Snapmanager products on VMDK's hosted on LUNs?

[GARY_WILLIAMS]

I'm hoping someone can clarify a couple of questions that have cropped up around a LUN hosted scenario.

ESX 5 connecting to FC luns. Virtual machines on those luns.

Can a Virtual machine that is running MS SQL make use of snapmanager products if it's in a VMDK hosted on a lun? If so, does that require connectivity to VSC or will it work as if it is talking directly to the lun?

Also, what about snapmanager for Exchange? Does this require a direct connection to a lun?

Thanks.

[rorzmcgauze · Accepted solution]

Hi Gary

VSC will allow you to take application consistent snapshots of SQL. so the DB can be stored on VMDKs.

This feature has yet to be made available to exchange so you will need to set up Snap Drive and Snap Manager inside the guest and connect directly to LUNs hosted from the NetApp Controller to achieve application consistent snapshots.

See the VSC admin guide for mode details

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_get_file/ECMP1120479

[GARY_WILLIAMS]

Cheers - both SME and SMSQL will work if the data is stored in an RDM though won't they?

[rorzmcgauze]

Yes they will.

[rorzmcgauze]

Have a look at TR-3749 NetApp storage Best practices For VMware vSphere

http://www.netapp.com/us/library/technical-reports/tr-3749.html

[GARY_WILLIAMS]

Would going the RDM route require integration with vcenter/VSC?

[rorzmcgauze]

That would depend o the application and your backup policy. But mostly yes.