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#1876 Re: General matters » 33hops.com Registered Users -> Unable to login? » 2018-01-03 12:32:26

We've been doing some changes in our website taking the chance that it was Christmas time.
We just corrected your issue, please, try again.
Sorry about the inconvenience.

#1877 Re: General matters » Removing all images in email » 2018-01-02 16:47:24

Please, just follow the tutorial in this post:

[url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-email-layout-customization.html[/url]

#1878 Re: General matters » Cannot copy VMSD file details » 2017-12-31 16:46:41

Well, lets split thing up, there are many questions on top of the table:

1 - XSIBACKUP-PRO 10.2.1 addresses size mismatch errors when backing up to NFS, upgrade if you have not already done so. There are three builds of this release, so having the same version number does not mean you have the latest. If you use thick disks vs thin virtual disks, AKA sparse files, you will always get a size mismatch if you backup locally, new upcoming version 10.2.2 will address this. The easiest workaround by now, until we release 10.2.2 is to use the [b]--certify-backup[/b] argument.

2 - _XSIBAK VMs are ignored, to avoid backing them up by default. You can nevertheless make XSIBackup aware of those VMs by using the [b]--override=xsibakfilter[/b]. This is in the Man Page: [url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-help-man-page.html#override[/url]

3 - The last screenshot is showing a "broken pipe" error, which is undoubtedly informing you of a transmission error, which could be, in turn, due to a hardware problem, faulty cable, or be just a derivate error due to a timeout or some other problem. Apart from that, the program output is telling you it's not finding the --backup-point you have set, which is definitive on its own.

4 - I see you are focusing very much on [b]XSINAS[/b], which can be a great tool. Many people try it and they like it so much that they try to use it for almost everything. As any other tool has its pros and cons.

XSINAS was the first deduplication method we released along with XSIBackup, then support for Borg backup was added and in the end we released [b][https://33hops.com/xsitools-vmfs-deduplication.html]XSITools[/url][/b], which is the newest deduplication program available in XSIBackup. In fact XSITools is the recommended method to archive VMs, as it's faster and much more powerful than the other two. Borg is a great deduplication program, but as XSIBackup cannot run a true Borg client, due to ESXi not being compatible with compiled Python binaries, you are limited to sending all data over the network, which is a serious inconvenient.

XSINAS is an inline deduplication FS based on FUSE, this means that the data stored there is directly accesible through the file system. Inline deduplication file systems have their own disadvantages though: they need to do the hash search plus the eventual compression on the fly as data is written to disk. This leads to making them extremely resource hungry, and this literally means that they will use as much memory and CPU as you can add, and that they will clogg as you add more data into them, as they will need to look for chunk's hashes in a growing database.

This makes inline deduplication filesystems not so ideal to store huge volumes of data, as you will be using most resources in a feature that is not so interesting at the time to archive data, being real time or inline is not something fundamental to storing data. What is then XSINAS useful for?: well, you can use it to store limited amounts of deduplicated data, to serve as a file server, to store VM system disks, which don't change much over time and are basically read devices, etc...

On the contrary, [b]XSITools[/b] has been designed with a single purpose in mind, namely to store or archive VMs. The block size is very big, default is 50M, and the database is the very same FS. It just uses the amount of memory to manage the deduplicated chunks, one at a time, this makes XSITools extremely lightweight and fast.

#1879 (c)XSIBackup-Pro & Free Classic bug tracker » OneDiff prog: mismatch in used size comparison with thick disks » 2017-12-29 18:56:25

admin
Replies: 0

When you use [b](c) OneDiff[/b] to backup a VM containing thick disks (lazy zeroed or eager zeroed) to a local datastore (VMFS), the quick [b][url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-trivial-check-and-checksums.html]Trivial Check[/url][/b] performed after the backup shows a used size mismatch between the original disk and the just backed up one.

This is due to [b]vmkfstools[/b] always generating a thin disk on the backup target (to take advantage of available space), so when the original disk is queried for used room, it always returns its full size, whereas the backed up disk only returns the used size in the thin sparse file.

Workaround:

While we release a fix for these cases, you can use the --certify-backup=yes argument, which will change the Trivial Check by a full checksum comparison on the disks.

The size mismatch error can be safely ignored if no other errors are present, in fact it would be like OneDiff'in to an NFS datastore with a different FS, whith the only difference that in that case XSIBackup detects the file system not being VMFS and just skips the used size check.

#1880 Re: General matters » 33hops.com Registered Users -> Unable to login? » 2017-12-29 18:28:51

We have used a proxy in the States to make some tests and the results are O.K., we can login into the user area and access all entries in the menu. The CDN asked us to verify we were human, but nothing out of usual apart from that. We still have some small and annoying JS bugs related to HTML entities, but I don't thinbk that is what is causing your issue. Again, if you need something you can't perform on the website, just write to us.

