apply the following best practices:
n If the ESX is not part of a VMware cluster or is part of a DRS-disabled VMware cluster,
then apply one of the following:
– When using a single proxy to backup a given ESX via NBD/NBDSSL, set the client
parallelism of the VADP proxy Client resource such that the limit of 20 concurrent disk
connections per ESX host is not exceeded.
– When using multiple proxies to backup a given ESX via NBD/NBDSSL, then the client
parallelism on each VADP proxy should be calibrated such that the total concurrent disk
connections per ESX host does not exceed 20.
n If ESX is part of a DRS-enabled VMware cluster, then apply one of the following best
practices:
– When using a single proxy to backup via NBD/NBDSSL, set the client parallelism of the
VADP proxy Client resource such that the limit of 20 concurrent disk connections per
cluster is not exceeded.

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– When using multiple proxies to backup via NBD/NBDSSL, then the client parallelism on
each VADP proxy should be calibrated such that the total concurrent disk connections
per cluster does not exceed 20.
Note: In the following examples, the backup group parallelism would take effect only
if the VADP proxy host client parallelism is set to an equal or higher number.
One proxy in the environment, all VMs on the same ESX (no cluster)
In the following example, there is a single proxy in the environment and 11 VMs need to be backed
up via NBD/NBDSSL. All 11 VMs are hosted on the same ESX, which is not part of a cluster, and
both of these jobs have to be run at the same time:
l 8 VMs from ESX contains 2 disks disk.
l 3 VMs from same ESX contains 3 disks each.
Use one of the following best practices:
l Set the client parallelism of the proxy to 8.
l Create a single backup group containing all 11 VMs from the given ESX and set the group
parallelism to 8.
Either of the above would ensure that at any given time, the maximum number of disks being
backed up from that ESX will not exceed 20.
Two proxies in the environment, all VMs on the same ESX on DRS-disabled cluster
In the following example, there are two proxies in the environment to back up 11 VMs via NBD/
NBDSSL. All 11 VMs are hosted on the same ESX, which is part of a DRS-disabled cluster, and both
of these jobs have to be run at the same time:
l Proxy1 has been assigned to backup 8 VMs, each VM contains 2 disks.
l Proxy2 has been assigned to backup 3 VMs, each VM contains 3 disks.
Use one of the following best practices:
l Set the client parallelism of Proxy1 and Proxy2 to 5 and 2 respectively.
l Create a single backup group containing all 11 VMs from the given ESX and set the group
parallelism to 8.
Either of the above would ensure that at any given time, the maximum number of disks being
backed up from that ESX will not exceed 20.
Two proxies in the environment, all VMs hosted on DRS-enabled cluster
In the following example, there are two proxies in the environment to back up 11 VMs via NBD/
NBDSSL. All 11 VMs are hosted on one DRS-enabled cluster:
l Proxy1 has been assigned to backup 8 VMs, each VM contains 2 disks.
l Proxy2 has been assigned to backup 3 VMs, each VM contains 3 disks.
Both these jobs have to be run at the same time.
Use one of the following best practices:
l Set the client parallelism of Proxy1 and Proxy2 to 5 and 2 respectively.
l Create a single backup group containing all 11 VMs from the given cluster and set the group
parallelism to 8.
Either of the above would ensure that at any given time, the maximum number of disks being
backed up from that cluster will not exceed 20.

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VADP proxy access to LUNs

The following considerations apply when using the following transport modes to access LUNs.

SAN transport mode

For SAN mode, the VADP proxy requires read access to the SAN LUNs hosting the VMs.
For image recovery via SAN mode, ensure that the VADP proxy has read-write access to the SAN
LUNs hosting the VMs. To ensure read-write access, add the VADP proxy to the same fabric zones
to which the ESX server system belongs.

Hotadd transport mode

For Hotadd mode, the ESX server (where the VADP proxy VM resides) must have access to the
datastores of the VMs. For example, if the datastores are from SAN LUNs and the ESX server
where the VADP proxy resides is separate from the ESX server where the VMs are located, then
the ESX hosting the proxy should be part of the same fabric zones to which the ESX hosting the
VMs belongs.

NBD/NBDSSL transport modes

For nbd/nbdssl, no zoning is required since access to the datastore is always by way of LAN. Only
network connectivity to ESX/ESXi is required for access to the datastore.

Diskpart utility for SAN and Hotadd transport modes

When an RDM NTFS volume is being used for any of the VMs on the VADP proxy host, Windows
will automatically attempt to mount the volume and assign drive letters to VM disks. This may lead
to data corruption on the VMs.
To prevent Windows from automatically assigning drive letters to the RDM NTFS, perform the
following steps.
Note: Steps 1 and 2 are only applicable in the case of SAN transport mode where SAN fabric
zoning is already in place such that the VADP proxy host is already displaying the SAN LUNs in
Windows disk management. If this does not apply, skip to Step 3.
1. Shut down the Windows proxy.
2. Disconnect the Windows proxy from the SAN or mask all the LUNs containing VMFS volumes
or RDM for VMs.
3. Start the proxy and log into an account with administrator privileges.
4. Open a command prompt and run the diskpart utility by entering the following:
diskpart
The diskpart utility starts and prints its own command prompt.
5. Disable automatic drive letter assignment to newly discovered volumes by entering the
following in the diskpart command prompt:
automount disable
6. Clean out entries of previously mounted volumes in the registry by entering the following in the
diskpart command prompt:
automount scrub

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APPENDIX A
Backup and recovery of the vCenter server

This appendix describes how to protect the vCenter server Appliance (VCSA) and the Platform
Services Controllers (PSC). It is intended for virtual administrators who utilize the distributed
model of the vCenter server and require protection of the complete vCenter server infrastructure.

l vCenter deployments overview........................................................................................... 236

l Best practices for backup and restore.................................................................................236
l Protecting an embedded PSC............................................................................................. 236
l Protecting external deployment models.............................................................................. 238
l vCenter server restore workflow......................................................................................... 242
l Platform Services Controller restore workfow.................................................................... 243
l Additional considerations.....................................................................................................243
l Command reference............................................................................................................ 244
l Shutting Down VBA.............................................................................................................244

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vCenter deployments overview

You can protect vCenter 6.5 deployments with NetWorker by using the vProxy appliance. The
instructions in this section assume that the vCenter server and the Platform Services Controller
(PSC) are deployed as virtual machines.
For the restores to complete successfully:
l Ensure that these virtual machines use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) with correct DNS
resolution, or
l Ensure that the host name of the machine is configured as an IP address. Note that if the host
name is configured as an IP address, the IP address cannot be changed.
There are mainly two types of vCenter deployments:
l vCenter server Appliance/Windows Virtual Machine with an embedded PSC.
l vCenter server (also multiple) Appliance/Windows virtual machine with an external PSC. This
type has two sub categories:
n vCenter server environment with a single external PSC.
n vCenter server environment with multiple PSC instances: This environment contains
multiple vCenter server instances registered with different external PSC instances that
replicate their data.

