topic Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator in Data Protection

KVM Backup with Snapcreator

MARCEL_WERNER_BT — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:09:07 GMT

Hello *,

our setup looks like so :

- one volume (/vol/01_test_sas/)

- 1-n qtrees in the volume (/vol/01_test_sas/vm1; /vol/01_test_sas/vm2)

- 1-n luns as virtual disk (/vol/01_test_sas/vm1/vm1-igroup.oslun; /vol/01_test_sas/vm1/vm1-igroup.datalun)

- 2 node RedhatCluster (Both nodes see the same):

+ multipath (/dev/mapper/vm1-igroup.oslun;/dev/mapper/vm1-igroup.datalun)

+ lvm (Physical Volume(PV) on netapp Lun / Volume Group(VG) on the PV / Logical Volume (LV) on the VG ->

lvm (/dev/mapper/vm1_sda-sda;/dev/mapper/vm1_sdb-sdb)

+ Configure the Cluster to use CLVMD to switch beetween the nodes

- Use the LV's as raw disk in the virtual Maschines

Now our Problems going on :

1.) We cant use KVM Plugin from Snapcreator , there only gives support for VM to MultiPatch Raw Devices

2.) It is possible that the vm is on node 1 or 2

Now my possible solution an questions.

1.) Installing snapdrive on the KVM Hosts

2.) Wrote a pre/post script with Task:

2.1) Locate all Running VM's on the node

2.2) Getting from xml File the the raw Disk's

2.3) suspend the vm's running on the node

2.4) Use snapdrive with -vg switch or do a snapshot without snapdrive

2.5) resume the vm's

3.) Backup done

Questions :

The using of snadrive is it an advantage over the direct snapshot ?

Do you see a simpler solution ?

Is it possible to sync the backup beetwen the cluster nodes , so not 2 snapshots are needed on the same volume ?

Thanks a Lot , all posts are welcome.

marcel

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

MARCEL_WERNER_BT — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:47:33 GMT

Hello *,

any comment are welcome .

My "Problem" still exsits.

marcel

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

sivar — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:39:17 GMT

Hello Marcel,

I have reached out to our KVM expert.

I shall update the post as soon as I hear from him.

Please give me a day.

Thanks,
Siva Ramanathan

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

mathanku — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:51:52 GMT

Hi Marcel,

We have few queries regarding your configuration.

What do you mean by snapshot without snapdrive (in point 2.4)? Are you taking snapshot on the storage controller or KVM hypervisor?
You can try with -lvol option in snapdrive to take snapshot of LVM since your VM residing on LVM. You can directly restore the LVM using snapdrive.
In case of host clustering, do you see all the VMs on both hosts?

Thanks,

-Mathan

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

MARCEL_WERNER_BT — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:00:19 GMT

Hi mathan

thanks for reply.

1.) I will taking the snapshot direct on the storage controller with (snap create) and than without snapcreator only with Protectionmanager

2.) My VM has volume Manager inside, but the first disk has two partions /boot (/dev/vda1) physical Volume (/dev/vda2)

3.) I see the storage on the two nodes, the vm's are running on one node.vm1 (host1) vm2(host2)

Now i can switch vm1 to host2

thx

marcel

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

MARCEL_WERNER_BT — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:28:07 GMT

Hi mathan,

has you the chanse to think about my problem ?

marcel

Re: KVM Backup with Snapcreator

mathanku — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:29:34 GMT

Hi Marcel Werner,

In this case, direct snapshot won't help as the VMs are residing on LVMs and restoring the same will be a challenging task. So, using snapdrive is a better option to take and restore snapshots.

Did you get a chance to try snapdrive?

Thanks,

-Mathan