SC 3.5.0 VIBE - GUI restore issue [ Edited ]

[#1]

I initiated a restore and the "play" icon is still listed.  When I tried to do another restore from the GUI, it said that a restore operation is still in progress (and the end time is not listed), though the following was showing in the log file:

     ########## NetApp Snap Creator Framework 3.5.0 finished successfully ##########

     [Tue Feb 14 14:44:11 2012] INFO: INFO: Snap Creator finished successfully ( Action: restore )

I initiated another backup, then I could initiate the restore.  But, the 1st restore is still showing the "play" button (as opposed to green).  I think the GUI doesn't think this has finished.

Thoughts/Comments?

Thanks,

Jim

[#2]

Looks like GUI never got the message that the job was completed.

Currently if GUI restarts it will set the status to red for such jobs.

This is a one off case where this might happen. If this is a recreate-able scenario there is surely a bug somewhere either in restore code or GUI.

Please let us know.

I was actually giving this a thought and I guess GUI should provide a force stop button for such jobs which have not completed or are hanging.

[#3]

Also the GUI makes back-end calls to Snap Creator engine which is the snapcreator binary. That is working, meaning restore itself which is most important thing.

As Kapil mentioned this is purely cosmetic but could be a BUG and I agree providing option to stop hung jobs would be nice.

If you could give us steps to reproduce problem we could try and duplicate it and then provide a fix in a future release.

Regards,

Keith

[#4]

Keith - yes - the restore worked.  most important thing.  However, I could not run the restore a 2nd time without doing another snap.

So, if I recall correctly ... the steps I went through...

1. Create my Org & 2 vApps.

2. Create VMs

3. Attempt snap with policy down to the vApp level

4. Make changes to the vApp

5. SC restore via GUI.

6. Make changes again.

7. SC restore attempt via GUI.

          failed.

8. Create another snap

9. Initiate a restore from the targeted snap.

I went through 2 iterations, with different types of changes.  But, basically - the restore completes, and never updates the running state (no completion time) ... then it does not allow for a 2nd restore because it thinks it is busy.... unless another snap is taken in the interim.

Jim

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for documenting the steps this will help us reproduce and fix this issue.

I also recommend you create a separate config for restore. This way you dont have to update backup config before restore or even impact backup config. Just go through wizard and create second config call it _restore or something and use that for doing restore (you can also copy it on cmd line of scServer or even upload/download in GUI). Then you can update restore config without needing to impact backup configuration. This is what we recommend as best practice for vmware. It also could prevent this problem from happening.

As for a workaround for not being able to do second restore without doing a backup in GUI. If you close any open config tabs and log out of GUI, then do shift-F5 and log back in / open config it should let you do a second restore in case this happens again. Not sure if you tried this already?

Worst case scenario you can go to CLI (I know that is a pain) but do restore from there. That is still better than doing a backup when you dont need to.

Regards,

Keith

[#6]

Another thing we are adding in next release of SC is ability to clear jobs. This has multiple purposes but would also help if this issue occurs.

[#7]

Another RFE - on the job monitor screen, could you put a "refresh" button?  Granted refreshing the whole browser does the same, but seems inefficient to reload everything (seems that the login page flashes by).

[#8]

Hi Jim,

I spoke with engineering and you bet! This RFE will be in the next release of SC.

Regards,

Keith

[#9]

Keith,

By creating a separate Restore config ... (in a vCD & vSphere 5 environment),

    Can I create one backup config for the Org level and then different restore configs for the vApp level -- and pull from the same snapshot, if the snapshot name is the same?    (am concerned about the 255 snapshot limit).

Don't know if there is something coordinated with the snapshot backup & restore within vCD/vSphere.  I'm guessing that everything is within SC & the NetApp Snapshots, but don't know for sure.

Can you provide some insight?

[#10]

Yes, you can create one backup configuration and multiple restore per vApp.

Yes, there is nothing that resides on vSphere or vCD apart from the VMware snapshots.