Windows 10 - HyperV installation for free

There is an interesting feature available on Windows 10.

HyperV capability permit you to easily create VM on your Windows 10 Laptop/PC/Workstation. Obviously same feature is available on Microsoft Windows server editions.

On Windows Server and Windows 10 your hardware must support virtualization.

You should decide if start using VM generation 1 or 2:

https://docs.microsoft.com/it-it/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/should-i-create-a-generation-1-or-2-virtual-machine-in-hyper-v

https://www.windowserver.it/2014/03/hyper-v-vm-generation-2-deep-dive/

About ram there is dynamic memory feature.

Veeam - How to export VM from ESX 5.X to 6.X/7.X

During these months I faced following necessity:

"Backup VMs on ESXi 5.1 and export them on new ESXi 6.7 U3 managing old server fault and DR plan"

Here they are actions taken:

• I tried to export turned off VMs, in .OVA format, and import them on new ESX unsuccesfully.
• Here it is error that I received when I tried to import .ova on new ESX https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2117310

• Thereafter I unzipped .OVA with 7-zip and creating a properly VM on new ESX.
  During VM booting phase, after a while, I received a BSOD.
  
• I tried to copy .OVA on new datastore unsuccessfully:
  https://kb.vmware.com/s/login/?startURL=%2Fs%2Farticle%2F2117310%25C2%25A0&ec=302 

• Consider that Hardware version seemed to be compatible between 5.1 and 6.7 U3
  https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-789C3913-1053-4850-A0F0-E29C3D32B6DA.html 

Solution applied was following.

1. Download Veeam trial version.
2. Enable Veeam VM Backups.
3. Enable Veeam VM Backup and Replication from old to new host.
4. I tested some VM replicated from old server to new one (shutting down them on old Server and starting them on new Server) from Veeam Console and test was succesfully.

Hoping that these information could be useful for someone.

APPENDIX

Below are articles that I used during entirely trouble shooting and Veeam B&R implementation.

OVA\OVF file deployment in ESXi 6.5 | Tutorial Part 3 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Nb3e_OMR8

Easier Fix: Failed to deploy OVF package: The task was canceled by a user.

https://atherbeg.com/2014/10/27/easier-fix-failed-to-deploy-ovf-package-the-task-was-canceled-by-a-user/

Where the VM files are stored on VMWare ESXi? [closed]

https://serverfault.com/questions/569122/where-the-vm-files-are-stored-on-vmware-esxi/569124

https://tylermade.net/2017/04/28/how-to-enable-snmp-monitoring-for-vmware-esxi-6-06-5/

How to enable SNMP on a VMware ESXi hypervisor

https://support.auvik.com/hc/en-us/articles/206311526-How-to-enable-SNMP-on-a-VMware-ESXi-hypervisor

Ensure Proper SNMP Configuration

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.security.doc/GUID-4309DE28-AFB6-4B2D-A8EA-A38D36A8C6E6.html

https://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_learning_files_in_a_vm.html

DR failover testing with Veeam console

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS02P-eUnpI

Testing Cloud Failover Plan

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/backup/95u4/cloud/testing_cloud_failover_plan.html

Step 10. Specify Data Locations

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/backup/95u4/vsphere/install_vbr_data.html

VMware Workstation 5.0 What Files Make Up a Virtual Machine?

https://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_learning_files_in_a_vm.html

Replication Scenarios

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/replication_scenarios.html?ver=100

Tips - Live Optics and Vmware 5.1.0 No SOAP response error

Live Optics permits collecting all Hypervisors and VM performance counters. 

https://www.liveoptics.com/about-live-optics/

Live Optics (Dell EMC) is an industry standard method of impartially documenting server/storage configuration and performance as well as observing file characteristics of data. 

This approach permits to analyse existing infrastructure and help decisions about upgrade or hardware renewal as well.

Consider that SAN Optics can be utilized to conduct health assessments on your Storage Area Networks. 

Here it isproblem that we faced (and succesfully fixed):

• We executed Live Optics software on a W2008 R2 Server related to a Vmware vCenter Server 5.1.0.
• Collecting was not working using administrator account as well.
• "LiveOptics_TroubleshootingTrace.txt" was showing these entries

2019-05-06Thh:mm:ss+02:00 SOAP Fault: ServerFaultCode: 

2019-05-06Thh:mm:ss+02:00 Fault detail type: 

ERROR: 2019-05-06Thh:mm:ss+02:00 No SOAP response!

