Data Backup and Recovery

SMVI - backing up VMs with iSCSI LUNS and SnapManager

marcconeley
12,450 Views

Is it possible to use SMVI v2 to perform VM consistent snapshots of VMs that have iSCSI LUNs mounted?

I am using vSphere (latest v) and SMVI v2. All my VMs are mounted on an NFS volume on my FAS2020.

All my Exchange, SQL and Sharepoint servers are using SnapManager for backups, and therefore have their data mounted on iSCSI initiator LUNs within the VMs.

Until recently I was creating hourly "non VM consistent" snaps and daily "VM consistent" snaps (according to: http://blogs.netapp.com/virtualization/2009/07/scheduling-smvi.html).

I encountered 2 main problems with this:

1) The daily VM consistent snapshots would always fail on 4-5 of my servers, randomly it seemed. The rest would snapshot OK.

2) I noticed that many of the volumes containing my iSCSI LUNs were rapidly filling up.

It seems that the random server snapshot failures all had 1 thing in common: they all had iSCSI LUNs (why sometimes they worked though, and sometimes not I have no idea!).

It also seems that by performing SMVI "VM consistent" snapshots of these servers, a conflict is caused with SnapManager which also results in the iSCSI LUN (mainly the SnapInfo one in the case of SQL!) being snapped. This happens outside of the control of SnapManager. So in my case, after 1 week my SnapInfo vol reported full - when I checked the snapshots on this vol I could see 7 days worth of SQL snaps (normal) - but also 7 days of additional SMVI snapshots!! (very bad).

This happened on normal VM servers with iSCSI LUNs mapped and my SQL servers.

Since then I read somewhere that VMware do not support VM snapshots of VMs with Microsoft initiated iSCSI LUNs (which rules out half my VMs!) and therefore I've removed these servers from my backup.

Is there any way around this problem?

Longer term my NetApp partner is currently selling me a backup project whereby we will snapshot all VMs and then snapmirror them to a remote site for DR. The problem is that my most important VMs have iSCSI LUNs. My understanding according to the above article is that VM consistent snapshots are important as the VM is quiesced and the snapshots are clean. Therefore my backup idea is not good as basically I'd be mirroring "dirty snapshots" to my remote DR site. Ideally these snapshots should be clean, VM consistent ones (or am I over valuing the importance of this?).


Help appreciated.

//Marc

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

watan
12,419 Views

Hi Marc,


1)

Steps to configure the ESX SW iSCSI Software Initiator using VI-Client

    * Enable ESX iSCSI SW initiator in ESX server.
    * Check License under Licensed Features of Configuration Tab.
    * Add the VMKernel Port under the Networking configuration option. Enable      VMotion.
    * Under Security Profile select the port for the Software iSCSI client.
    * Select the ESX SW iSCSI initiator and click the "Enabled" checkbox.

Add ESX SW iSCSI targets to discovery list using VI-Client.

    * Navigate to the Properties of the iSCSI adapter and click on the Dynamic Discovery      tab.
    * Choose to Add new Target.
    * Enter the IP address & port of the target server and click OK.

2) If you're not having any specific problems with using MS iSCSI then I personally don't see any reason to change it.   If its not broken...

Also refer to the following docs as they may have more on performance or general best practices.

The performance best practices :

For ESX 3.5: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf

For ESX 4 : http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf


NetApp and VMware VI3 best practice Guide :

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3428.pd

View solution in original post

25 REPLIES 25

amritad
11,342 Views

Hi

According to VMware KB article #1009073, VMware Tools are unable to create quiesced

snapshots of virtual machines that have NPIV RDM LUNs or Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator

LUNs mapped to them (this often results in timeout errors during snapshot creation). Therefore,

customers using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator in the guest and running SMVI with VMware

snapshots turned on, which is not recommended, are at high risk of experiencing SMVI backup

failures due to snapshot timeouts caused by the presence of Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator

LUNs mapped to the virtual machines.

