2021-09-28, 19:11:23
4) Not applicable - all local physically connected disks
5) spotted that, but it was the vmrun that needed a temporary redirect - think that worked
--reload) I have finally tracked that down, and it does create a problem for Vimalin, but is not rooted in Vimalin software (read on if interested):
Symptoms:
a. After any restart via Vimarun, there was no problem running the first scheduled backup.
b. Sometimes there would be a "VMPlayer.exe" error about the reload, but most of the time not. (see below)
c. Next scheduled backup would sometimes work and sometimes not?
d. The error reported by Vimalin was always "Could not create the Snapshot"
My Actions to prove the problem to VMRun (too much work to list/type all steps as how I eventually traced, but this is what eventually tracked it down: I went through the detailed logs of successful backups to see an idea of what was being run at each step):
a. Start a small VM via Vimarun
b. Go to an Administrator command prompt and run "VMRun -T ws snapshot ..." (with all relevant parameters)
c. Create second/third snapshot with different names - No problems encountered
d. Tried to delete any of the snapshots using "VMRun -T ws DeleteSnapshot ..." (this is a function that the Vimalin does in the background I think as per the log files which I managed to find)
e. The delete worked quite happily sometimes, but occasionally an error window (not error message to console but a window) was thrown by VMRun directly, which contained an error thrown by VMPlayer.exe saying that the option --reload was not a valid option - Can send a pic as can't attach in the forum
f. While still in the console window (and NOT removing the error window), I was still able to create another snapshot. I left the window open in case it was locking a process, but this didn't seem to be the case at this point.
g. The error message is being thrown immediately after the delete snapshot process by vmrun (be aware that this is a VMWare Player 16 install on Windows 2016 server, in case that is relevant)
h. If I let Vimalin hit this error through the schedule by itself after the delete of the snapshot, then nothing breaks after the first backup/snapshot, but sometimes (and not every time which makes it difficult to repeat) something gets locked and now gets a permissions problem (The error doesn't get thrown to the local screen always, although I did see it once just after all the new installs), so maybe a fluke or I was doing something else that threw this error and not via Vimalin?)
i. If I try run the VMRun snapshot command directly after some backups then I get an "Insufficient Permissions" error (be aware that after research I know that this is very different from a insufficient permissions on guest issue, this is not a guest problem)
j. I am sure that this is where the problem lies, and I have no idea why vmrun tries to call this reload option (maybe it exists in full Workstation Pro version, but definitely doesn't exist in the VMPlayer shipped with VMWare Player 16)
No amount of Google Jutitsu and Forum work has any answers on this right now, so for VMWare Player 16 there might be only 2 options for now for Vimalin software to internally solve the problem until fix for VMWare Player:
a) Don't delete the Snapshot for now and name it as something like "Vimalin202109282005". This might increase the size of each backup, but maybe this could be described as an extra "Feature" (That's what my boss would say - he he) - All Snapshots included.
b) Require either a shutdown or suspension if it's a VMWare Player installation (think can do via VMRun, haven't tried yet been busy with everything else), and then backup, and restart the VM. VMWare Player is not a commercial product, theoretically shouldn't be run in Production and a bit of downtime for backup is not a great hurt, even if used for a non-profit. My non-profits should be happy with this and WILL be if I say so (Free Servers cost me EU300/mnth to host on a South African developer salary - 1/3 of my Salary, excluding time - so if I say that's how it has to work, then that's how it will work, or go somewhere else for your absolutely free and 24hr supported services - he he). Besides, that's almost how I used to build my Task Scheduler scripts anyway previously. A live backup process was just a bonus for me to prevent some of my headaches.
As promised I will continue monitoring the backups this week, and will provide as much feedback as I can. I would really like to back your software due to simplicity for my companies businesses paying clients, so I am testing hard on my side on my personal non-profit clients.
Regards, and hope this helps in some way, will continue to send any updates.
Kevin
PS (Other Info for Wil):
I work for a very small South African software dev company that does a lot of backend type work (not really UI's) in C# & many other languages, and most of the time they are very willing to assist with knowledge to help my non-profits (I have provided everything from basic email/websites to non-profits since 1995, and started with VMWare Server 2.0 for virtual services - horribly disappointed when that never moved on). They know that what I learn here will probably benefit them on their own commercial resources. After my testing personally (which had no initial company involvement), they have become very interested in your tools. This is a long winded way of asking what you use for your development and testing! This would help me convince them on certain ways forward.