• We opened a Live Optics ticket.
• Support confirmed us that problem was due to an error applicative side.
  This problem was fixed yesterday with below ne version

Live Optics 2.5.20.468497

Freeware - SolarWinds All Free Network/System/Security/DB/clients monitoring tools

Today I would like to mention several SolarWinds Free tools. 

They have limited options against full versions but have interesting features useful for day by day System and Network administration tasks/monitoring/troubleshooting.

System Administrations tools

1. Solar-PuTTY Connect to any server or device in your network with Solar-PuTTY for Windows. This is an interesting Putty or PuttyCM alternative.
2. VM Monitor Hyper-V: monitors your VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V host and associated virtual machines in real-time.
3. Server Health Monitor Monitor the health, status, and availability of server hardware.
4. Exchange Monitor  Monitor and alert on performance, availability, and capacity of your Microsoft Exchange servers.
5. Remote Execution Enabler for PowerShell Streamline PowerShell tasks across all of your servers.
6. Admin Bundle for Active Directory Keep your Active Directory tidy with this trio of management tools
7. Permissions Analyzer for Active Directory Get instant visibility into user and group permissions.
8. VM Monitor Continuously monitor a VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V host and associated virtual machines.
9. Diagnostic Tool for the WSUS Agent Test WSUS connections and validate Windows Update Agent configuration.
10. Web Transaction Watcher Easily record and capture the results of a single web transaction.
11. WMI Monitor  Monitor real-time performance metrics on Windows servers and applications.
12. SNMP Enabler for Windows Remotely configure SNMP on Windows servers and workstations.
13. VM Console Bounce problematic VMs without ever logging into VMware vCenter.
14. Storage Response Time Monitor Track your sluggish VMs and pinpoint exactly where you have high storage latency.

Security and various tools

1. Free IT Security Tools:  Manage all end-user trouble tickets and track service request lifecycle, from ticket creation to resolution, from one centralized help desk management web interface.
2. Event Log Forwarder for Windows Forward Windows events based on event source, event ID, users, computers, and keywords in the event to your syslog server in order to take further action.
3. Firewall Browser Verify firewall rule changes and perform unlimited configuration searches.
4. Event Log Consolidator  Consolidate logs from up to five Windows servers or workstations Graph events over time to find patterns and troubleshoot issues Send desktop alerts for specific events or export events to CSV.
5. Free IT Help Desk Tools Manage all end-user trouble tickets and track service request lifecycle, from ticket creation to resolution, from one centralized help desk management web interface.
6. Database Performance Analyzer Free Reveal performance bottlenecks deep inside your SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and SAP ASE instances. No other database monitoring tool focuses on response time and Multi-Dimensional Performance Analysis™ like DPA does.

Network Management Tools

1. Traceroute NG Perform accurate network path analysis.
2. Port Scanner  Scan available IP addresses and their corresponding TCP and UDP ports to identify network vulnerabilities.
3. Network Device Monitor: it work on any devieces with snmp credentials enabled there
4. NetFlow Configurator Quickly and easily activate NetFlow on your network devices with NetFlow Configurator.
5. GNS3 Network Emulator Construct and test your network in a risk-free virtual environment.
6. Real Time AppFlow Analyzer Investigate, troubleshoot, and quickly resolve application and network slowdowns.
7. Response Time Viewer for Wireshark Quickly analyze Wireshark® packet capture files to troubleshoot performance issues.
8. Network Analyzer & Bandwidth Monitoring Bundle Monitor network bandwidth usage with our free network analyzer and bandwidth monitor.
9. TFTP Server Free TFTP server for reliable and secure network file transfers.
10. IP Address Tracker Scan, track, and manage IP addresses and obtain detailed IP histories and event logs.
11. Real-Time Bandwidth Monitor Keep a close eye on bandwidth usage with this free bandwidth monitor from SolarWinds.
12. Real-Time NetFlow Analyzer See what types of traffic are on your network with SolarWinds free netflow analyzer.
13. Call Detail Record Tracker The free SolarWinds tool that lets you monitor VoIP performance.
14. Network Configuration Generator Automatically create template-based configuration scripts for network devices.
15. IP SLA Monitor Analyze IP service levels for network-based apps and services with our free IP SLA Monitor.
16. Advanced Subnet Calculator Help ensure that your IP addresses don’t conflict with one another, and save time managing DHCP, DNS, and IP addresses.
17. Wake-On-LAN Power up your network PC remotely.
18. Kiwi Syslog Server Free Edition View and archive syslog messages and SNMP traps in real time.
19. FTP Voyager FTP Client for Windows FTP, FTPS, and SFTP secure file transfer and automation with a full-featured scheduler.
20. SFTP/SCP Server Free SFTP server for reliable and secure network file transfers.

