Desaster Recovery - VM Ware (VCenter 6.X)

Server
1

Hello

I need to restore a server on the V-Center (VMWare).
Use Urbackup as backup solution there.

However, the system can not restore because no network connection is possible.
No drivers are detected. The VM Ware network drivers would be necessary.

How can I install the drivers so I can use this. Otherwise I can not perform a recovery.

For WIndows there is a solution.
See = https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1011710

Thanks for your help

2

No ideas?

3

Which network adapter (virtual) hardware are you using?

You can change the network adapter hardware ( https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1001805 ) to e.g. e1000 or VMXNET 3, restore, then change it back to the previous hardware.

4

VMXNET would be the right one

I will try

Thank you

5

OK i read the KB 1001805 but there is no Example for URBACKUP.

---------------- KB - VMXNET --------------------------

  • VMXNET : The VMXNET virtual network adapter has no physical counterpart. VMXNET is optimized for performance in a virtual machine. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET network adapter available.
    Note: VMXNET driver is only supported on kernels earlier than 3.3

  • Flexible : The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the VMXNET driver changes the Vlance adapter to the higher performance VMXNET adapter.
    -------------- KB - VMXNET ------------------

We use ESXI 6.X

If i boot from the Urbackup 2.1.1 x64 Restore ISO i have no Card to Choose. So i think the Driver in the Urbackup 2.1.1 ISO would not work with ESXI 6.X

Can you TEST that ?

Regards

6

You choose the card at the point where you either create the VM or else edit its settings.

I’m using an Earlier version of ESX1 here (5.x), however when building my VMs I chose to use the e1000 adapter, which does have a physical counterpart, and thus has Linux drivers which can be distributed under the GPL along with UrBackup unlike closed VMWare code.

Choosing VMXNET sends you down the same licencing rabbit hole as you end up when you’ve a Broadcom wireless adapter in a laptop & try installing Debian… then have to download the closed source firmware separately or install from an unofficial image. Without reading the VMware licence I couldn’t tell you if urbackup would even be allowed to distribute the VMXNET driver within the restore CD, though one could doubtless be built which includes it. manually.

You could try adding an e1000 adapter to the machine you wish to restore, restore & then remove it afterwards.

7

Newer Linux kernels have VMXNET3 drivers ( https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/net/vmxnet3 ). Thats why I said VMXNET3. @stone1978 is using VMXNET instead, which is probably the reason it does not work.

8

I wasn’t aware of that bit of kernel development, still temporarily adding even an extra emulated e1000 NIC ought to work around the issue, the extra adapter can always be removed post-restore, or left there and configured as disconnected except during restores. That said, I can’t be totally certain newer ESXi has that adapter as an option or if you’d need to deliberately pick to create an older version vm in advanced mode, only having access to an older version, I haven’t dared upgrade to 6.x, my hardware only has official support for ESXi 4.x as it is… I don’t want to be straying too far into unsupported hardware land by going 2 major versions beyond support…

While I do understand the OP’s frustration, it always amuses me when someone suggests developers test something that involves the OP’s hardware… as if a typical developer has a huge library of hardware they can set up to run such tests

9

And How could i solve that ?

Image backups cannot be restored while the system is running. Therefore following live system can be used:
Download UrBackup Restore CD 2.0.2
Download UrBackup Restore CD 2.1.1 (x64)

The older Recovery Image ? (2.0.2)

Regards

10

What I’m suggesting is to reconfigure the VM temporarily (or permanently) to something the restore image does support… you’d need to make the changes with the machine closed down anyway edit the machine settings add an extra NIC & select the type as e1000, booting the restore image should see that adapter type.

11

OK but we have policies from our cyber defence center so i can’t do anything with the NIC

but i will ask

Regards

12

I will try with e1000 i got green lights