Got questions about SMVI?

[mlisa]

Our team is very interested in the questions posted on SMVI functionality, configuration, and automation … thanks for taking the time to share.  And please keep the questions and feedback on your experiences working with SMVI, good or bad, coming.  Good feedback makes for a good day, bad feedback makes for a better product J.

I also wanted to let you know that NetApp is hosting an SMVI/SRM Webcast on February 19 focusing on data protection in a VMware environment: NetApp SMVI for backup/restore and VMware SRM for disaster recovery. SDDPC Sys Admin Rick Scherer - who designed and maintains a 25 host VMware ESX 3.5 farm with well over 300 Virtual Machines, plus writes a great blog (http://vmwaretips.com/wp/) - will be joining us to describe how his team uses SMVI. There will also be a panel of folks, including best practices authors and reference architects, to address questions submitted via chat.

Webcast: http://communications.netapp.com/p/Network_Appliance/20090219140000WL?REF_SOURCE=communities

Lisa Haut-Mikkelsen

SMVI Product Manager

[nlfmmeijburgienasb]

After some more digging I came across the following article:  https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb52524

The following steps allow the email alert body to be customized to include a different IP address:

1. Edit <SMVI install dir>\server\etc\smvi.override
   
2. In SMVI 2.x, add the following to smvi.override
   

     smvi.hostname=foo.bar.com
     smvi.address=aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd

    3. Restart the SMVI service.

This worked for me.

[gucphillips]

I am getting an error when trying to run an SMVI backup job for a single VM. The only thing I can determine is that this VM is also backed up weekly from another backup routine that backs up the entire datastore. Can I not backup an entire datastore and also run a single VM backup that resides within that datastore?  I was going to backup a single machine before updates were applied.

Thank You.

[amritad]

IT should work. What is the error message you are seeing?

Regards

Amrita

[gucphillips]

As you mentioned, I continued testing with other systems and those backed up just fine. In my continued research of the problem, I found that the VM in question is having issues with VSS not responding in time. I continue to work on this issue with VMWare and the vendor for the application hosted on that server to see if there are any conflicts that may be affecting the backup.

Thank You.

[chadfisette]

Try this:

1. Click Start, click Run, type Regedit, and then click OK.
   
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions

1. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the subkey.
   
2. Exit Registry Editor.
   
3. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
   
4. Right-click the following services one at a time. For each service, click Restart:
   

• COM+ Event System
  
• COM+ System Application
  
• Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
  
• Volume Shadow Copy
  

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   
2. At the command prompt, type vssadmin list writers, and then press ENTER.
   

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940184

[collieritops]

I'm trying to install Virtual Storage Console 2.0 (which includes SMVI) and keep getting the following error which prevents installation:

'NetApp SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure is currently installed on this system. To upgrade to Virtual Storage Console on this sytstem, please uninstall SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure and restart the installation.'

I've uninstalled SMVI (including RestoreAgent), Virtual Storage Console, made a backup copy of and deleted the entire C:\Program Files (x86)\NetApp folder, searches for registry keys and deleted some with SMVI references, deleted user profiles, temp/local application data, rebooted several times, etc. It still gives this message!

I also uninstalled VSC 1.0 because the installer complained about it being installed as well, even though the VSC 2.0 Install & Admin guide makes it sound like it can just be upgraded and doesn't need to be uninstalled first. from pg 24 --  "If you have installed a previous version of Virtual Storage Console, you can upgrade to Virtual Storage Console 2.0 or later"

Help!

[amritad]

For SMVI you have to uninstall SMVI 2.0 then

After you finish

When you uninstall a previous version of SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure (SMVI) prior to

installing Virtual Storage Console 2.0, you have to save the backup metadata prior to

migrating the backup metadata by copying the contents installed in the C:\Program Files\NetApp

\SMVI\server\repository folder into the C:\Program Files\NetApp\Virtual Storage Console\smvi

\server\repository folder.

After you finish copying the backup metadata, you must copy the contents of the credential file from

the C:\Program Files\NetApp\SMVI\server\etc\cred folder into the C:\Program Files\NetApp\Virtual

Storage Console\smvi\server\etc\cred folder.

Is this not working for you?

For RCU and VSC the steps in the IAG need to be followed for upgrade

Regards

Amrita

[collieritops]

Yes, I know I have to uninstall SMVI. I've did that. Read my post.

I've backed up the requested files (and more) since I made backup copies of the whole SMVI & VSC directories prior to uninstall. VSC 2.0 can't be installed, so I have no directory to copy those backed up files into now.

Why does IAG state that VSC can be upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0 but when I ran the installer it told me I had to uninstall VSC 1.0?