Security - CPU Spectre and Meltdown Bug

During previously months it was revealed CPU bugs that are affecting near all produced CPU.

Security it is one of the most warm argument that is growing, correctly, day by day importance (First of all due to global internet devices interconnection).

At actual stage several vendors and O.S. providers released O.S. patches.
Some of these fixes was deployed to mitigate risks.
Consider that one of these bug (Spectre ) need devices firmware upgrade.
In other cases antivirus software upgrade it is necessary before patch/firmware installation.

So I am going to create a blog article with info collected reading several technical documents/articles (indicated at end of article for easily reading)

My idea it is to release minor revisions article updates, during next months, adding fresher information.

1. Intel CPU produced during these last 10 years are affected from security critical issues.
2. On these CPUs Intel left an open channel between kernel protected memory and normal user processes.
3. This design error could permit, to access this memory area, to programs executed at user level permissions, (Java scripts browser app too), permitting sensible data read/stolen (including login and passwords).
4. It seems that Intel was already aware about this problem but did not notify this information to major O.S. players to strictly work to fix it.
5. Server, Workstation, PC, Tablet, Smartphone and Smart Devices are impacted. 
1. Affected chips include those manufactured by Intel, AMD, and ARM, which means all devices running Windows operating systems are potentially vulnerable (e.g., desktops, laptops, cloud servers, and smartphones).
2. Devices running other operating systems such as Android, Chrome, iOS, and MacOS are also affected.
6. CLOUD is impacted too. 
1. Meltdown could be particularly dangerous on unpatched cloud platforms, due to the possibility of malicious code inside a virtual machine being able to read data from the memory of the underlying host computer, with the threat that one cloud customer could steal data from another.
2. CPU performances decrease would be between 5% up to 30%. (these performances problems would be a big issue for cloud providers like Azure, Amazon....)
7. REMARK: 
1. Hotfix need to have kernel code partially rewritten:
1. Furthermore kernel and end user memory process separation (Kernel Page Table Isolation (KPTI)) would deeply impact on performances too.
2. Some old CPUs could not be upgradable.
3. Patches released are working so deep at kernel level that some AV are not compatible (a.e. Microsoft if informing customers that before begin patching process, you should verify that your antivirus (AV) software is up to date and compatible (check your antivirus software manufacturer's website for their latest compatibility information).

MICROSOFT :
Starting in January 2018, Microsoft released updates for Windows operating systems, Internet Explorer and Edge browsers to help mitigate these vulnerabilities and help to protect customers. They also released updates to secure their cloud services.
Here they are  Microsoft Articles:

Protect your Windows devices against Spectre and Meltdown
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073757/protect-your-windows-devices-against-spectre-meltdown

Update to disable mitigation against Spectre, Variant 2
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4078130/update-to-disable-mitigation-against-spectre-variant-2

From Microsoft January 2018 Security Updates

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/releasenotedetail/858123b8-25ca-e711-a957-000d3a33cf99

Operative System	Update KB
Windows Server, version 1709 (Server Core Installation)	4056892
Windows Server 2016	4056890
Windows Server 2012 R2	4056898
Windows Server 2012	not yet available
Windows Server 2008 R2	4056897
Windows Server 2008	not yet available
Windows 10	4058702
Windows 8.1	4056898
Windows 7	4056897

NOTES

Patches released are working so deep at kernel level that some AV are not compatible (a.e. Microsoft if informing customers that before begin patching process, you should verify that your antivirus (AV) software is up to date and compatible (check your antivirus software manufacturer's website for their latest compatibility information)

LINUX has released patches.