Best practices for backup and restore

Review the following recommendations and best practices when planning a vCenter virtual
machine or its component virtual machine(s) backup.
Note: Backups will not save Distributed switch configurations.

l It is recommended to schedule the backup of the vCenter server when the load on the vCenter
server is low, such as during off-hours, to minimize the impact of vCenter virtual machine
snapshot creation and snapshot commit processing overhead.
l Ensure that there are no underlying storage problems that might result in long stun times.
l Keep the vCenter virtual machine and all of its component virtual machines in one single
isolated protection policy. The protection policy should not be shared with any other virtual
machines. This is to ensure that the backup times of all vCenter Server component virtual
machines are as close to each other as possible.
l Ensure that the backup start time of the vCenter Server does not overlap with any operations
for other protected virtual machines being managed by this vCenter so that there is no impact
on other protected virtual machines during snapshot creation and snapshot commit of the
vCenter virtual machine.
l If the vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller instances fail at the same time, you
must first restore the Platform Services Controller and then the vCenter Server instances.

Protecting an embedded PSC

The following section describes backup and recovery options for protecting an embedded PSC.
Backup
You can perform a backup of an embedded PSC by using the following guidelines.

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1. Create a policy, and then add the vCenter virtual machine (VC VM) group to the policy.
2. Select the full virtual machine and not individual disks.
3. Run the scheduled or on-demand (ad-hoc) policy.
Recovery
Depending on the type of failure, you can perform the virtual machine recovery by using one of the
following methods.
l Restore to original (Revert a virtual machine) — This method is valid only when the vCenter
Server Appliance (VCSA) is intact and running, but corrupted.
l Recover as a new virtual machine to a managed ESXi server (Virtual Machine Recovery) —
Use this method if you have completely lost your VCSA. Note that this vCenter must be
registered with NetWorker.
l Emergency recovery to an ESXi server — Emergency recovery will be the main use case, and
so the following steps describe how to perform the restore using the Emergency Recovery
option.

Restore an embedded PSC with Emergency Recovery

Use the following steps to restore an embedded PSC using the Emergency Recovery option in the
NetWorker Management Console.
Before you begin
Emergency Recovery requires you to set up a vProxy on the ESXi host prior to running the
recovery. Ensure that there is one healthy ESXi host available for the emergency recovery, and
that this host has a vProxy appliance registered to NetWorker.
Additionally, ensure that you disconnect the ESXi host from the vCenter server.
Note: There is no post-restore operation to be performed for embedded installs.

Procedure
1. In the NMC NetWorker Administration Recover window, select Recover > New from the
main menu.
The Recover Configuration wizard opens on the Select the Recovery Type page. Virtual
Machine Recovery is the second option displayed in the Recovery Type pane.
2. In the Select the Recovery Type page, select Virtual Machine Recovery, and then select a
vCenter server to recover from using the Source vCenter server drop-down. Click Next.
3. In the Select the Virtual Machine to Recover page, enter the name of the source virtual
machine(s) to recover from, or perform a search for the virtual machine. Additionally, you
can use the tabs on this page to choose a single virtual machine or multiple virtual machines
from a selected backup, or browse the source vCenter to determine the required virtual
machine source. After selecting the desired virtual machine(s), click Next.
4. In the Select the Target Backups page, select the virtual machine backup(s) you want to
restore from the Available Backups pane. This pane lists both primary backups and, if
available, clone copies. If you selected recovery from multiple virtual machines, you can
switch between virtual machines to browse each machine's available backups by using the
Virtual Machine Name drop-down. Click Next.
5. In the Select the Virtual Machine Recovery method page, select Emergency recovery,
and then click Next.
6. In the Configure the Emergency Recovery page, specify the target ESXi server in the
vCenter environment, and then click Connect. The Proxy Selection and Recovery Data
panes get populated with the ESXi server details

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7. In the Proxy Selection pane, if a proxy is not discovered, add a new proxy which is deployed
in vCenter but not added to NetWorker.
8. For the disks in the Recovery Data pane, select a datastore, and then optionally, select the
Power on virtual machine and Reconnect to network options. Click Next.
9. In the Select Alternate Recovery Sources page, select the original disk backup or select a
clone copy if one is available. If recovering from a clone that is not on a Data Domain device,
or recovering from a Data Domain Cloud Tier device, specify the staging pool. Click Next.
10. In the Perform the Recovery page, specify a name for the recovery and check the
summary at the bottom of the page to ensure all the details are correct, and then click Run
Recovery.
11. After the recovery operation, wait until the virtual machine restarts, and then log into the
vCenter Server Appliance shell as root
12. Verify that all PSC and vCenter services are running.
l For an appliance, run the service-control --status --all command in the appliance
shell.
l For a vCenter installed on Windows, from the Windows Start menu, select Control
Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
After you finish
During an Emergency Recovery, the vProxy gets associated with the ESXi host and is unavailable
for other operations on the vCenter server. Wait until the recovery completes before initiating any
other operations on the vProxy.

Protecting external deployment models

Review the backup and recovery options for protecting external deployments.
Backup
You can perform a backup by using the following guidelines:
1. Create one lifecycle group and add the vCenter virtual machine and PSC virtual machine to the
group. This will ensure that snapshots are taken at the same time.
2. Ensure that you select the full virtual machine and not individual disks.
3. Run the scheduled or on-demand (ad-hoc) policy.
Note: Ensure that you back up all vCenter server and PSC instances at the same time

Recovery
Depending on the failure, you can perform virtual machine recovery by using one of the following
methods:
l Restore to original — This method is valid only when the VCSA is intact and running, but
corrupted.
l Recover as a new virtual machine to a managed ESXi server: Use this method of you have
completely lost your VCSA. Note that this vCenter must be registered with NetWorker.
l Emergency recovery to an ESXi server. For Emergency recovery, perform the steps specified
in the section Restore an embedded PSC with Emergency Recovery.
Note: In the event of a complete environment failure, PSC should be restored first, followed by
the vCenter server restore.

