HFS Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V

• The Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V software has to be installed on the Hyper-V server where the VMs are running
• Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V only supports VHDX disk formats
• One cannot run other processes (MS Backup, VM replication, etc.) which are using the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) whilst one is using Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V
• The Volume Shadow Copy Requestor Integration Service must be installed and enabled on the guest virtual machine. This service is automatically added to Windows virtual machines. However, for Linux operating systems, the Linux Integration Services software needs to be downloaded and installed from the official Microsoft website
• The 'Volume shadow copy requestor (VSS)' service needs to be ticked within Integration Services on the guest virtual machine's settings in the Hyper-V management console

Please note that access to the service is by application. Contact us at hfs@ox.ac.uk to request an account.

Install the latest Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V version

1. Download the latest IBM Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V installer onto the Hyper-V server host.
2. Run or unzip the downloaded file. You need up to 2 GB of free space for the files.
3. Run spinstall.exe. Note that IBM do not sign their installer package.
4. Follow the prompts and accept the licence terms.
5. From the Installation Type prompt, choose Advanced installation.
6. From the Advanced Installation Type prompt, choose Install the data mover feature or mount proxy.
7. The installer will install several IBM packages and possibly some prerequisites too, such as C++ redistributable packages.

Run the configuration tool

Please be aware that when upgrading your existing Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V software, there is no need to follow the steps outlined below.

1. Download the latest configuration tool.
2. Extract the downloaded file and run Config_tool.exe.
3. Fill in the requested information in the form that is displayed. You will be given the required information by the HFS Backup Services Team when they have set up your Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V account.

4. Select Configure once you are ready.

5. Once the configuration is complete, select Exit.

We have tried to choose reasonable defaults in the configuration file (C:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient\tsm4ve.opt).  However, there are some configuration options that you may want to adjust to suit your setup.  In particular, these are:

DOMAIN.VMFULL

This sets the list of VMs that you want to back up.  By default all Hyper-V virtual machines are backed up that are known to the Hyper-V host.  To exclude virtual machines vm1, vm2 and vm3 from the backups, give them as the value for -VM, separated by commas:

DOMAIN.VMFULL all-vm;-VM=vm1,vm2,vm3

Note that if the VM name contains spaces, it should not be surrounded by quotation marks.  There should also be no spaces between VM names and the commas.  This applies to all DOMAIN.VMFULL options.

To specify explicitly the VMs to back up, use the VM option.  For example to back up only vm1, vm2 and vm3, use:

DOMAIN.VMFULL vm=vm1,vm2,vm3

EXCLUDE.VMDISK

EXCLUDE.VMDISK excludes the specified virtual disk from backup.  For example, to exclude a specific IDE virtual disk of virtual machine "vmname":

EXCLUDE.VMDISK vmname "IDE 0 1"

The second argument is the virtual disk's location, which must begin with "SCSI" or "IDE" followed by the controller number and device location number.  Use the 'backup vm' command with the '-preview' option to determine the location of disks in a given VM:

Protect> backup vm Win2012_restored -preview
ANS2564I Gathering virtual machine information...
Backup VM command started.  Total number of virtual machines to process: 1

  1. VM Name: Win2012_restored

        Domain Keyword:       Win2012_restored
        Mode:                 Incremental Forever - Incremental
        Target Node Name:     SN-HYPERV1.IT
        Data Mover Node Name: SN-HYPERV1.IT
        Cluster Resource:     No

        Disk[1]
        Name: \\hfsvm-tsm-proxy\d$\Win2012_restored\Win2012_restored\Virtual Hard Disks\WinServ12_gen1.vhdx
        Capacity:             64.00 GB
        Size:                 18.07 GB
        Status:               included
        Disk Type:            VHDX
        Number of Subdisk:    0
        Controller Location:  IDE 0 0

        Disk[2]
        Name: \\hfsvm-tsm-proxy\d$\win2012_restored\win2012_restored\virtual hard disks\disk2.vhdx
        Capacity:             16.00 GB
        Size:                 164.00 MB
        Status:               included
        Disk Type:            VHDX
        Number of Subdisk:    0
        Controller Location:  IDE 0 1

INCLUDE.VMDISK

INCLUDE.VMDISK includes specific virtual disks in the backup of a virtual machine and creates an implicit exclude for all other virtual disks on that virtual machine.  If you do not specify one or more disk labels, all disks in the VM are backed up.  For example, if you have a virtual machine named "vmname" with four virtual disks ("IDE 0 0" to "IDE 0 3 "), the following would back up "IDE 0 0" and "IDE 0 1" of "vmname" but not "IDE 0 2" and "IDE 0 3":

INCLUDE.VMDISK vmname "IDE 0 0"
INCLUDE.VMDISK vmname "IDE 0 1"

The second argument is the virtual disk's location, which must begin with "SCSI" or "IDE" followed by the controller number and device location number.  Use the 'backup vm' command with the '-preview' option to determine the location of disks in a given VM (see example output of this command in the section above).