VMware’s general recommendation is to disable both VSS components and the sync driver in VMware Tools

(which translates to turning off VMware snapshots for any SMVI backup jobs that include virtual machines

mapped with Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator LUNs) in environments that include both Microsoft iSCSI

Software Initiator LUNs in the VM and SMVI, thereby reducing the consistency level of a virtual machine

backup to point-in-time consistency. However, by using SDW/SnapManager to back up the application data on the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator LUNs mapped to the virtual machine, the reduction in the data consistency level of the SMVI backup has no effect on the application data.

Another recommendation for these environments is to use physical mode RDM LUNs, instead of Microsoft

iSCSI Software Initiator LUNs, when provisioning storage in order to get the maximum protection level from

the combined SMVI and SDW/SnapManager solution: guest file system consistency for OS images using VSS-assisted SMVI backups, and application-consistent backups and fine-grained recovery for application data using the SnapManager applications.

Regards

Amrita

radek_kubka
11,342 Views

Hi Amrita,

I must admit I missed this earlier:

VMware Tools are unable to create quiesced snapshots of virtual machines that have NPIV RDM LUNs or Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator

LUNs mapped to them

[...]

Another recommendation for these environments is to use physical mode RDM LUNs,

In other words, if you run Windows VMs over iSCSI, use SMVI & SnapManager products, you really should have SnapDrive 6.2 in your environment as earlier versions can't use anything else that MS software iSCSI intiator, correct?

Regards,
Radek

amritad
11,342 Views

Hi Radek,

I'm not sure I got your question. Even previous version of SDW support Microsoft iSCSI software initiator LUNS. With 6.2 we get the pass through disk support.

Regards

Amrita

radek_kubka
11,342 Views

OK, to make my question complete:

If you use SMVI and would like to have OS-consistent backups of VMs and these VM use some iSCSI RDMs (requiring SnapManager protection), then you need SnapDrive 6.2, as earlier SDW versions require software iSCSI initiatior, hence VMware snapshots cannot be taken, hence SMVI backups won't be OS-consistent.

Does it make sense now?

Regards,
Radek

amritad
10,994 Views

Hi Radek,

We have tried to explain app consistency in section 9 of the BPG

http://www.netapp.com/us/library/technical-reports/tr-3737.html

Could you please take a look?

Regards

Amrita

radek_kubka
10,994 Views

Amrita,

I am not talking about application consistency here. Well, not mainly about this.

Again, there are two choices when using SMVI for virtual OS snapshots:

1) Without VMware snapshots, so OS images are / can be crash-consistent

2) With VMware snapshots, so OS images are in consistent state when NetApp snapshot is taken.

My point is:

If some of your VMs require at the same time SnapManager protection (say for Exchange), then you simply have to use MS iSCSI software initiator, unless you are on SnapDrive 6.2. And MS iSCSI software initiator (as per quoted VMware KB article) is a showstopper for VMware snaps so option 2) is not available.

Of course one may argue: "why bother with OS consistency? it is like a sudden pull of the plug from a server, so checkdisk is the worst what may happen 9 out of 10 times". But this is an entire topic for another discussion

Regards,
Radek

watan
10,994 Views

SDW 6.1 had support for FCP HBA in ESX server and MS iSCSI initiator in GuestOS for its operations. Now with SDW 6.2 we support ESX iSCSI and iSCSI HBA initiators in SnapDrive. SnapDrive will perform LUN provisioning and snapshot management operations using ESX iSCSI and iSCSI HBA initiators.  The kb from VMware does point out an issue with the configuration you pointed out but there are workarounds in place which hopefully will resolve any issues.

marcconeley
10,994 Views

Hi everyone.

Some really interesting points made in this thread, but  you've also raised a couple more questions regarding my setup and future use:

1) How do I establish ESX iSCSI LUNs within my VMs? I thought I had to use Microsoft iSCSI initiator LUNs for SnapManager, which may have been true before, but apparently now is not necessary? And until now I have only used MS initiator LUNs.

2) Should I consider converting all my VMs with MS iSCSI LUNs to ESX initiator LUNs and is there any downside to this? (I have a bunch of Win 2003/8 servers running Exchange/SharePoint/SQL etc - all using SnapManager with MS iSCSI LUNs and all currently excluded from SMVI "VM snaps" because it's not supported (see original post).