APPLE Has indicated that all iPhones, iPads and modern Mac devices are affected by Meltdown. Bullettin link.

ANDROID/GOOGLE bullettin link.

TECHNICAL PART:

1. This bug has two variant types:
1. Meltdown (32/64 bit - It permit to read private kernel memory):
2. It impact all Intel CPUs produced from 1995 to 2013 -Haswell Xeon series included.
3. CPU ARM Cortex A15, A57 A72 e A75 impacted
4. REMARK:Patches was released to fix Meltdown and Spectre 1 variant bugs for o.s. and virtual machine vendors.
5. You can learn more about these vulnerabilities at Google Project Zero
2. Spectre (32/64 bit - It permit to user-mode applications to estract processess information) 
1.  It impact all Intel CPUs produced till now.
2.  It impact some ARM CPUs Cortex A15, A17, A57 A72, A73, A75, R7, R8, A7, A8.
3.  It impact some AMD CPUs Ryzel, FX ed Pro.
4. REMARK: Fixes about bug Spectre variant 2 require computer firmware update.These updates are being issued by chip manufacturers and designers such as Intel and Arm. Sometimes  it may require also operating system kernel update.
5. REMARK 2: Because of the difficulty in addressing Spectre, patches generally mitigate risks from attacks, rather than blocking them completely.
6. You can learn more about these vulnerabilities at Google Project Zero.
   
   
3. Modern processors accelerate the rate at which they execute instructions by loading data into the processor's on-board cache memory ahead of when it's needed. Data can be retrieved from this on-board cache far more rapidly than from the computer's main memory.
   
   
4. If a processor is executing a set of instructions that branches depending on the input, then processors will try to guess which branch of instructions is most likely to be executed and load the necessary data into the processor's cache. These processes, called Branch Prediction and Speculative Execution, are what can be exploited by Spectre attacks.
5. Meltdown works slightly differently, taking advantage of a privilege escalation flaw that allows any user able to execute code on the system to access protected memory. 

[original articles]

https://www.achab.it//achab.cfm/it/blog/achablog/meltdown-e-spectre-cosa-deve-sapere-e-fare-un-msp

http://www.lastampa.it/2018/01/09/tecnologia/news/lultima-patch-di-sicurezza-windows-non-fa-pi-avviare-i-computer-amd-microsoft-sospende-gli-aggiornamenti-44j9a7tUG3GsQ1m1T6vxjO/pagina.html

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/spectre-and-meltdown-cheat-sheet/

https://meltdownattack.com/#faq-advisoryhttps://meltdownattack.com/#faq-advisory

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073757/protect-your-windows-devices-against-spectre-meltdown

Protect your Windows devices against Spectre and Meltdown
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073757/protect-your-windows-devices-against-spectre-meltdown

Update to disable mitigation against Spectre, Variant 2
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4078130/update-to-disable-mitigation-against-spectre-variant-2

You can learn more about these vulnerabilities at Google Project Zero.


[update 2018.02.17]

Oracle is impacted too, I forgot to mention previously

Oracle Linux (ELSA Security Advisory):

• Details about CVE-2017-5753 (variant 1, aka "Spectre")
• Details about CVE-2017-5715 (variant 2, aka "Spectre")
• Details about CVE-2017-5754 (variant 3, aka "Meltdown")

[update 2018.02.19 ]

Understanding the performance impact of Spectre and Meltdown mitigations on Windows Systems

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/01/09/understanding-the-performance-impact-of-spectre-and-meltdown-mitigations-on-windows-systems/

[update 2018.03.04]

Microsoft has published guidance for IT Pros that outlines the steps Microsoft has taken as well as steps you can take to take advantage of all available protections.