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The following scenarios provide specific instructions based on the number of vCenter server
appliances and external PSCs in the environment and the extent of the failure.

vCenter server appliance(s) with one external PSC where PSC fails
Procedure
1. Perform an image-level recovery of the PSC by using one of the methods indicated above,
and then power ON the virtual machine.
2. Verify that all PSC services are running.
l For a PSC deployed as an appliance, run the service-control --status --all
command in the appliance shell.
l For a PSC installed on Windows, from the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel >
Administrative Tools > Services.
3. Log into the vCenter server appliance shell as root.
4. Verify that no vCenter services are running, or stop any vCenter services that are running
by typing service-control --stop.
5. Run the vc-restore script to restore the vCenter virtual machines.
l For a vCenter server appliance, type vcenter-restore -u
psc_administrator_username -p psc_administrator_password
l For a vCenter Server installed on Windows, go to C:\Program Files\VMware
\vCenter Server\, and then run vcenter-restore -u
psc_administrator_username -p psc_administrator_password

where psc_administrator_username is the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name,

which must be in UPN format.
6. Verify that all vCenter services are running and the vCenter Server is started, as specified in
step two.
7. Perform a log in test to the vCenter Server.
If the restore was successful, the login completes successfully.

vCenter server appliance is lost but the PSC remains

Procedure
1. Perform an image-level recovery of the lost vCenter server by using one of the following
methods, and then power ON.
l Restore to original — This method is valid only when the VCSA is intact and running, but
corrupted.
l Recover as a new virtual machine to a managed ESXi server — Use this method if you
have completely lost your VCSA. Note that this vCenter must be registered with
NetWorker.
l Emergency recovery to an ESXi server.
2. After a successful boot, verify that all services are started.
3. Perform a log in test.

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vCenter server appliance with multiple PSCs where one PSC is lost, one remains
Procedure
1. Repoint the vCenter instance (insert link) to one of the functional PSC in the same SSO
domain.
Note: Log in to all vCenter servers one by one to determine which vCenter log in fails.
This will be the vCenter that requires the repoint steps.

2. Run the following command on the vCenter server appliance:

cmsso-util repoint --repoint-psc psc_fqdn_or_static_ip [--dc-port
port_number]
Note: The square brackets enclose the command options.

3. Perform a log in test on the vCenter server.

4. Deploy the new PSC and join to an active node in the same SSO and site, replacing lost
ones.
5. Repoint the vCenter server to the new PSC.

vCenter server appliance remains but all PSCs fail

About this task
Note: In this scenario, none of the vCenter logins (SSO user) have been successful.

Procedure
1. Restore the most recent PSC backup and wait for the vCenter services to start
2. Log in to the vCenter server appliance's shell as root.
3. Verify that no vCenter services are running, or stop vCenter services.
4. Run the vc-restore script to restore the VCSA (refer above for detailed steps).
Note: If the login test to any vCenter server appliance fails, then the restored PSC is not
the PSC that the vCenter server appliance is pointing to, in which case you may be
required to perform a repoint, as described above.

5. Deploy the new PSC and join to an active node in the same SSO domain and site.
6. Repoint vCenter connections as required

vCenter server appliance remains but multiple PSCs fail

Procedure
1. Restore one PSC.
2. Test the vCenter server appliance login. If the login fails, repoint the vCenter server
appliance to an active PSC.
3. Deploy the new PSC and join to an active node in the same SSO domain and site.

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vCenter server appliance fails

About this task
Note: If a total failure has occurred (all PSCs and all vCenter server appliances failed), restore
one PSC first before restoring the vCenter server appliance.
Procedure
1. Perform an image-level restore of the lost vCenter server by using one of the following
methods, and then power ON the vCenter.
l Restore to original — This method is valid only when the vCenter server appliance is
intact and running, but corrupted.
l Recover as a new virtual machine to a managed ESXi server — Use this method if you
have completely lost your vCenter server appliance. Note that this vCenter must be
registered with NetWorker.
l Emergency recovery to an ESXi server.
2. After a successful boot, verify that all vCenter services have started.
3. Perform a log in test.
4. If the log in test fails, then this vCenter server appliance is pointing to an inactive PSC.
Repoint to an active node.

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vCenter server restore workflow

The following diagram shows the restore workflow for a vCenter server.
Figure 93 vCenter server restore workflow

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Platform Services Controller restore workfow

The following diagram shows the restore workflow for a Platform Services Controller (PSC).
Figure 94 PSC restore workflow

Additional considerations
Review the following additional considerations when backing up and restoring the vCenter server
and PSC.
l Backing up the vCenter server will not save the Distributed switch (vDS) configuration as it is
stored on the hosts. As a best practice, back up the vDS configuration by using a script that
can be used after restoring the virtual center.

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l After restoring the PSC, verify that replication has been performed as designed by using the
following commands to display the current replication status of a PSC and any of the
replication partners of the PSC:
n For VCSA, go to /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin and type ./vdcrepadmin -f
showpartnerstatus -h localhost -u administrator -w Administrator_Password
n For Windows, open a command prompt and type cd "%VMWARE_CIS_HOME%"\vmdird\
l For the vCenter server or PSC, do not select advanced quiesce-based backup options.
Selecting these options will result in application quiescing on virtual machines, which impacts
the overall environment due to stunning.
The VMware vCenter server documentation, available at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-
vSphere/index.html, provides more information about the vCenter server and PSC.

Command reference
Use the following command to start or stop services in the vCenter server/PSC, or obtain the
status:
service-control -status/start/stop -all
You can use other Replication topology commands, as in the following example.

Example 1 Replication topology command

/usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/vdcrepadmin -f showpartners -h
localhost -u PSC_Administrator -w password

Note: You can replace localhost with another PSC FQDN to obtain all of the
partnerships in the current vSphere domain.

Shutting Down VBA

VBA runs a number of services that manages memory data structures similar to a high transaction
rate database. It is important that these data structures are flushed to a disk to ensure the data
integrity. You should ensure that the VBA is healthy before the shutdown and also all the data is
flushed to a disk.
Procedure
1. Log into the VBA Management page:https:// <VBA_HOSTNAME>:8543/ebr-configure/
2. Review the Configuration tab and check the status of the service.
Note: Some of the services may be down when troubleshooting an existing issue

3. Review the Rollback tab and confirm that the latest validated checkpoint is less than 24
hours old.
Note: It is important that the checkpoint is validated, if the latest validated checkpoint is
older than 24 hours, you should open a S1 service request with NetWorker support
immediately.

4. Log into the VBA via SSH as user admin and take a manual checkpoint by running the
command mccli checkpoint create --override_maintenance_scheduler
5. Use the mccli command to verify that you have successfully created a checkpoint by
running: mccli checkpoint show

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An output similar to the following displays:

Tag Time Validated Deletable

----------------- ----------------------- ---------
---------
cp.20130206170045 2013-02-06 09:00:45 PST Validated Yes

6. Use the mccli command to validate the checkpoint: mccli checkpoint validate --
cptag=cp.20130206170045 -- override_maintenance_scheduler
Note: Validation takes some time to complete. You should continue to check the status
by running mccli checkpoint show.

