NetBackup cannot obtain the volume ID of a drive

NetBackup may not be able to obtain the volume ID of a drive that is listed in the policy's backup selections. In that case, none of the drives that are listed in the policy for the client (virtual machine) are backed up. The backup fails with NetBackup status code 156.

Try one of the following:

Use the ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES directive instead of listing individual drives.

A drive letter that is specified in the policy's backup selections list may be incorrect, or the drive may be down. Update the client's include list (Exceptions to exclude list), and fix or remove the drive entry in the backup selections list.

A backup of the virtual machine is already active

You cannot run more than one backup per virtual machine at a time. If you start a second backup of the virtual machine while the first backup is active, the second job fails with a status 156.

Recommended action: Wait until the first job completes, then run the second one.

A VCB snapshot of the virtual machine is already active

If you cancel a virtual machine backup that uses VMware VCB, NetBackup terminates the backup job. But NetBackup may be unable to terminate the VMware vcbmounter process that creates the snapshot on the virtual machine. If you then start another backup of the virtual machine, and the previous snapshot is still active, the new job fails with status 156.

Recommended action: On the virtual machine, use VMware Virtual Infrastructure or vSphere Client to delete the current snapshot. Then use NetBackup to restart the backup.

VCB only: The VMware backup host has insufficient space for the snapshot

If the VMware backup host has insufficient space in which to mount a VCB snapshot of the virtual machine, the backup fails with status 156.

The bpfis log on the VMware backup host may contain a message such as the following:

13:35:37.859 [5536.1276] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf:   [2007-09-21 
13:35:34.578 'vcbMounter' 2204 error] Error: Failed to export 
the disk: There is not enough space on the disk

Recommended action: Free up additional space on the backup host and rerun the backup.

VCB only: The selected transfer type cannot be used

If the VMware backup host cannot access the VMware datastore by means of the transfer type that was selected for the job, the backup fails.

The bpfis log on the backup host may contain messages such as the following:

12:23:29.998 [3892.3332] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf:   [2008-05-07 
12:23:26.279 'App' 3668 trivia] Attempting to open 
LVID:46a9ed36-ca235c12-1236-00001a1a24e4/46a9ed35-aa804fd4-6b99
-00001a1a24e4/1.

12:23:29.998 [3892.3332] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf:    [2008-05-07 
12:23:26.279 'App' 3668 error] No path to device 
LVID:46a9ed36-ca235c12-1236-00001a1a24e4/46a9ed35-aa804fd4-6b99
-00001a1a24e4/1 found. 

Recommended action: Select a different transfer type and retry the backup.

Cannot find virtual machine name

NetBackup cannot find the host name or VMware display name of a virtual machine that is listed in the backup policy. The detailed status log may include the following error message:

Critical bpbrm (pid=<pid number>) from client <client name>:
FTL - snapshot creation failed, status 156.)

If the virtual machines do not have static IP addresses, you can configure NetBackup to identify virtual machines by their VMware display names or UUIDs. Examples of the environments that do not use static IP addresses are clusters, and the networks that assign IP addresses dynamically.

Note that NetBackup may have been configured to identify virtual machines by their VMware display names. In that case, make sure that the display names are unique and that they do not contain special characters.

See Client name selection parameter.

The virtual machine disk is in raw mode (RDM)

For versions of VCB earlier than 1.5: A disk was mounted on a virtual machine but the disk is assigned to the virtual machine in raw mode (RDM). As a result, the attempt to create a snapshot of the virtual machine fails.

The bpfis log on the backup host may contain a message such as the following:

12:46:27.175 [2636.5628] <2> onlfi_vfms_logf:        [2007-10-17 
12:46:27.019 'App' 
1976 verbose] Fault Msg: "Virtual machine is configured to use a 
device that prevents the snapshot operation: Device '' is a raw 
disk, which is not supported."

For VCB 1.5 update 2 and for vStorage, the RDM is ignored (not backed up) and any independent disk is recreated but empty.

See Configurations for backing up RDMs.

The attempt to create a snapshot exceeded the VMware timeout

If the attempt to create a snapshot of the virtual machine exceeds the VMware timeout of 10 seconds, the snapshot fails with NetBackup status 156. This timeout may occur if the virtual machine is configured with a large number of volumes. Note that the timeout may be encountered even if the Virtual machine quiesce option was disabled.

VCB only: compression or encryption is enabled on the snapshot staging area in the VMware backup host

For the Full VM backup, Mapped full VM backup, or Full backup with file level incremental options: Backups are not supported if the snapshot staging area in the VMware backup host has compression or encryption enabled.