One action that you can take immediately is to ensure that your computers are able to reach the following endpoint:

http://adl.windows.com



This may involve adding this URL to your company’s whitelist which may require approval from your security group.  This endpoint is used to communicate updates to Microsoft’s compatibility information with client computers.  By ensuring your computers can reach this endpoint, you can help them get the most up-to-date information Microsoft has available about supported antivirus solutions and versions, security update statuses, etc.

more details here

Vackup - Veeam Alternative Vembu BDR Suite

Today I would like to mention this Veeam Backup Alternative.

https://www.vembu.com/

I did not have time to try it yet but here some charactheristic that make it interesting:

1. Backups could be saved on-site, off-site and on cloud.
2. Item Level Backup for Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL, My SQL, Office 365 available.
3. Two licensing types:
1. Unlimited functionalities only for 3 VMs.
2. Unlimited VMs but functionalities limited.
4. 30 days trial full feature download possible.
   
5. If you are interested to view full compare between license type you could review this .pdf:
   https://www.vembu.com/pdf/datasheet/vembu-bdr-suite-free-vs-paid-edition.pdf
   
6. HyperV (2008 R2 up to 2016),  Vmware (4.x up to 6.x) , workstation and physical server are supported.
   
7. Full and granular restore supported.
   
8. CRC, encryption (backup) and compression are supported.
   
9. No agent software is installed on VMs.
   
10. Storage pools aggregations are supported like on Veeam.
    
11. Direct SAN feature permits backup tool to communicate directly to SAN (exposing with iScsi) without necessity to pass through to Vmware/HyperV hypervisors.
    
12. Cross Platform Migration tool support (v2v) between different hyper-visor.
    
13. VSS - Application-aware image backup compatibility.
    
14. Log Truncation.
    
15. Backup data could be downloaded from user in different file formats (vmdk, vhdx, image ....)
    
16. Backup encryption (AES 256 bit)
    
17. About exchange (2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016) Vembu Explorer for Microsoft Exchange Instantly restores Exchange user mailboxes, emails, contacts and etc., from backed up VMware VMs without restoring entire Exchange server.
    
18. Vembu Explorer for Microsoft Active Directory: Instantly restores Active Directory objects and GPOs and etc., without restoring entire MS Active Directory VM.Supports Active Directory Server 2008 R2 STD, 2012 DC, 2012 R2 DC.
    
19. Vembu Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server: Instantly restores SQL database and tables without restoring entire SQL VM. Supports MS SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2014, 2016.
    
20. Vembu Explorer for Microsoft Sharepoint: Instantly restores SharePoint site collections, documents and etc. without restoring entire SharePoint VM. Supports Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003,2007,2010,2013.
    
21. Bare-metal Recorery it is supported restoring to same hardware or new RAW hardware using Vembu Recovery CD.
    Supported O.S.: (2016, 2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008,2003 R2 SP2, 2003 SP2, Windows 10 , Windows 8, Windows 7,Windows Vista,  Windows XP SP2)

Here they are useful documentation to aim to view all features/capabilities:

 Product Datasheet  Release Notes  Free vs Paid Comparison

Download for Free

Indeed about Veeam Backup tool you could review this link with all related blog articles:

http://www.alessandromazzanti.com/search/label/Veeam

HyperV/Vmware - How to convert .VHD file to .VMDK

If you only have a VHD file, and you want to convert it to VMDK format, WinImage (now at 9.0 version) can come to rescue. WinImage is a shareware but available for free evaluation use for up to 30 days. WinImage, which available in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions, is available for download from 



http://www.winimage.com/download.htm


The WinImage 8.50, 8.10, 8.00, 7.00 and 6.10 download contains the standard and professional editions of WinImage, as well as WinImage self-extractor.

I would like to highlight these old blog posts:

Vmware - Vmware Converter utility and consideration

HyperV - Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0

HyperV 2012 - How to export VM created on HyperV 2008 to HyperV 2012 R2

If you try to export VM on HyperV 2008 to HyperV 2012 R2 you will probably get this error:

If you are facing this sort of problema you can take a look to following article.

http://www.devadmin.it/2014/11/25/import-vm-da-ws2088-r2-a-ws2012-r2/

HyperV - Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0

Microsoft® Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the information technology (IT) pro or solution provider who wants to convert virtual machines and disks from VMware hosts to Hyper-V® hosts and Windows Azure™.

Download:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

Microsoft® Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the information technology (IT) pro or solution provider who wants to convert virtual machines and disks from VMware hosts to Hyper-V® hosts and Windows Azure™.

