How to Fix vCenter Backup SMB Not Support | vCenter 6.7 & 7

vCenter Backup Location Type “SMB” is Not Supported

With the options of NFS and SMB file systems added in vSphere 6.7 U2, vCenter filed-based backup now supports 7 protocols in total - FTPS, HTTPS, SFTP, FTP, NFS, SMB, and HTTP. *SCP is not available since vCenter Server 7.0 u2d.

However, there are some error reports that vCenter backup to SMB are not supported in an environment running 6.7 onward. The scheduled backup job suddenly stopped working, and the UI returns "Location type SMB is not supported" or "SMB location is invalid" during manual attempt.

How did this happen and what can be done to fix it?

Why vCenter Backup Says SMB Not Supported, How to Fix It

Before performing any upgrade or maintenance activities, it is suggested to perform a backup of the vCenter Server Appliance, thus ensuring your vCenter Server can be easily restored in case of any critical issues.

To perform vCenter Backup using SMB, the backup server must be set up and configured correctly so that vCenter Server can access it. You should also make sure the SMB server has enough disk space to store the vCenter backup.

Then, open the VMware vCenter Server Management VAMI portal using port 5480 and the login name. Navigate to Backup > Configure. Enter the Backup location as the SMB protocol.

If the backup via SMB failed and returns you an error message here, you can refer to the following fixes.

Issue: vCenter 6.7 backup via SMB not supported

When configuring scheduler, if you receive vCenter backup SMB location is invalid or location type SMB is not supported, this should be a known issue in VMware vCenter Appliance 6.7 U2 and above.

It happens because SMB1 is being disabled on the SMB server (or blocked in network). VCSA uses SMB1 protocol for backup, if the SMB1 protocol is disabled (while the default installation of VCSA does not support SMB2), then VCSA can no longer perform backups.

If you are using Windows as file server, you can run this command in PowerShell to check current status of SMB1&2:

Get-SmbServerConfiguration |select EnableSMB1Protocol, EnableSMB2Protocol

It will return the status as “False” or “True” respectively.

To fix this issue, one solution is to enable SMB1 protocol on the SMB server with this command:

Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $true

However, it’s not recommended to do so, because SMB1 protocol is considered weaker compare to SMB2/3, and it’s usually disabled to prevent WannaCry and Petya in Windows.

For security reasons, you could consider using alternate protocol (HTTP, FTP, NFS, etc.) to perform vCenter backup via VAMI, or switch to SMB2 instead.

🔹How to enable vCenter Server Appliance to use SMB2:

1. Connect to VCSA using SSH session. Run this command to enable the Bash shell:

shell.set --enabled true

And run this command to access the Bash shell:

shell

Set the SMB2Enabled flag in likewise's config:

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]' Smb2Enabled 1

Note: If the value does not exist, the above may fail. To create the value in that instance, run:

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell add_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]' Smb2Enabled REG_DWORD 1

Run this command to verify the values:

/opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell list_values '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Services\lwio\Parameters\Drivers\rdr]'

Then, run this command to restart likewise service:

/opt/likewise/bin/lwsm restart lwio

This will set up SMB2 on the VCSA, and now you can try to perform vCenter backup via SMB again.

Issue: vCenter 7.0 U3 VAMI backup fails using SMB Protocol

If VAMI backup fails when using SMB as protocol with this message:

Path not exported by remote file system

And when you run this command on the vCenter SSH session, it returns a value of "1":

cat /proc/sys/crypto/fips_enabled

Don’t worry, this is a known issue on vCenter 7.0 Update 3. It has been resolved in vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c. So you can fix it by updating vCenter.

To work around this issue temporarily, you can also use other supported backup protocols.

Tip: Better way to easily backup VMs managed by vCenter Server via SMB

VCSA has this file-based backup feature to back up vCenter configurations, which helps to restore the environment when necessary. However, it does not protect the virtual machines managed by vCenter.

If you are worried about the data in virtual machines, it’s best to back up your VMs regularly as well to avoid data loss. To do this, you can use efficient VMware backup software such as AOMEI Cyber Backup. It’s designed to schedule backup virtual machines securely and restore them from any point you need.

With it, you can add virtual machines managed by vCenter Servers or standalone ESXi hosts (including free ESXi) to a central web console. The intuitive UI makes it possible for even novices to configure ESXi or vCenter backups with several clicks, and enjoy the following benefits:

Backup in batch: Backup multiple VMs managed by vCenter Server standalone ESXi host at once.
Support Free ESXi: Support both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi.
Backup Storages: Back up to local folders, network, and NAS folders shared via SMB protocol.
Automation: Create a schedule for automated VM protection; enable retention policy to automatically delete old backup versions to save storage space.
Restore to new location: Besides in-place recovery, you can restore a VM to new location in the same or another datastore/host/vCenter.
Email notification: Send email notification when the task is completed or abnormal.

You can click the following button to download the software.

AOMEI Cyber Backup can be installed on Windows and Linux systems and works with VMware ESXi 6.0 and above versions (as well as Hyper-V servers).

Backup vCenter virtual machines to SMB with AOMEI Cyber Backup

Next, I will show you how to batch backup VMs managed by vCenter Server with AOMEI Cyber Backup in 4 simple steps

Step 1. Navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to add and bind vCenter Server or Standalone ESXi host accordingly.

Step 2. Create backup task by hitting Backup Task > Create New Task. Follow the Wizard to schedule VM backup. You can select as many VMs as you need to back them up at once.

• Schedule daily/weekly/monthly VMware backup with different backup strategies, such as full backup for the entire VM and incremental backup for the changed data.
• Set up backup cleanup to automatically delete old backup copies that exceed the retention period you specified.

Step 3. As for the backup destination, you can choose a local path, or click Create a new network path to specify a network folder or NAS shared via SMB protocol.

Step 4. Click Start Backup to execute (or just create) the task. The created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for restoring, progress checking, and schedule changing.

When restoring, you can perform an in-place recovery, or choose to restore to new location. The 2nd option creates a new VM in the same or another datastore/host/vCenter from the backup, saving the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Conclusion

This article answered why vCenter backup SMB not supported and how to resolve it. Although enabling SMB1 on the file server is a solution, it’s not a good one because of the vulnerability of SMB1. Instead, you can consider switching to SMB2.

As for virtual environment protection, the file-based backup of vCenter helps to recover fast and securely, but it’s only for VCSA configuration. To ensure the security of the data in virtual machines, it’s also necessary to reliable solution for ESXi VM backup.