Veritas NetBackup™ for Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.2)
  1. Introduction to NetBackup for Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)
    1.  
      Protect AHV using NetBackup
    2. About the Hypervisor policy type to protect Nutanix AHV VMs
      1.  
        Migrating BigData policy to Hypervisor policy
    3.  
      NetBackup terminology related to the AHV backup
    4.  
      NetBackup for AHV environment
  2. Prerequisites and things to consider before using the plug-in
    1.  
      Prerequisites
    2. Things to consider before using the NetBackup plug-in for Nutanix AHV
      1.  
        NetBackup character restrictions for virtual machine names
  3. Downloading and installing the Nutanix plug-in
    1.  
      Plan the installation for Nutanix AHV
    2.  
      NetBackup server and client requirements
    3.  
      License requirements for the Nutanix AHV
    4.  
      Download the Nutanix AHV plug-in binaries
    5.  
      Install the Nutanix AHV plug-in
  4. Configuring NetBackup communication with AHV
    1.  
      Establishing communication between NetBackup and Nutanix AHV
    2. Configuring secure communication between the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor server and NetBackup host
      1.  
        About the nb_nutanix-ahv configuration file
      2. Managing SSL certificates through ECA framework
        1.  
          ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        2.  
          ECA_CRL_PATH for NetBackup servers and clients
        3.  
          VIRTUALIZATION_HOSTS_SECURE_CONNECT_ENABLED for servers and clients
        4.  
          VIRTUALIZATION_CRL_CHECK for NetBackup servers and clients
    3.  
      Adding the Nutanix Acropolis Cluster credentials for NetBackup
    4. Adding a backup host to the NetBackup master server
      1.  
        Adding a backup host to the NetBackup master access list
    5.  
      Adding a backup host to the Acropolis Cluster access list
  5. Configuring NetBackup policies for AHV
    1.  
      Creating a backup policy using the NetBackup Policies utility
    2.  
      Creating a backup policy using the NetBackup Command Line Interface
  6. Backup and recovery
    1. Back up the Nutanix AHV virtual machines
      1.  
        Basic phases in a NetBackup backup of an AHV
    2. Overview of the Nutanix AHV virtual machines recovery process
      1.  
        About recovering the Nutanix AHV virtual machines
      2.  
        Planning the recovery of a Nutanix AHV VM
      3.  
        Recovering a Nutanix AHV VM using the Backup, Archive, and Restore console
      4.  
        About recovering AHV VMs from the images that are backed up using NetBackup versions 8.1, 8.1.1, or 8.1.2
      5. Recovering a Nutanix AHV VM using the command line for Hypervisor policy
        1.  
          Creating or modifying the rename file
        2.  
          Using the command line to recover Nutanix AHV virtual machines for Hypervisor policy
  7. Troubleshooting issues
    1.  
      Troubleshooting issues related to AHV backup
    2.  
      NetBackup logs
    3.  
      About errors during policy creation, restore, and validation
    4.  
      NetBackup status codes
  8. Appendix A. NetBackup commands to backup and restore Nutanix AHV virtual machines
    1.  
      NetBackup commands for protecting the AHV
  9. Appendix B. Protect Nutanix AHV virtual machines with BigData policy
    1.  
      Using the BigData policy to backup and restore Nutanix AHV virtual machines
    2. Recovering a Nutanix AHV VM using the command line for BigData policy
      1.  
        Creating or modifying the rename file
      2.  
        Using the command line to recover Nutanix AHV virtual machines for BigData policy

NetBackup status codes

NetBackup provides status codes to help you understand and troubleshoot issues that can occur.

For information about NetBackup status codes, refer to the NetBackup Status Codes Reference Guide.

Table: Status codes related to NetBackup for AHV

Problem

Recommended action

When a backup fails with the following message:

Unknown error <status_code>

To determine the specific issue, search the NetBackup Troubleshooter for the given status code number. The status code provides you with a problem statement and a recommended action to resolve the issue.