MVMC can be deployed with minimal dependencies. Because MVMC provides native support for Windows PowerShell®, it enables scripting and integration with data center automation workflows such as those authored and run within Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2. It can also be invoked through the Windows PowerShell® command-line interface. The solution is simple to download, install, and use. In addition to the Windows PowerShell capability, MVMC provides a wizard-driven GUI to facilitate virtual machine conversion.

New Features in MVMC 2.0
MVMC 2.0 release of MVMC includes the following new features:

• Converts virtual disks that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Windows Azure.
• Provides native Windows PowerShell capability that enables scripting and integration into IT automation workflows.
  Note The command-line interface (CLI) in MVMC 1.0 has been replaced by Windows PowerShell in MVMC 2.0.
• Supports conversion and provisioning of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
• Supports conversion of offline virtual machines.
• Supports the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting and provisioning in Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
• Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.
• Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.

Standard MVMC Features
In addition to the new features previously identified, MVMC provides the following functionality:

• Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts on any of the following operating systems:
• Windows Server® 2012 R2
• Windows Server® 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Converts VMware virtual machines, virtual disks, and configurations for memory, virtual processor, and other virtual computing resources from the source to Hyper-V.
• Adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
• Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.0, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts to Hyper-V.
• Has a wizard-driven GUI, which simplifies performing virtual machine conversions.
• Uninstalls VMware Tools before online conversion (online only) to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
  Important MVMC takes a snapshot of the virtual machine that you are converting before you uninstall VMware Tools, and then shuts down the source machine to preserve state during conversion. The virtual machine is restored to its previous state after the source disks that are attached to the virtual machine are successfully copied to the machine where the conversion process is run. At that point, the source machine in VMware can be turned on, if required.
  Important MVMC does not uninstall VMware Tools in an offline conversion. Instead, it disables VMware services, drivers, and programs only for Windows Server guest operating systems. For file conversions with Linux guest operating systems, VMware Tools are not disabled or uninstalled. We highly recommend that you manually uninstall VMware Tools when you convert an offline virtual machine.
• Supports Windows Server and Linux guest operating system conversion. For more details, see the section “Supported Configurations for Virtual Machine Conversion” in this guide.
• Includes Windows PowerShell capability for offline conversions of VMware-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V–based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
  Note The offline disk conversion does not include driver fixes.

Veeam - Backup VM with SQL installed "Application -Aware Image Processing" enabled

If you backup VM that have SQL installed you must be sure that Data would be consistent.

Using Veeam Backup you must setting up Backup properly with VSS (application -Aware Image Processing)

For best tuning you must follow this Veeam Article:

http://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/70/vsphere/backup_job_vss_vm.html

Here are relative images:

 

Backup - Veeam Backup & Replication 7.0 R2 update

Veeam Backup & Replication 7.0 R2 update

To obtain the patch please download it from: Download

 

Solution:

New Features:

VMware

• vSphere 5.5 support, including support for 62TB virtual disks and virtual hardware v10 virtual machines.
  
• vCloud Director 5.5 support.
  
• Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 as guest virtual machines (VMs).
  
• Added ability to limit maximum amount of active VM snapshots per datastore to prevent it from being overfilled with snapshot deltas. The default value of 4 active snapshots can be controlled with MaxSnapshotsPerDatastore (REG_DWORD) registry key.
  

Microsoft

• Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V and free Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 support, including support for Generation 2 virtual machines.
  
• Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 as guest virtual machines (VMs)
  
• Support for System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
  
• Support for the installation of Veeam Backup & Replication and its components on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1.
  

Built-in WAN acceleration

• Increased data processing performance up to 50% with hard drive based cache, and up to 3 times with SSD based cache. Multi-core CPU on source WAN accelerator is recommended to take full advantage of the enhanced data processing engine.
  

Replication

• Added ability for source and target proxy servers to reconnect and resume replication when network connection between source and target site drops for a short period of time.
  

Tape

• Added support for a number of enterprise-class tape libraries with partitioning functionality that allows presenting multiple tape library partitions to the same host.
  
• Import/export slot interaction has been redesigned to add support for a number of IBM and Oracle tape libraries.
   
  

Application-aware processing

• Added ability for application-aware processing logic to detect passive Microsoft Exchange DAG database present on the VM, and process it accordingly.
  
• Added support for Exchange CCR clusters.
  

