Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

When I use option --backup-room in combination with --backup-prog=vmkfstools
it does not report the free space and also does not delete old backups.

The report always says:
[quote]The backup room has been limited to 2500 Gb.
Available room in device /vmfs/volumes/backup/s41/2019KW15vmkfstools before backup: 2500 Gb.
Available space in device /vmfs/volumes/backup/s41/2019KW15vmkfstools after backup: 2500 Gb.[/quote]

It is always reporting the space given as --backup-room parameter but not the actual free space.
When using  --backup-prog=xsitools instead the free space is reported correctly.

The man page says:
[quote]Once this limit is reached the eldest backup folders with XSIBackup folder mask will be deleted.[/quote]

But what is the "XSIBackup folder mask" ? The man page doesn't explain this.

When I run chained backup from crontab the next backup in the chain does not get executed.
In the log file I see that job 001 finished and the next job 002 is found but after that the execution just stops without any further log entries:

2019-04-06T16:00:32|  Firewall rule SMTPout-465 closed.
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  Backup finished
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  Executing next chained backup ID(002)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  Next job:
2019-04-06T16:00:32|   This is a backup job file example. It starts with the path to your
2019-04-06T16:00:32|   xsibackup file and ends with the redirection to the log file. Please
2019-04-06T16:00:32|   do make sure that you keep first and last lines, changing paths to
2019-04-06T16:00:32|   match your working environment.
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  "/vmfs/volumes/backup/xsi-dir/xsibackup" \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-prog=vmkfstools \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --certify-backup=yes \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/backup/s41/$( date +%Y%m'vmkfstools' ) \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-room=2500 \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-type=custom --backup-vms="Moodle" \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-how=hot \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --remote-xsipath=/vmfs/volumes/backup/xsi-dir \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --use-smtp=1 \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --mail-to=someone@example.com \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --backup-id=002 \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --description="vmkfstools hot backup of s41 VMs" \
2019-04-06T16:00:32|  --exec=yes >> "/vmfs/volumes/backup/xsi-dir/var/logs/xsibackup.log"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I run job 002 from the command line it works just fine.

Mail report is giving a warning for VMs were disks were excluded:

Last warning for the above VM:
[IGMS30] Info: disks [IGMS30_1.vmdk] have been excluded from the backup

Since the exclusion is set intentionally through a parameter this should not give a warning.

Hello,

when you have to restore many VMs with --restore-vms (in my case 40) the usage method is really a pain in the b**t.
You have to select each VM manually, confirm the restore, enter the destination directory manually.
Doing this fourty times and having to wait for each restore in between is a real strain.

I tried to script it by specifying each individual backup path, but even then you have to select the VM, confirm and you cannot give a destination directory as parameter.

The XSIbackup advertisement "It's totally scriptable" does not apply here and that unfortunately makes using XSItools or other backup methods that require --restore-vms unusable for disaster recovery from my point of view.

Luckily I had a set of backups taken with XSIbackup-Free using vmkfstools before I upgraded the installation to XSIbackup-Pro and used XSItools. So I could restore them with a simple copy command overnight. Otherwise I would have sat there entering commands the whole night.

Please make --restore-vms scriptable!

Best regards

Hello,

when the VM name or path contains a + the backup fails.
The man page only mentions ()"|>< as invalid characters but not +

You should add that to the documentation.

Best regards