2.1 Backing Up the Forge Management VM

The following information is included in this section:

2.1.1 Preparing for the Backup

Before you back up the Forge Management VM, you need to ensure that all of the upgrade prerequisites have been met and that you have a completed PlateSpin Forge 11.0 Configuration Worksheet to document your current environment, and that you retain the worksheet to list changes needed for Forge 11.0 configuration.

NOTE:If you are upgrading from version 3.x of PlateSpin Forge, you need to upgrade the appliance VM software prior to the backup. To do so, you should request the Forge 11.0 Upgrade Kit (available from PlateSpin Support) and extract the Forge 4.0 Setup Utility (PlateSpinForgeSetup- 4.0.0.xxxx.exe) from the kit, then use the instructions in Section A.0, Upgrading Forge 3.x Appliance 2 to bring the appliance up to date prior to backup.

Use the following steps to prepare for the backup:

  1. Extract the contents of the Forge 11.0 Upgrade Kit from the USB media (D:\forgebackup\11.0_kit\Forge_11.0_Upgrade_kit.zip) to a storage area on the administrative computer with sufficient free space. The location where you extract the upgrade kit becomes the working directory. For example, D:\forge_backup\11.0_kit.

  2. Pause all protection contracts. Workloads should be in an “Idle” or “Live” state.

    NOTE:The upgrade utility also attempts to pause protection contracts.

  3. On any Windows machine that can connect to the Forge Appliance (such as the administrative computer), obtain information for the VMs registered on the VMware server.

    1. Launch VMware Infrastructure Client and connect to the Forge Appliance.

    2. In the left pane of the Infrastructure Client, select the root of the inventory (representing the ESX host), then select the Virtual Machines tab.

    3. Click File > Export > Export List, select the file format you in which you want to save the list (for example, .csv), then save the file list to an output directory. For example, you could save VM-list.csv to D:\forge_backup\out\.

      NOTE:You will use this same output directory in the backup stage (see Step 4) and in the restore stage (see Step 3) of the upgrade.

You also need to prepare the USB backup media:

  • Remember that you can attach USB storage devices to the administrative computer to back up any virtual machines located locally on the ESXi host, prior to rebuilding the appliance. For more information, see Section 1.6, Upgrade Prerequisites.

  • Ensure that your backup media are the only USB storage devices attached to the administrative computer. Detach any other USB medium.

IMPORTANT:The USB drives that are attached to the administrative computer are formatted as part of the backup process.

2.1.2 Performing the Forge Backup

Use the following steps to perform the backup:

  1. From the administrative computer, open a command prompt window and change to the working directory you created in Step 1.

    NOTE:You must have administrator rights to run the backup command successfully.

    To set this privilege from the administrative computer:

    1. From the Windows administrative computer desktop, click Start > All Programs > Accessories, right-click the Command Prompt start icon, then select Run as administrator to launch the command prompt as Administrator.

      HINT:If you want to set the Run as administrator mode as the default, follow Step 1 above, but after the right-click, select Properties > Shortcut > Advanced > Run as administrator.

  2. From the location where you extracted the contents of the Forge 11 Upgrade kit, unzip the Forge 11.0 Upgrade Utility (PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade.exe) to the same working directory.

  3. In the working directory, change to the newly created \PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade subdirectory.

  4. Run the backup utility from the command line, entering data you obtain from the Configuration Worksheet. For example:

    PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade /backup /psserver=10.99.160.72 /username=administrator /usehttps /esx_address=10.99.163.200 /esx_username=forgeuser /outputfolder=D:\forge_backup\out

    NOTE:If you are unfamiliar with the backup utility parameters, you can learn more by accessing its help: PlateSpin.ForgeUpgrade.exe /help.

  5. (Conditional) If you chose not to use the available parameters for supplying passwords via a file, enter those passwords when prompted:

    Starting task "Validate user input".
    Step 1 of 6: Setting Default Values
    Step 2 of 6: Getting Required Passwords
       Please enter the password for PlateSpin server user 'administrator':********
    
       Please enter the Forge Virtual Host password for user 'forgeuser': ********
    
       Please enter the Forge Virtual Host superuser/root password: ********
    
  6. Enter y (yes) at the following prompt:

    Step 4 of 6: Validating Contract Export
        All scheduled contracts will be paused.  Continue?  [y|n]  y
    
  7. (Optional) If you want to backup the failover VMs to USB drives, enter y (yes) at the following prompt:

    Step 5 of 6: Confirming that failover VMs should be backed up
        These failover VMs can be backed up:
    
    AS-WINA--01-04F_VM
    AS-SL10S3-A-02.PLATESPIN.COM_VM
    
       Would you like to backup VMs on local storage to USB drives? [y|n] y
    

    The failover VM names eligible for backup are listed at this prompt. Note that only VMs stored locally are listed here. For more information about the USB drives you can use for backup, see Section 1.6, Upgrade Prerequisites.

    IMPORTANT:The VM backup process to USB storage might take up to six days to complete, depending on the number and size of the VMs.

    VERY IMPORTANT: If you do not choose this option, any failover VMs on local storage are not saved. You will need to re-add each source machine currently configured to replicate to local storage back to Forge after the upgrade.

    The backup utility displays an information screen:

    Please ensure that external USB storage is plugged in. All data on external USB
    storage will be wiped out before backup. Press any key to continue...
    

    The backup process also displays a confirmation list of the drive names of all attached storage on the administrative computer that are about to be formatted.

  8. Press any key to display the final warning screen:

    Step 6 of 6: Confirming backup
        Do you wish to begin the backup process?
    
        Please note that this process can take up to 6 days to complete, depending
    on the size of your protected workloads.  During this time, incremental
    replications will be stopped.  Do not disrupt this process or use the appliance until the backup has completed. [y|n] y
    
  9. Enter y (yes) to display this information:

    Step 2 of 3: Pausing scheduled contracts
    

    The utility begins pausing the scheduled contracts.

    When the backup process has completed successfully, you will see output at the command prompt similar to this:

    The task Back up Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
    
    Backup Summary:
    The task "Validate user input" completed successfully.
            Step Setting Default Values completed successfully.
            Step Getting Required Passwords completed successfully.
            Step Validating Parameters completed successfully.
            Step Validating Contract Export completed successfully.
            Step Confirming that failover VMs should be backed up completed successfully.
            Step Confirming backup completed successfully.
    The task "Back up contracts" completed successfully.
            Step Gathering information about the Forge appliance completed successfully.
            Step Pausing scheduled contracts completed successfully.
            Step Exporting Forge Server Contracts completed successfully.
    The task Back up Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
            Step Enable ssh for root user on ESX completed successfully.
            Step Validate external USB disks completed successfully.
            Step Partition and format external USB disks completed successfully.
            Step Backup of ESX configuration completed successfully.
            Step Shut down Forge failover VMs completed successfully.
            Step Backup of Forge failover VMs on local storage completed successfully.