#1881 Re: General matters » 33hops.com Registered Users -> Unable to login? » 2017-12-29 17:00:02

Again, thank you for your feedback.
The "Detected tax zone" issue was a bug we just corrected now.
Our tests do work, nevertheless I will clean the CDN cache again and will keep monitoring from different connections.
It's very kind from your part, but we use proxies in different countries for our tests, which is much more convenient for everyone.
Try again in some minutes, and do not doubt to contact the Support Department if you need further help.

#1882 Re: General matters » 33hops.com Registered Users -> Unable to login? » 2017-12-29 12:56:36

We have moved the topic to XSIBACKUP-PRO general matters, it was on XSIBACKUP-FREE section.

We made some changes to our website taking the chance that there are less users in Christmas time. It's working well for us, but depending on your browser and its configuration, you may need to remove cache manually, they (browsers) sometimes tend to cache content very aggresively, even though the user section is marked as "don't cache anything".

If you are using Chrome, just go to advanced configuration and remove all files and images.

#1883 Re: General matters » Cannot copy VMSD file details » 2017-12-28 11:46:40

Have you downloaded your XSIDiff license and installed it?.
What you are posting is [b](c) OneDiff[/b] output. First 500M check is working O.K., what you are getting is a used size mistmatch, which could be due to using an NFS datastore wich is formatted with a different file system than VMFS. When using OneDiff, try to always backup to VMFS or parse the --certify-backup=yes option to make sure backed up disks are an exact copy of the originals, as used sizes could vary due to using different cluster sizes.

XSIBACKUP-PRO 10.2.1 will detect the FS and remove the "used size" check on non VMFS datastores, but for some reason it's not detecting  your target datastore as something different.

I see that you datastore is named /vmfs/volumes/[b]xsinas[/b], which leads me to think you are probably using the bundled XSINAS deduplication appliance as the target of your [b](c) OneDiff[/b] backups. There's nothing wrong from a theoretical point of view, but combining both won't offer you any real advantage, and will on the other side reduce your backup speed and add a huge overload with very little advantage in return.

#1884 Re: General matters » Backup some VMs hot,followed by the other VMs cold possible? » 2017-12-28 11:38:50

Not with the free version.
You can nevertheless program those backups at different times.

#1885 Re: General matters » Cannot copy VMSD file details » 2017-12-27 09:21:47

You are mixing [b]--backup-prog=rsync[/b] with a dynamic folder on the other server. This type of path:

/vmfs/volumes/xsinas/xsit-$( date +'%Y-%m')

Can be used for local paths only.
On top of that, Rsync is not the best --backup-prog option to transfer files between servers.

#1886 Re: © OneDiff » ERROR DIFQMSH3: error: first 500M mistmatch » 2017-12-21 10:52:39

You may encounter different problems when backing up to a lower ESXi version. From a pure copy and data transfer point of view, everything is O.K., but OneDiff uses some ESXi functions to generate the cloned VM. So if you are using a hardware version which is only compatible with ESXi 6.5.0, then the copied data will not be regarded as a compatible VM set of files.

The key to your issue is this error:

info: the backup mirror VM [Debian_desktop_XSIBAK] Id (vim.fault.AlreadyExists)
...
The specified key, name, or identifier '17' already exists.

This is a very obvious error, the host is letting you know that a VM by the same name is already registered to the host.
So, delete any [b]Debian_desktop_XSIBAK[/b] VM, remove any folder named Debian_desktop, corresponding to the previously removed VM, that may still be there, and start again.

If, on the other side, you still have problems due to Hardware Version incompatibility, you can use [b]XSIDiff[/b] for the backup, which will still be very fast over a network, or [b]vmkfstool[/b]s if copying locally.

In any case, you won't be able to use the backed up VM in the ESXi 6.0.0, if HW versions are incompatible. You would be using the ESXi 6.0.0 box as a mere container to store your data. You would need to copy the data back to an ESXi 6.5.0 host to be able to switch it on.

#1887 Re: General matters » XSI Replication to Another server & then backup » 2017-12-20 11:57:12

There is a conceptual flaw in your question. XSIBackup is a backup tool, if you introduce the "Continuous replication", or we should say "real time replication" concept, then you are talking about something different. You could use a backup tool to replicate your VMs in a loop, but that would be like using a loaf of bread as a hammer, not impossible, but not best choice either.

If you want real time replication, then you need to think at the file system level and use some FUSE file system ([b][url=https://www.gluster.org/]GlusterFS[/url][/b], [b][url=https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/stable/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-hdfs/HdfsUserGuide.html]HDFS[/url][/b]) that allows to distribute data across different nodes in a network, or tools like [b][url=https://linbit.com/drbd/]DRBD[/url][/b]

#1888 Re: General matters » Problem backup vm on other host in 10.1.4 » 2017-12-20 11:48:12

There is a small bug with grep and some ESXi version that we have already solved in v. 10.2.0, nevertheless that bug should not affect you if the needed files are already in place. Please note that you cannot copy the bin folder striping it from the rest of the program files.

