PowerProtect Data Manager 19.11 Virtual Machine User Guide

vProxy Agent installation on Linux virtual machines

The vProxy Agent installation on Linux virtual machines requires the root account, or that the user is in the local sudousers list of the operating system. If you provide any other user credentials for the target virtual machine, the vProxy Agent installation fails, even if this user has privileges similar to a root user.

To allow a non-root user or group to perform the vProxy Agent installation:

1. Provide sudo access to the following files at a minimum:
   • RPM command (SLES, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS) and dpkg command (Debian/Ubuntu)
   • /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/postinstall.sh
   • /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/preremove.sh

   Note the following additional requirements:
   

   • The sudo user or group must be configured for no password prompt.
   • The sudo user or group must be provided with the no requiretty option.
   • When user elevation is enabled for file-level restore:
     • To browse files, you must have the appropriate authority in the guest virtual-machine operating system. For example, you must be permitted to run vflrbrowse using sudo without being prompted for a password.
     • To perform the restore, the user account must have the appropriate authority. For example, this account requires sudo access and must be able to run vflrcopy without being prompted for a password.
   NOTE If the Run with Elevated Privileges file-level restore is unsuccessful, an error displays indicating Unable to perform FLR Agent operation 'recover_files' on VM virtual machine name. This might occur when a typographical error has been made in the sudo commands. To determine if this has occurred, review the log file output for the following text:

   • sudo: a password is required
   • /etc/sudoers.d/admin: syntax error near line 1
   • sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting

   It is recommended that you test the sudo command before performing a file-level restore in order to resolve any potential errors.

2. On the Linux system, create the file /etc/sudoers.d/linuxuser, where linuxuser is the Linux login user, and then add the following contents to this file.

   On CentOS, Red Hat, SuSE, OpenSuSE, and Oracle Linux platforms:
   

   username ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/sudo, /usr/bin/rpm, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/postinstall.sh, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/preremove.sh, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/vflrbrowse, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/vflrcopy

   Defaults:username !requiretty

   Defaults:username !authenticate

   NOTE On SuSE 12, the location is /bin/rpm instead of /usr/bin/rpm.

   On Ubuntu platforms:
   

   username ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/sudo, /usr/bin/dpkg, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/postinstall.sh, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/preremove.sh, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/vflrbrowse, /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/vflrcopy

   Defaults:username !requiretty

Once you complete the vProxy Agent installation on the target virtual machine using the root user account or a sudouser with the minimum file access requirements, you can perform file-level restore operations as a non-root user on supported Linux platforms. To determine which Linux platforms are supported, review the compatibility information provided by the E-Lab Navigator.

vProxy Agent installation on Windows virtual machines

vProxy Agent installation on Windows virtual machines requires that you use administrative privileges. If the provided credentials for the target virtual machine do not have administrative privileges, the vProxy Agent installation fails.

On Windows, to perform a file-level restore using a non-administrator user, ensure that the vProxy Agent is already installed on the target machine using administrative privileges. Otherwise, ensure that an administrative user is specified, and click OK.

Installation of the vProxy Agent on User Account Control (UAC) enabled Windows virtual machine requires you to either provide the credentials of the administrator user, or to disable UAC during the vProxy Agent installation and then re-enable upon completion.

On Windows versions 8, 10, and 11, the administrator account is disabled by default. To enable the account, complete the following steps:

1. To activate the account, open a command prompt in administrative mode, and then type net user administrator /active: yes.
2. To set a password for the administrator account, go to Control Panel > User Accounts and select the Advanced tab. Initially, the account password is blank.
3. In the User Accounts pane, right-click the user and select Properties, and then clear the Account is disabled option.

To disable UAC during the vProxy Agent installation and then re-enable on completion of the installation, complete the following steps:

1. Initiate a file-level restore to launch the vProxy Agent installation window. The vProxy Agent installation is automatically started during a mount operation if it is not already installed on the destination virtual machine.
2. In the vProxy Agent installation window, select the Keep VM Direct FLR on target virtual machine option.
3. Open regedit and change the EnableLUA registry key value at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System to 0x00000000. By default, this is set to 1.
4. Proceed with the vProxy Agent installation.
5. Open regedit and reset the EnableLUA registry key to the previous value to re-enable UAC.

Uninstalling the vProxy Agent

If you no longer require the vProxy Agent on the target virtual machine, the agent must be properly uninstalled. If you manually delete vProxy Agent files instead of uninstalling the agent, and at some point reinstall the agent, subsequent mount attempts to perform restores will fail.

To uninstall the vProxy Agent on Linux:

1. Execute the following command: /opt/emc/vproxyra/bin/preremove.sh.
2. Uninstall the vProxy Agent package by running rpm -e emc-vProxy-FLRAgent.
3. If the uninstall fails due to a broken installation or other issue, you can force removal of the package by running rpm -e --force emc-vProxy-FLRAgent.

To uninstall the vProxy Agent on Windows:

1. Select Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
2. Locate Dell EMC vProxy Agent.
3. Right-click the program and select Uninstall.