Saturday, February 15, 2025
System Requirements

Thinware vBackup can be installed and run on any server (physical or virtual) that meets the following requirements:

Supported Operating Systems:

- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate

- Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 Professional or Enterprise

- Microsoft Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise

- Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter

- Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 Essentials, Standard or Datacenter

- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Essentials, Standard or Datacenter

- Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Essentials, Standard or Datacenter

*Note 1: Only 64-bit versions of the above operating systems are supported.

*Note 2: Microsoft Windows Server Core is not supported for running Thinware vBackup.

Supported Integration Utilities:

- VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (installed only, no configuration necessary)

*Note 1: With Thinware vBackup version 4.0.1 and above you now have the ability to install and use 2 different versions of VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit depending on requirements in your environment.

*Note 2: Due to differences and certain unresolved issues in each VDDK version, for all versions of VMware vSphere 4.0 thru 6.0, we have found that the following configuration is best:

- For VMware Virtual Disk Manager please use VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit version 5.5.4

- For VMware Disk Mount please use VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit version 5.1.4

User Guides

 

Administrator's Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.3

Quick Start Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.3

What's New for Thinware vBackup 5.0.3

 

Administrator's Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.2

Quick Start Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.2

What's New for Thinware vBackup 5.0.2

 

Administrator's Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.1

Quick Start Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.1

What's New for Thinware vBackup 5.0.1

 

Administrator's Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.0

Quick Start Guide for Thinware vBackup 5.0.0

What's New for Thinware vBackup 5.0.0

 

Administrator's Guide for Thinware vBackup 4.0.3

Quick Start Guide for Thinware vBackup 4.0.3

Release Notes

Version 5.0.3:

Please see knowledgebase article KB2006001.

Version 5.0.2:

Please see knowledgebase article KB2004001.

Version 5.0.1:

Please see knowledgebase article KB1902001.

Version 5.0.0:

Please see knowledgebase article KB1806001.

Version 4.0.3:

Please see knowledgebase article KB1712001.

Troubleshooting Backup Job Execution Errors

Error Message Resolution
Unable to complete backup. Unable to retrieve virtual machine ID. Error while creating 'virtualmachine' file. Skipping invalid VM...

1) Login to the ESXi host console or connect via SSH using PuTTY and run the following command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

2) You should get a list of "inaccessible" or invalid virtual machines before the list of valid ones. Run the following command for each invalid virtual machine (where %VM_ID% equals the ID of the invalid VM):

vim-cmd vmsvc/reload %VM_ID%

e.g. vim-cmd vmsvc/reload 12

Unable to complete backup. Unable to retrieve virtual machine ID. Error while creating 'virtualmachine' file. WARNING - POTENTIAL SECURITY BREACH!

Upon fist connection to a remote server using a PuTTY utility a security key is cached in the system registry. This is done so that you are not prompted to approve communicating with the remote server each time. If you have recently rebuilt your host server and reused the IP address/host name this is most likely the issue.

To resolve this issue you simply need to clear the security keys stored by PuTTY in the system registry or by running the following command at a Windows command prompt.

putty.exe -cleanup

If you do not have PuTTY installed on your vBackup server, you can download it via the following link:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Unable to complete backup. Unable to retrieve virtual machine ID. Error while creating 'virtualmachine' file. Access denied.

or

Unable to complete backup. Unable to retrieve virtual machine ID. Error while creating 'virtualmachine' file. '****' is not recognized as an internal or external command

or

Unable to complete backup. Unable to retrieve virtual machine ID. Error while creating 'virtualmachine' file. The system cannot find the file specified.

or

Backup process hangs at: Retrieving virtual machine ID...

Certain special characters, if used in host server passwords, cause problems with instruction calls in backup and restore processes.

To resolve this issue avoid the following special characters in host server passwords.

/ \ ^ & | " < > SPACE

Unable to complete backup. Unable to create temporary snapshot. fault.RestrictedVersion.summary

VMware does not license (and therefore restricts) the use of vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP) with ESXi free.

To resolve this issue simply change the job type to "Backup-Image-SSH".