7. Stop the services by running the command: dpnctl stop

Alternatively, you can stop the services from VBA Management page, click on
Configuration tab, and manually stop individual services.
8. You can shutdown the VBA by running the command:
root@VBA:~/>: shutdown -h now

The VBA may take 10-15 minutes to correctly shutdown. If there are issues during the
reboot, a service request should be opened with NetWorker support.

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APPENDIX B
NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud
on Amazon Web Services

This appendix includes the following topics:

l Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on AWS......................... 248

l Prerequisites....................................................................................................................... 248
l Deploy the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server in VMware Cloud on AWS.............................. 250
l NetWorker VMware Protection for VMware Cloud on AWS best practices......................... 251
l Unsupported NetWorker operations....................................................................................253
l Limitations...........................................................................................................................253

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Introduction to NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware

Cloud on AWS
NetWorker 19.2 supports NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on Amazon Web
Services (AWS).
Using NetWorker to protect virtual machines running in VMware Cloud on AWS is similar to how
you protect the virtual machines in an on-premises datacenter. This appendix provides information
on network configuration prerequisites, VMware Cloud on AWS best practices for NetWorker, and
NetWorker operations that are currently unsupported for VMware Cloud on AWS
A NetWorker with CloudBoost environment can be useful for storing backups in Amazon S3 cloud
object storage, including short term backups for operational recovery and long term retention
backups for compliance. This capability is currently available with both in-guest filesystem agents
as well as a broad range of application modules for NetWorker. NetWorker vProxy backups are
currently not supported with CloudBoost, however cloning of vProxy backups to cloud object
storage is supported via the CloudBoost appliance.
Additional information on NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on AWS, including
setup and configuration instructions, is provided in the whitepaper on https://support.emc.com/
products/1095_NetWorker/Documentation/.

Prerequisites
Domain Name System (DNS) resolution is critical for NetWorker deployment and configuration. All
infrastructure components should be resolvable through a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
This is especially important for the NetWorker Server, NetWorker vProxy, Data Domain appliance,
and CloudBoost appliance. Resolvable means that components are accessible through both
forward (A) and reverse (PTR) look-ups.
Review the following prerequisites prior to configuring NetWorker in a VMware Cloud on AWS.
Also, ensure that you plan your firewall according to these prerequisites.
VMware Cloud on AWS web portal console
In the VMware Cloud on AWS web portal console, note the following requirements:
l If using NSX-T, configure the DNS to resolve to the internal IP address of the vCenter server.
Navigate to SDDC Management > Settings > vCenter FQDN and select the Private vCenter
IP address so that you can directly access the management network over the built-in firewall.
Additionally, ensure that you open TCP port 443 of the vCenter server in both the
management gateway and the compute gateway.
l By default, there is no external access to the vCenter Server system in your SDDC (Software
Defined Data Center). You can open access to your vCenter Server system by configuring a
firewall rule. Set the firewall rule in the compute gateway of VMware Cloud on AWS to enable
communication to the vCenter public IP address from the desired logical network of your
SDDC. The NetWorker server will not allow you to add the vCenter Server if this firewall rule is
not configured in the SDDC.
l The default compute gateway firewall rules prevent all virtual machine traffic from reaching
the internet. To allow your NetWorker Server virtual machine to connect to the internet, you
need to create a compute gateway firewall rule to allow outbound traffic on the logical network
that your NetWorker Server virtual machine is connected to.
l Configure DNS to allow machines in your SDDC to resolve fully-qualified domain names
(FQDNs) to IP addresses belonging to the internet. The NetWorker Server will not allow you to

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add the vCenter Server using the server's public FQDN or IP address if the DNS server is not
configured in your SDDC.
l It is recommended that you deploy the Data Domain system as a virtual appliance in the
Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) of your choice. During the SDDC creation, ensure that
you connect your SDDC to an AWS account, and select a VPC and subnet within that account.
l The Data Domain system running in your Amazon VPC must be connected to your VMware
SDDC by using the VMware Cloud Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs), allowing your SDDC and
services in the AWS VPC and subnet in your AWS account to communicate without requiring
the routing of traffic through the internet gateway. The same ENI channel is recommended for
access to Data Domain systems (for the vProxy solution) and access to cloud object storage
(for the CloudBoost solution). Detailed steps on configuring ENI are provided by VMware at
https://vmc.vmware.com/console/aws-link.
l Ensure that you configure the inbound and outbound firewall rules of your compute gateway
for Data Domain connectivity if DDVE is running in your Amazon VPC.
Amazon AWS web portal
In the AWS web portal, note the following requirements:
l Configure the inbound and outbound firewall rules of your Amazon VPC security group to
provide connectivity between the VMware SDDC compute gateway and Data Domain
connectivity if Data Domain is running in your Amazon VPC.
l If cloning from one Data Domain system to another, ensure that you configure the inbound rule
for the security group in AWS to allow all traffic from the respective private IPs of Data
Domain Virtual Editions running in your Amazon VPC.
l If you have more than one Data Domain running in AWS to perform cloning, then ensure that
both Data Domain systems can ping each other using the FQDNs.
vCenter server inventory
In the vCenter Server inventory of your SDDC, note the following requirements:
l An internal DNS name lookup server must be running inside the vCenter inventory. This will be
referenced by all the workloads running in the VMware SDDC.
l The internal DNS server must have Forwarders enabled to access the internet. This is required
in order to resolve the vCenter Server's public FQDN

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Figure 95 Enable internet access for Forwarders

Deploy the vProxy OVA on a vCenter server in VMware Cloud

on AWS
Perform the following steps to deploy the OVA for the vProxy host from a vCenter server by using
the HTML5 vSphere Web Client.
Before you begin
Review the Pre-requisites section.
Procedure
1. Log in to the HTML5 vSphere Web Client with the cloudadmin account credentials.
2. From the top-left of the window, select Menu, and then select Hosts and Clusters from
the drop-down.
3. In the left inventory pane, expand the vCenter, and then expand the compute resource pool
inside your SDDC cluster.
4. Right-click the resource pool where you want to deploy the OVA and select Deploy OVF
template.
5. On the Select an OVF template window, type a URL path to the OVA package, or click
Choose Files and navigate to the OVA package location, and then click Next.
6. On the Select a name and folder window, specify a name for the virtual appliance, and the
inventory location (for example a virtual machine folder). Click Next.
7. On the Select a compute resource window, select the vApp or resource pool where you
want to deploy the OVA, and then click Next.
8. On the Review details window, review the product details such as the product name,
version, vendor, publisher, and download size, and then click Next.

