VMware

VMware Consolidated Backup 1.1 Update 1 Release Notes

VMware Consolidated Backup 1.1 Update 1 | 03 October 2008 | Build 118380

Last Document Update: 03 October 2008

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

What's New in VMware Consolidated Backup 1.1 Update 1

This release of VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) version 1.1 Update 1 offers the following improvements:

  • Improvements to VCB disk lease renewal process

VCB can now dynamically re-acquire disk lease if VCB detects that the disk lease is lost, for example, in the event of a network packet loss.

  • Support for High Availability

The vcbMounter command is activated if an ESX Server host fails, and if the mounted virtual machine is configured for High Availability (HA) and started on another ESX Server host. If an ESX Server host fails, the request to reacquire the disk lease through VirtualCenter will also be redirected the request to the new ESX Server hosting the virtual machine.

  • Improvements to VCB proxy server to secure VMware VirtualCenter login password

If VCB is running on Windows proxy server, password information need not be stored in the configuration file, but can be obtained from the Windows registry.

  • Support for non-ASCII VCB proxy servers

Non-ASCII virtual machines (for example, Japanese virtual machine names) are now displayed when the vcbVmName command is run on the localized versions of Windows proxy server.

Prior Releases of VMware Consolidated Backup

Features and known issues from VCB 1.0.3 Update 1 and VCB 1.1 are described in the release notes for each release.

  • VCB 1.0.3 Update 1 (HTML)
  • VCB 1.1 (PDF)

Upgrading from VMware Consolidated Backup 1.1 Update 1 to later versions of VMware Consolidated Backup

To upgrade to the later versions of VCB, uninstall the VMware Virtual volume storage bus drivers from Windows operating systems, run the VMware-vcb-xxxxx.exe (where xxxxx is a build number), and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the upgrade. To determine the version and build number of VCB, refer the Determining VCB versions and build numbers KB.

ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and VMware Consolidated Backup Compatibility

VCB1.1 Update 1 requires the following versions of ESX Server and VirtualCenter:

  • VCB 1.1 Update 1 is compatible with any version of ESX Server 3.x managed by any version of VirtualCenter 2.x. However, for better performance, and in order to utilize some of the new features, VCB 1.1 Update 1 requires ESX Server 3.0.2 or later and VirtualCenter 2.0.2 or later.

Known Issues in This Release

Consolidated Backup Does Not Adhere to the SNAPSHOT_POLICY for "deleteonly" or "manual" Policies

When using the SNAPSHOT_POLICY option in the config.js file as "deleteonly" or "manual," VCB incorrectly deletes the snapshot when the pre-command script is called with the PREEXISTING_VCB_SNAPSHOT option set to "delete." The workaround is to set PREEXISTING_VCB_SNAPSHOT="fail" in the config.js file.

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Resolved Issues in This Release

For this release, a number of critical issues have been fixed, improving general performance, reliability, and robustness of VCB.

Mounted Virtual Machine Files on the VCB Proxy Server Are Not Accessible After ESX Server / HA Failover

This fix resolves an issue where the backed up virtual machine files mounted on VCB proxy server are not accessible after a HA failover operation. Additionally, this fix eliminated renew disk lease issue, which resulted in a disk lease time out Consolidated Backup error message.

pre-command Script Fails When Transport Mode is Set to nbdssl in config.js

When the transport mode in config.js file is set to nbdssl, the pre-command script fails with the Illegal value for config option TRANSPORT_MODE: nbdssl error message. The issue is fixed in this release.

Consolidate Helper Snapshots Might Not Be Removed Automatically

Starting from ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 release, Consolidate Helper snapshots are created iteratively to minimize the amount of time a virtual machine is inactive during snapshot creation. As a result, the Consolidate Helper snapshots are now called Consolidate Helper-XXX and not just Consolidate Helper.

When you use VCB 1.1 with ESX Server 3.5 Update 2, if vcbMounter command encounters a failure during a snapshot delete operation, the temporary snapshots might be left behind on the ESX Server host. Even the vcbCleanup.bat command does not delete this Consolidate Helper-XXX snapshot. You must manually delete it using VI Client. This issue does not exist in VCB 1.1 Update 1.

Upgrades from VCB 1.0.x to VCB 1.1 Fail

VCB 1.0.x does not upgrade to VCB 1.1, causing VCB 1.0.x to stop responding. This issue occurs due to the virtual storage driver not getting upgraded. VCB 1.1 Update 1 can be upgraded to higher versions of VCB. The issue is fixed in this release.

vcbMounter Command Fails to Create Mount Directory

vcbMounter command fails to create a mount directory if the directory does not exist. The issue is fixed in this release.

VCB Generates Error If Password Is Not Located

Specifying passwords as command-line arguments is nonsecure. Starting with this release, VCB offers a secure way for handling passwords.

  • If the password is not available in the command line arguments, Consolidated Backup searches for the password in the config.js file.
  • If the password is not available in the config.js file, Consolidated Backup searches for the password in the registry.
  • If the password is not available in the registry, Consolidated Backup prompts for the user to enter the password.
pre-backup.bat Script Returns Incorrect Error Code

When the pre-backup.bat script runs for a non-existent virtual machine, code 0 is returned instead of code 16. The issue is fixed in this release.

vcbVmName Command on Non-ASCII Windows Consolidated Backup Proxy Server Displays Garbled Characters

Running the vcbVmName command on a non-ASCII Windows Consolidated Backup proxy servers like Japanese, Russian, Chinese, etc, displays the non-ASCII name of the virtual machine as garbled characters. This issue is fixed in this release.

SNAPSHOT_POLICY Option Set as createonly Does Not Work

When SNAPSHOT_POLICY option is set as createonly in the config.js file, VCB incorrectly deletes the snapshot when the post commands are run. The issue is fixed in this release.

VCB Script Layer Fails to Remove Snapshot

The VCB script layer fails to remove a snapshot for virtual machine whose name contains spaces. The issue is fixed in this release.

pre-backup.bat Script Fails with Incorrect Error Message When Wrong Password Is Specified

When a wrong password is specified in the config.js file, running the pre-backup.bat script generates an incorrect error message, which cites the reason as an unknown virtual machine and the wrong exit code 16. The correct error message is Check hostname,username and password Exit Code: 18 checking for virtual machine. The issue is fixed in this release.

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