Using the Spectrum Protect client GUI

1. Launch the Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V client GUI using shortcuts from either the desktop or Spectrum Protect for VE Start Menu folder, or by running the IBM SP for VE GUI.lnk file from the Desktop folder, using the command line.
2. Choose Actions > Backup VM to display the Backup Virtual Machine window.

3. Expand the Hyper-V VMs item.

4. Select virtual machines to back up.

5. Choose Incremental Forever - Incremental from the drop down, then Backup.

6. A Task List window displays the backup progress.

7. For detailed information, select Report.

Using the Spectrum Protect command line

To back up all virtual machines specified in the DOMAIN.VMFULL option, start the Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V command line client using the shortcut on the desktop or in the Spectrum Protect for VE Start Menu folder, or run the IBM SP for VE command line.lnk file from the Desktop folder, then run:

Protect> backup vm -mode=IFincr

To back up a specific VM, run:

Protect> backup vm 'vmname' -mode=IFincr

Using the Spectrum Protect client GUI

1. Launch the Spectrum Protect for VE client GUI using the shortcut on the desktop or in the Spectrum Protect for VE Start Menu folder.  Alternatively you can start the program by running the 'IBM SP for VE GUI.lnk' file from the Desktop folder, using the command line.
2. Choose Actions > Restore VM to display the Restore Virtual Machine window.
3. Expand the Hyper-V VMs item and choose a VM in the navigation pane.  All the available backups of the VM are displayed.  Choose a backup in the right hand side window and click Restore.
4. The Restore Destination window is displayed.  If you wish to restore to the original location, you need to make sure that there is not a VM with the same name in that location.  If you are restoring to a new location, specify as much of the information as necessary.  If you specify a new name for the VM then you must specify an alternative location.
5. Click Restore to start the restore.

Using the Spectrum Protect command line

Start the Spectrum Protect for VE command line client using the shortcut on the desktop or in the Spectrum Protect for VE Start Menu folder (or run the 'IBM SP for VE command line.lnk' file from the Desktop folder).

• To restore a virtual machine to the same name and location as it was backed up from:

Protect> restore vm 'vm name'

You must ensure that the target VM name no longer exists.

• To restore a VM to a new name and new location, specify both the name and location:

Protect> restore vm 'vm name' -vmname="new vm name" -targetpath='path that you want to restore the VM to'

Restoring individual files is achieved by using the IBM Spectrum Protect Recovery Agent.  To do that, you must either:

• Launch the Recovery Agent from Start > IBM Spectrum Protect > IBM Spectrum Protect Recovery Agent on the Hyper-V server host.
• Start it from the command line by running: "c:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\RecoveryAgent\mount\RecoveryAgent.exe" -notservice
• Or follow the steps described in the installation section and install the IBM Spectrum Protect for Hyper-V data mover feature on any Windows VM and launch the Recovery Agent from Start > IBM Spectrum Protect > IBM Spectrum Protect Recovery Agent

Using iSCSI

The most flexible way to restore individual files is by using the Recovery Agent to export a backup as an iSCSI target which the iSCSI initiator on a virtual machine can then mount.

1. Select New IBM Spectrum Protect server... from the IBM Spectrum Protect Server drop-down.
2. Set the following, then OK:

    

   Server address	See the TCPServerAddress field within your tsm4ve.opt file
   Server port	See the TCPPort field within your tsm4ve.opt file
   Node access method	Direct
   Authentication node	See the NodeName field in tsm4ve.opt
   Password	The password for the authentication node

    

3. Within Select snapshot, choose the relevant backup from Virtual machine > Snapshot >   Disk.

4. Click Mount.

5. Set a unique iSCSI target name and set the appropriate iSCSI initiator name which corresponds to the virtual machine that will connect to this iSCSI target.  Then click OK.

   Note that:

   • port 3260 must be open between the computer and the initiator on any firewall.

   • the iSCSI initiator name can be obtained from the client virtual machine; for example, on a Windows VM, it can be obtained from the "iSCSI Initiator" configuration.

6.  The iSCSI target will now be listed in the Mounted Volumes list in the Recovery Agent.  Configure the iSCSI initiator on the appropriate machine to mount the target as read-only and copy the required files to the VM using standard operating system tools.  This will vary for each operating system.

7. When the iSCSI target is not needed any longer, unmount it and disconnect the iSCSI initiator from the target.  Select the target in the Recovery Agent and click Dismount.

8. Select Close to exit the Recovery Agent.