vStandby AIP Readme

Revised on September 17, 2020

This document contains the important information when using vStandby AIP. It is highly recommended that you read this document carefully before installing vStandby AIP.

Table of Contents

System Requirements

User Guide and related documents

Limitations and Precautions

System Requirements

CPU

Pentium 4 or above

Main Memory

1024MB is required. (2048MB or more is recommended.)

Hard Disk Space

300MB or more of available hard disk space is required for setup.

System Requirements for Installation of vStandby AIP

• Windows 7, 8.x, 10
• Windows Server 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2, 2016, 2019

* Only 64-bit operating systems are supported.

* Before installing the product on Windows 7 or 2008 R2, please make sure KB4474419 is applied.

System Requirements for Virtual Platform of Target Host

• VMware vSphere 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0
  If using the free license version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.5, 6.0 (ESXi) as the target host, only VMDK files are created and kept as current as the latest boot point/snapshot taken.
  
  
• Hyper-V host on Windows Server 2008 or later.
  The free license version of Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 or later is also supported.
  * Client Hyper-V is not supported.

Image Format

Image files created from ActiveImage Protector 3.5 SP7 or later.

Basic Points (Common)

• Backup image files created by ActiveImage Protector 3.5 SP7, ActiveImage Protector for Linux 4.5.2 or later are supported.
• Differential image files are not supported.
• Backup images created by HyperBack are not supported.
• If using ActiveImage Protector or ImageCenter LE to consolidate image files that are the source for creating standby virtual machines, it is recommended to not include the last P2V converted image file in the consolidation. If the sequentiality is lost between the selected incremental image file for conversion and the last converted incremental image, the image set from the full (baseline) image to the incremental image selected are converted.
  
  Ex：
  
  1. vStandby AIP successfully completes a daily scheduled task for conversion of 10 incremental files.
  2. ActiveImage Protector creates up to 20 incremental files.
  3. ActiveImage Protector or ImageCenter LE is used to consolidate incremental files 1 thru 15.
  4. vStandby AIP executes daily scheduled tasks.
     → Full (base), incremental files 15 to 20 are the target for conversion.
• If the last image file converted using vStandby AIP was lost as a result of consolidation by using ActiveImage Protector or ImageCenter LE, and the subsequent conversion task is executed, the image files in the consolidated image set are converted to boot points.
• If changing the login credential using the [Change Credential] menu, restart the system to apply the change.
• The vStandby AIP console does not support an earlier version agent to use over a network connection.
• If an image file created by using Deduplication Compression is converted to a standby virtual machine, up to 600MB memory can be used during the running task.
• You may get the message saying "Boot Failed. EFI SCSI Device." during the process of the first boot-up of a standby VM on uEFI system, however, the system normally boots up.
• System restart is required upon completion of upgrading or uninstallation of the program from 5.3.5 or earlier version..
• Boot point naming convention is changed as from Version 5.3.0.
  When the product is upgraded from version 5.2.0 or earlier to 5.3.0 or later, the boot points existing at the timing of executing the first task after the product is upgraded.

Basic Points (VMware vSphere)

• The Free license version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6.5 or later are not supported.
• If using free license version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) as the target host, vStandby does not create a standby VM but creates a VMDK file that is kept as current as the latest boot point or snapshot taken.
• Cold imaging (images created by using Linux-based or WinPE-based Boot Environment) supports creating VMDK files and updating them on ESXi target host.
• If the specified datastore name includes a space, the datastore name is indicated as "undefined" on the [Dashboard].
• If VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) free license version is installed in the target host, please select [Virtualize Disk] in the context menu on the list of image files before using the VMDK file.
• Port 902 is used in the event of a conversion to a datastore on the vCenter Server of the VMware vSphere or ESXi hypervisor. If the connection fails, ensure that the port is open in the Windows Firewall settings on the target host.
• Backup images of 16 disks or more are not supported for conversion.
• Migration of a VM using vMotion is not supported.

Basic Points (Hyper-V)

• Please ensure that Microsoft .NET Framework 4 or later is installed on the host in which vStandbyAIP is installed.
• Please remember the following when restoring to Hyper-V on a remote computer.
• Ensure that Administrative share is enabled on the managed remote computer.
• Please configure the firewall to allow [File and printer sharing] on a remote computer.
• You need to log in by using the built-in Administrator or a user in the Domain administrators group. Other users in Administrators group are not authenticated.
• Execution of a task while the standby virtual machine is up and running fails with an error.
• "Secure Boot" is enabled by default for the standby VM created from the image of uEFI environment.
  If the backup source environment does not support Secure Boot, please manually disable "Secure Boot" before booting up the standby VM.

Basic Points (Storage Server)

• If Storage Server is selected as the target, before using VMDK/VHDX file, please select [Virtualize Disk] (in the context menu) to start virtualization process.
• Conversion to VHDX supports Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 of later OS only.

Basic Points (Backup image file of Windows systems)

• Standby VMs created on VMware vSphere target host by using a Windows 2000 backup image will not be attached to any appropriate network adapter.
• Dynamic disks are not supported.
• If multiple boot points are created by a single execution of a task, the following error may be added to Windows system log:
  • Source: Ntfs (ntfs), Event ID: 55
  • Source: Ntfs (Microsoft-Windows-Ntfs), Event ID: 98
  • Source: Kernel-General, Event ID:5

Basic Points (Backup image file of Linux systems)

• When using a backup image of EFI firmware on Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7.5 or earlier, you need to create a boot entry before booting up the created VM.
• When configuring the settings for a backup task, please enable the [Create backup image convertible to virtual disk] option.
  If using Version 2018 SP2 Linux Edition, please enable the option when backing up Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 5.x、7.x.
• The backup images in version [209] of LVM system created by ActiveImage Protector 2018 Update Linux Edition are not supported. Only the backup images of basic partition configuration on Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 6.x are supported.
• Conversion of an image of the system configured on mdraid is not supported.
• A single image file including multiple VGs is not supported.
• Conversion of an LVM system image to a VMware vSphere target host is supported only if configured as follows:
  
  1. A VG is configured with a single PV (/dev/sda2) using the entire capacity of "/dev/sda" excluding "/boot"（/dev/sda1).
  2. If the VG of the above described system is extended by the PV using the entire capacity of the disk in "/dev/sdb" or later.
• If ActiveImage Protector is used to schedule a task for the Linux image used to create the Standby VM, the ActiveImage Protector's schedule cannot be disabled.
• Virtual conversion of Linux LVM system to VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) free license version or storage server as the target host is not supported.
• When an image of the LVM system is converted, the original disk configuration cannot be maintained. The virtual hard disk in total size of "/boot" and the VG is attached to the standby VM. If the datastore on VMware vSphere is VMFS-3, up to 2TB is supported.
• The IP address setting supports DHCP only.

Dashboard

• Resizing the console window may result in displaying unnecessary space. Should this occur, restart the console.

Create / Edit Task

• Unallocated space or the space not included in backup file is displayed as blank space on the disk map.
• When creating a task, keep the following points in mind:
• Up to the maximum of 20 tasks can be executed concurrently.
• If multiple tasks are concurrently executed for the same host and same datastore. Task process time takes longer.
• If a task is executed for a datastore on which a virtual machine is up and running, task process time may take longer depending on the datastore usage and system performance of virtual machine may degrade as a result.




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