Maximum VMware snapshots on an NFS Datastore

[jfluharty]

Hello, in SMVI 2.0 Best Practices guide, it states a maximum of 3 VMware snapshots per datastore will run simulataneously and that this number can be increased.  Is this maximum for VMFS datasotres only or does it apply to all datastores?  I am running SMVI datastore snapshots with VMware consistency checked on, and it appears to be snapping 9 VMs at once.  we have around 80 VMs per Datastore and the VMs are all Linux and are aligned.

Thanks,

J

[jfluharty]

I should mention that our Datastores are all NFS.

[shaunjurr]

Hi,

I think you need to be careful not to confuse the maximum number of snapshots that SMVI will do simultaneously and the maximum that can be retained on a volume.  Assuming your datastores are set up to one datastore per volume, then you can retain up to 255 snapshots (255 per volume).  That number has been pretty constant for many years.  I don't think it has changed in ONTap 8.x (yet).

[abdel]

Hi,

during a SMVI backup, we request from VCenter that a consistent vmware snapshot be taken from the VMs in the datastore. After VC/ESX takes a consistent vmware snapshot, we take a NetApp filer snapshot of the volume that hold the LUN or of the nfs volume. At the end, we requested from VC to remove/delete the vmware snapshots.

I guess your question is for the vmware snapshot. Yes, VC can take only a few amount of vmware snapshot at a time. I believe 6.

From SMVI 2.x or VSC 2.x, you can increase this number in the smvi.override file. But note that setting this number too high can have another impact in the ESX environment.