Carbonite® Server Backup
vSphere Recovery Agent
Version 8.60.9102
Release Notes, March 5, 2018
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Contents
1	Overview
1.1	Release History
1.2	Supported Platforms
1.3	Supported VMware Infrastructure
1.4	Supported Windows File Systems for File and Folder Recovery
2	NEW FEATURES
3	INSTALLATION NOTES
3.1	Installation Requirements
3.2	Licensing Requirements
3.3	Install/Upgrade
4	FIXES and KNOWN ISSUES
4.1	Fixes
4.2	Known Issues
4.3	Limitations
5	PRODUCT SUPPORT
5.1	Technical Support
5.2	Product Updates
5.3	Documentation
© Carbonite Inc. 2018.  All Rights Reserved.
The release notes are governed by the Terms of Service found at https://www.carbonite.com/terms-of-use/carbonite-general-enterprise-terms-of-service.  Carbonite, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to modify or revoke these Release Notes at any time, without notice.
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1	Overview
This document contains release notes for vSphere Recovery Agent 8.60.
The vSphere Recovery Agent (VRA) provides data protection for VMware vSphere version 6.5 and 6.0 environments. After you install VRA on a Windows machine with access to a vCenter, the Agent can back up and restore VMs and templates across all ESXi hosts managed by the vCenter Server.
Note: vSphere versions 5.5 and 5.1 are supported with vSphere Agent 7.36. 
The vSphere Recovery Agent is supported with:
•	Portal 8.50 or later. vSphere Recovery Agent 8.60 is not supported with the legacy Windows CentralControl.
Note: You can only register VRA 8.60 to Portal version 8.30 or later. To determine your Portal version, sign in to Portal and go to Need Help > About. 
•	Director version 8.00 or later
Important: Do not run another backup solution in the same vSphere environment as the VRA. Conflicts can occur between the VRA and other backup software.
1.1	Release History
Version 8.60.9102, March 5, 2018
1.2	Supported Platforms
vSphere Recovery Agent 8.60 is supported on the following platforms:
•	Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
•	Windows Server 2012 R2
1.3	Supported VMware Infrastructure 
vSphere vCenter Servers:
•	vCenter Server 6.5 (up to Update 1e)
•	vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 (up to Update 1e)
•	vCenter Server 6.0 (Update 3d)
•	vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 (Update 3d)
Note: Previous vSphere versions are supported with vSphere Agent 7.36. 
vSphere ESX and ESXi Hosts:
•	ESXi 6.5 (up to Update 1)
•	ESXi 6.0 (Update 2 to Update 3a)
vSAN:
•	vSAN 6.6
Raw Device Mappings:
The VRA backs up virtual disks which use virtual Raw Device Mapping (vRDM). Data backed up from a vRDM is restored as a VMDK. See VMware documentation for instructions on how to migrate a restored VMDK back to a vRDM.
When backing up VMs, the VRA skips physical Raw Device Mapping (pRDM), shared disks and independent disks. VMware does not allow these disks to be included in snapshots for VM-level backups. To back up these disks, you must install an Agent on the VM. 
If a VM contains at least one disk that can be protected, the VM will be backed up.
1.4	Supported Windows File Systems for File and Folder Recovery 
For file and folder recovery, the vSphere Agent currently supports the following Windows file systems: 
•	ReFS
•	NTFS
•	FAT
•	FAT32
•	Dynamic disks
Note: GPT partitions are supported for file and folder recovery, as long as they contain a supported file system.
2	NEW FEATURES
VRA 8.60 backs up and restores VMs in both VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.0 environments.
VRA 8.60 can back up and restore VMs with VMDKs as large as 10 TB.
VRA 8.60 can back up and restore VMs that reside partly or completely on vSAN storage. The VRA can back up and restore VMs on vSAN storage as long as the minimum number of nodes required for the vSAN cluster are up.