I'll go ahead and call support.

[berndi]

I did a migration from the VMware vCenter Server today from 4.0 to 4.1 so I also updated the SMVI from 2.0 to Virtual Storage Console 2.0.

I copied the repository folder and the cred file as explained but i still have no backup or restore jobs in the new SMVI gui.

What do I make wrong?

Regards,

bernd

[collieritops]

I finally got it installed and have the same issue. I copied the server/repository folder and cred file back, restarted services, server, etc but still no SMVI jobs listed. Were you able to get yours resolved?

Thoughts?

[collieritops]

Well, I just noticed that when I go into the NetApp tab while on an ESX host, I only get the VSC tools. if I go to the NetApp tab while on a VM it brings up the SMVI interface...except I wasn't seeing my jobs there. So I figured I'd try from a datastore since that is what the jobs are configured to backup...then I can see my jobs..but only for the datastore I'm on. How can I get a view of all the jobs on one screen like I used to see?

If we've lost the ability to see all our scheduled jobs in one view I won't be happy. I truly hope I'm just missing something but am a little worried since all the steps in the admin guide start with "

1.

Select a virtual machine or datastore in the Inventory panel, and then click the NetApp tab."

[keitha]

Try going to the home screen then the NetApp plugin then the Backup and Recovery section. It will show you all your jobs just like the old smvi interface.

Keith

[collieritops]

Thank you for the quick reply..that's what I was looking for! I never use the home screen in vCenter and never would have thought to look there. Happy to see this functionality is not gone....thanks again

[amiller_1]

Very helpful....thanks much.

[seno]

Hi,

We have a handful of vm's from our larger environment that SMVI has never been able to properly back up.  One in particular, a Windows Server 2003 host running Lotus Notes simply can not be backed up by SMVI when I specify that it create a vmware snapshot first.  Of course I can back it up in a "crash consistent" state without making the vmware snapshot first, but that's the only way that has ever worked.

Going into vcenter, I can create vmware snapshots of this vm all day long with no problem.  But when SMVI tries it either fails in the first 15 seconds of trying, or keeps trying for 15 minutes and then fails.

I have deleted the regestry keys under the "subscriptions" subkey and restarted the services, as mentioned in a previous post to this thread.  This didn't make any difference.

The tools are up to date on the guest as well.

This vm has existed on two different FAS3020 heads, and now lives in a vfiler running on a 3160.  None of these foundations have ever changed the failure rate of the backups for this system.

[amritad]

Hi

SMVI takes a quiesced VMware snapshot. Please take a look at this knowledge base article:

https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb55068

Regards

Amrita

[imarcroft]

Hi Does this VM have RDM's attached by any chance?

[tyrone_owen_1]

Hello,

What's the bottom-line on application consistent (SQL/Oracle/File Data/Etc) snapshots using SMVI. I get conflicting information from articles, NetApp documentation and NetApp people?

Thanks very much,

Ty

[keitha]

Ty,

As you said there has been several articals on this but I'll try to wrap summarize it. If you use the VMware snapshots with SMVI the vss writer installed by the VMware tools in the VM will activate during the the backup and quiece any vss compatable apps (SQL, Exchange) and the filesystem (NTFS). This means you could recover this VM and application to a known good state.

Having said that though, there are several things that SMVI can't do which may make you want to install a SnapManager for X application in the VM. For example SMVI does not rotate or truncate the logs so the application does not know it has been backed up. Also you can perform image and file level restores but no object based restores like you can do win Snap Manager fo X (mail, table in DB ect).

Without using the VMware snapshots no quiecing is done which is not acceptable to transactional boxes like SQL and Exchange (Oracle), but for most everything else is fine. The advantage of no VMware snaps is the backups are almost instant and have no load on the system. I recommend doing one of these types of backups every hour (keep 2-3 to save space). This will give you a very short recovery point for most of your VMs then leverage SnapManager for X for you critical and transactional type VMs.

Keith

[yaronh]

Hi,

I'm a NetApp employee (In Engineering) and we have a request from a customer to script a daily backup of his Datastores (Volumes).

He will be using an SMVI 2.0 setup.

The plan was to initiate backup for either datastore or VM, Create a VMWare snapshot, Create NA snapshot (At the volume level)
and then dispose of the VMWare snapshot.

We wanted to go about and script it with CLI and I am looking for references that may assist me with that.

Would appreciate any sample/documentation that may point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Yaron

[tyrone_owen_1]

Hello,

Thanks for the answer to my previous question.

I understand that I can't redirect a virtual machine/VMDK restore to a different datastore to the source VM. How do I go about restoring a virtual machine or VMDK without overwriting the original whilst keeping the original online?

Thanks