IT15803: ESXi 6.0 Build 3825889 SENDS INCORRECT CBT DATA LEADING TO INCORRECT SECTORS BEING BACKED UP (TOO MUCH DATA BACKED UP)

APAR status

• Closed as Vendor Solution.

Error description

• The Data Protection for VMware data mover includes calls to
  VMware's vSphere APIs. After installing VMware ESXi 6.0 Build
  3825889 (EP6), the VMware API function used to obtain changed
  block information returns incorrect changed sector information.
  This results in inconsistent incremental VM backups for guests
  running Windows 2008 and later Windows versions. The problem
  becomes externally visible when "incremental forever -
  incremental" (-mode=ifincr) backups appear to back up too much
  data.
  This problem affects all incremental forever backups on VMs
  running Windows 2008 and later Windows operating systems. VMs
  running other operating systems are not affected by this issue.
  This APAR is being created to document a VMware issue that
  affects Data Protection for VMware incremental forever backups.
  See VMware KB https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2145895 for more
  information
  Tivoli Storage Manager Versions Affected:
  Tivoli Storage Manager Client 7.1.2.x and higher on Linux and
  Windows
  Customer/L2 Diagnostics
  Initial Impact: High
  Additional Keywords: VM, CBT, TSM, Spectrum, Protect
  

Local fix

• Perform the following steps in the specified order to work
  around this issue:
  
  1. Roll back your ESXi 6 hosts to VMware ESXi 6.0.0 U2.
  
  2. Reset Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for all guests running
  Windows 2008 and later versions of Windows ("affected guests").
  Instructions for resetting CBT can be found at
  https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2139574
  
  3. Perform a full incremental forever backup of all affected
  guests. This is required to ensure backup integrity.
  
  4. After the full backups have finished, resume normal
  incremental forever backup operations.
  

Problem summary

Problem conclusion

Temporary fix

Comments

• Issue is wih ESXi 6.0 Build 3825889 (Express Patch 6):
  https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2145895.
  The fix should be available in ESXi 6.0 Update 3
  

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

Applicable component levels