You can now re-register a VRA to multiple vaults using Portal version 8.50 or later. In a disaster recovery situation or when re-registering a VRA as a version 7.3x vSphere Agent, you can re-register a VRA to multiple vaults, run backup jobs from each vault, and restore VMs from backups on each vault.
3	INSTALLATION NOTES
3.1	Installation Requirements
Install VRA on a Windows physical or virtual machine that has at least two CPUs and 4 GB of RAM. 
The Windows machine must have access to the vCenter that you want to protect. For best performance, install VRA on a machine in the same subnet as the vCenter.
We recommend installing the VRA on a machine with a minimum of 200 GB of free disk space to ensure that there is sufficient space for the Agent and for files that the Agent generates during backups. 
Ensure that power management is disabled on the machine. On Windows 10, power management is enabled by default.
An account with full Administrator rights to the Windows machine is required for installing VRA.
An account with administrative rights to the vCenter is required for configuring the VRA.
3.2	Licensing Requirements
VRA claims at least three licenses from Director. A Server Agent license and a VMware plug-in license is required for each VRA. A VMware Cluster license (called “ESXFarm”) is required for each ESXi host in the environment. 
For example, in a vCenter with five hypervisors (ESXi hosts), the VRA claims five Cluster licenses, one ESX license and one Server Agent license.
3.3	Install/Upgrade
3.3.1	Install
The filename of the vSphere Recovery Agent installation kit is: vSphereRecoveryAgent-8-60-9102.exe
To obtain the executable file, contact your licensed service provider. For installation and configuration information, see the vSphere Recovery Agent User Guide.
The following files are installed for the Agent:
buagent.exe – version 8.60.9102
LogViewer.exe – version 8.60.9102
VV.exe – version 8.60.9102
VVAgent.exe – version 8.60.9102
XLogTranslator.exe – version 8.60.9102
dbghelp.dll – version 6.7.5.0
evVss.dll – version 8.60.9102
InstallationCA.dll 
InstallHelper.dll – version 1.0.0.0
libeay32.dll – version 1.0.2.10
mfc110.dll – version 11.0.60610.1
mfc110u.dll – version 11.0.60610.1
mfcm110.dll – version 11.0.60610.1
mfcm110u.dll – version 11.0.60610.1
msvcp110.dll – version 11.00.51106.1
msvcr110.dll – version 11.00.51106.1
PluginCatBrowser.dll 
ssleay32.dll – version 1.0.2.10
SystemStatePlugin.dll – version 8.60.9102
SystemVolumePlugin.dll – version 8.60.9102
vccorlib110.dll – version 11.00.51106.1
vsphere_utils.dll
vSphereMount.dll
vsphere-soap-generated.dll
vSphereWinPlugin.dll
VVClMsg.dll – version 8.60.9102
WindowsPartitionMounter.dll
You cannot install VRA on a machine where the Windows Agent is installed.
3.3.2	Upgrade
You can upgrade a VRA from version 8.40 to version 8.60 by running the installation kit.
You cannot upgrade a vSphere Agent 7.3x to VRA 8.60. However, you can install VRA 8.60 and re-register the VRA with one or more vaults as a version 7.3x vSphere Agent. You can then run backup jobs from the version 7.3x Agent without reseeding, and restore VMs from existing backups. 
Note: General steps for re-registering a VRA are presented here for your convenience. For detailed information, see the vSphere Recovery Agent User Guide. 
To install VRA 8.60 and re-register it as a version 7.3x vSphere Agent:
1.	Capture all logs from the version 7.3x vSphere Agent in a Support bundle.
2.	Disable all scheduled jobs for the version 7.3x vSphere Agent.
3.	Install VRA 8.60, and register it to Portal.
4.	On the Computers page in Portal, view the VRA that you installed.
5.	Click Configure Manually.
6.	On the Vault Settings tab, re-register the VRA to a vault as the vSphere Agent 7.3x. 
If the version 7.3x vSphere Agent backed up data to another vault, repeat Step 6 for the other vault. 
