can not back up a remote virtual server

Hi,

Are you able to ping those machines from the backup server. Check the firewall on the ESX server and ensure that the ports on which backup exec tries to connect remote agents are opened on the ESX server.

update if the issue still persists with the error messages

bhanu

hi bhanu - yes i can ping both servers from the backup server. i do not know how to check the firewall on the esx server. can you give me directions on how to do that?

thanks

hi

Try to disable the firewall by typing the following command on the esx server console

esxcfg-firewall -allowOutgoing
esxcfg-firewall -allowIncoming

Then try connecting to the remote clients.

bhanu

I don't think this is really the issue.  The VMs don't use the ESX firewall.  The host is isolated from the VMs in ESX.  The issue would be with the firewalls on the actual Windows VMs.  Run firewall.cpl from Start--> Run on both Windows boxes and check the firewall there.

hi jfields - windows firewall/ics service is not running on the servers.

Then the other place to look in ESX is your virtual networking.  Might there be another firewall somewhere on the network between the backup server and the VMs?  Check to see which physical switches the physical NICs off the vSwitches are connecting to.  Also, check  out this guide for help:
http://vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_vm_backup.pdf

If you still think it is a network problem, try running Wireshark (or other packet sniffer) on one of the VMs you  are trying to backup to see if it is receiving packets from the backup server.    

problem resolved

i found that when i expanded the selection list within backup exec the servers were not backing up when i selected them from the 'domains -> active directory domains' list but when i used the 'domains -> microsoft windows network' list the servers backed up fine.

not sure why that was. maybe someone can explain?

Hi rory,

Can you please provide the screenshot with the selection that works and the selection that is not working. I am not really sure why this would be a issue. But would certainly try to answer

bhanu

here is a screenshot of what i mean..........

when i selected the server through the 'active directory domains' under 'domains' the server would not backup. but when i selected the server under 'microsoft windows network' it backed up no problem.

anyone know why that might be?
backup.JPG

Not sure what the reason was but it may be connectivity to the domain controller that was causing the issue