Pondering this issue, I came up with an elegant yet useful solution. The idea was to create multiple policies, one for each datastore in my VMWare cluster. The policy would be configured to run one client at a time, and all the policies would run at the same time. In the end you would end up with VCB backup jobs running against the proxy server, but they would not be on the datastore since each policy was datastore specific. This eliminated the snapshot errors and also allowed for me to have the policies auto updated.
Like I said, I was able to have my policies auto updated with new VM clients without any intervention. This was made possible by writing a script that used the VMWare Perl API's and made calls into both VMWare and then Netbackup. Here is how the setup works:
1) Create a Netbackup policy for each datastore in your VMWare environment. Make sure the policies all have a naming convention. Example: NB_VCB_datastore1, NB_VCB_datastore2, NB_VCB_datastore3, etc...
2) Use the script below and run from the Unix/Linux master server or any Unix/Linux server that has the Netbackup admincmd directories installed and is allowed access to the Netbackup master server. Make sure you have the VMWare Perl API libraries installed with Perl on the master server.
Usage: autovcb -v (vc server) -u (username) -p (password) -d (datacenter in vc) -os (Windows|Solaris|Linux|Suse|Redhat) -pp (netbackup policy prefix) -m (master server) -dsp (datastore name|ALL) [-pre (datastore match prefix)] [-update]
Note: The Netbackup policy prefix is the naming convention value you used before the datastore in the policy name. In my example it is "NB_VCB_". Also, be aware that forward and reverse DNS must be functional on the VM hosts to ensure proper inclusion in the policy.
The script allows you to only match on some datastore or all datastores. You can do a full discovery and populate or just an update of the policies. You can also chose to only add clients of a specific OS.
This script was tested in a Netbackup 6.5.4 and VMWare ESX 3.5 environment.
The script is here:
#!/usr/bin/perl
#################################################################################
# Script that autodiscovers VM's and places the client name into prexisting #
# policies based on the datastore names discovered #
# (C) Benjamin Schmaus May, 2009 #
#################################################################################
use strict;
use warnings;
use Socket;
use VMware::VIRuntime;
use VMware::VILib;
use VMware::VIM25Stub;
use Getopt::Long;
### Main Logic ###
my $bpplclients = '/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpplclients';
my ($help,$prefix,$vcserver,$username,$password,$dc,$os,$polpr,$datastorepol,$update,$master);
my ($datastorepoltmp,$listds,$esxhost,$vmname,$adhostname,$ipaddress,$toolstat,$guestos,$datastore,$hostname,$junk,$junk2,$junk3,$client,$datastorefix,$polname,$gueststate);
my @dslist = ();
options();
print "update is set to: $update\n";
my $policy = "$polpr$datastorepol";
my $url = "https://$vcserver/sdk/vimService";
Vim::login(service_url => $url, user_name => $username, password => $password);
my $datacenter_views = Vim::find_entity_views(view_type => 'Datacenter',filter => { name => $dc });
my $dcds = Vim::find_entity_view(view_type => "Datacenter", filter => {'name' => "Fridley"} );
my $ds = $dcds->datastore;
if ($datastorepol eq "ALL") {
getlistds();
print "\n";
}
if ($update eq "0") {
polrmclients();
print "\n";
}
if ($datastorepol eq "ALL") {
print "Discovering new clients...\n";
# go through all policies and add new clients for all datastores
foreach (@dslist) {
$datastorepoltmp = $_;
print "\tDatastore: $datastorepoltmp\n";
print "\tPolicy: $polpr$datastorepoltmp\n";
polgetclients();
print "\t\n";
}
} else {
print "Discovering new clients...\n";
# go through all policies and add new clients for given datastore
$datastorepoltmp = $datastorepol;
print "\tCurrent Datastore: $datastorepoltmp\n";
print "\tCurrent Policy: $$polpr$datastorepoltmp\n";
polgetclients();
print "\t\n";
}
print "\n\n";
Vim::logout();
exit;
sub polgetclients {
foreach (@$datacenter_views) {
my $datacenter = $_->name;
my $host_views = Vim::find_entity_views(view_type => 'HostSystem',begin_entity => $_ );
