XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

herrep · 2021-11-28 22:05:10

Hi,

When trying to back up a long list of replicated VMs that have been registered as _XSIREP VM by using --options=R in a previous replication, I run into two issues:

At first, I defined a long list of VMs to be backed up, like:

"VMs(server_XSIREP)"

The result was a surprise: Instead of backing up server_XSIREP, indeed the original server was backed up! This is a severe bug.

At second, I tried a regular expression to select all VMs ending with _XSIREP:

"VMs(^.*_XSIREP$)"

The result was the following error message:

2021-11-28T21:55:42 | Error code 2887 at file xsibackup.c, line 2887 | Error description: could not find any VM in list: ^.*_XSIREP$, please check that the VM files exist

So now I am stuck as I do not know how to select all my _XSIREP VMs.

Best regards,
Peter

admin · 2021-12-01 11:31:07

You can't do that.
--options=R only works with CBT as of version 1.5.1.4.
You aren't stating whether you are using CBT.
You can't use CBT on a _XSIREP VM.

You are making wrong assumptions on the functioning, not only of (c)XSIBackup but also on (c)ESXi itself.
CBT information is kept by host. If you replicate a VM from one host to another, your get a replica of the original VM and just that.
You are making the wrong assumption that the CBT state of that VM at host A will be transmitted to host B, which is not the case.

herrep · 2021-12-01 11:43:35

In my brief error description I mentioned to backup (i.e. option --backup) _XSIREP VMs. I do not use --replica, --replica=cbt or --options-R in my backup command. So my quesiton is not related to CBT and also not related to a replication, but to a deduplicated backup.

The issue is further only related to the basically working functionality of --backup that simply ghas trouble to backup VMs having a _XSIREP postfix.

My reference to --options=R was to explain how I generated the registered _XSIREP VMs: I used --replica=cbt and --options=R to replicate an original VM to a _XSIREP VM and to get it registered. As stated in the post, --options=R was set in a PREVIOUS replication, having nothing to do with --backup.

Now my issue is that I want to make a deduplicated backup from the replicated and registered _XSIREP VMs without using CBT at all. As you may see now, I do not chain a replication after a replication.

Therfore, I repeat my initial question as how to run XSIBackup-DC with option --backup on VMs that have a name ending with _XSIREP. According to my findings, XSIBackup backups the wrong VM. It appears that the _XSIREP postfix is simply ignored and the VM mathing the name in front of _XSIREP is backed up instead. And when I use a regular expression, I have no chance as _XSIREP seems to be already internally stripped from the name so that there is no match.

admin · 2021-12-07 12:15:41

It doesn't have trouble, it skips them by design, use the --options=O flag to override this behaviour.

herrep · 2021-12-07 19:25:31

Using XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4, I repeated my backup for all _XSIREP VMs with the following options:

"VMs(^.*_XSIREP$)" \
--options=O \

Unfortunately, the result is unchanged. Nothing is backed up:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021-12-07T19:19:24 | Error code 2887 at file xsibackup.c, line 2887 | Error description: could not find any VM in list: ^.*_XSIREP$, please check that the VM files exist

herrep · 2021-12-07 19:32:43

--options=O makes no difference in my setup of XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4. Even if I explicitly specify my {VM}_XSIREP to be backed up, then the VM with name {VM} is backed up instead. I will create a separate post for this behavior.

admin · 2021-12-08 09:38:25

There is indeed a bug when combining _XSIREP + REGEXP + --options=O that we will fix in short in version 1.5.1.5.
When using the VM name + --options=O the VM selection mask is working for us in every case.

herrep · 2021-12-08 09:51:15

What should I debug, as specifying "server_XSIREP" as VM to be backed up with XSIBackuo-DC 1.5.1.4, either with or without --options=O, causes VM "server" to be backed up instead, while VM "server_XSIREP" remains untouched. This is weird. I have repeated this backup already three times, always the same negative result. Worth to note, I do not use a selection mask for selecting the VMs to be backed up, but XSIBackup-DC in a script by specifying all options and parameters in text form. Consequently, I explicitly specify "server_XSIREP".

Last edited by herrep (2021-12-08 09:52:37)

admin · 2021-12-08 12:02:27

Why are you duplicating your requests in multiple threads?
This is not going to help you get a faster response.

Version 1.5.1.5 will include a fix for REGEXP + --options=O
We have tested --options=O alone with plain VM names with no issue. We can't offer support for your scripts.

You can alternatively use the main VM folder as the source for the backup:

./xsibackup --backup "/vmfs/volumes/backup1/replicas/YOUR-XSIREP-VM" /vmfs/volumes/backup2/backup-repo --options=O

herrep · 2021-12-09 02:03:36

I have further investigated the issue with XSIBackup 1.5.1.4 backing up the wrong VM. This problem is limited to VMs where I exclude disks because they are independent disk. As long as I backup a _XSIREP VM having no exclusions because there are no independent disks as part of the original VM, the selected _XSIREP VM is correctly backed up when specifying --options=O. As such, I can confirm that this scenario works for conventional VMs.

However, in my scenario, I have a VM named "server" which was replicated and registered as "server_XSIREP". The VM "server" has independent disks which had been excluded from backup. The independent disks are not present in the replicated "server_XSIREP", but they are still referenced in the vmx file of "server_XSIREP", but could not be found, as no path is specified.

Although I explicitly specify "server_XSIREP", the VM "server" is backed up. I tried this with a second VM having independent disks, the same result. I can successfully backup all other _XSIREP VMs, as they do not have independent disks nor exclusions.

admin · 2021-12-10 16:02:56

Version 1.5.1.5 has been released.

herrep · 2022-01-31 13:03:34

I understood that version 1.5.1.5 includes a fix for REGEXP + --options=O.

However, is there also a fix for the issue when backing up a VM with excluded independent disks?

My scenario is that, in a first stage, I use --replica=cbt and --options=R to replicate an original VM with some independent disks (excluded from replication) to a _XSIREP VM and to get it registered. This stage works fine, no problem. The problem occurs in the second stage, when I want to make a deduplicated backup (no replication, no CBT) of the _XSIREP VM. The weird thing is that when specifying "server_XSIREP" to be backed up, the underlying "server" VM is backed up instead. When I backup a different VM having no independent disks, everything runs fine.

How to create a deduplicated backup from replicated VMs that have independent disks to be excluded?

admin · 2022-02-04 09:02:47

We will try to reproduce your issue and eventually release a fix

Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

#1 2021-11-28 22:05:10

XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#2 2021-12-01 11:31:07

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#3 2021-12-01 11:43:35

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#4 2021-12-07 12:15:41

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#5 2021-12-07 19:25:31

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#6 2021-12-07 19:32:43

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#7 2021-12-08 09:38:25

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#8 2021-12-08 09:51:15

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#9 2021-12-08 12:02:27

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#10 2021-12-09 02:03:36

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#11 2021-12-10 16:02:56

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#12 2022-01-31 13:03:34

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

#13 2022-02-04 09:02:47

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.4: How to backup all _XSIREP VMs

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