Bash Script To Determine Backup Protocol

In vSphere Data Protection, you have couple of backup protocols. SAN mode, HotAdd, NBD and NBD over SSL. HotAdd is always the recommended protocol, as data handling and transfer is much faster than the rest. If your backups are running slow, then the first thing we will check is the backup protocol mode. Then we will move further to VDP load and finally the VMFS / Array performance.

If you have few VMs, you can easily find out the protocol type from the logs. However, if you have a ton of VMs and would like to determine the protocol, then you can use this script that I have written.
https://github.com/happycow92/shellscripts/blob/master/backup-protocol-type.sh

#!/bin/bash
	clear
	IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
	echo "This script should be executed on a proxy machine"
	echo "Checking current Machine......"
	directory="/usr/local/vdr"
	if [ ! -d "$directory" ]
	then
	printf "Current machine is Proxy machine"
	else
	printf "Current machine is VDP Server"
	fi
	echo && echo
	sleep 2s
	echo -e "--------------------------------------------------------"
	echo -e "| Client Name | Backup Type | Proxy Used |"
	echo -e "--------------------------------------------------------"
	cd /usr/local/avamarclient/var
	backupLogList=$(ls -lh | grep -i "vmimagew.log\|vmimagel.log" | awk '{for (i=1; i<=8; i++) $i=""; print $0}' | sed 's/^ *//')
	for i in $backupLogList
	do
	clientName=$(cat $i | grep -i "<11982>" | awk '{print $NF}' | cut -d '/' -f 1)
	protocolType=$(cat $i | grep -i "<9675>" | awk '{print $7}' | head -n 1)
	proxyName=$(cat $i | grep -i "<11979>" | cut -d ',' -f 2)
	if [ "$protocolType" == "hotadd" ]
	then
	protocol="hotadd"
	elif [ "$protocolType" == "nbdssl" ]
	then
	protocol="nbdssl"
	elif [ "$protocolType" == "nbd" ]
	then
	protocol="nbd"
	else
	protocol="SAN Mode"
	fi
	printf "| %-20s| %14s| %12s|\n" "$clientName" "$protocolType" "$proxyName"
	done
	echo && echo

Few things:
> The script must be always executed on a proxy machine. If your VDP is using internal proxy, then run it on the VDP machine itself.
> If you are using one or more External Proxy, then you need to run this on each of the proxy machines.
> Note, this will work on 6.x VDP and above.

I have added an IFS (Internal Field Separator) to handle spaces in backup job names. The rough version of script had issues handling spaces in job names.

It's a very lightweight script, takes seconds to execute and does not make any changes to your system.

Hope this helps.

Bash Script For Backup Details.

Earlier, I had written a script to count number of backups for each client in VDP. This was a very basic script and you can access it from the below link:
http://www.virtuallypeculiar.com/2017/06/bash-script-to-list-number-of-backups.html

I have added couple of more features to this script to make it more readable and more insightful.
The script along with counting number of backups, it tells about the size of the VM, the Type of OS, Is it a partial backup and also tells if the backup is on local VDP storage or a data domain. Along with this, the previous script did not account the option of Agent level backups. This script will take care of the agent level backup count as well.

Currently, I am setting up a replication, so the /REPLICATE domain can be included to count number of replicated restore points.

Edit: Change-log:
Added Feature of Listing Replicated backup (1-1 Replication only. Many to 1 or 1 to Many is not tested. You are welcome to test and report me with the working of it)
Added Feature of differentiating between backup and replication.
Added Feature of displaying last backup date for client.

The Complete Script can be accessed from my repository below:
https://github.com/happycow92/shellscripts/blob/master/list-backup.sh

The output would be similar to the below:

I will update the change log here.
You can run this script in a production environment. It will not make any changes to the system. Make sure you provide execute permissions before you run it. Of course!

Hope this helps.

Shell Script To Create VMs From Command Line

While I agree PowerCLI API's are the right way to deploy multiple VMs on an ESXi, I had to fallback to bash script for a project that I have been working on lately. The script is pretty simple. It is divided into 6 functions.