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9. On the License agreements window, review and accept the EULA, and then click Next.
10. On the Select storage window, select the disk format and the destination datastore where
the virtual appliance files will be stored, and then click Next.
It is recommended that you select Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed to ensure that amount of
storage space allocated to the virtual appliance is available.
11. On the Select networks window, select the Destination Network. Provide the IP address
in the text box and click Next.
12. On the Customize template window, expand Networking properties, and then specify the
following attributes:
a. In the Network IP address field, specify the IP address for the vProxy appliance.
b. In the Default gateway field, specify the IP address of the gateway host.
c. In the Network Netmask/Prefix field, specify the netmask for an IPv4 Network IP
address.
d. In the DNS field, specify the IP address of the DNS servers, separated by commas.
e. In the FQDN field, specify the fully qualified domain name of the vProxy appliance.
13. Expand Timezone settings, and then perform the following tasks:
a. in the Timezone setting field, select the time zone.
b. SSH into the vProxy appliance using root credentials and run the following
command: /usr/bin/timedatectl set-timezone new-timezone.
Note: To set a time zone outside of the list supported by the vProxy appliance, you need
to change the time zone manually.

14. Expand Password settings, and then perform the following tasks:
a. In the Root password field, specify a new password for the root account.
b. In the Admin password field, specify a new password for the admin account.
Note: The passwords for the root and admin account should be between 8 and 20
characters in length. Specifying a new password is mandatory when deploying the
vProxy using vCenter, otherwise the vProxy appliance fails to power on. Ensure that
you change the default passwords of both the root and admin account during
deployment.

15. Click Next.

The Ready to Complete window displays.
16. On the Ready to Complete window, review the deployment configuration details, and then
click Finish.
Results
The Deploying template task appears in the vCenter and provides status information about the
deployment.

NetWorker VMware Protection for VMware Cloud on AWS

best practices
Observe the following best practices when using NetWorker to protect virtual machines running in
VMware Cloud on AWS:

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l When deploying or configuring the NetWorker Server or vProxy, ensure that you specify the
DNS server IP that points to the internal DNS server running in the vCenter inventory.
l Ensure that both forward and reverse lookup entries in the internal DNS server are in place for
all of the required components, such as the NetWorker Server, NetWorker vProxy appliance,
Data Domain Virtual Edition (DDVE), and CloudBoost appliance.
l When adding the vCenter Server to NMC's VMware View, ensure that you select the
Deployed in Cloud checkbox. Note that this setting is required for any vCenter Servers
running in VMware Cloud on AWS, If you do not select this option, then some NetWorker
operations will fail in the VMware Cloud on AWS.
Figure 96 Add a vCenter Server to VMware View with Deployed in Cloud enabled

l Add the vCenter Server to the NetWorker Server using either the public FQDN of the vCenter
Server or the public IP address of the vCenter Server. It is recommended to use the FQDN.
l When adding the vCenter Server to the NetWorker Server, specify the login credentials for the
cloudadmin user
l When configuring the vProxy in the NetWorker Server, set the Maximum NBD sessions for
the vProxy to zero. VMware Cloud on AWS does not support NBD transport mode.

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Figure 97 NSR VMware Proxy Properties

Unsupported NetWorker operations

NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on AWS does not currently support the following
operations:
l File-level restore from an image-level backup.
l Instant access recovery of an image-level backup.
l Emergency restore (image-level restore directly to an ESXi host, bypassing the vCenter).
l Image-level backups and restores using NBD or NBDSSL transport mode.
l Application-consistent data protection for MS-SQL with the vProxy appliance.
l If the datacenter is placed inside a folder in the SDDC, image backup and restore is not
supported

Limitations
Before configuring NetWorker VMware Protection in VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services
(AWS), review the following limitations.
VMware Cloud on AWS with SDDC version 1.8
The vProxy restores as new VM using NetWorker Management Console and NetWorker
HTML5 Admin Console fail with errors stating that the vProxy is unable to register the VM
onto the destination. This issue is not seen if you are using VMware Cloud on AWS version 1.7
or earlier.
The restore log displays:

159373:nsrvproxy_recover: vProxy Log:

2019-10-09T04:22:33Z ERROR: [@(#) Build number: 28] Error
registering VM: ServerFaultCode: Permission to perform this
operation was denied. 159373:nsrvproxy_recover: vProxy Log:

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2019-10-09T04:22:33Z ERROR: [@(#) Build number: 28] Error in

registering VM "[WorkloadDatastore]
Win-GA-Repl1_1abc/Win-GA-Repl1_1abc.vmx". "ServerFaultCode:
Permission to perform this operation was denied."

To fix the issue, you should manually add vcenter permission to the desired "VMs and
Templates" folder that the restored VM has to be stored. The target VM folder should be
associated with permissions as follows "user=cloudadmingroup" and "role=cloudadmin",
and enable "propogate to children". After the permission is added manually, NetWorker
NMC and NWUI will display the desired folder. If correct folder is chosen in the UI, then the
restore as new VM will be successful.

When restoring as new VM, the reconnect NIC option may not work correctly
Edit settings of the restored new VM and change the network to "VM Network" and then
click Apply. Reopen the edit setting configuration pane of the VM, and change the network to
the correct desired NSX-T network logical switch and then click Connect.

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APPENDIX C
Regular expressions for NetWorker vProxy
dynamic policies rule definitions

This appendix includes the following topic:

l Regular expression syntax accepted by dynamic policy rule definition................................ 256

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Regular expression syntax accepted by dynamic policy rule

definition
Rule definitions for NetWorker vProxy policies with dynamic association enabled can contain
regular expressions.
The following tables list the acceptable rules, syntax, and grammar to use when writing such
regular expressions.
Types of single-character expressions Examples

Any character, possibly including newline .

(s=true)

character class [xyz]

Perl character class \d

negated Perl character class \D

ASCII character class [[:alpha:]]

negated ASCII character class [[:^alpha:]]

Unicode character class (one-letter name) \pN

Unicode character class \p{Greek}

negated Unicode character class (one-letter \PN

name)

negated Unicode character class \P{Greek}

Composites

xy x followed by y

x|y x or y (prefer x)

Repetitions

x* zero or more x, prefer more

x+ one or more x, prefer more

x? zero or one x, prefer one

x{n,m} n or n+1 or ... or m x, prefer more

x{n,} n or more x, prefer more

x{n} exactly n x

x*? zero or more x, prefer fewer

x+? one or more x, prefer fewer

x?? zero or one x, prefer zero

x{n,m}? n or n+1 or ... or m x, prefer fewer

x{n,}? n or more x, prefer fewer

x{n}? exactly n x

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Note: The counting forms x{n,m}, x{n,}, and x{n} reject forms that create a minimum or
maximum repetition count above 1000. Unlimited repetitions are not subject to this restriction.

