Vmverifyifaction

Use this option to specify the action to perform if the data mover detects integrity problems with the latest CTL and bitmap files for a virtual machine.

This option affects backup processing for a VM guest only when all of the following conditions are true:

The previous backup operation for the VM guest was an incremental-forever-incremental backup (mode=ifincremental)
The current backup operation for the VM guest is an incremental-forever-incremental backup
The data mover detected an integrity problem with the CTL and bitmap data from the previous incremental-forever-incremental backup operation
The vmverifyiflatest option is set to yes

If all of these conditions are not true for a virtual machine, the backup occurs as it normally would; the action that is specified by this option is not initiated.

Supported clients

Linux operating systems This option is valid for Linux clients that act as a data mover for VMware guest backups.

Windows operating systems This option is valid for Windows clients that act as a data mover for VMware guest backups.

Options file

Windows operating systems Set this option in the client options file (dsm.opt).

Linux operating systems Set this option in the client options file (dsm.opt) or the client system options file (dsm.sys).

This option can also be included in a client options set, as a parameter on a backup vm command, or on the options parameter in a schedule definition.

Syntax


                     .-FAILbackup-.   
>>-VMVERIFYIFAction--+------------+----------------------------><
                     +-FORCEfull--+   
                     '-PREview----'

Parameters

FAILbackup

This action fails the backup operation. The following messages are written to the data mover error log file (dsmerror.log):

ANS9921E Virtual machine disk, vm_name (disk_label), 
verification check failed (xxx/yyy).

The xxx/yyy in the message indicate the size of the bitmap (xxx) and CTL files (yyy).

ANS9919E Failed to find the expected control files for vm_name

Perform a full VM backup (set -mode=IFFull for the affected virtual machines at a time of your choosing. An alternative is to use the -vmverifyifaction=forcefull on the next scheduled incremental-forever-incremental operation to force a full backup of those VMs, if you determine that your scheduled backup window can contain the full VM backups for these VMs. This value is the default action value.

FORCEfull

This action changes the backup mode from -mode=ifincremental to -mode=iffull; the current backup becomes a full VM backup. The full VM backup is initiated for you. The following messages are written to the data mover error log file (dsmerror.log):

ANS9921E Virtual machine disk, vm_name (disk_label), 
verification check failed (xxx/yyy)

The xxx/yyy in the message indicate the size of the bitmap (xxx) and CTL files (yyy).

ANS9919E Failed to find the expected control files for vm_name

ANS9922I VMVERIFYIFlatest is enabled for vm_name (action: FORCEFULL).

ANS9920W Forcing a full vm backup for vm_name

Use this option if your current backup window can contain a full VM backup of the affected virtual machines.

PREview

This action does not perform any backups. Instead, the CTL and bitmap data for each VM guest that is processed by the backup vm command is restored to a temporary location, where it is checked for integrity. If the integrity check fails, the following messages are written to the data mover error log file (dsmerror.log):

ANS9921E Virtual machine disk, vm_name (disk_label), 
verification check failed (xxx/yyy)

The xxx/yyy in the message indicate the size of the bitmap (xxx) and CTL files (yyy).

ANS9919E Failed to find the expected control files for vm_name

ANS9922I VMVERIFYIFlatest is enabled for vm_name (action: PREVIEW)

Use this option to validate the integrity of the incremental-forever-incremental backups (-mode=ifincremental) that you previously created for one or more a virtual machines.

If the messages indicate that some VMs failed the integrity checks, start a full VM backup (-mode=iffull) at a time of your choosing. Alternatively, set -vmverifyifaction=forcefull on the next scheduled incremental-forever-incremental operation to force a full backup of those VMs. The backup window must be large enough to accommodate one or more full VM backups.