Knowledge Base

• Conducting a backup using VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) using the nbd or nbdssl transport switches.
• Conducting I/O operations from a Datastore (VMFS or NFS) to a non-Datastore (ext3, CIFS, etc) or vice versa.
  
  Note: The I/O operation can be done by either a VMware supplied tool such as vcbMounter or a open source tool such as dd or cp.

• Using vmkfstools to transfer a virtual disk from a location on a VMFS datastore to a service console EXT3 file system such as /tmp/, the data mover is not used because the destination is not managed by the VMKernel.
• Using vmkfstools to transfer a virtual disk from a location on a VMFS datastore to a NFS datastore, the data mover is used because both the source and destination is managed by the VMKernel.

To resolve this issue, try these available options:

• Utilize a data protection model that does not interact with the service console.
• If you are backing up to a network share, do not mount the network share in the service console, but configure it as a datastore in ESX, then use vcbMounter to export to that NFS share. This share appears inside the service console under /vmfs/volumes, just like any other datastore.
• If you export to a local staging directory, such as /tmp inside the service console, consider using a VMFS datastore as a staging directory.
• If you are using VCB on the Proxy, VMware recommends to use SAN or hot-add mode instead of nbd for data transport.

Note: 3rd party backup software vendors may employ different methods to perform backups within the service console. For more information about 3rd party software, see Third-Party Software in the Service Console or consult with your backup software vendor.