3) I am still experiencing problems with SMVI creating "VM snaps" of VMs which are running any form of SQL server. Even if the VMs don't have iSCSI initiator LUNs. The event logs of the servers give a VolSnap error:

"The flush and hold writes operation on volume C: timed out while waiting for a release writes command."

I have noticed this is happening only on servers which have an MSQL or MSQL Express engine running (unfortunately, quite a lot of my servers run apps that require a local MSQL Express engine i.e. BackupExec). SnapManager is not installed on these servers.

It was mentioned that VolSnap and VSS conflict and that one or the other should be disabled? Should I do this for these servers and if so how??

Lots of useful info here guys, but i am still a little confused as to how I implement a solution to perform clean, VM snaps of all my servers.

Marc

watan
12,420 Views

Hi Marc,


1)

Steps to configure the ESX SW iSCSI Software Initiator using VI-Client

    * Enable ESX iSCSI SW initiator in ESX server.
    * Check License under Licensed Features of Configuration Tab.
    * Add the VMKernel Port under the Networking configuration option. Enable      VMotion.
    * Under Security Profile select the port for the Software iSCSI client.
    * Select the ESX SW iSCSI initiator and click the "Enabled" checkbox.

Add ESX SW iSCSI targets to discovery list using VI-Client.

    * Navigate to the Properties of the iSCSI adapter and click on the Dynamic Discovery      tab.
    * Choose to Add new Target.
    * Enter the IP address & port of the target server and click OK.

2) If you're not having any specific problems with using MS iSCSI then I personally don't see any reason to change it.   If its not broken...

Also refer to the following docs as they may have more on performance or general best practices.

The performance best practices :

For ESX 3.5: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf

For ESX 4 : http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_iscsi_san_cfg.pdf


NetApp and VMware VI3 best practice Guide :

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3428.pd

radnorsan
9,772 Views

Radek -

I'm trying to understand this, as I am hopefully going to be implementing a very similar environment.  99% of my VMs are all on our fas2020 on NFS.  All NFS VMs are backed up using SMVI 2.0.  Exchange is the last VM in a lun (on a different filer) connected to ESXi via iSCSI.  I am going to be moving the Exchange VM to the NFS volume soon.  At this time I'll also be changing backup methods to use SM for Exchange.

I'm fully aware about the issues using the MS iSCSI with SMVI.  If I understand what I've read, I should be able to install Snapdrive 6.2 on Exchange to connect the luns to where I will migrate the exchange edb's and logs to, while the boot drive lives in the NFS volume.  Then SMVI will backup the server OS and SM for Ex will backup Exchange?  Is this correct?  Thanks.

marcconeley
9,773 Views

Sounds good to me!

This is currently how I am doing it too -  my virtual Exchage server is located on an NFS volume (the C:\ if you like), and then I have 2 MS iSCSI LUNs (D:\ and E:\) for my databases, and snapinfo/logs.

I use SMVI to backup the virtual machine (which in effect is the C:\ located on the NFS) and I use SnapManager for Exchange to backup the databases and logs on the iSCSI LUNs.

Together, I have a clean backup of the both the server & the databases.

As you pointed out though, be careful about the performing "vmware consistent snapshots" with SMVI on this Exchange server - I am not sure if this is supported yet.

//Marc

radnorsan
9,773 Views

Thanks for the help.  If I may ask a bit more?  I am testing this with both the MS iscsi and ESX iscsi initiator and regardless how I do it, SMVI give me a report of "completed with exceptions".  The exception being it couldn't snapshot the disk connected with Snapdrive unless I turn off the VMware snapshots in SMVI (as I expected).

If I may ask, how exactly is your backup strategy laid out?  Currently, all my VMs are in a single NFS volume and SMVI is backing up the entire volume.  This is nice because when I create more VMs I don't have to add them to the backup job.  They get backed up automatically because they are in the volume.

