VCB basic usage - VM file-level backup with vcbMounter

The performance of full backup running over LAN network is not optimal because it requires to copy virtual machine disks locally. That may take some time. The usage of SAN or Hot-Add mode is far better in such situations.

The file-level backup is more suitable for LAN networks because it doesn't export any disks. It is able to mount the disk directly and you can access its filesystem without mountvm command like I described here. By the way, this holds for Windows OSes because VCB supports NTFS or FAT filesystems only.

Let's take our previous virtual machine vcb-backup and try to do file-level backup. We will use the same command but with different value of -t parameter:

vcbmounter -h VC_IP -u VC_USER -p VC_PASS -a name:vcb-backup
-r c:\mnt\vcb-backup -t file -m nbd

The virtual disk will be mounted under the C:\mnt\vcb-backup directory in LAN mode. The successful mounting will print the following messages (some lines may be split due to their length):

Opened disk: vpxa-nfc://[STORAGE] vcb-backup/vcb-backup.vmdk@\
VC_IP!52 79 b4 1a d5 0a 84 31-fd 1c e3 fe f8 31 db ed
Proceeding to analyze volumes
Done mounting
Volume 1 mounted at c:\mnt\vcb-backup\digits\1 (mbSize=12291 \
fsType=NTFS )
Volume 1 also mounted on c:\mnt\vcb-backup\letters\C

Again, the NTFS filesystem is accessible via its letter. Now, you can copy the files inside, you can backup the directory structure but you can't delete anything. The reason is you are not working with the virtual disk directly but with its snapshot called _VCB_SNAPSHOT_ (full backup with vcbMounter). Here is a screenshot from Virtual Infrastructure Client proving it:

When we are finished with backup we need to unmount it. It differs from unmounting exported virtual disk because we need to delete the snapshot as well. This is reachable with the vcbmounter command and -U parameter:

vcbmounter -h VC_IP -u VC_USER -p VC_PASS -U c:\mnt\vcb-backup

The output is similar to the one we have seen already:

Unmounted c:\mnt\vcb-backup\digits\1\ (formatted)
Deleted directory c:\mnt\vcb-backup\digits\1\
Deleted directory c:\mnt\vcb-backup\digits
Deleted directory c:\mnt\vcb-backup\letters\C\
Deleted directory c:\mnt\vcb-backup\letters
Deleted directory c:\mnt\vcb-backup

And that's all the magic. Do you remember as we need to export the virtual disk at first and then to mount it? The file-level backup is straightforward. You can bypass copying the virtual disks over LAN and you can do the backup directly.

The conclusion is:

1. Use the file-level backup where it is possible (Windows machines)
2. Otherwise use the full backup (UNIX machines)