Netbackup Accelerator for VMware backup – Part 2: Configuration

By | February 8, 2015

As I mentioned in the previous article Netbackup Accelerator is a powerfull feature for VMware backups. In this article I will show how to use the feauture in Netbackup.

At first please ensure that CBT is enabled on virtual machines.

To check/enable CBT in a virtual machine:

Note: Ensure that you power off the virtual machine before performing these steps.
  1. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
  2. Click the Options tab.
  3. Click General under the Advanced section and then click Configuration Parameters. The Configuration Parameters dialog opens.
  4. Click Add Row.
  5. Add the ctkEnabled parameter and then set its value to true.
  6. Click Add Row, add scsi0:0.ctkEnabled, and set its value to true.Note: scsi0:0 in scsi0:0.ctkEnabled indicates the SCSI device assigned to the hard disk that is added to the virtual machine. Every hard disk added to the virtual machine is given a SCSI device that appears similar to scsi0:0, scsi0:1, or scsi 1:1.
  7. In the home directory of the virtual machine, verify that each hard disk contains a vmname-ctk.vmdk file.

For more information please follow:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1031873

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020128

Now we are ready to create a policy with Accelerator:

  1. Log on to the master server as administrator and start the NetBackup Administration Console.
  2. Create a new policy.nbu_acc1
  3. From the Policy type list, select VMware. In the Policy storage box, select a disk storage unit and click Use Accelerator.nbu_acc3
  4. On the Schedules tab, create a schedule for full backups.nbu_acc5
  5. On the Clients tab click Select automatically through query.nbu_acc6
  6. Select NetBackup host to perform automatic virtual machine selection and the host you want to use.
  7. Click the Backup Selections tab.
  8. Click the VMware tab. Check the Enable block-level incremental backup.nbu_acc7
  9. Click OK to save policy.

Note: If you try to use Storage Unit which is not supported for Netbackup Accelerator, you will get the following error:nbu_acc4

Author: Mariusz

Architect (~ 15 years experience based on passion...) with strong background as a System Administrator and Engineer. Focused on Data Center Solutions: Virtualization/Cloud Computing and Storage/Backup Systems. Currently living in Poland.