Call me anal, but I don't like SMVI giving me a "completed with exceptions" every time.  I want it to say "successful".  So I could uncheck the VMware snapshot, but I don't want to do that for VMs I don't have to.  That being said, I could put the Exchange VM in its own volume, and have a seperate backup job for the "Exchange" NFS volume (with the vmware snapshot unchecked) and let snapmanager for Exchange handle Exchange itself.  How do you handle it and if you could, how important is having a VMware consistent snapshot for recovery?  Thanks

marcconeley
9,773 Views

No probs.

This was my original problem (see above) - I was trying to perform VM consistent snapshots of all my servers on the NFS volume - but the ones with iSCSI LUNs would freeze, or the snapshots would fail etc. So to answer you questions on how I do this now:

Thanks for the help.  If I may ask  a bit more?  I am testing this with both the MS iscsi and ESX iscsi  initiator and regardless how I do it, SMVI give me a report of  "completed with exceptions".  The exception being it couldn't snapshot  the disk connected with Snapdrive unless I turn off the VMware snapshots  in SMVI (as I expected).

If I may ask, how exactly is your backup strategy  laid out?  Currently, all my VMs are in a single NFS volume and SMVI is  backing up the entire volume.  This is nice because when I create more  VMs I don't have to add them to the backup job.  They get backed up  automatically because they are in the volume.

I tried a number of different ways to manage this because I also wanted to do VM consistent snapshots. However, creating individual backup jobs (1 consistent snapshot schedule for all VMs without iSCSI LUNs, and 1 for all VMs with iSCSI LUNs i.e. my Exchange & SQL servers) was too much maintenance. I like backing up the entire NFS vol like yourself - and therefore all VMs at the same time - because I don't have to worry about my admins creating new VMs and forgetting to include them in the SMVI schedules.

Call me anal, but I don't like  SMVI giving me a "completed with exceptions" every time.  I want it to  say "successful".  So I could uncheck the VMware snapshot, but I don't  want to do that for VMs I don't have to.  That being said, I could put  the Exchange VM in its own volume, and have a seperate backup job for  the "Exchange" NFS volume (with the vmware snapshot unchecked) and let  snapmanager for Exchange handle Exchange itself.  How do you handle it  and if you could, how important is having a VMware consistent snapshot  for recovery?  Thanks

Yes that would work and its something I've considered (to seperate my iSCSI LUN servers to a seperate NFS volume). 

But rather than trying to seperate my Exchange & SQL servers though I went for the easy option of leaving everything on the same NFS vol, and un-checking the "VM consistent" checkbox in SMVI. This means my server backups are "crash consistent" only and not "VM consistent". Now, how much of an issue this really is is open to debate - and I have never got a full answer. I believe its the same as a dirty shutdown of a server - but I've never had any problems restoring from them. The only problem I see when restoring from these backups is that you see the standard Windows Server error message stating that the last shutdown was unexpected (when your restored VM starts up). In practice though they worked fine.


Therefore I currently accept that all my VM backups are crash consistent only, but this doesn't worry me as all my servers with iSCSI LUNS (SQL & Exchange) are being backed-up with SnapManager seperately. I think this is fine as the databases and logs are in a completely consistent backup state. Obviously what I would never do is perform crash-consistent backups on servers which have their data on local VM disks & then expect to be able to restore the server & it's data. These types of servers need to have their data backed-up via an alternative method (disk dumps, backup agents etc). I never use SMVI as a means for a "data backup" - only as a system backup. I guess if the SMVI snapshots were "VM consistent", therefore application aware, this would be less of a problem?

What I found though was that checking that "VM consistent" checkbox in SMVI caused snapshot failures, VSS error messages on my servers with iSCSI LUNS, and I also saw that many of my VMs would have snapshots left-over that SMVI hadn't deleted - you can see this in the vCenter Console. I believe this is because when this option is used, it's the same as creating a snapshot in VMware and ticking the "quiesce virtual machine" option - in fact, if vCenter console is open you can see it queue all the commands to snapshot the servers when the SMVI schedule runs!

Anyway, the final reason why I stick with crash consistent snapshots was speed and performance. If you have a FAS2020 like me, then telling all 50 of your VMs to perform quiesced snapshots is quite intensive, and takes a fair while - whereas crash consistent snapshots happen on the volume level and are performed by the filer - so they're pretty instantaneous.

