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#1 2021-09-30 16:03:49

herrep
Member
From: Munich
Registered: 2019-07-08
Posts: 106

XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

Hi,

In my present replication setup, I use options --replica=cbt and --options=R to create a replicated VM that is registered again.

This works with some restrictions as long as all disks assigned to the VM are ctk-enabled. However, I also have VMs which include some independent disks which are even excluded from the replication. As they are excluded, there is no need to enable ctk for them as the respective ctk files would never be used. So I disabled ctk for these independent disks and used option --exclude to ensure that the data of such disks does not need to be transferred.

As soon as I start replication, I receive the following error message:

2021-09-30T15:49:43 | Error code 149 at file esxi.c, line 149 | Error description: no matching CTK entry for disk: scsi0:1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/!\ There aren't any CTK files (-1), run --enable-cbt first, ignoring CBT flag
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above finding, i.e. scsi0:1 being not ctk enabled and therefore having no CTK files, is correct. But exactly this disk is excluded from backup. The other disk, scsi0:0 is ctk enabled and a CTK file is available. Unfortunately, --replica=cbt does not seem to support such a scenario where not all disks are ctk enabled although all disks to be transferred are ctk enabled.

Did I miss something or would it be necessary to consider these circumstances properly?

Best regards,
Peter

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#2 2021-09-30 16:47:28

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,055

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

You are right, it's a new feature and it still doesn't support that scenario. Still you should be able to solve it by enabling CBT for the disk to then skip it.

Your problem is that the CBT routine will check that every disk has CBT enabled, even if it's an independent disk or raw mapping device. If you enable CBT for it you will pass that check and if on top of that you exclude it, then the disk will be skipped.

UPDATE:

Even if you enable CBT for all disks and you don't explicitly exclude the independent disk, the backup routine will just skip it for being innaccesible. The only drawback would be to have to manually exclude it from the .vmx file when restoring.

Regards

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#3 2021-11-27 12:51:47

herrep
Member
From: Munich
Registered: 2019-07-08
Posts: 106

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

admin wrote:

UPDATE

Even if you enable CBT for all disks and you don't explicitly exclude the independent disk, the backup routine will just skip it for being innaccesible. The only drawback would be to have to manually exclude it from the .vmx file when restoring.

Could you shed some light on the CTK-enabled independent disk that is not explicitly excluded from backup?

I would expect that a disk that is not excluded will always be backed up or replicated.  However, you wrote that the backup routine will skip the independent disk. This is what I do not understand.  Why should the independent disk be excluded from backup when do not explicitly exclude it?

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#4 2021-11-27 14:57:37

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,055

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

Independent disks will be excluded as they simply can't be accessed, thus they will be excluded as non-readable files. We are sorry, we aren't getting the rest of your statement.

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#5 2021-11-28 20:31:55

herrep
Member
From: Munich
Registered: 2019-07-08
Posts: 106

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

From your reply I understood that it is technically not possible to replicate an independent disk via XSIBackup-DC, although its path is specified in the vmx file. Is this correct?

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#6 2021-11-30 14:50:30

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,055

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

It is technically not possible to hot replicate an independent disk with any software.
https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100024362

This is a limitation by design in ESXi.
https://www.vmwareblog.org/disk-mode-esxi-vm-use/

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#7 2021-11-30 15:01:31

herrep
Member
From: Munich
Registered: 2019-07-08
Posts: 106

Re: XSIBackup-DC 1.5.1.1 --replica=cbt with an excluded ctk-disabled disk

Thank you very much for clarifying this point!

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