Grouping

(re) numbered capturing group (submatch)

(?P<name>re) named & numbered capturing group

(submatch)

(?:re) non-capturing group

(?flags) set flags within current group; non-capturing

(?flags:re) set flags during re; non-capturing

Flags

i case-insensitive (default false)

m multi-line mode: ^ and $ match begin/end line

in addition to begin/end text (default false)

s let . match \n (default false)

U ungreedy: swap meaning of x* and x*? , x+

and x+? , etc (default false)

Flag syntax is xyz (set) or -xyz (clear) or xy-z (set xy , clear z ).

Empty strings

^ at beginning of text or line ( m =true)

$ at end of text (like \z not \Z ) or line ( m

=true)

\A at beginning of text

\b at ASCII word boundary ( \w on one side and

\W , \A , or \z on the other)

\B not at ASCII word boundary

\z at end of text

Escape sequences

\a bell ( ≡ \007 )

\f form feed ( ≡ \014 )

\t horizontal tab ( ≡ \011 )

\n newline ( ≡ \012 )

\r carriage return ( ≡ \015 )

\v vertical tab character ( ≡ \013 )

\* literal * , for any punctuation character *

\123 octal character code (up to three digits)

\x7F hex character code (exactly two digits)

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Escape sequences

\x{10FFFF} hex character code

\C match a single byte even in UTF-8 mode

\Q...\E literal text ... even if ... has punctuation

Character class elements

x single character

A-Z character range (inclusive)

\d Perl character class

[:foo:] ASCII character class foo

\p{Foo} Unicode character class Foo

\pF Unicode character class F (one-letter name)

Named character classes as character class

elements

[\d] digits ( ≡ \d )

[^\d] not digits ( ≡ \D )

[\D] not digits ( ≡ \D )

[^\D] not not digits ( ≡ \d )

[[:name:]] named ASCII class inside character class ( ≡

[:name:] )

[^[:name:]] named ASCII class inside negated character

class ( ≡ [:^name:] )

[\p{Name}] named Unicode property inside character

class ( ≡ \p{Name} )

[^\p{Name}] named Unicode property inside negated

character class ( ≡ \P{Name} )

Perl character classes (all ASCII-only)

\d digits ( ≡ [0-9] )

\D not digits ( ≡ [^0-9] )

\s whitespace ( ≡ [\t\n\f\r ] )

\S not whitespace ( ≡ [^\t\n\f\r ] )

\w word characters ( ≡ [0-9A-Za-z_] )

\W not word characters ( ≡ [^0-9A-Za-z_] )

ASCII character classes

[[:alnum:]] alphanumeric ( ≡ [0-9A-Za-z] )

[[:alpha:]] alphabetic ( ≡ [A-Za-z] )

[[:ascii:]] ASCII ( ≡ [\x00-\x7F] )

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ASCII character classes

[[:blank:]] blank ( ≡ [\t ] )

[[:cntrl:]] control ( ≡ [\x00-\x1F\x7F] )

[[:digit:]] digits ( ≡ [0-9] )

[[:graph:]] graphical ( ≡ [!-~] ≡ [A-Za-z0-9!"#$%&'()*

+,\-./:;<=>?@[\\\]^_`{|}~] )

[[:lower:]] lower case ( ≡ [a-z] )

[[:print:]] printable ( ≡ [ -~] ≡ [ [:graph:]] )

[[:punct:]] punctuation ( ≡ [!-/:-@[-`{-~] )

[[:space:]] whitespace ( ≡ [\t\n\v\f\r ] )

[[:upper:]] upper case ( ≡ [A-Z] )

[[:word:]] word characters ( ≡ [0-9A-Za-z_] )

[[:xdigit:]] hex digit ( ≡ [0-9A-Fa-f] )

Unicode character class names--general

category

C other

Cc control

Cf format

Co private use

Cs surrogate

L letter

Ll lowercase letter

Lm modifier letter

Lo other letter

Lt titlecase letter

Lu uppercase letter

M mark

Mc spacing mark

Me enclosing mark

Mn non-spacing mark

N number

Nd decimal number

Nl letter number

No other number

P punctuation

Pc connector punctuation

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Unicode character class names--general

category

Pd dash punctuation

Pe close punctuation

Pf final punctuation

Pi initial punctuation

Po other punctuation

Ps open punctuation

S symbol

Sc currency symbol

Sk modifier symbol

Sm math symbol

So other symbol

Z separator

Zl line separator

Zp paragraph separator

Zs space separator

Vim character classes

\d digits ( ≡ [0-9] ) VIM

\D not \d VIM

\w word character VIM

\W not \w VIM

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APPENDIX D
EMC Backup and Recovery plug-in for Vmware
Backup appliance restores

NetWorker 19.1 and later does not support the VMware Backup appliance (VBA) solution. If you
have VBA backups from previous Networker releases, you can recover those backups from the
NetWorker Management Web UI by using the vProxy, however, the recovery types available in
this UI are limited to a Revert or New Virtual Machine restore. For other recovery types, such as
VMDK-level, you can continue to use the vSphere Web Client EMC Backup and Recovery user
interface.
Network address translation (NAT) is not supported for VMware Backup Appliance configuration.
When configuring a network for the VMware Backup Appliance and the vCenter server, do not
modify the network address information by using NAT or other configuration methods such as
firewall, IDS, or TSNR. When these unsupported methods are deployed as part of the virtual
network, some VMware Backup Appliance functionality might not work as designed.
This appendix includes the following topics:

l FULLVM (Image-level) Restore...........................................................................................262

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FULLVM (Image-level) Restore

You can perform an image-level restore of full virtual machines by selecting either of the following
options in the vSphere Web Client EMC Backup and Recovery user interface:
l Click Restore Backup on the Getting Started tab.
l Select the Restore tab.
When you select the Restore tab, available virtual machines for the selected appliance display.
Additionally, you can select a different appliance from the Restore points from drop-down. For
every clone, a backup appears under the restore point.
Figure 98 Restore tab in EMC Backup and Recovery user interface

Image-level restore with resurrection

Restores from devices will be slow if resurrection is required. Resurrection is a type of recovery in
which the primary backup (or snapup) in the VMware Backup Appliance is no longer available.
Resurrection is not supported for VMDK-level backups, and you can only perform resurrection
when you associate a client with the policy.
For Data Domain devices, resurrection only occurs when restoring a cloned backup. For AFTD and
tape devices, resurrection requires a local Data Domain device on the NetWorker server. For a
Cloud Boost device, a resurrection restore can take more than an hour depending on the virtual
machine size, during which time the only progress that displays is message within ebrserver.log
showing a save set copy is in progress.
Note: If there is no staging pool available when resurrecting from an AFTD, the restore does
not fail automatically after timing out. You must manually cancel the restore operation.

