topic Re: Snap Drive 6.3 in Data Protection

Snap Drive 6.3

itmsnetapp — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:10:22 GMT

Is there any word on release date of snap drive 6.3? We are right in the middle of a migration project and would rather go straight to 6.3 for NFS support.

cheers

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

kris_boeckx — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:22:05 GMT

Hi,

As far as I know it will be there 1ste week op september.

See http://blogs.netapp.com/storage_nuts_n_bolts/2010/07/snapdrive-63-support-for-vmfs-and-nfs.html for more info.

greetings,

Kris Boeckx

Pidpa

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

kris_boeckx — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:42:13 GMT

Snapdrive 6.3 is here ...

https://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/software/snapdrive_win/6.3/

Greetings to you all !

Kris Boeckx

Pidpa

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:51:57 GMT

Wow, awesome - thanks for the heads up!

I had an opportunity to play with beta version & must admit I'm loving the fact that MS SQL can now run over NFS end-to-end (well, you need the latest & greatest SMSQL as well, but I've heard it was supposed to be released together with SDW6.3)

Regards,
Radek

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

erick_moore — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:14:40 GMT

Don't forget to read the fine print, you need VSC 2.0.1 for SMSQL 5.1 and SD 6.3 to do VMDK snaps on NFS. Unfortunately VSC 2.0.1 is no where to be found.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:28:49 GMT

It actually worked for me with VSC 2.0.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

erick_moore — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:47:49 GMT

I can't use it in production if the release notes don't support it:

Note: Support for performing Snapshot copy operations on virtual machine disks (VMDKs) in an NFS or VMFS datastore requires SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows or later and Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 or later. Please check the availability of SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows and Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 and install it before using this feature.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:57:32 GMT

Yeah, no argument here - fully appreciated.

I was just happy as a kid when I managed to successfully set it up in our lab Requirement for official support in a prodcution environment is a different story though.

Having said this, I have a gut feeling VSC 2.0.1 should surface soon, so people can actually make a practical use of this cool feature (unless someone made a typo writing the note! )

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

chriszurich — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:19:46 GMT

I'm having issues with viewing LUNs provisioned over FC from a filer running 8.0.1. I'm curious what version of Data ONTAP you're running?

Test Environment

FAS3140 8.0.1 7-Mode

FAS3170 (HA Cluster) 7.3.3 7-Mode

Windows 2003 Professional Server (32-bit)

NetApp Host Agent ver. 2.7

DFM 4.0

SnapDrive 6.1.1 Shows LUNs provisioned from filers running 7.3.3 but fails to show LUNs from filers running 8.0.1.

SnapDrive 6.2 works with no errors

SnapDrive 6.3: Shows LUNs provisioned from filers running 7.3.3 but fails to show LUNs from filers running 8.0.1.

Error:

Failed to enumerate LUNs.

Error code : An attempt to obtain list of volumes on the storage system <8.0.1 array name>' failed. Error code: 13011. Error description: No netapp element in response.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

itmsnetapp — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:21:53 GMT

ok, this is starting to make a little bit of sense... I would like to make use of the new snap drive vmdk on NFS feature, but once I have installed snapdrive 6.3 and try to create a disk there is no option to create it on a nfs volume.

I have looked through the admin guide and it mentions that all of this is possible within snapdrive 6.3 but there is no information on how to do it, only info on how to create a new lun.

can anyone possibly point me in the right direction?

I have the latest vsc installed.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:25:48 GMT

I'm running ONTAP 7.3.4.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:30:03 GMT

Hi,

This may be a tad confusing - you actually can manage NFS VMDKs with SDW6.3, but you cannot create them from within SDW console.

What you have to do is: add virtual disks on vSphere side via vCenter, edit VM config, add disk(s) and choose their location within NFS datastore of choice.

When you go back to SDW, you will be then able to see added disks.

Regards,
Radek

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

kris_boeckx — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:21:43 GMT

Hi,

So this means that creating a disk with snapdrive within the virtual machine is not working ? Or is it not supported ?

This would be very stupid because you always should create your luns with snapdrive to be fully supported.

Greetings,

Kris Boeckx

Pidpa

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:28:46 GMT

So this means that creating a disk with snapdrive within the virtual machine is not working ?

It is not working if you want to use NFS datastore.

This would be very stupid because you always should create your luns with snapdrive to be fully supported.

Arguably it is confusing, but bear in mind these are no longer LUNs - you are dealing with VMDK files located within NFS datastore!