User interface

• User interface should now remember size and positions off the main window, as well as all panels and columns.
  

Resolved issues:

Engine

• Importing backup fails with the “Failed to load backup meta from file. Unexpected end of file has occurred.” if VBM file size exceeds 10MB.
  
• Deleted VM retention incorrectly applies to not deleted VMs when full backup transform duration exceeds the deleted VM retention period (14 days by default).
  
• Removed unintentional compression (and further uncompression) of data transferred between source and target data movers when both are running on the same server, and compression is disabled in the job settings.
  

VMware

• Replication jobs should now automatically handle the situations when source VM disk size changes, instead of failing with the “Declared and actual sizes of the disk are different” error.
  
• Replication jobs using Windows 2003 hot add source proxy fails with the “Client error: Failed to send command” error.
  
• Very long running replication jobs may fail with the “Failed to process [srcSaveSignature]” error.
  
• Re-IP addressing process may unintentionally update some reparse points found in the guest file system, which under certain circumstances may make them unusable.
  
• vCenter Server version is not updated after vCenter update on the vSphere Web Plug-in configuration page of Enterprise Manager web UI.
  
• vSphere Web Client plug-in shows “Access denied” error for all users that have never logged into Enterprise Manager.
  
• Added ability to configure timeouts for networkless (VIX) operations via vixOperationTimeoutSec (REG_DWORD) and vixExecutionTimeoutSec (REG_DWORD) registry values in seconds.
  
• Added ability to configure timeouts for Instant VM Recovery operations via IrMountLeaseTimeOut (REG_DWORD) and IrVcdMountLeaseTimeOut (REG_DWORD) registry values in minutes. The new, increased defaults are 30 and 45 minutes respectively.
  

Hyper-V

• Under certain scenarios of dynamic VHD virtual disk size increase, changed block tracking information can be reset, resulting in incremental job run having to read the entire VHD to determine the incremental changes.
  
• Performing compact operation on VHD virtual disk can reset changed block tracking information.
  
• Instant VM Recovery fails with the “Connection with Hyper-V mount agent was lost” error for VMs with dynamic VHD disk size not being a multiple of 256MB.
  
• Failure to rescan any host makes rescan of the remaining cluster hosts to fail with the following error: "Failed to execute WMI Query"
  
• Instant VM Recovery fails with the “Failed to prepare VHD file for mounting” when target Hyper-V host’s storage uses native 4KB sector size disks.
  
• Application-aware processing of Windows Server 2012 VM running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V may hang for 10 minutes.
  
• Removed the single VSS snapshot per cluster limit. As the results, all jobs should now correctly use the max concurrent snapshot per volume setting.
  
• Replication job may fail during the free disk space check with the “Failed to extract volume mount point by the specified path” error, depending on how destination folder was selected in the replication job wizard.
  
• Veeam jobs may cause non-VM owner Hyper-V nodes to log the following events to the system event log: “(eventid = 8194): "Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface.  hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied”
  
• Changed block tracking functionality does not function on cluster disks.
  

Application-aware processing

• Exchange 2003 running in VM restored from Veeam backup may rename its mailbox databases after each subsequent reboot.
  

Backup Copy

• Retry cycles cause incorrect processing duration shown in the Backup Copy job report.
  
• Backup Copy job reports show the inflated traffic savings ratios due to being calculated off the incorrect parameter.
  
• Certain Backup Copy jobs failures result in Backup Copy job report not send immediately, but rather at the end of the copy interval.
  
• A number of additional enhancements to the Backup Copy job report.
  

File level recovery

• Copy To fails on files with long paths with the following error: “The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248”
  
• Mount cache files should now be cleaned up from %AppData% folder automatically.
  

Guest file system indexing

• Guest file system catalog data processing performance was accelerated a few times in cases when the catalog contains very largest amount of restore points.
  
• Catalog service may take a very long time to start when there is a large data upload queue present.
  

1-Click VM Restore

• File restore operator scope settings should no longer affect ability to perform VM restore in certain scenarios with overlapping permissions.
  

Built-in WAN Acceleration

• Backup Copy job fails with the “Unable to initialize remote target session connection: all aliases have failed” after source VM disk has been resized
  
• Large Backup Copy jobs may fail with the “ERR |Invalid length of the binary data” error.
  