Well, that was my reasoning & thinking behind setting up our backup plan. Whether its right or wrong I am not so sure?!!?

I would be interested to know how it goes if you stick with using the "VM consistent" option though; and if you have to switch to using the ESX initiator or stick with the MS one to make it work error free.

I hope this was somewhat helpful!

M



radnorsan
9,773 Views

Hello again.  And thanks for such a detailed response.  Sorry it took me so long to respond, I have been doing a number of tests and have even called NetApp support.  The word I got from NetApp was that there is no way around the iSCSI issue with SMVI.  The tech I spoke with kinda put the blame on VMware, but NetApp has a kb article for the same thing.

Anyway, he offered a couple suggestions.  He said I could move the databases out to FC (which I can't do, because we don't have it), or I could try to use OSSV (Open Systems Snapvault), but this looks like it's a seperate product with an additional cost.  Plus, while OSSV still might work, it doesn't look like this is what is is actually meant for.

What I'm leaning towards right now is this:

     Since Exchange is my only server where I will need to do this for, I don't mind using a one-off backup scheme.  I am planning to put Exchange in it's own NFS volume.  I will create a second backup job, that runs every 6 hrs like my current SMVI job, with the VMware snapshots turned off.  This will at least get me a crash consistent backup of Exchange.  Then my plan is to schedule two tasks in vCenter on a Sat or Sun, pick one...  One to power off the Exchange VM and one to power it on (I can afford some downtime on the weekends, around 1:00 AM or so).  So, I will schedule Exchange to shut down at 1:00 AM, then schedule a third SMVI job to start while the VM is shut down, around 1:15 AM or so.  Then schedule the VM to power back up around 1:30.  This will at least allow me to get a good, consistent, backup of Exchange on a weekly basis if my crash-consistent backups have issues.

I know it's a bit of work to setup but I just don't trust the crash-consistent backups when it comes to Exchange.  The end users here are... well ... end users and Exchange is their file storage, email, and lifeblood (I know it's bad, don;t get me started).  Any thought, suggestions, questions, etc.?

Thanks again for your assistance.

marcconeley
9,772 Views

Hi,


Great - it would be nice if you could post something about how it goes. Same if you eventually get the consistent snapshots working on VMs with iSCSI LUNs.

It's strange, because I am sure I read somewhere that the solution to this problem was to use the ESX iSCSI initiator and the latest version of SnapDrive. But you say that the NetApp support actually stated that its a limitation?

Out of interest, do you mind telling me if you're using the MS iSCSI initiator or the ESX one and if you've found any benefits (ease of admin?) in using one or the other?

Your plan to get a clean backup of your Exchange looks fine - if a little extreme! Unfortunately I couldn't do it this way as we have too many SQL/Exchange servers with iSCSI LUNs. Shutting them down to perform a consistent backup isn't possible. One thing you could try instead of shutting down the server, is to simply shutdown all the Exchange services before making the snapshot & then starting them again after - would this work?

I think for the time being I am going to stick with the non VM consistent snapshots - doing a dirty backup of the server is still preferable to having no backup of it. And before we virtualised our Exchange, we were only backing up the dbs with a BackupExec agent anyway - so we have improved our DR capabilities with VMware & NetApp - just a shame that we can't yet use the full SMVI functionality across all our servers (including the ones with iSCSI LUNs).

One thing I am not yet sure about though is this: if you tick this "VM consistent snapshot" in SMVI, then this is the same as ticking "quiesce virtual machine" in the vCenter console? And is ticking "Quiesce virtual machine" in vCenter supported on Exchange/SQL servers? I am not sure...I can't find any definitive answer.