Function 1 is for a VMX file template which has variable input obtained from the remaining functions
Function 2 is for creating a VMDK of required size and provision type
Function 3 is for MAC address generation
Function 4 is VM Uid and VC Uid generation
Function 5 is VM Registration
Function 6 is for VM Power On

Let's have a look at this:

While ESXi does not run "bash" I had to go with the #!/bin/sh shebang to define the interpreter.
The VMX file function has a pre created template with certain options that has a variable input which can be modified by the user later while executing the script:

Create_VM ()
	{
	read -p "Enter the VM name: " VM_name
	read -p "Enter the path of the datastore. /vmfs/volumes/<storage-name>/: " datastore_name
	cd /vmfs/volumes/$datastore_name
	mkdir $VM_name && cd $VM_name && touch $VM_name.vmx
	read -p "Enter the Hardware version for the VM: " HW_version
	read -p "Enter the Memory required for the VM: " Memory
	read -p "Enter the network type, e1000 / VMXNET3: " Net_type
	read -p "Enter the VM Port group name: " Port_group
	# VMX File Entries
	cat << EOF > $VM_name.vmx
	.encoding = "UTF-8"
	config.version = "8"
	virtualHW.version = "$HW_version"
	nvram = "$VM_name.nvram"
	pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
	svga.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge4.functions = "8"
	pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge5.functions = "8"
	pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge6.functions = "8"
	pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
	pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
	pciBridge7.functions = "8"
	vmci0.present = "TRUE"
	hpet0.present = "TRUE"
	memSize = "$Memory"
	scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
	scsi0.present = "TRUE"
	ide1:0.startConnected = "FALSE"
	ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
	ide1:0.clientDevice = "TRUE"
	ide1:0.fileName = "emptyBackingString"
	ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
	floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
	floppy0.clientDevice = "TRUE"
	floppy0.fileName = "vmware-null-remote-floppy"
	ethernet0.virtualDev = "$Net_type"
	ethernet0.networkName = "$Port_group"
	ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "false"
	ethernet0.addressType = "static"
	ethernet0.Address = "$final_mac"
	ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
	scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
	scsi0:0.fileName = "$VM_name.vmdk"
	scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
	displayName = "$VM_name"
	guestOS = "windows8srv-64"
	disk.EnableUUID = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.afterPowerOn = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.afterResume = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.beforeSuspend = "TRUE"
	toolScripts.beforePowerOff = "TRUE"
	uuid.bios = "$uuid"
	vc.uuid = "$vcid"
	ctkEnabled = "TRUE"
	scsi0:0.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"
	EOF
	}

The create VMDK is simple which uses the vmkfstools -C to get the job done.

Create_VMDK ()
	{
	read -p "Enter disk format. thin / zeroedthick / eagerzeroedthick: " format
	read -p "Enter size: " size
	vmkfstools -c "$size"G -d $format $VM_name.vmdk
	}

The MAC address generation keeps a static MAC by modifying the VMX and the constant VMware defined prefix with a random generated number for the last octet.

MAC_address ()
	{
	mac=$(awk -v min=1000 -v max=9000 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}' | sed -e 's/.\{2\}/&:/g;s/.$//')
	final_mac=00:50:56:00:$mac
	}

The similar algorithm is applied for VC UUid generation where the post digits are constant only the first octet is changed.

UUID_generate ()
	{
	uuid_postfix="1a c2 4e fe 1a 8c d2-db 90 02 81 ce d8 31 15"
	vcid_postfix="1a c9 91 4b 4a b9 93-79 23 12 1f b2 c5 37 f8"
	uuid_prefix=$(awk -v min=10 -v max=99 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}')
	vcid_prefix=$(awk -v min=10 -v max=99 'BEGIN{srand(); print int(min+rand()*(max-min+1))}')
	uuid="$uuid_prefix $uuid_postfix"
	vcid="$vcid_prefix $vcid_postfix"
	}

The complete source code{} can be accessed here:
https://github.com/happycow92/Lab-Deploy/blob/master/additional-vm-deploy.sh

A while loop is defined if a user wants to deploy multiple VMs.

Well, that's pretty much it.

