NetBackup™ Web UI VMware Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup (8.2)
Platform: Linux,UNIX,Windows
  1. Introducing the NetBackup web user interface
    1.  
      About the NetBackup web user interface
    2.  
      Terminology
    3.  
      Sign in to the NetBackup web UI
  2. Managing VMware servers
    1.  
      Add VMware servers
    2.  
      Validate and update VMware server credentials
    3.  
      Browse VMware servers
    4.  
      Remove VMware servers
    5.  
      Create an intelligent VM group
    6.  
      Remove an intelligent VM group
    7.  
      Add a VMware access host
    8.  
      Remove a VMware access host
    9.  
      Discover VMware server assets manually
    10.  
      VMWARE_AUTODISCOVERY_INTERVAL option for NetBackup servers
  3. Protecting VMs
    1.  
      Protect VMs or intelligent VM groups
    2. Custom protection settings for an asset
      1.  
        Exclude disks from backups
      2.  
        Snapshot retry options
    3.  
      Remove protection from VMs or intelligent VM groups
    4.  
      View the protection status of VMs or intelligent VM groups
  4. VM recovery and instant access
    1.  
      Create an instant access VM
    2.  
      Restore files and folders from a VM backup image
    3.  
      Download files and folders from a VM backup image
    4.  
      Things to consider before you use the instant access feature
    5.  
      Recover a VM
    6.  
      About VMware agentless restore
    7.  
      Prerequisites and limitations of VMware agentless restores
    8.  
      Recover files and folders with VMware agentless restore
  5. Troubleshooting VM recovery
    1.  
      Errors encountered when adding VMware servers
    2.  
      Errors encountered when browsing VMware servers
    3.  
      Errors encountered when you review Status for a newly discovered VM
    4.  
      Error encountered when downloading files from an instant access VM
    5.  
      Troubleshooting issues with backups and restores of excluded virtual disks
    6.  
      Restore fails for a virtual machine with multiple datastores
    7.  
      Errors encountered when you change the recovery destination

About VMware agentless restore

Starting with NetBackup 8.2, Veritas introduces VMware agentless restore. The agentless restore lets you restore individual files and folders to virtual machines where the NetBackup client is not installed. By using VxUpdate, NetBackup can deploy the recovery tool to the virtual machines, restore files and folders, and perform the required cleanup. NetBackup does not require a connection to the target virtual machine to recover the files. All recovery is handled through the ESX server using VMware vSphere Management APIs.

A video is available that describes NetBackup VMware agentless restore:

VMware agentless recovery video

Overview of the agentless restore process

  1. The NetBackup master server receives input from either the NetBackup Web UI or the Agentless Recovery API. The input is the files and folders for restore along with the VMware authorization credentials for the target virtual machine. These credentials must have administrator or superuser privileges.
  2. The master server sends the requested data to the restore host.
  3. The restore host confirms that it has the necessary VxUpdate recovery package to perform restore. If it's not available, the restore host downloads the required package from the master server using VxUpdate.
  4. The restore host pushes recovery tool to virtual machine using the vSphere management API.
  5. The data stream containing the user-selected files and folders is staged in a vmdk that is associated with a temporary virtual machine. Veritas creates the temporary virtual machine for the agentless restore.
  6. The vmdk that NetBackup created on the temporary virtual machine is attached to the target virtual machine.
  7. The recovery tool is invoked and the files and folders are recovered.
  8. NetBackup performs the necessary cleanup. All temporary files and objects that are created as part of the process are deleted or removed. Among the objects that are deleted and removed are the recovery tool, the temporary virtual machine, and the staging vmdk.
  9. The job is finished.