Let me know how it goes & good luck!

radnorsan
8,843 Views

No problem, I'll definetly let you know how I make out.  One thing I know for sure, is I will definetly be implementing RDMs with the ESX iSCSI initiator.  From what articles and whitepapers I've read, RDMs have some advantages over the MS iSCSI.  There is a ton of stuff if you google "rdm vs ms iscsi".  Here's just one blog I read http://blog.core-it.com.au/?p=419, but it lists some good pros and cons of each.  The biggest thing for me is the compatiblility with SRM.  We will be looking to implement SRM over the next year or so, so for scalability I'm going RDM.  Plus the performance benefits seem to favor RDM.  Which makes sense.  When you think about it, the MS iSCSI initiatior is inside the guest VM.  Which means your going through the vNICs and all the virtual overhead.  RDMs, at least how I understand them, are a bit different.  It is using the physical NICs on the hosts to connect a "virtual disk" RDM to the guest VM, allowing the VM, what I'll call, 'almost direct physical access' to the LUN on the SAN.

In my opinion using the MS iSCSI is simpler to implement.  You install it, point it to a target, and your pretty much done, aside from any multipathing you choose to do.  Using the ESX iSCSI I dont think is more difficult, but I think it is a bit more involved.  There is a little more to setup.  And using an RDM with a VM that lives in an NFS datastore can be done.  It is even vMotion capable, as long as your RDM mapping file is on block based storage like FC or iSCSI.

So, all that being said.  So far, I have enabled the iSCSI initiators on my ESXi hosts and pointed them at my SANs storage IP addresses.  Created an iGroup on the netapp side that includes the initiator names from my ESXi hosts.  I created a volume called "rdmmap" and a LUN inside it called "rdm".  I added this LUN as shared storage to my ESXi hosts.  Then I created two new volumes called "db" and "logs".  I used Snapdrive to appropriate the LUNS in the proper volume with the iGroup I created earlier.  These LUNs are now seen as local drives on my Exchange server.  Now when I have some downtime this weekend and next I'll migrate the EDBs and all to the new drives on the SAN and configure SME.

As far as backups go, I created a new NFS volume just for the C:\ drive of my Exchange server.  99% of my VMs are in NFSPROD, which are snapped via SMVI with vmware consistent snapshots.  Exchange is in a seperate NFS volume called EXCHNFS.

Even though I am not using the MS iSCSI initiator, I am having some issues with getting a VMware consistent snapshot of Exchange.  The snapshot pauses at 95%.  I've let it sit for at least 5 minutes and nothing happens.  I have to power off the VM for the snapshot to complete.  I don't know for sure if it should be able to complete or if there is some know issue in snapshotting a VM with RDMs or with SnapDrive, but since Exchange is in EXCHNFS and I created a seperate SMVI backup job to just do a NetApp snapshot (no VMware Snapshot), like your doing on all your VMs, Marc.  This is my Exchange "hot" backup.  Then I plan on scheduling vCenter tasks to shut down Exchange at a certain time, having a "cold" SMVI backup job snapshot it, then a vCenter task to power it back up.  Since I can afford the 30 minute downtime, this seems like the best and safest option for me.  And also, in addition to SMVI, SME will be snapping the databases and logs (I'm leaning towards every 6 hours).

As far as the "quescing" check boxes, I'm not entrely sure, but I'll see if I can find anything.  Let me know if you have any other questions about the ESX iSCSI or anything else.  And thanks again for your help.  I'll be sure to post a final update when I get my DBs moved over and everything is completed.

thomas_glodde
8,842 Views

Hi there,

i´d like to add my 2 cents to the discussion.

We have plenty of customers using VMware ESX 3/vSphere 4 with NetApp & SMVI. Basicly all our customers have the same problems: VSS-aware Apps (to be specific: MS Exchange and MS SQL).

Using these Tools, depending on ONTAP Version, SMVI Version as well as VMware Patchlevel & Installed VMware Tools build, system drive (c:\) snapshots will randomly either fail or succeede. Even if you use iSCSI/FC RDM pass-through, it might fail.

So this is what we usualy do:

- We use iSCSI/FC RDMs using ONTAP 7.3.3 and SnapDrive 6.2. Using these versions you can use SnapDrive to create a LUN and map it to somewhat like "all_esx_servers" igroup so you can actualy VMotion the VMs (note: if you use NFS as datastore, remember that you need a VMFS iSCSI or FC datastore for your RDMs to be stored!)

