Topic: [ANNOUNCE] Affa 2.0.0 beta with ESXi support

[m]

Hi all,
for those of you who are running virtual machines on an ESXi server, the new Affa backup program may be interesting.
Affa Version 2 supports hot backup of running ESXi VMs.
See this Wiki page for more information: http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_of_ESXi_Virtual_Machines_using_Affa
Thanks,
Michael

[mdo]

Cool!
Many Thanks for your work on Affa Michael.

[KiG]

Hi Michael

I found your solution for the AFFA/ESXi backup and I think this is the only really good solution I have seen yet, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the install.

First I tried it on my development machine and all was well until I tried to install the affa 2.0 on my Fedora, which isn't a SME box, so that didn't work.

Then I installed SME 7.4rc1 in a VMWare server 2.0 and when I tried to run the ./vmware-install.pl I got an error message from the install stating that 'You cannot install VMWare VIPerl Toolkit on a system running a xen kernel. Execution aborted.

Do you have any comments on that or am I missing something here ?

best rgds

KiG

[m]

KiG,

First I tried it on my development machine and all was well until I tried to install the affa 2.0 on my Fedora, which isn't a SME box, so that didn't work.

Affa makes use of the SME Server specific template system. It cannot be installed on other linuxes

Then I installed SME 7.4rc1 in a VMWare server 2.0 and when I tried to run the ./vmware-install.pl I got an error message from the install stating that 'You cannot install VMWare VIPerl Toolkit on a system running a xen kernel. Execution aborted.

Appears to be a conflict between the VI Perl Toolkit and Xen. I have successfuly installed Affa 2 beta and the VI Perl Toolkit on a SME 7.3 running as a VM on an ESXi host.
I recommend not to use any RC or Beta versions of SME 7.4 or SME 8. Install SME 7.3 from the ISO then run the "yum update" command from the console. Install on real hardware or as a VM on VMWare Server or ESX.

[m]

Then I installed SME 7.4rc1 in a VMWare server 2.0 and when I tried to run the ./vmware-install.pl I got an error message from the install stating that 'You cannot install VMWare VIPerl Toolkit on a system running a xen kernel. Execution aborted.

Have experienced the same on the final SME 7.4. Appears to be a 'bug' in the vmware-install.pl script.

Comment out these lines

Code: [Select]

   4738 #      if ( -d '/proc/xen' ) {
   4739 #        error('You cannot install ' .
   4740 #              vmware_product_name() .
   4741 #              ' on a system running a xen kernel.');
   4742 #      }
and it works.

[Papaloewe]

Hi,

Thank's for the possibility backing up my (ESXi) VM's with affa.
I'm very glad about this.

But here is my problem:

Code: [Select]

Tue Nov 25 08:30:54[15583]: Affa 2.0.0-beta07: Starting job lev-vmrcli scheduled (lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb)
Tue Nov 25 08:30:54[15583]: Description:
Tue Nov 25 08:30:54[15583]: Checking SSH connection to lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb
Tue Nov 25 08:30:54[15583]: Exec Cmd: /usr/bin/ssh -p 22 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=yes -o HostKeyAlias=lev-vmrcli -o ConnectTimeout=120 -o PasswordAuthentication=no  lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb echo OK
Tue Nov 25 08:30:55[15583]: Exec Out: OK
Tue Nov 25 08:30:55[15583]: Exec Out: exitstatus=0
Tue Nov 25 08:30:55[15583]: Using VMware Infrastructure (VI) Perl Toolkit: Version 1.6
Tue Nov 25 08:30:55[15583]: VI API connect to lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb as user affa
Tue Nov 25 08:30:58[15583]: Creating snapshot BEXI-20081125-083057-lev-smesrv.size.cnb
Tue Nov 25 08:31:00[15583]: Snapshot 'BEXI-20081125-083057-lev-smesrv.size.cnb' completed for VM 'lev-vmrcli' under host 'lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb'
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: VI API disconnecting.
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: Datastore mapping:
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]:   'datastore2' --> '/vmfs/volumes/48ad880f-2ee79142-9a59-001cc458e92a/'
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: Exec Cmd: /usr/bin/ssh -o HostKeyAlias=lev-vmrcli -p 22 lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb "find /vmfs/volumes/48ad880f-2ee79142-9a59-001cc458e92a/lev-vmrcli\ (WinXP)/ -type f -name '*-delta.vmdk'"
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: Exec Out: ash: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: Exec Out: exitstatus=2
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: ash: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
Tue Nov 25 08:31:01[15583]: VI API connect to lev-vmsrv6.size.cnb as user affa
Tue Nov 25 08:31:02[15583]: Removing snapshot BEXI-20081125-083057-lev-smesrv.size.cnb
Tue Nov 25 08:31:05[15583]: VI API disconnecting..
Tue Nov 25 08:31:05[15583]: Error 349 in 'Affa::esxi': Command returned error
Tue Nov 25 08:31:05[15583]: Email sent to xxx@yyy.de
Tue Nov 25 08:31:05[15583]: Exiting.

Bye
Thomas

[m]

Thomas,
try to rename the VM to a name without brackets.

[m]

Thomas,
I took a closer look to your problem and saw that renaming the VM does not really solve the issue as the path remains unchanged. I have fixed this in beta08 version. Please try this.
Thanks,
Michael