PS1) The business would like to stay with Win2016 for now, but would like to know what you are using for testing
PS2) Which VMWare Product are you using for main testing (Workstation/Player/Etc)
I am leaving an open email here to contact me privately on to take this communication offline if interested (only valid for next 2 weeks - we control our own servers remember - he he):
vimalinforum.kevin@253tech.co.za
5) spotted that, but it was the vmrun that needed a temporary redirect - think that worked
--reload) I have finally tracked that down, and it does create a problem for Vimalin, but is not rooted in Vimalin software (read on if interested):
Symptoms:
a. After any restart via Vimarun, there was no problem running the first scheduled backup.
b. Sometimes there would be a "VMPlayer.exe" error about the reload, but most of the time not. (see below)
c. Next scheduled backup would sometimes work and sometimes not?
d. The error reported by Vimalin was always "Could not create the Snapshot"
My Actions to prove the problem to VMRun (too much work to list/type all steps as how I eventually traced, but this is what eventually tracked it down: I went through the detailed logs of successful backups to see an idea of what was being run at each step):
a. Start a small VM via Vimarun
b. Go to an Administrator command prompt and run "VMRun -T ws snapshot ..." (with all relevant parameters)
c. Create second/third snapshot with different names - No problems encountered
d. Tried to delete any of the snapshots using "VMRun -T ws DeleteSnapshot ..." (this is a function that the Vimalin does in the background I think as per the log files which I managed to find)
e. The delete worked quite happily sometimes, but occasionally an error window (not error message to console but a window) was thrown by VMRun directly, which contained an error thrown by VMPlayer.exe saying that the option --reload was not a valid option - Can send a pic as can't attach in the forum
f. While still in the console window (and NOT removing the error window), I was still able to create another snapshot. I left the window open in case it was locking a process, but this didn't seem to be the case at this point.
g. The error message is being thrown immediately after the delete snapshot process by vmrun (be aware that this is a VMWare Player 16 install on Windows 2016 server, in case that is relevant)
h. If I let Vimalin hit this error through the schedule by itself after the delete of the snapshot, then nothing breaks after the first backup/snapshot, but sometimes (and not every time which makes it difficult to repeat) something gets locked and now gets a permissions problem (The error doesn't get thrown to the local screen always, although I did see it once just after all the new installs), so maybe a fluke or I was doing something else that threw this error and not via Vimalin?)
i. If I try run the VMRun snapshot command directly after some backups then I get an "Insufficient Permissions" error (be aware that after research I know that this is very different from a insufficient permissions on guest issue, this is not a guest problem)
j. I am sure that this is where the problem lies, and I have no idea why vmrun tries to call this reload option (maybe it exists in full Workstation Pro version, but definitely doesn't exist in the VMPlayer shipped with VMWare Player 16)
No amount of Google Jutitsu and Forum work has any answers on this right now, so for VMWare Player 16 there might be only 2 options for now for Vimalin software to internally solve the problem until fix for VMWare Player:
a) Don't delete the Snapshot for now and name it as something like "Vimalin202109282005". This might increase the size of each backup, but maybe this could be described as an extra "Feature" (That's what my boss would say - he he) - All Snapshots included.
b) Require either a shutdown or suspension if it's a VMWare Player installation (think can do via VMRun, haven't tried yet been busy with everything else), and then backup, and restart the VM. VMWare Player is not a commercial product, theoretically shouldn't be run in Production and a bit of downtime for backup is not a great hurt, even if used for a non-profit. My non-profits should be happy with this and WILL be if I say so (Free Servers cost me EU300/mnth to host on a South African developer salary - 1/3 of my Salary, excluding time - so if I say that's how it has to work, then that's how it will work, or go somewhere else for your absolutely free and 24hr supported services - he he). Besides, that's almost how I used to build my Task Scheduler scripts anyway previously. A live backup process was just a bonus for me to prevent some of my headaches.
As promised I will continue monitoring the backups this week, and will provide as much feedback as I can. I would really like to back your software due to simplicity for my companies businesses paying clients, so I am testing hard on my side on my personal non-profit clients.
Regards, and hope this helps in some way, will continue to send any updates.
Kevin
PS (Other Info for Wil):
I work for a very small South African software dev company that does a lot of backend type work (not really UI's) in C# & many other languages, and most of the time they are very willing to assist with knowledge to help my non-profits (I have provided everything from basic email/websites to non-profits since 1995, and started with VMWare Server 2.0 for virtual services - horribly disappointed when that never moved on). They know that what I learn here will probably benefit them on their own commercial resources. After my testing personally (which had no initial company involvement), they have become very interested in your tools. This is a long winded way of asking what you use for your development and testing! This would help me convince them on certain ways forward.
PS1) The business would like to stay with Win2016 for now, but would like to know what you are using for testing
PS2) Which VMWare Product are you using for main testing (Workstation/Player/Etc)
I am leaving an open email here to contact me privately on to take this communication offline if interested (only valid for next 2 weeks - we control our own servers remember - he he):
vimalinforum.kevin@253tech.co.za