• WAN accelerator resource is not released correctly if Backup Copy job did not copy any data during the copy interval, preventing the following copy intervals from obtaining access to WAN accelerators.
  
• Under certain circumstances, the Backup Copy job health check may fail with the “Access is denied” error.
  

Backup from Storage Snapshots

• Added ability to perform multiple VM snapshot removal concurrently (according to the global concurrency setting) when multiple VMs are backed up from the same LUN by the same job.
  
• HP StoreServ (3PAR) integrated jobs may fail with the “Invalid input: string length exceeds limit” error depending on the snapshot name length.
  

Tape

• Drive to library matching code does not process some symbols in the serial numbers, resulting in matching problems with certain tape libraries (for example, QUADStor VTL).
  
• Added ability to disable tape device rescan completely with the DisableTapeSubsystem (REG_DWORD) registry key. This can help in situations when the same tape devices is shared between multiple backup solutions.
  
• In some cases, stopping tape jobs can cause backup session not finalized correctly, resulting in future attempts to write to the same tape failing with the “Tape positioning” error.
  
• The Do not protect data (cyclic overwrite tapes as required) option does not work correctly for standalone drives.
  
• Tapes with multiple partitions cannot be correctly formatted.
  
• Tape jobs fail with the “Tape changer alert: The library was unable to read the bar code on a cartridge” error upon receiving the corresponding alert from the tape library.
  
• Certain tape device configurations cause “There is no media in the drive” error to be logged incorrectly when the media is in fact present in the drive.
  
• Under rare circumstances, writing to the first tape in the media set may fail with the following error: The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "FK_Tape.file_parts_file_versions"
  

File Copy

• Linux symbolic links are not copied by file management operations and file copy jobs.
  

SureBackup

• SureBackup job may incorrectly use vCloud Director virtual machine backup when Application Group is configured by adding VM from vSphere infrastructure.
  
• SureBackup does not update port group correctly when both production and virtual lab networks are located on the same Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS).
  

Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange

• Launching Veeam Explorer for Exchange from Backup Browser may fail with the following error: “Error: JetError -546, JET_errLogSectorSizeMismatch, the log file sector size does not match the current volume's sector size”
  

Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint

• Using localized SQL server for staging fails with the “File is a Directory” error.
  
• Attachments lost during recovery when attachment path contains Unicode symbols, even though they can be seen in the user interface.
  

Known Issues:

General

• Network traffic verification does not function when the Use multiple upload streams per job option is disabled.
   
  

vSphere 5.5

• E1000E vNIC adaptors has been found to crash ESXi host under heavy load. Avoid using them until the patch is available from VMware. For more information, please refer to VMware support KB2059053
  
• Virtual appliance (hot add) processing mode does not support SATA disks. This is by design of VMware hot add functionality, which requires SCSI adaptors.
  
• vSAN beta is not supported.
   
  

Hyper-V 2012 R2

• Offhost backup from deduplicated volume fails if Data Deduplication feature is disabled on backup proxy server, or incompatible with Windows Server deduplication version used on backed up volume.
  
• Shared VHDX virtual disks backup is not supported.
   
  

Windows Server 2012 R2

• In Windows Server 2012 R2 environments with Windows Server deduplication feature in use, be sure to install Veeam Backup & Replication on Windows Server 2012 R2, and enable the Data Deduplication feature. Windows Server 2012 deduplication driver is not compatible with Windows Server 2012 R2 deduplication, causing file level recovery errors with false data corruption reports

R2a Update (build 7.0.0.771)
 

This newer build addresses only the following issues introduced with the original R2 build:

• Backup and replication jobs fail with the "Dynamic library cannot be loaded" error when the backup proxy is missing C++ redistributable components (such as in case of clean OS install). Alternatively to installing this newer build, you may instead choose to install C++ redistributable components from vee.am/runtime.
  
• "Transferred" job counter displays the same value with "Read" counter in cases when both source and target data movers are running on the same server (such as when backup proxy is writing data to its own disk). This is purely a cosmetic issue, as the actual transferred amount is lower due to source-side dedupe and compression.
  

• Tape backup jobs writing to a standalone tape drive hangs on processing the second task in the job.