foreach (@$host_views) {
$esxhost = $_->name;
#print "\tESX Host Server: $esxhost\n";
my $vm_view = Vim::find_entity_views(view_type => 'VirtualMachine',begin_entity => $_ , filter => { 'guest.guestState' => 'running' });
foreach (@$vm_view) {
$vmname = $_->name;
$adhostname = $_->summary->guest->hostName;
$ipaddress = $_->summary->guest->ipAddress;
$toolstat = $_->summary->guest->toolsStatus->val;
$guestos = $_->summary->guest->guestFullName;
$datastore = $_->summary->config->vmPathName;
$gueststate = $_->guest->guestState;
($datastorefix,$junk) = split(/\] /,$datastore);
$datastorefix =~ s/\[//g;
$datastorefix =~ s/ /_/g;
if ($ipaddress) {
$hostname = gethostbyaddr(inet_aton($ipaddress), AF_INET);
#print "$ipaddress $hostname\n";
#if (!$hostname) { $hostname = '---'; }
#$hostname =~ s/.asd.udlp.com/.mpls.udlp.com/g;
#if (($hostname !~ /.mpls.udlp.com/) && ($hostname !~ /udlp.com/)) {
# $hostname = "$hostname.mpls.udlp.com";
#}
}
if (!$hostname) { $hostname = '---'; }
$policy = "$polpr$datastorefix";
if ($datastorefix eq $datastorepoltmp) {
if ($toolstat =~ /toolsOk/) {
if ($guestos =~ /$os/) {
if ($hostname ne "---" && $hostname ne "localhost") {
my $addtopolicy = `$bpplclients $policy -M $master -add $hostname VMware Virtual_Machine > /dev/null 2>&1`;
if ($? eq "0") {
print "\t\tAdded $hostname\n";
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $hostname: Already in policy\n";
}
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $vmname: Reverse DNS does not exist\n";
}
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $vmname: OS does not match guestos\n";
}
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $vmname: Tools not okay - $toolstat\n";
}
}
}
}
}
}
sub polrmclients {
if ($datastorepol eq "ALL") {
foreach (@dslist) {
$policy = "$polpr$_";
print "Removing clients from $policy...\n";
my @polrm = `$bpplclients $policy -noheader`;
foreach (@polrm) {
($junk,$junk2,$client) = split(/ /,$_);
chomp($client);
my $remove = `$bpplclients $policy -M $master -delete $client > /dev/null 2>&1`;
if ($? eq "0") {
print "\t\tRemoved $client\n";
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $client: Not in policy\n";
}
}
}
} else {
$policy = "$polpr$datastorepol";
my @polrm = `$bpplclients $policy -noheader`;
print "Removing clients from $policy...\n";
foreach (@polrm) {
($junk,$junk2,$client) = split(/ /,$_);
chomp($client);
my $remove = `$bpplclients $policy -M $master -delete $client > /dev/null 2>&1`;
if ($? eq "0") {
print "\t\tRemoved $client\n";
} else {
print "\t\tSkipped $client: Not in policy\n";
}
}
}
}
sub getlistds {
print "Getting list of datastores...\n";
my $counter = 0;
foreach(@$ds) {
my $ds_ref = Vim::get_view(mo_ref => $_);
my $ds = $ds_ref->info->name;
if (($ds =~ /$prefix/) && ($prefix ne "---")) {
$dslist[$counter] = $ds_ref->info->name;
$dslist[$counter] =~ s/ /_/g;
$dslist[$counter] =~ s/\(|\)//g;
print "\tFound datastore: $dslist[$counter]\n";
++$counter;
} elsif ($prefix eq "---") {
$dslist[$counter] = $ds_ref->info->name;
$dslist[$counter] =~ s/ /_/g;
$dslist[$counter] =~ s/\(|\)//g;
print "\tFound datastore: $dslist[$counter]\n";
++$counter;
}
}
}
sub options {
$vcserver="";$username="";$password="";$dc="";$os="";$polpr="";$master="";$update="0";$prefix="";$datastorepol="";
GetOptions ('h|help'=>\$help,'v|vcserver=s'=>\$vcserver,'u|username=s'=>\$username,'p|password=s'=>\$password,'d|datacenter=s'=>\$dc,'os=s'=>\$os,'pp|polpr=s'=>\$polpr,'m|master=s'=>\$master,'dsp=s'=>\$datastorepol,'pre|prefix=s'=>\$prefix,'update'=>\$update);
if ($help) {
print "Usage: autovcb -v -u -p -d -os -pp -m -dsp <(datastore name|ALL)> [-pre ] [-update]\n";
exit;
}
if (($vcserver eq "") || ($username eq "") || ($password eq "") || ($dc eq "") || ($os eq "") || ($polpr eq "") || ($master eq "") || ($datastorepol eq "")) {
print "Missing required parameters - Type -help for options\n";
exit;
}
if (($prefix) && ($datastorepol ne "ALL")) {
print "Cannot use prefix option when datastore is not set to ALL - Type -help for options\n";
exit;
}
if (($os ne "Windows") && ($os ne "Solaris") && ($os ne "Linux") && ($os ne "Suse") && ($os ne "Redhat")) {
print "Incorrect OS specified - Type -help for options\n";
exit;
}
}