Regards,
Radek

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

kris_boeckx — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:47:45 GMT

As I read in the Admin guide, the RDM file (of VMDK file) still needs to be on a VMFS datastore. So we are still stuck with those VMFS datastore only because the raw device mapping files needs to reside on a VMFS datastore.

The disk create command om page 221 of the admin guide tell us:

If the virtual machine
resides on an NFS datastore, you must specify a VMFS datastore for the VMDK file.

I've tested it in our test enviroment and it's working as described in the admin guide. It seems that this is a VMware issue because when I want to move this machine from a VMFS datastore to a NFS datastore. This is not working and I get the message:

"Virtual Disk '...' is a mapped Direct-Access LUN which is not supported on the datastore "nfs_datastore"

I tought this was solved in 6.3 but it's NOT

"Support for VMDKs in NFS and VMFS datastores" on page 37 in the admin guide is not clear to me. I need to do more investigation on this topic.

Greetings,

Kris Boeckx

Pidpa

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:56:44 GMT

OK, I need to revisit it with the official code then (I was using beta version)

What I can say though is it did work nicely for me, without pestering for any RDM references, etc. - it was a 'plain' VMDK file (crated by 'add new disk' in vCenter \ edit VM properties), located in an NFS datastore, seen & being fully manageable via SDW interface.

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

itmsnetapp — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:34:45 GMT

Hi Radek - so I have done what you have suggested.

I created a new nas volume on the filer and a qtree to go with it.

I then added the nfs storage to the esx host

I edited the VM and created a new hard disk on this storage

I opened the console of the VM and started snapdrive 6.3 - the disk didn't show up

I opened computer management - windows wants to initialize the disk.

Are you able to say where it is going wrong?

I have the latest version of VSC installed

Windows 2008 R2

esx host is 4.0.1

filer is running 7.3.3 (from what I gather I dont need 7.3.4 unless I want to make use of the space reclaim feature)

cheers

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

radek_kubka — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:31:19 GMT

Hi,

NFS integration is not supported until VSC 2.0.1 is available - http://communities.netapp.com/message/39590#39590

It looks like this has worked for me before only because I've used beta build of SDW 6.3.

I tested it now with official build & it plainly does not work - may be purposely blocked when SDW finds out VSC is not 2.0.1.

Regards,
Radek

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

HendersonD — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:09:29 GMT

I have been told that VSC 2.0.1 should be out next week so my SQL project can move forward. This is what I have done so far:

1. Carved out 4 volumes on my filer, one each for SystemDB, UserDB, Logs, and SnapInfo

2. Created 4 NFS exports corresponding to each of these volumes

3. Add the 4 shares to each of my VSphere hosts using the Configuration tab of the Virtual Center client

4. Shutdown what will be my new SQL 2008 server.

5. Edited its settings using the Virtual Center client and added 4 hard disks corresponding to the 4 datastores created in step 3

6. Brought the SQL server back up and using the Manage MMC, added the 4 volumes to my server giving them the proper names and drive letters. Now I have a SQL 2008 server with of course a C drive and 4 other drives labeled SystemDB, UserDB, Logs and SnapInfo

From here it should be straightforward to install SQL 2008, Snapdrive 6.3, and Snapmanager for SQL 5.1. My understanding is when using NFS, Snapdrive does not create or manage the NFS share it strictly is there to help assist with making snapshots via Snapmanager for SQL. This is in contrast to iSCSI and FCP where Snapdrive is actually used to create and manage the LUNs on the filer along with assisting in the snapshot process.

From here I can bring up what will be a new Virtual Center (vSphere 4.1). On that machine I will install VSC 2.0.1 and SMVI

Do all these steps sound about right?

Re: Snap Drive 6.3

kris_boeckx — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:34:22 GMT

SnapDrive - 6.3P1

Date Posted: 17-NOV-2010

SnapDrive 6.3P1
Based on SnapDrive 6.3

Bugs fixed in this release:

6.3P1
===========
445705 SDW is not allowing snapshot operations of LUNs on FlexClone volumes. 
455839 SnapDrive in Hyper-V VM Tries to Connect to Unroutable IP on Filer 
437376 Should not check for vol_move_status for BR.0  
447254 Unable to take backup of VMs in a Hyper-V CSV Cluster environment 
440822 The SnapDrive Service in an ESX VM takes too long to start up in large ESX environments  
447078 SDW 6.2 fails to show FCP initiators when ESX upgraded from 4.0.x to 4.1 
434153 DFM RBAC:SDW to provide configurable cache timeout value. 
458869 dataset backup failing with "Error: Qtree 1880 was not found in the dataset" 

Download link: http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/software/snapdrive_win/6.3P1/