NetBackup VMware File Level Recovery backups may fail with Status 50 "client process aborted"

Problem

While performing VMware File Level Recovery backup, if the VM in question consists of LVM or Dynamic Volumes, where one or more disk in the LVM configuration is an independent persistent disk, it may cause mapping to fail as it cannot map a portion of the disk that was not snapshot.

Error Message

Errors in VxMS provider log:
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : readCallback:VixGuest.cpp:280 <ERROR> : Exiting with error while reading the sector 0x0000000000027A48 with run 0x0000000000000008 from disk 
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : readCallback:VixGuest.cpp:262 <TRACE> : out
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : loadInodeBitmap:RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp:778 <ERROR> : bitmap read failed
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : loadInodeBitmap:RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp:780 <ERROR> : Execption: VERIFY_VXMS
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : log:Error.cpp:249 <WARN> : Error: 0x00000001 occured in file ../RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp, at line 780
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : log:Error.cpp:249 <WARN> : Error: 0x00000001 occured in file ../RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp, at line 780
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : loadInodeBitmap:RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp:712 <TRACE> : out
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : RvpExtFileSystem:RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp:127 <ERROR> : Execption: VERIFY_VXMS_BOOL
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : RvpExtFileSystem:RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp:43 <TRACE> : out
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : log:Error.cpp:249 <WARN> : Error: 0x00000001 occured in file ../RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp, at line 127
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : log:Error.cpp:249 <WARN> : Error: 0x00000001 occured in file ../RvpExt2fsFileSystem.cpp, at line 127
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : rvp_map_open_id:mapintf.cpp:471 <ERROR> : Returning: 1
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : rvp_map_open_id:mapintf.cpp:260 <TRACE> : out
04/27/2016 10:54:05 : rvp_map_exclude_unallocated:mapintf.cpp:1454 <INFO> : Unable to open volume /opt/somepath

Last entry in the VxMS provider log:
04/27/2016 10:56:05 : vdOpen:VixInterface.cpp:459 <DEBUG> : Done with VixDiskLib_Open(): 140354498202608
04/27/2016 10:56:05 : vdOpen:VixInterface.cpp:490 <DEBUG> : Adding SAN remap disk handle: 140354498202608
04/27/2016 10:56:05 : vdOpen:VixInterface.cpp:430 <TRACE> : out
 

Cause

The issue was caused by having an LVM that consisted of dependent and independent persistent disk.

Solution

Configure the VMDK as a dependent disk, as VMware cannot snapshot the independent persistent disk.

Workaround:
Disable the following backup optimization options:

* Enable file recovery from VM backup
* Exclude deleted blocks
* Exclude swap and paging files