topic Re: SnapManager for Hyper-V in Microsoft Virtualization Discussions

SnapManager for Hyper-V

igor_karasik — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:19:04 GMT

When we do snapshot with SnapManager for Hyper-V we always receive two snapshots: one with regular name and second with regular name + "_backup"

(see attached screenshot).

Anybody know which snapshot we need to use if we just connect LUN, without using restore option from SnapManager for Hyper-V?

That is the difference between these two snapshots ?

Thanks !

Re: SnapManager for Hyper-V

amritad — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:29:05 GMT

Are you looking at a mount operation? In that case you would need to select the snapshot with "_backup" suffix. The exact steps are available in section 5.8 of the SMHV Best Practices Guide. Here'e the location for that:

http://www.netapp.com/us/library/technical-reports/tr-3805.html

REgards

Amrita

Re: SnapManager for Hyper-V

igor_karasik — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:28:12 GMT

Thanks !

Do you know that is the difference between these two snapshots ?

Re: SnapManager for Hyper-V

barve — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:30:18 GMT

The two snapshots are created in response to "auto-recovery" done by Hyper-V VSS writer during VM backup.

Hyper-V writer creates a software of snapshot of all the VHDs inside the VM (using system provider). This is captured in the first snapshot on the storage system. The applications and OS in the VM is not frozen when the snapshot is created on storage system. So, later, VSS asks us to mount the first snapshot and the writer then does auto-recovery to revert the hardware snapshot to the software snapshot taken earlier. When auto-recovery is complete we take the second snapshot (_backup suffix).

Hence, the second snapshot should always be used for "connect" operations. The different between the two snapshots is essntially the auto-recovery changes.

Thanks,

Anagha