Test vSphere Configuration

To test the vSphere Plugin, you can use the following command as the user that the File Daemon runs as - (usually root):

# /opt/bacula/bin/vsphere-ctl update
1: 3 squeeze2
2: 4 squeeze.esx

The vsphere-ctl update command should print a list of all virtual machines that are defined in your ESXi server. If not, check if your credentials in vsphere_global.conf are properly set.

Note

When a VM is removed from inventory and then re-imported - even if it is re-imported to the same ESXi host or same vCenter Server - its MoRef will be changed from its previous value. This will require that the vsphere-ctl update command is run prior to attempting backup of this VM again. Additionally, a Full backup must be performed when a VM is removed and re-imported to inventory.

If you foresee a use case where VMs are often removed from inventory only to be re-imported at some point, we recommend that the vsphere-ctl update command be triggered in an Admin Job’s RunScript which is set to run before the normal nightly backups of your vSphere infrastructure.

The list command displays information that is detected on the ESXi hosts and datastores.

# /opt/bacula/bin/vsphere-ctl list
Display host list available and their datastores:
 esxi.lan
     datastore1
     datastore2

Will now display configured settings for restore:

No default_restore_host defined in vsphere_global.conf file, trying to
get it from vSphere. Will use restore host esxi.lan

No default_datastore defined in vsphere_global.conf file, trying to
get it from vSphere. Will use datastore datastore1