Performing a FULLVM restore

About this task
Procedure
1. If restoring the VM to its original location, power off each virtual machine that you want to
restore.
Note: Power off is not required if restoring the VM to a new location.

2. In EMC Backup and Recovery, on the Restore tab, use the Restore points from drop-
down to select the appliance from which you want to restore.
EMC Backup and Recovery displays the virtual machines that are available to restore.
3. Click the virtual machine that you want to restore to expand its backups.
Use the Filter drop-down to display a specific VM and related items. You can also click a
backup to display the VMDK level and select a single VMDK for restore, if you only want to
restore that disk.

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4. Select a backup, and then click Restore.

The Restore Backup wizard launches.
5. On the Select Backup page, verify that the list of backups is correct. Remove any backup
that you want to exclude, and click Next.
6. On theSet Restore Options page, perform one of the following tasks:
l Select the Restore to original location option to restore the backup to its original
location. If the VMDK file still exists at the original location, the restore process
overwrites the file.
l Unselect the Restore to original location option, and specify a new name and
destination where the virtual machine or VMDK will be restored.
7. Optionally, select Advanced options to set the VM to Power On and Reconnect NIC after
the restore process completes.
Note: Reconnect NIC is enabled by default and greyed out. Only when you select
Power On are you given the option to clear the Reconnect NIC option.
8. Click Next.
9. On the Ready to complete page, verify the selections. The wizard displays a summary of
the number of machines that will be replaced (restore to the original location) and the
number of machines that will be created (restore to a new location).
10. To change any of the settings for your restore request, either use the Back button to return
to the appropriate screen, or click the appropriate numbered step title to the left of the
wizard. If the settings are correct, then click Finish.
The Restore Backup wizard displays a message that the restore process initiated
successfully.
11. Click OK.
You can monitor the restore progress by using the Recent Tasks pane.
Note: If you selected Reconnect NIC during the restore process, then confirm the
network configuration for the newly-created virtual machine. Once the restore
completes, the new virtual machine NIC might use the same IP address as the original
virtual machine, which will cause conflicts.

Results
When the recovery starts, a recovery session also displays in NMC. Any activities that occur on
the vCenter side are visible on the NMC side.

Canceling a FULLVM restore

To cancel a restore at any time during setup, click the circular x symbol associated with the restore
job in the Recent Tasks pane.
About this task

Instant Access restore (for Data Domain systems only)

If your primary backup is located on a Data Domain system, clicking the Instant Access button on
the Restore tab allows you to perform a quick restore of these backups, the same as you would
perform a typical FULLVM restore. No further configuration is required to use this feature.
About this task
The Instant Access restore operation has the following limitations:

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l The free space on the Data Domain system must be equal to or greater than the total disk size
of the VM being restored, as the restore does not take into account the actual space required
after deduplication occurs. If there is insufficient disk space, an error appears indicating
"Insufficient disk space on datastore," and creation of the target VM fails.
l You cannot use the Instant Access button when you select more than one different Data
Domain system backup for multiple VMs.
l You can perform only one Instant Access restore at a time. Ensure that you vMotion the VM
to a different datastore and that you unmount the datastore before performing another instant
access restore for the Data Domain system.
l You cannot recover multiple save sets concurrently using Instant Access restore.
Procedure
1. In the EMC Backup and Recovery user interface, select the Restore tab.
EMC Backup and Recovery displays the virtual machines that are available to restore.
2. Click a virtual machine to expand the list of available backups, from which to restore.
Note: You cannot browse and select backup data at the disk level.

3. Select the backup that you want to restore, and click Instant Access.
The Instant Access wizard opens to the Select Backup page.
Figure 99 Select a backup

4. Verify that the list of backups is correct, remove any backups that you want to exclude from
the restore, and click Next.
The Set Instant Access Options page displays.

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Figure 100 Set instant access options

5. Specify a new name and destination for the restore, and click Next.
The Ready to complete page displays.
Figure 101 Ready to complete

6. Review the restore request, and click Finish.

You should see a message that indicates that the instant access operation was successfully
completed.

Restore from last backup

The vSphere Web Client also provides an option to perform a VMware Backup Appliance restore
from the last successful backup. This option is available when you right-click the VM and select All
EBR actions > Restore from last backup.
About this task
Note: Before you use this option, make sure that you establish a connection to the VMware
Backup Appliance by selecting the EMC Backup and Recovery user interface in the vSphere
Web Client.

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Direct to host recovery

You can recover image-level backups directly to an ESX host without requiring a vCenter server by
using the Emergency Restore tab EMC Backup and Recovery Configure window. Direct to host
recovery is available only for VMs that you back up to a VMware Backup appliance.
About this task
Before performing an emergency restore, ensure that you meet the following requirements:
l The VM you want to restore must have a VMware Hardware version that is supported by the
ESX host running the VMware Backup Appliance (VMware Hardware version 7 or later).
l A vSphere host that is currently managed by the vCenter Server must be temporarily
disassociated from the vCenter Server to perform the emergency restore. To disassociate the
vCenter Server, use the vSphere Client (not the vSphere Web Client) connected directly to
the vSphere host.
l You must have adequate free space in the target datastore to accommodate the entire VM.
The target VMFS datastore to which the VM is being restored must support the VMDK file
size.
l Network connectivity must be available for the restored VMs from the ESX host running the
VMware Backup Appliance.
l You must have at least one local account with administrator privileges on the ESX host running
the VMware Backup Appliance.
Note: You can only perform an emergency restore from a primary backup; you cannot use a
cloned backup.
Procedure
1. Log in to the EMC Backup and Recovery Configure window at the following URL using the
EMC Backup and Recovery username and password credentials that you defined during
configuration:
http://VMware_Backup_appliance_IP:8580/ebr-configure

2. Select the Emergency Restore tab.

3. Click Refresh to view the most recent available VM backups.
4. Click the arrow beside a restore point to display its backups.
5. Select the backup that you want to restore, and then click Restore.
The following figure provides an example of the Emergency Restore window.

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Figure 102 Emergency Restore window

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268 Dell EMC NetWorker VMware Integration Guide

GLOSSARY

This glossary contains terms related to disk storage subsystems. Many of these terms are used in
this manual.

backup 1. Duplicate of database or application data, or an entire computer system, stored

separately from the original, which can be used to recover the original if it is lost or
damaged.
2. Operation that saves data to a volume for use as a backup.

