Using Active Backup to back up VM Templates

[capmatt]

We are using Active Backup for Business 3.0.0-24638 to backup all VMs on 3 ESXi hosts through vCenter.

The job was set up by selecting all machines from a top level (so I just ticked the datacenter name when creating the backup). When the backup is run however all of the templates report as failed.

I have just tried to set up a separate job to backup the templates (for investigation purposes) and received the message:

"Backing Up Inaccessible virtual machines, orphaned virtual machines, or template of virtual machines is not supported."

Is this just a complete no it's not possible or is this a setting that I'm missing? It seems like templates would be a useful thing to back up?

If it's not possible will auto-discovery of new machines ignore templates or will I need to manually deselect any newly created template?

Thanks

 

[Rusty]

In the past, I have had the same experience, and while the documentation and KBs do not explicitly mention that this is not supported, ABB clearly has an issue with these types.

One way to back them up is in their file format. Using the ABB file server pull method, you could try and target the host's location where the templates are stored, and back them up that way. Just an idea, I haven't tested that myself tbh.

 

[capmatt]

Ah OK, I will have a look at that thank you. Do you know if new templates are automatically backed up if "Auto Discover" is being used? If they are is there a way to stop this so that there aren't always a load of error messages?

Thanks very much for your help.

 

[Rusty]

Ah OK, I will have a look at that thank you. Do you know if new templates are automatically backed up if "Auto Discover" is being used? If they are is there a way to stop this so that there aren't always a load of error messages?

Thanks very much for your help.

By default, if templates are in the mix with VMs, those will be triggered and fail. Back in the day, I backed up specific "folders" on the host that only had VMs inside it, so I never had to deal with this kind of scenario.

 

[capmatt]

Thanks for the help.