VMware backups, restores and Individual File Recovery operations may fail on Windows hosts with DLL search restrictions enabled
Problem
VMware backups, restores and Individual File Recovery operations may fail on Windows hosts with DLL search restrictions implemented
Error Message
bpbkar or tar log shows the following error message:
07:37:36.287 [21176.20652] <2> tar_base::V_vTarMsgW: FTL - VxMS initialization failed
Cause
NetBackup is unable to load VxMS Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) as they are installed in a separate directory from the binary files (bpbkar32.exe and tar32.exe) that call them
Solution
Check for the existense of the following registry value to confirm that the DLL loading restrictions are in place:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\CWDIllegalInDllSearch
Value of 0xFFFFFFFF (hexadecimal) will prevent bpbkar32.exe and tar32.exe from loading the VxMS DLLs.
To allow these processes to load VxMS DLLs, create per-process overrides by creating the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\bpbkar32.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\tar32.exe
In each of these keys, create a DWORD value CWDIllegalInDllSearch and set it to 0.
Note: You might get status code 11 in backup/restore job