Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

[quote=admin](*) Please, note that this post is fairly old and that (c)XSIBackup has evolved to a next generation of [url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-vmware-esxi-backup.html](c)VMWare (c)Backup software[/url]. It follows the same design principles as (c)XSIBackup Classic, yet it's much more powerful.

You can still download (c)XSIBackup Classic, although it's older software and only compatible with (c)ESXi up to version 6.7U3
[/quote]

Getting it to work is fairly simple, just as long as you follow the right procedure:

[b]1 - You need a runnig crond service, right?.[/b]

The ESXi crond daemon can be picky, as it lacks any service control scripts or management mechanism, you need to manage it manually as any other linux binary, so start by making sure that it's loaded just once.

ps -c | grep -v grep | grep 'busybox crond'

If you see more than one line in the output, kill all and start it again, just once of course. Getting nervous and double firing things might work half way in Windows, but ESXi is just a bare kernel, so just execute once and verify.

/usr/lib/vmware/busybox/bin/busybox crond

Everything is explained in more detail here: [url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-cron-how-to.html[/url]
If you can, just reboot the server, it will produce the same effect.

You just need to get used to how this ESXi busybox cron daemon works, it's primitive but effective. In regards to how XSIBackup uses it, it's quite simple: jobs are simply called from [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b], it's in fact simpler than the old XSIBackup cron.

So, make sure that you have the entries that you want there. You can check the cron is working by just adding a line like this to your crontab at: [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b]

*/1 * * * * echo "$(date)" >> /tmp/my-cron-test.txt

You should then see a line being recorded there every minute, you can use this command in a different window:

tail -f /tmp/my-cron-test.txt

[b]2 - You need to make sure you have a line in your crontab that points to a working backup job[/b]

You already checked that your job is running, so make sure that is has the right syntax, please read:
[url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-free-11-things-that-have-changed.html](c)XSIBackup Classic: changes in version 11.0.0[/url]

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That's all, if your crond service is running and it's pointing to the right place, you got it. If your job crond is working and you get no output, then the output might not be where you think it is, just double check the .log file redirection in the last line of the job file.

Have you checked the xsibackup.log file, to verify if the cron is working?

tail -n30 /vmfs/volumes/datastore001/xsi-dir/var/logs/xsibackup.log

The ESXi crond daemon can be picky, as it lacks any service control scripts or management mechanism, you need to manage it manually as any other linux binary, so start by making sure that it's loaded just once.

ps -c | grep -v grep | grep 'busybox crond'

If you see more than one line in the output, kill all and start it again.

/usr/lib/vmware/busybox/bin/busybox crond

Everything is explained in more detail here: [url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-cron-how-to.html[/url]
If you can, just reboot the server, it will produce the same effect.

You just need to get used to how this ESXi busybox cron daemon works, it's primitive but effective. In regards to how XSIBackup uses it, it's quite simple: jobs are simply called from [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b], it's in fact simpler than the old XSIBackup cron.

So, make sure that you have the entries that you want there. You can check the cron is working by just adding a line like this to your crontab at: [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b]

*/1 * * * * echo "$(date)" >> /tmp/my-cron-test.txt

You should then see a line being recorded there every minute, you can use this command in a different window:

tail -f /tmp/my-cron-test.txt

Why are you keeping the old cron sytem line?

*/1 * * * * '/vmfs/volumes/DATA/xsi-dir/xsibackup-cron' >> '/vmfs/volumes/DATA/xsi-dir/xsibackup-cron.log' 2>&1

Remove it and reboot your server.
Why do you say that the backup process did not run as expected?
Have you examined the log at /vmfs/volumes/DATA/xsi-dir/conf/?
You could simply have a wrong e-mail password that prevents you from getting the report, but that would not mean the backup didn't take place. You won't know until you get familiarized with the new changes, which are not so dramatic BTW.
[url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-free-11-things-that-have-changed.html](c)XSIBackup Classic: changes in version 11.0.0[/url]

Before you use bash code in your job file, you should know what it means and what its effect will be, otherwise you are just playing russian roulette with your VMs.

--backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/backup_intern/[b]$( date +%Y%m'00000000' )[/b]

Remove the part in bold, and next time try to dig into your problem a bit more. We are glad to help anybody that has first tried to help himself.

By the way, if you like to backup to the same folder, you are just creating the base for your very personal big disaster. XSIBackup is a backup tool and just like a chainsaw can be a very helpful tool. We nevertheless can't prevent people hurting themselves by using it inadequately.

We are not quite getting you.
If you don't want the backup stored to a timestamped folder, then don't parse the --date-dir=yes argument. Nevertheless [b](c)XSITools[/b] will do that by design.
We don't know what's your backup job, so it's hard to give an answer, we are only guessing.

If you run an Vmkfstools or Rsync backup and receive no errors, the possibility that there's something wrong is very low, almost zero, as Vmkfstools and Rsync already have their own internal verification mechanisms. Issuing [b]--certify-backup=yes[/b] is a redundant check that is more focused on making sure the data can be read and is equal on both sides.

The level of certainty when using [b]--certify-backup[/b] is almost absolute, but still, there's a chance that a meteorite falls on your datacenter ;-), so, although absolute certainty is something that only exists in the mathematics world, using [b]--certify-backup[/b] will at lest allow you to sleep well.

When you use [b](c)OneDiff[/b], the mechanism used to move the data from one server to the mirror image is higher level (snapshot exchange), so there's no inner byte-level check. Thus we created [b][https://33hops.com/xsibackup-trivial-check-and-checksums.html]Trivial Check[/url][/b] as a simple way to have a reasonable level of certainty, plus [b]--certify-backup[/b] wich will offer you, as stated above, an astronomical number level check.

You have the description along with the error code. If you want full details, just look for the error label in the program files:

[b]grep -ri /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/xsi-dir ERRORCODE[/b]

If you believe some description could be improved, please, just let us know the error code and what is that you beleive could be improved.

Activate the [b]--certify-backup=yes[/b] option to make sure your copies are equal. That error should have been reported, you might have overlapped backup jobs.

Please, read the manual. The answers to your questions are in the first page:
[url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-gui-manual.html[/url]

[url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-gui-manual.html[/url]

Then reboot the server.
To check the crond service just write some simple command to the [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b] crontab file, like

0/1 * * * *   echo "Hi, now it's: $(date)" >> /tmp/cron-test.txt

And monitor it with [b]tail -f[/b] in a second window, or just cat or vi the test file.
The above command will write an entry per minute.

tail -f /tmp/cron-test.txt

You must be doing something wrong. Are ayou aware of the fact that the new crontab is conf/root-crontab?
You must place schedules there according to what's described here: [url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-free-11-things-that-have-changed.html](c)XSIBackup Classic: changes in version 11.0.0[/url]
And then run the --update-cron command.

After you have completed the above procedure, make sure that you have your crontab in the [b]/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root[/b] crontab file