Stick to 10.1.0 until we release next version or write to support to get a working preview of 10.2.0

#1889 Re: General matters » Problem backup vm on other host in 10.1.4 » 2017-12-19 18:31:09

Your remote end seems to be another ESXi server, but XSIBackup was not able to determine where is the remote xsi-dir path, that's why you get the text [b]Remote xsi path set to: .[/b]

Have you linked both servers?
Have you, by accident, deleted the remote xsi-dir folder?

Run this command in your remote box:

find / -name xsibackup

And see if there's some installation point, or maybe some xsibackup file copied somewhere you didn't expect. Clean up everything: delete any [b]xsibackup[/b], [b]xsidiff[/b] and/ or [b]xsibackup-rync[/b] files that you may find in the other host and let XSIBacup update the files on its own.

#1890 Re: General matters » Remote backup freezing » 2017-12-15 12:06:02

You have removed the output header, so we don't know which version you're using, maybe 10.0.4?
We'll check this in case it's a bug, in any case, have you tried copying the xsibackup-rsync binary to the remote's machine dir

/vmfs/volumes/595249eb-79426204-9f2d-c81f66c63f4b/xsi-dir/bin/xsibackup-rsync

#1891 Re: General matters » xsibackup with backup-room option is hanging... » 2017-12-15 12:00:27

It will try to delete folders that begin by 20*, if no such folders exist, then it can't do anything. Please, assign sufficient room to store your backups, asuming 20% maneuver margin.

#1892 Re: General matters » xsibackup with backup-room option is hanging... » 2017-12-13 18:21:20

There's a security and maneuver margin of some gigabytes, you need more room to be able to store multiple backups, maybe even a single one.

#1893 Re: © XSITools » What i should do now? » 2017-12-13 18:19:06

Just do what the message tells you to, that is to say, turn off yor VM and run this command.

vmkfstools -X 104M /vmfs/volumes/6e254ea5-7a6c9ffd/EXSI2/centralino/centralino2.vmdk

104 is the closest 1M multiple to 108134400 bytes, but you can make that number as big as you want.
No, it won't corrupt your .vmdk file, nevertheless, make a copy of it before running the command, it won't take more than a couple of seconds to duplicate it somewhere else.

Note: don't use USB devices to store your VM backups, or you'll end up with corrupted data sooner than later.

#1894 (c)XSIBackup-Pro & Free Classic bug tracker » Rsync and SSH 2 » 2017-12-11 19:53:32

admin
Replies: 0

We have empirically determined, that Rsync behaves much worse when tunneled through SSH 2 in comparison to tunnelling through SSH 1.

Dynamic compression does not work well, not to say, at all, when transfering big -flat.vmdk files in gigabit LANs.

We will return to use SSH 1, or at least offer the user the option to choose the SSH protocol version in the backup job options.

#1895 Re: General matters » xsibackup-cron example for disk exclusion wrong » 2017-12-09 15:06:34

That information is outdated, we'll correct it now. You need to parse the full disk name to exclude it.

#1896 Re: General matters » xsibackup-cron monthly? » 2017-12-09 15:05:09

You have a number of different options to accomplish what you want:

1 - You can edit XSIBackup to accept whatever time mask you want.
2 - You can use ESXi's crontab to launch your jobs.
3 - You can use any external crontab to lauch your jobs via SSH.

#1897 Re: General matters » Backup some VMs hot,followed by the other VMs cold possible? » 2017-12-09 15:01:12

Use two or more independent backup jobs and group your VMs into those groups according to your needs

#1898 Re: General matters » Sending email report to more than 1 email address » 2017-12-07 10:07:17

[url]https://33hops.com/xsibackup-help-man-page.html#mailto[/url]

#1899 Re: General matters » xsibackup: line 3445: arithmetic syntax error » 2017-12-07 10:04:35

There must be some error in the crontab.
Be careful when you cut&paste, especially from Windows, as some characters may be substituted, sometimes invisible ones, like <cr>

Save a copy of your xsibackup-cron file, remove the crontab and add it again, then add your jobs back again carefully.

#1900 (c)XSIBackup-Pro & Free Classic bug tracker » XSITools not working in ESXi 5.1 » 2017-12-05 12:35:00

admin
Replies: 0

The bundled Busybox version of [b]dd[/b] shipped with ESXi 5.1 has an output that differs from newer versions, at least in some builds. This results in XSITools not being able to grab the block hashes, so XSITools backups don't work.

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