1) Open vBackup Client

2) Browse to affected virtual machine

3) Edit each job and set the job's type to "Backup-Image-SSH"

SSL_IsVerifyEnabled: failed to open the product registry key. Falling back to default behavior: verification on. LastError = 0

SSL: Unknown SSL Error

SSL: connect failed

[NFC ERROR] NfcNewAuthdConnectionEx: Failed to connect to peer. Error: The remote host certificate has these problems:

* The host certificate chain is incomplete.

* Host name does not match the subject name(s) in certificate.

* unable to get local issuer certificate

Failed to convert disk: Cannot connect to the host (0x4650).

With the release of VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) 5.5 (build 1284542) VMware no longer packages the VDDK in a Windows .exe installer. VDDK 5.5 is provided as an extractable ZIP archive. 

The Windows installer for previous releases of VDDK did more than simply install the appropriate application files, it also added some very important registry keys. One of these keys (VerifySSLCertificates) is required to be set as false (or 0) in environments where SSL certificates are not properly configured. If the VerifySSLCertificates key is missing VDDK will default to "SSL verify enabled". If SSL verification is enabled and certificates are not configured properly the process that vBackup uses to copy virtual disk files during backup operations will fail. 

To resolve this issue the following key will need to be added to the Windows registry:

Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit

Name: VerifySSLCertificates

Type: REG_DWORD

Data: 0

 

To add this key to the Windows registry:

1) Create a new text document using Notepad and add the following text: 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit]
"VerifySSLCertificates"=dword:00000000

 2) Save the document to C:\Temp and name it "VDDK_VerifySSLCertificates.reg"

3) Open Windows Explorer and browse to C:\Temp

4) Right-click the file called VDDK_VerifySSLCertificates.reg (created in step 2 above) and click Merge

[NFC ERROR] NfcNetTcpRead: bRead: -1

[NFC ERROR] NfcNet_Recv: requested 261888, recevied only 98304 bytes

[NFC ERROR] NfcFile_RecvMessage: data recv failed. retval = 3, expected 261888

[NFC ERROR] NFC_NETWORK_ERROR

Failed to convert disk: Operation completes asynchronously (0x300004650).

This error is caused by a limitation in VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) and how VDDK handles reading and writing thick provisioned hard disks. This issue similarly exists in VMware vCenter Converter Standalone and is documented in the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone release notes (link follows).

https://www.vmware.com/support/converter/doc/conv_sa_551_rel_notes.html


This issue effects Thinware vBackup Standard Edition (and Advanced and Professional Editions when a backup job's compression level setting is set to none).

In Thinware vBackup this issue will cause the backup process to fail if, in addition to having the backup job's compression level set to none, you have more than one of the following conditions in your environment:

- Virtual machine has thick provisioned virtual disk(s)
- Virtual machine has thick provisioned virtual disk(s) with large amount of free space
- Backup target is on USB 2.0 (or slower) external hard drive
- Backup target is on network share

Resolution:

For Thinware vBackup Advanced and Professional Edition: Simply set the backup job's compression level to basic or advanced.

For Thinware vBackup Standard Edition: Simply modify your environment as necessary so that you have no more than one of the above conditions for the affected virtual machine/backup job.

Examples:

- If you require the ability to backup to a network share, convert the virtual machine's virtual disk(s) to thin provisioned.

- If you require your virtual machine's virtual disk(s) to be thick provisioned, reduce the size of the virtual disk(s) so that they do not have a large amount of free space and set the backup target to local (internal or external - faster than USB 2.0) storage on the backup server.

Troubleshooting Restore Process Errors

Error Message Resolution

Unable to create folder for new virtual machine on datastore. Access is denied.

or

Unable to create folder for new virtual machine on datastore. '****' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

or

Unable to create folder for new virtual machine on datastore. The system cannot find the file specified.

or

Restore process hangs at: Creating folder for new virtual machine on datastore...

Certain special characters, if used in host server passwords, cause problems with instruction calls in backup and restore processes.

To resolve this issue avoid the following special characters in host server passwords.

/ \ ^ & | " < > SPACE

Privacy Statement  |  Terms Of Use
Copyright 2007-2019 Thinware, Inc.