SnapCrator and vSphere [ Edited ]

[#1]

Hi

I want to use the vSphere plugin to snap shot several VMs using the sdcli as snapshot tool. My understanding is that only when I use the sdcli I see the snaps within snapdrive to be able to restore data from the VM it self, isn't it? Normaly the snaps are created on volume level and then I can only restore the whole volume which is not a quite good idea when multiple VMs are running there.

Question is now how to get this configured in the vsphere plugin? When I add "c:/Program Files/NetApp/SnapDrive/sdcli" snap create -m server -s %SNAME-%SNAP_TYPE-%SNAP_TIME_recent -D C: D: to the SnapShot create command section I get following error

• Return code 29696
• failed with exit code [1] and message [At least one command is not allowed
• Unable to create a Snapshot of a LUN.
• Error: Creation of backup (vsphere-hourly-20110915124826_recent) failed. Reason: (At least one disk is part of VMware snapshot. Disk(s) part of VMware snapshot cannot be part of backup).We run We are runing all VMs on

We are running all VMs on NFS datastores. And I'm a little curious why it says Unable to create a Snapshot of a LUN as we only use NFS.

Thanks for any comments

Regards

Thorsten

[#2]

failed with exit code [1] and message [At least one command is not allowed

Read about agent security in AIG.

All CMDs specified in config file on scServer must be allowed on agent. You have two options allow all or allow specific commands.

To allow all commands edit scAgent3.4.0/config/agent.conf and add following:

command: *

To allow just snapdrive command add:

command: sdcli

For multiple commands you would add multiple line with command: <command>.

Error: Creation of backup (vsphere-hourly-20110915124826_recent) failed. Reason: (At least one disk is part of VMware snapshot. Disk(s) part of VMware snapshot cannot be part of backup)

This error is comming from SnapDrive so cant help you there, I would check with SnapDrive folks or open a case. What I think this error means is that a disk VMDK has an existing VMware snapshot on it so they arent allowing it to be included. I doubt this error is talking about NetApp snapshots but rather VMware snapshots.

Regards,

Keith

[#3]

Hmmm......

The wildcard * is set in the local agent.conf

And the existing VMware SnapShot is coming from SnapCreator it self as it creates one to have the VM consistent. Just after this VMware snap sdcli should create the "NetApp" SnapShot.

When using the VSC something similar will be done. First a VMware Snap and then a NetApp SNap which can be viewed via SnapDrive.

Here some background:

As I changed the smvi.override to snapshot.name.format.timestamp={backupName} so SnapCreator can delete Snaps now the VSC is having trouble with this naming. Reason is that VSC snaps are now named like the VSC job name. So VSC can only create one snap and when next one should done I get error the the snap already exixsts with this name which is indeed correct. Googled a littel and found that within the smvi.override some more options can be done. See here: https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1012923

Changed smvi.override to snapshot.name.format.timestamp={backupName}}_<customstring>_{ DATE }{ TIME } and I assumed that DATA and TIME will enter the adequate values but it doesn't

So I'm struggeling a little.....

Regards

Thorsten

[#4]

Snapshot for SC to recognize it must be what it is expecting and timestamp MUST be in SC format

If the override function in SMVI doesn't work then I am afraid you cant combine SC and SMVI, at least not for now

Keith

[#5]

Now I have a workaround to get the correct snap shot naming for snapcreator and VSC done by smvi.

I just created 2 small scripts to copy the needed smvi.override file to the server before the snapshot by SC and VCS got created.

Via the post commands this can be done very easily as well I think. Will give it a try.

Regards

Thorsten