Unable To Configure ESXi Syslog In Log Insight 4.x: Details: Client received SOAP Fault from server

When you try to configure syslog for ESXi host under /admin > vSphere (Integration) you might run into the below error:

Syslog configuration failed. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003322 for manual configuration. (Details: Client received SOAP Fault from server: A general system error occurred: Internal error Please see the server log to find more detail regarding exact cause of the failure)

If you look at the ESXi host syslog field, Syslog.global.logHost under host > Configuration > Advanced Settings > Syslog you will notice either this field is empty or incorrectly configured. Populate it with the IP of your log insight machine, should look something like below. Click OK to save the settings.

If it is udp, it should be:
udp://<log-insight-ip>:514

For tcp it should be:
tcp://<log-insight-ip>:1514

Save the settings, also make sure syslog Firewall is open under Security Profile. Once confirmed, you can then proceed to reconfigure the syslog via Log Insight and it should not complete successfully.

You should be then able to view events under your Log Insight Dashboards.

Hope this helps!

Configuring Log Insight 4.3 For A Fresh Deployment

VMware vRealize Log Insight is a product to collect logs from various solution and helps administrators to filter and analyze it. It helps for monitoring environments and performing security audits for each configured solution. The Log Insight is deployed as a virtual appliance from an ova template. 

I will skip the ova deployment part as most of you are familiar with how the ova deployment goes. Once the ova deployment completes and the appliance is powered On, it will perform certain initialization tasks and then restart once again. Once the restart completes, you are all set to configure this appliance. 

Log Insight has a HTML5 based client to configure and administer the solution. To access this page for configuration, go to:

https://Log_insight_IP/admin

This will bring you to a following page:

Click Next to start the configuration.

We will be configuring a new deployment of Log Insight, so click Start New Deployment

Provide the admin password and an optional administrator email for notifications.

Enter the License Key for the product and click Add License. If the license is valid you will get a table confirming the same. Click Save And Continue. If you do not have a license click Skip

In the General Configuration, provide an email ID for System alerts and notifications. Click Save And Continue

Configure a Time Server for your Log Insight appliance. If you have a NTP server, drop down Sync Server Time With and select NTP, and provide the NTP server address. You will have to click Test to validate the NTP server. If you do not have an NTP server, you can sync your time with the ESXi host. Click Save and Continue.

For system notifications to be forwarded SMTP has to be configured. Enter the SMTP server and the email address you would like to send notifications to and click Send Test Email. Once you confirm the test email was sent successfully click Save And Continue.

And with that the basic setup of your Log Insight is completed. Click Finish to proceed further.

Next, you can perform integration of solutions like vCenter sever to forward their logs to this Log Insight appliance.

Hope this was helpful.

Bash Script To List Number Of Backups In VDP For Each Client

There might be situations where you have like a handful of VMs with multiple restore data, and you want to know how many restore data is available for each of these clients. Perhaps, you would like to determine if you could perform some maintenance and get rid of few of them that are having a large number of backups to free up some space.

If you connect to VDP from the regular Web Client plugin, you will have to select each of the VM and then scroll to count, note that the GUI does not include a section to number to list. This would be a tedious task if you have 20+ VMs with backups in a varying range of 10-20+

You can use this below simple bash script to get this done. This will basically list out all the clients protected by VDP and number of backups present within each client.

#!/bin/bash

clear
 
# Print purpose of script
echo -e "\nAvailable number of backups for each client protected by VDP\n"

# Save vCenter hostname to a variable
vcenter_name=$(cat /usr/local/vdr/etc/vcenterinfo.cfg | grep vcenter-hostname | cut -d '=' -f 2)

# List clients in GSAN and save to variable
client_list=$(avmgr getl --path=/$vcenter_name/VirtualMachines | awk '{print $2}' | tail -n+2)

# List Backups for each of the registered client
count=1 # For Sl.No increment

for i in $client_list
# Begin For
do
        number_of_backup=$(avmgr getb --path=/$vcenter_name/VirtualMachines/$i | tail -n+2 | wc -l)
        printf "\n$count. For $(echo $i | cut -d '_' -f 1) the number of backups available are: $number_of_backup"
        ((count++)) #Increment Sl.No
done

# Done with For

echo
echo

You should see an output similar to:

Available number of backups for each client protected by VDP

1. For VM-A the number of backups available are: 3
2. For VM-B the number of backups available are: 3
3. For VM-C the number of backups available are: 3
4. For window the number of backups available are: 8

If you think, you would like some more information along with this, then leave a comment. I will further develop this script as needed. Hope this helps.