Backup proxy The system designated as the off-host backup system. This is a host with NetWorker
client package installed and the VADP software.

changed block tracking A VMkernel feature that keeps track of the storage blocks of virtual machines as they
change over time. The VMkernel keeps track of block changes on virtual machines,
which enhances the backup process for applications that have been developed to take
advantage of VMware’s vStorage APIs.

checkpoint A system-wide backup, taken only after 24 hours (and at the time of the checkpoint
after that first 24 hours have elapsed), that is initiated within the vSphere Web Client
and captures a point in time snapshot of the EMC Backup and Recovery appliance for
disaster recovery purposes.

client Host on a network, such as a computer, workstation, or application server whose data
can be backed up and restored with the backup server software.

client file index Database maintained by the NetWorker server that tracks every database object, file,
or file system backed up. The NetWorker server maintains a single index file for each
client computer. The tracking information is purged from the index after the browse
time of each backup expires.

Console server See NetWorker Management Console (NMC).

datastore A virtual representation of a combination of underlying physical storage resources in

the datacenter. A datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk, a
RAID, or a SAN) for virtual machine files.

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Glossary

EMC Backup and The EMC Backup and Recovery appliance (or VMware Backup Appliance) is an
Recovery Appliance appliance that, when deployed, enables VMware backup and clone policy creation in
NMC, and enables the EMC Backup and Recovery plug-in in the vSphere Web Client to
assign VMs to those policies.

EMC Data Protection A browser that allows for file-level restores, where specific folders and files are
Restore Client restored to the original virtual machine on Windows and Linux virtual machines.

file index See client file index.

file-level restore (FLR) Allows local administrators of protected virtual machines to browse and mount
backups for the local machine. From these mounted backups, the administrator can
then restore individual files. FLR is accomplished using the EMC Data Protection
Restore Client. See “Using File Level Restore” on page 63 for additional information on
FLR.

Guest OS An operating system that runs on a virtual machine.

hotadd A transport mode where the backup related I/O happens internally through the ESX
I/O stack using SCSI hot-add technology. This provides better backup I/O rates than
NBD/NBDSSL.

image level backup and Used in the case of a disaster recovery.

recovery

inactivity timeout Time in minutes to wait before a client is considered to be unavailable for backup.

JAR (Java Archive) A file that contains compressed components needed for a Java applet or application.

label Electronic header on a volume used for identification by a backup application.

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 Glossary

managed application Program that can be monitored or administered, or both from the Console server.

media database Database that contains indexed entries of storage volume location and the life cycle
status of all data and volumes managed by the NetWorker server.

metadata VSS-defined information that is passed from the writer to the requestor. Metadata
includes the writer name, a list of VSS components to back up, a list of components to
exclude from the backup, and the methods to use for recovery. See writer and See
VSS component.

NBD A transport mode over LAN that is typically slower than hotadd mode. In NBD mode,
the CPU, memory and I/O load gets directly placed on the ESX hosting the production
VMs, since the backup data has to move through the same ESX and reach the proxy
over the network. NBD mode can be used either for physical or virtual proxy, and also
supports all storage types.

NBDSSL A transport mode that is the same as NBD except that the data transferred over the
network is encrypted. Data transfer in NBDSSL mode can therefore be slower and use
more CPU due to the additional load on the VADP host from SLL encryption/
decryption.

NetWorker administrator NetWorker server user who may add, change, or delete NetWorker server users.

NetWorker client See client.

NetWorker Management Software program that is used to manage NetWorker servers and clients. The NMC
Console (NMC) server also provides reporting and monitoring capabilities for all NetWorker processes.

NetWorker server Computer on a network that runs the NetWorker server software, contains the online
indexes, and provides backup and restore services to the clients and storage nodes on
the same network.

NetWorker storage node See storage node.

online indexes Databases located on the NetWorker server that contain all the information pertaining
to the client backups (client file index) and backup volumes (media index).

Open VM Tools Open VM Tools (open-vm-tools) is the open source implementation of VMware Tools
for Linux guest operating systems.

recover To restore data files from backup storage to a client and apply transaction (redo) logs
to the data to make it consistent with a given point-in-time.

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SAN (storage area A transport mode that, when used, completely offloads the backup related CPU,
network) memory or I/O load on the virtual infrastructure. The backup I/O is fully offloaded to
the storage layer where the data is read directly from the SAN or iSCSI LUN. SAN
mode requires a physical proxy.

save NetWorker command that backs up client files to backup media volumes and makes
data entries in the online index.

save set 1. Group of tiles or a file system copied to storage media by a backup or snapshot
rollover operation.
2. NetWorker media database record for a specific backup or rollover.

single step backup and See image level backup and recovery.
recovery

storage node Computer that manages physically attached storage devices or libraries, whose backup
operations are administered from the controlling NetWorker server. Typically a
“remote” storage node that resides on a host other than the NetWorker server.

update enabler Code that updates software from a previous release. It expires after a fixed period of
time.

VADP An acronym for vStorage APIs for Data Protection. VADP enables backup software to
perform centralized virtual machine backups without the disruption and overhead of
running backup tasks from inside each virtual machineVADP supersedes the VCB
framework for VMware backups.

vCenter An infrastructure management tool that provides a central point for configuring,
provisioning, and managing virtualized IT environments, and is part of the VMware
Virtual Infrastructure package.

Virtual machine Software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and
its operating system, so that the end user can install and operate software on an
abstract machine.

VM An acronym for virtual machine.

VMDK Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) is a file or set of files that appears as a physical disk drive
to a guest operating system. These files can be on the host machine or on a remote file
system. These files are commonly called VMDK files because of the .vmdk extension
that VMware adds to these files.

VMware Backup The VMware Backup Appliance (or EMC Backup and Recovery appliance) is an
Appliance appliance that, when deployed, enables VMware backup and clone policy creation in
NMC, and enables the EMC Backup and Recovery plug-in in the vSphere Web Client to
assign VMs to those policies.

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 Glossary

VMware Tools Installed inside each virtual machine, VMware Tools enhance virtual machine
performance and add additional backup-related functionality.

VSS (Volume Shadow Microsoft technology that creates a point-in-time snapshot of a disk volume.
Copy Service) NetWorker software backs up data from the snapshot. This allows applications to
continue to write data during the backup operation, and ensures that open files are not
omitted.

VSS component A subordinate unit of a writer. See writer.

writer Database, system service, or application code that works with VSS to provide
metadata about what to back up and how to handle VSS components and applications
during backup and restore. See VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service).

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