topic Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW in ONTAP Discussions

SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

watan — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:08:16 GMT

DOWNLOAD NOW

Features of This Release

SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows includes the following major new and enhanced features:

Support for performing Snapshot copy operations on virtual machine disks (VMDKs) in an NFS or VMFS datastore, which requires Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 or later. Please check the availability of Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 and install it before using this feature.
Support for space reclamation when using VMDKs in an NFS datastore
Support for DataFabric Manager caching with RBAC
Automatic download of the storage system access control (storacl.exe) tool as part of your SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows installation
Bug fixes
For more information, see the SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows Release Notes.

Limitations

SnapDrive 6.3 currently has the following limitations:

iSCSI RDM LUNs are not supported across two physical Microsoft cluster machines.
Customers using SnapDrive 5.0 and earlier on Windows Server 2003 IA64 systems must upgrade to Windows Server 2008 on IA64 systems before they can use SnapDrive 6.3.
A LUN managed by SnapDrive cannot be configured as a "dynamic" disk (a storage device that is divided into volumes rather than partitions); it can serve only as a "basic" disk (a storage device for host-side application data).
A LUN cannot be configured as an extended partition; SnapDrive supports only a single, primary partition on a LUN.
A LUN created with FilerView® or at the storage system command line can be managed only if certain steps (documented in the Installation and Administration Guide) are taken to prepare these LUNs for SnapDrive.
Conversion of a LUN with an MBR partition to a GPT partition is not supported.
Permanent clones are not supported.
Snapshot™ copies that are created from the storage system console are not supported; because this can lead to inconsistencies within the NTFS file system, only SnapDrive should be used to create Snapshot copies of LUNs.
Volume-level SnapVault® configurations are not supported (however, qtree SnapVault configurations are supported).
Space reclamation on VMDKs in VMFS datastores is not supported.

Considerations when using Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator include the following:

In an MSCS configuration that uses volume mountpoints, install Microsoft hotfix 925677 on all cluster nodes if you encounter the issue described in Knowledge Base article KB925677.
In a noncluster configuration, configure the Exchange® service and the SQL service with a dependency on the iSCSI Software Initiator service.

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

radek_kubka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:04:28 GMT

Hi,

Many thanks for posting this.

There is another discussion re SDW 6.3 over here:

http://communities.netapp.com/message/37298#37298

One bit listed below proves to be confusing:

"Support for performing Snapshot copy operations on virtual machine disks (VMDKs) in an NFS or VMFS datastore, which requires Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 or later."

It worked for me nicely with VSC 2.0, so the question is - is it really the case that 2.0.1 is a must &, if that's the case, when roughly it will be available?

Regards,

Radek

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

mitchells — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:05:02 GMT

Allan,

Is there a release date planned for VSC 2.0.1?

Thanks,

Mitchell

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

watan — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:33:49 GMT

Hi Radek,

VSC 2.0.1 is the official release with supported features for the SDW 6.3 , SMSQL 5.1, VSC 2.0.1 integration. There may have been a few bits in 2.0 but supported version is 2.0.1.

New release includes:

All features of VSC 2.0 +

VMDK integration with SDW 6.3 and SMSQL 5.1. SnapDrive for Windows 6.3 provides support for backup/restore operation on VMDK disks in VMware Windows GuestOS created on VMware ESX hosts. SnapManager products should be able to host the application data on VMDK disk backed by NetApp storage( NFS and VMFS) and do their backup and restore operation on these disks as they do on normal NetApp LUN. In this release, a wizard has been added in the installation screen to provide VSC 2.0.1 (SMVI) configuration details.SDW uses https protocol 8043 to communicate to the VSC (SMVI) server. The availability of VMDK disks will be dependent on the VSC (SMVI) server. If VSC (SMVI)server is not available due to some reason, the RDMs(FC,ESX iSCSI,HW iSCSI) and MS iSCSI LUNs must be available for all SDW operations. Users can create VMDK files in NFS and / or VMFS datastores and attach these VMDK files as virtual disks to the virtual machines. SDW 6.3 uses the APIs provided by VSC (SMV)I to discover these virtual disks and present them to the host. SMSQL 5.1 will treat the VMDK disks as any other normal luns and let the user perform Configuration / Backup / Restore / Clone.

VMware View 4.5 support (backwards compatible with View 4.0 also)

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

watan — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:35:09 GMT

I'm not absolutely sure but looks like it is scheduled to release within the next 2 weeks.

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

mitchells — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 01:06:44 GMT

Allan,

Thanks for the update!

Thanks,

Mitchell

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

radek_kubka — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:54:06 GMT

Hi Allan,

Many thanks for clearing this up!

Regards,
Radek

Re: SnapDrive 6.3 for Windows - Available on NOW

watan — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:28:47 GMT

Also to add further.

Main features and enhancements in this release.

1. Enable VMware VMDK NFS and VMFS support

- Ensures SMSQL can protect SQL databases when databases are stored on VMware VMDK backed by NFS or VMFS datastore.

-- SME will NOT be supported because of VMDK VSS limitations.

2. VMDK NFS Space Reclamation

- Increases the efficiency of snapshot copies on the NFS volume, reducing the amount of space.

Note: Support for VMDKs in an NFS or VMFS datastore requires Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 or later. Please check the availability of Virtual Storage Console 2.0.1 and install it before using this feature.

3. LUN scalability and performance improvements

- Improved backup and restores operations.

4. RBAC credential caching

- Continued SnapDrive operations during transient Operations Manager outage.

5. SDW and VMware SRM interoperability

- Enables automated disaster recovery failover of Microsoft Applications