Independent disks are skipped by backup job of VM template

Symptom

When backing up a VM template, backup job skips independent disks and the following warning message appears in the activity log:

Unable to backup virtual disk [datastore_720_4] shuli02-t235/shuli02-t235_1.vmdk because it is an independent disk.

Solution

This behavior is expected for the VM template backup. The root cause is a VMware limitation that prevents backup application from opening the VMDK of independent disks. One workaround is to set independent disks to dependent disks at the beginning of backup, back them up, and set them back at the end of the backup job. If you prefer this workaround, follow the steps below to set a registry value in proxy machine.

1. Log onto proxy machine.
2. Create a registry value at proxy server level or VM level.

Note: If you add the registry value at both the VM level and proxy level, the setting at the VM level registry holds priority over the setting at the Proxy level registry.

At Proxy Server level (applicable to all backup jobs running in this proxy server)

1. Open the registry key from the following location:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Arcserve\Unified Data Protection\Engine\AFBackupDll]

2. Add a DWORD value with name ConvertIndependentVMDK and specify its value as 1.

At VM Level

1. Open the registry key from the following location:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Arcserve\Unified Data Protection\Engine\AFBackupDll\<vm instance uuid>]

2. Add a DWORD value with name ConvertIndependentVMDK and specify its value as 1.

Notes:

• After enabling this option, you cannot set back the independent disks in case backup aborts abnormally (For example, when job crashes or proxy machine is rebooted).
• This option does not work when the option "converting template to VM during backup" is enabled (the registry value TemplateDirectBackup is created with value 0).