7.	On the vCenter Settings tab, enter the vCenter User Name and Password, and confirm the CBT setting. Save the settings.
8.	Click the Advanced tab. If required, enter SMTP credentials on the Notifications tab.
9.	On the Jobs tab, edit each backup job, re-enter the encryption password, save the job, and then synchronize the job.
IMPORTANT: To avoid reseeding the job, you must enter the same encryption password that was used when the version 7.3x vSphere Agent ran the job.
4	FIXES and KNOWN ISSUES
4.1	Fixes 
When a job contains the vCenter Linux Appliance VM that the VRA is registered to, the backup of the Linux vCenter Appliance VM is completed without error. (EV-10561)
Backups now succeed after you re-register a VRA as a vSphere Agent 7.36, synchronize a job, and then add or replace a VM in the job. (EV-14120)
4.2	Known Issues
In rare cases when the Agent loses connection to the vCenter during a backup, the Agent stops the job but may not clean up files. Portal may not show that the job failed or send email notifications, and the backup may not be included in the Daily Status Report. This problem may occur if the vCenter connection is lost while the Agent is unlocking or locking a VM, or while the Agent is opening or closing a VMDK. (EV-7459)
If high availability settings are out of synch on ESXi hosts, a restore may fail if the original VM exists in the vCenter inventory. 
WORKAROUND: Disable and re-enable vSphere high availability, and then try the restore again. (EV-7350)
If a long network disconnection (e.g., longer than several minutes) interrupts a restore, the restore may not continue when the network is reconnected. A shell of a partially-restored VM may remain in the vSphere UI.
WORKAROUND: Manually delete the VM shell in the vSphere UI, and then restart the restore without interruption. (EV-7340)
When restoring files and folders, if the machine where the Agent is installed does not have enough drive letters to mount all volumes from the selected VM, the restore may appear to be successful. The restore should fail. (EV-7344)
After a granular restore, the RestoreMount folder remains on the machine where the VRA is running, but subfolders created during the granular restore may be removed. Subfolders created for a subsequent granular restore may have a new timestamp and entries. (EV-8782)
Because VRA preserves Windows ACLs and permissions, you cannot restore files and folders where only one owner has permission to the files or folders, and that owner account does not exist on the machine where you are restoring the files and folders (EV-7343).
When you try to restore files and folders from a VM that is not supported for granular restores (e.g., a Linux VM or a VM with an invalid or uninitialized VMDK), the VRA may not indicate why the restore fails. (EV-7349/EV-7359)
4.3	Limitations
•	Repairs are not supported using the VRA installation kit. To change the Portal instance to which VRA is registered, you must uninstall the VRA and install it again. 
•	When backing up VMs, the vSphere Agent skips any physical Raw Device Mapping (pRDM), shared and independent disks. To back up this data, you must install an Agent on the VM and use it to back up data on pRDMs and independent disks. VMware does not allow pRDM and independent disks to be included in snapshots used for VM-level backups.
•	You can restore VMs with VRA 8.60, but you cannot restore individual VMDKs. 
•	You cannot restore specific files and folders from Linux VMs.
•	During a granular restore, disks from the selected VM are mounted on the machine where the VRA is running. Files and folders on the disks will be accessible to anyone on the system, including non-Admin users. If you are concerned about security, you must secure the Agent machine and prevent users from logging in to the machine locally. 
•	Distributed vSwitches are not restored for templates. If you back up a template connected to a distributed vSwitch and then restore the template, vCenter will report a warning for the template indicating that it is not connected to a network. In our restore log, the user will see the following message: VSPH-W-09851 dvPortgroup information not found in backup. dvSwitch will not be restored.
5	PRODUCT SUPPORT
5.1	Technical Support
Contact information for your provider is available through the Help menu.
5.2	Product Updates
Product updates are available from your provider. 
5.3	Documentation
The following documentation is available for the VRA: 
•	  vSphere Recovery Agent User Guide
•	  vSphere Recovery Agent release notes (this document) 
All documentation is available from your provider.