- If possible, we use SnapManager products, if not, customer MUST have an alternate method to backup its critical application data (namely NTBackup or any backup software of your prefered flavor, neat stuff: backup on a netapp cifs share and use dedup)

- We use SMVI to create vmware consistency snapshots and usualy tell the customer to ignore any errors happening as long as it can create a half decent snapshot at least

What does it mean?

- Your OS might be doomed as its backup has the same state as rapidly pulling the power on a physical machine (doh!)

- Your application data is safe, either through using SnapManager products or different means of backup

This makes the SMVI quite redundant, we tell the customers to use SMVI as kinda GUI to restore the operating system (NTFS on 2k3/8 is usualy solid enough to properly boot) and then use either SnapManager or his other backup means to restore the application data. We usualy define a hourly automatic snapshot schedule and a daily SMVI backup.

I think we are in decent need of clarification here how to properly use SnapDrive and SMVI together with VSS-aware applications. Seems VMware and NetApp are kinda playing ping-pong regarding a possible cause.

Hope this makes some sorta sense to you guys 😉

Kind regards

Thomas

radek_kubka
8,843 Views

Hi Thomas,

This makes the SMVI quite redundant, we tell the customers to use SMVI as kinda GUI to restore the operating system (NTFS on 2k3/8 is usualy solid enough to properly boot) and then use either SnapManager or his other backup means to restore the application data.

Yep, I've always had that kind of positioning in my mind. Yes, SMVI is just a GUI, yet it is fairly neat, is reasonably priced & does its job pretty well (for backing up just OS partitions).

Using SMVI for anything else is a bolt-on & may or may not work.

For any kind of application data not being protected by SnapManager products, I'd either look at custom scripts, or SnapCreator.

Regards,
Radek

marcconeley
8,842 Views

Hi Thomas,

Thanks - that was good input.

Just to clarify though;  you use SMVI to perform your VM snapshots with the "Perform VMware consistency snapshot" ticked? You simply ignore any error messages that are thrown up by your SQL/Exchange and other servers using iSCSI LUNs??

The problem I had when doing this was that not only did sometimes the snapshots fail, but sometimes the VM would give a VSS error and the crash (my Exchange & SQL Servers - both using SnapManager - had a few random crashes late in the evening until I realised the cause of it was my SMVI backup schedule). It wasn't a BSOD crash,  but enough to make the server unusable & require a restart.

So now I play it safe - the only SMVI backups I perform are done without this little "maybe kill my servers, maybe not" switch unticked!

I then pretty much follow your thoughts - I accept that my servers OS backups are dirty, but trust in the the ability of Server 2003/2008 not to completely screw up if i need to boot from them (so far so good!).

And all my key Exchange/SQL servers application data is backed up with SnapManager, and everything else I either use BackupExec agents, or disk-dumps from whatever backup method/process is on the server (NTBackup, the applications own built-in backup engine etc) - and dump them on a CIFs share that i dedupe daily.

Can I ask what you recommend to your customers if they want to backup VMs to a DR site/2nd filer though?? I am currently implementing a new backup system whereby I am mirroring data to a 2nd backup filer. The thing is, if I am not using SMVI to perform "VM consistent snaps" - then do I need it at all? Wouldnt snapmirroring my entire NFS volume to the backup filer be the same?? i.e. result in dirty VM snapshots?

I have to say, so far SMVI is proving only an expensive GUI!

(Radek, not sure where you're getting your cheap GUI idea from! I've just spent approx 10k on SMVi licenses in a small deployment!).

Cheers guys,

Marc

thomas_glodde
8,651 Views

Hi guys,

yea, its kinda the idea of a payable GUI, most customers like it and if you bundle it with a new machine, the price doesnt hurt that much. And as a GUI it works like a charm, although the java/tomcat stuff makes it kinda slow.

@Marc: Usualy we tick the vmware consistent as we barely have crashing vms. we tend to keep virtual hardware as well as patches and vmware tools as up to date as possible, maybe that helps? We then recommend customer to tick the snapmirror as well if they have a dr site. We stay on daily smvi backups usualy tho and have an hourly snapmirror schedule to transfer his vms in crash consistent state.

King regards

Thomas

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