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Is it possible to have file level restore of a Windows server using a Linux VSA?


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We are currently trying to test a restore using a Linux VSA for several windows servers (2012R2,2016,2019). After the first backup and restore we haven't had any issues restoring specific files to the same server of to other servers (all windows).

Unfortunately after last nights backup, today we tried again to restore some files, with no success.

Every time we try to select the destination server we get prompted with user/password for that server and then we try to browse for the specific path, but we keep getting the same error:

Something went wrong. Server may be under maintenance. Trace ID: cvtZsQyx9Y

Did something happened during the backup process and now the servers are not visible?

This is a first time issue and cant get a solution for it.

Any advises are appreciated.

 

Thank you.

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Best answer by Mike Struening RETIRED 27 June 2022, 21:12

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Userlevel 7
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Hi @Andrei Harcuta 

Thank you for the question and welcome to the Community!

Please would you confirm what version of Commvault you are running?

There are some cases recently exhibiting a problem similar to this where the same error is being seen: “Something went wrong. Server may be under maintenance. Trace ID: xxxxxxxxxx”.

Hotfix 4814 was recently released and included in FR24, MR34:

Maintenance Release 11.24.34 (Feb 01, 2022)

Command Center : VM details may failed to load.

4813, 4814

 

Please confirm your software version and if you’re running FR24, please try updating to MR34 and see if this helps.

If you’re running another version, please let me know and we can try another angle to check this issue.

Thanks,

Stuart

Userlevel 7
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If a file level recovery via FREL asks for username and password, then in general the in-guest agent is not detected when selecting the client (target).

So either you have 2 clients which need to be merged (VM client vs agent client) or there is no agent and the FREL tries to recover data by block insert on the VM.

Q: Is there a file system agent installed on the target VM?

 

Edit: did not refresh the page, did not see the hotfix mentioned.
Check that first 😅

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Thank you guys for the reply.

@Jos Meijer There is no agent installed on the Windows server. All machines are VM`s.

@Stuart Painter The Current Version s: 11.24.34 . Seems OK. It might be something else.

The strange thing is that is worked the first time when we did a full manual backup and restored some files.. The only thing that  changed or was different, was the  scheduled backup during the night, that was a synthetic full.

Thank you.

 

 

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Andrei Harcuta 

The only other thing I can think of is the capability to browse the index for this backup.

Since the most recent backup is a Synth Full, we would need to browse the index for restore.

If you’re running this from Command Center, there could potentially be an issue with the Command Center server unable to connect to the Media Agent to browse the index.

I might be clutching at straws here and going down a rabbit hold to no where.

If you can reproduce the error and then check adminConsole.log on the Command Center machine, that might reveal where this process is falling down.

Thanks,

Stuart

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Andrei Harcuta 

As an afterthought, I’ll post the documentation here for you to check through the necessary components to ensure everything needed is in place:

Agentless Restores for VMware

Thanks,

Stuart

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Hi @Stuart Painter ,

 

The issues was replicated several times since yesterday. Same result.

I am using the admin console , but the weird thing is that in that list  3 vm`s  are windows and have the same issue and one is Linux and i don`t have that issue, all of them being  in the same VM group.

For now the only access is via web console.

I will try to check the logs somehow. The only ones that are available are from the backup job.

Thank you.

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@Stuart Painter i can browse the Windows server with no issues when i start the restore procedure. The problem appears when i select the destination server and path.

Userlevel 7
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Hi @Andrei Harcuta 

Ok, so it sounds like on the backup side everything is in place and working.

Has anything changed on the VM itself?

Any permissions or user account changes or anything happened with VMware tools, are these up and running?

It sounds like Commvault isn’t able to interact with the guest VM OS now, whereas previously this was working - and still is working for the Linux VMs.

Thanks,

Stuart

 

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Hi , @Stuart Painter 

No changes were made to affect user accounts and VMware  tools are up and running.

Thank you.

Userlevel 6
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Hi all !

Is time synchronized and accurate between your VMs, VSA proxy and rest of the world?

..and aside of this, is it possible to perform a full backup of one of those windows VMs, and try to browse immediately after backup completion ?

Also, are you still able now to browse (and restore) the Full backup that you managed to initially ?

Possible to check from the Commcell Console also ?

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Hi @Laurent 

The time/zone hasn't  changed during the period we made all of our backups and restores on either of our machines. Initial backup and restore (file level) worked just fine.

Regarding the browsing of the initial backup , there is no issue there. As there is no issue with the other backups when i browse the backed up machines. The issue is with the restore properties when i choose the destination server and path on all windows machines, not the Linux one.

I only have access to the web console .

Thank you.

 

Userlevel 6
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Hi @Andrei Harcuta 

Yes, sorry I should not have written about browsing, but only restore.

If you try to restore the Full backup that you could restore initially and told us about, does this still work ?

This is to understand if this has some relationship with the backup mode or change that could occur inside the VM but the linux VSA (or even CS) can’t handle properly.

That’s also the reason why I was asking you if you could also try to run a real Full backup, and try to restore from this one : would it fail also, or work ? This could give us paths.. 

Of course if you’re in an urge you can always contact the support for more immediate reaction.

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Hello @Laurent

We already did a full vm restore to the initial backup and it was successfull. Then re-tried to do file level restore, but with the same issue. 

For the time beeing this is our only method of identifying the issue, no support. I hope the situation will be fixed on the near future.

Thank you. 

Userlevel 7
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@Andrei Harcuta , do you expect to renew support any time soon?  Would definitely recommend having this analyzed by an engineer.

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@Mike Struening  We are in the process of raising the issue to the support team.

If we`ll find the problem i will post it here.

Userlevel 7
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Awesome!  share the case number once created.

Userlevel 7
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Sharing case solution:

Finding Details:


We consider all the access nodes associated at Hypervisor level for VM browse call.
We will try the browse call one by one. But here in this case it picked up  and its failing with communication error. This causing the browse call failure.
Also the retry logic is not happening here which we have addressed in FR29.

Solution:

It was the network problem regarding one of the access nodes.

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@Mike Struening 

Thx for updating the topic.

In fact the issue was resolved (for the time being) by removing the VSA with the network issues from the access node list. After this the path-ing was available, and I was able to browse without any issues for the restore.

Keep in mind this was for version 11.24 of Commvault.

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