When the following status code is displayed:

Status 6625: The backup host is either unauthorized to complete operation or it is unable to establish a connection with the application server.

The backup host may be unauthorized to complete an operation due to one of the following reasons:

  • Ensure that you have validated the SSL certificate from the Nutanix Acropolis cluster.

  • Ensure the certificate is generated with the correct host name. The certificate is issued on the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the cluster. Therefore, when you create a backup policy, provide the same Fully Qualified Domain Name in the Application_Server parameter. The Acropolis cluster name cannot use the short name of the cluster, as it will not match the Fully Qualified Domain Name in the SSL certificate.

When the mount operation fails with the following message in the nbaapidiscv process logs:

status_code aapi_logmsg: session_id:xxxx_ Nutanix Plugin :Failed to mount :/user/.acropolis/snapshot/containerID/vmdisk; Error: Permission denied. You may want to check whether you have added the backup host to the Nutanix Acropolis Cluster using the appropriate whitelist option available through the Prism web console or its command line interface.

The backup host is unable to mount the snapshot.

Verify whether you have added the backup host to the Nutanix Acropolis Cluster using the appropriate whitelist option available through the Prism web console or its command line interface.

See Adding a backup host to the Acropolis Cluster access list.

When you try to backup the virtual machines that have volume group disks, the backup fails with following message in the nbaapidiscv process logs:

status_code aapi_logmsg: session_id: xxxx_ Nutanix Plugin: failed to get snapshot_file_path for the disk. AAPI_Errno = 6647

To determine the specific issue, search the NetBackup Troubleshooter for the given status code number. The status code provides you with a problem statement and a recommended action to resolve the issue.

Backup of the virtual machines that have volume groups attached is not supported.

When the following status code is displayed:

Error code 223: an invalid entry was encountered

Ensure if the plugin is deployed properly, credentials to access the Nutanix Acropolis cluster are valid, and Hypervisor server is accessible.

When the following status code is displayed:

Status code 6654: Unable to retrieve the credentials for the server.

This error can occur if you have not configured the Nutanix Acropolis cluster credentials on the NetBackup master server.

This error can also occur if the backup host is unable to access NetBackup and retrieve the cluster credentials.

See Adding the Nutanix Acropolis Cluster credentials for NetBackup.

See Adding a backup host to the NetBackup master access list.

When the following status code is displayed:

Error code 6622: An internal error occurred in the NetBackup process.

This error can occur if you do not have appropriate administrative rights for backing up AHV virtual machines.

Ensure that you have appropriate administrative rights and permissions from Nutanix to complete a backup for AHV virtual machines.

When following status code or messages are displayed:

(4748) Unable to retrieve the VM.

(200) scheduler found no backups due to run

To check for secure communication and any backup policy errors, run the following command.

<NetBackup path>/bin/admincmd/bpclient -M <master server name> -policy <policy name> -validate

Ensure that the Nutanix cluster name used while adding Nutanix server in NetBackup should match with one of the subject name or alternate subject names in the certificate issued to the Nutanix cluster.

Ensure that you have downloaded the root certificate of the CA issuing certificate to the Nutanix cluster, or the self-signed certificate of the Nutanix Acropolis server. This certificate should be stored in a PEM file, and both the configuration variables cert_authority_file parameter in the nb_nutanix-ahv.conf and ECA_TRUST_STORE_PATH in bp.conf should point to the absolute path of this file.

Insecure workaround: If you are not sure whether your trust store configuration is correct, or if you are fine with disabling certificate validation for Nutanix Acropolis, you can also edit the nb_nutanix-ahv.conf file and set the enable_ssl_validations to false.

If the policy validation is working correctly, check that one or more VM names specified in the policy actually exist on the Nutanix AHV server.

For information about NetBackup status codes, refer to the NetBackup Status Codes Reference Guide