NetApp Import Utility for SnapCenter and Virtual Storage Console

[Chris_Jones]

Wondering if anyone has used this tool?

I have an environment with the following:

- ONTAP 9.1P8

- vCenter 6.5U1e

- ESXi 6.5U1e

- VSC 6.2.1

The above is all working. Regular VSC backups and subsequent and SnapVault updates are all working.

What I want to do is upgrade to ONTAP 9.3. Doing this requires an upgrade to VSC 7.1 as that is the only version that supports ONTAP 9.3. So what I am thinking the process will be is:

1. Install SnapCenter 3.0.1 on a new server

2. Add the Storage SVMs to SnapCenter

3. Deploy the SnapCenter Plug-In for VMware vSphere (either onto another Windows host or to the SnapCenter server itself, as this is now supported)

4. Configure the Plug-In to use the same vCenter

5. Suspend all VSC Backup Jobs

6. On the VSC Server, run the NetApp Import Utility for SnapCenter and Virtual Storage Console, which will hopefully import the backup metadata and resource groups into SnapCenter

7. You can import the Storage Connections from VSC 6.2.1 to the 7.1 appliance (according to the Import Utility readme), but that just seems useless unless you had a lot of storage systems.

8. Unregister VSC 6.2.1 from vCenter

9. In the SnapCenter Plug-In for vSphere confirm the resources are listed and datastores still list all of the backups taken using VSC

10. Run backups from the SnapCenter Plug-In and confirm and test restores

11. Deploy the VSC 7.1 appliance and add storage

Can someone review the above steps and let me know if that may work or am I missing something?

Thanks.

[scortez]

Chris,

      your workflow is correct. The only thing i would change is that we now have SnapCenter 4.0 released 🙂

Thanks,

Steven Cortéz

Virtualization Technical Marketing Engineer | Data Fabric & Manageability Group

[Chris_Jones]

Thanks for the reply Steven, that's great.

I saw SnapCenter 4.0 was available, I haven't tried it yet. Do you know if the Import Utility works with version 4.0 also?

Just one more thing I want to confirm. I don't need to run the steps to import the VSC into SnapCenter do I? I don't need to go into VSC 6.2.1 and add the connection details for SnapCenter do I? I just install SnapCenter and deploy the vSphere Plug-In alongside the existing VSC, then run the import utility to migrate the backup metadata over to SnapCenter, then I can remove the VSC. Is that correct?

And I assume what I am expecting is that after the VSC is removed and I'm just left with the SnapCenter Plug-In for VMware vSphere, is that when I look at a Datastore > More Objects > Backups in the vSphere Web Client that I will see all of the VSC Backups that hadn't reached their retention period, and be able to restore from them. That's what I am expecting will happen. Can you confirm that is indeed the expected outcome?

Thanks for your help with this.

Chris

[scortez · Accepted solution]

there are two scripts included with the import utility.  one to import the storage details from VSC 6.2.1 into VSC 7.0+ and another one to import the metadata, jobs and backups into SC 3.0.1+.

i wouldn't uninstall the 6.2.1 vsc until you're 100% sure all backups are running in SC.  i would suggest disabling the VSC 6.2.1 service.  i'd also recommend to install VSC 7.1 and SC 4.0.  but in short yes, once the migration is compleate you will be able to see the backups in SC and be able to restore from them.

[Chris_Jones]

Thanks Steven. Very much appreciate your feedback on this one.

I’ll be deploying this to a customer so will test it in a lab this week. Sounds like it should be an easy migration path.

Thanks for your help.

[Chris_Jones]

Hi Steven,

So, I just tested this in my lab today before doing this migration for a customer and hit a "possible" problem. Here is what I did:

1. Installed SnapCenter 4.0

2. Added my two SVMs to SnapCenter

3. Installed SnapCenter Plugin for VMware vSphere (I installed it to the same Windows host running the VSC)

4. Confirmed both the VSC and SnapCentre Plug-Ins are available in vSphere

5. Ran the SVC-Import batch file with the command:

SCV-Import.bat all -scHost (SnapCenter Server IP) -scUser (Domain\Username) -scvHost (IP of the VSC and SnapCenter Plugin Host) -vCenterIPAddress (vCenter IP) -vCenterUser administrator@vsphere.local

6. The import was successful.

7. Suspended the VSC Backup Jobs

8. Stopped the VSC windows services on the VSC Server

In the vSphere Client I can see the SnapCenter Plugin. It has my resource groups and policies imported. However, how can I restore the backups created in VSC from the SnapCenter Plugin?

When I right-click a datastore and select "Mount Backup" I get an error that no backups are available.

I ran a backup job using the SnapCenter Plugin and I can now see that backup to restore from, but none of the VSC backups.

To confirm, I started the VSC windows services again and logged back into the vSphere Web Client. Using the VSC plugin I can see the backups that VSC created (obviously being pulled from VSC's job history) and in the SnapCenter Plugin I can see the backup I created after the import.

So, the question is, should I be able to see the VSC backups in the SnapCenter Plugin and how can I access them to perform restores after I unregister and remove VSC?

Thanks again, your help has been fantastic.

[Chris_Jones]

Wow .... Ok ... so another update.

When I couldn't see the VSC Backups in the SnapCenter Plugin I was right-clicking a datastore and selecting NetApp SnapCenter > Restore.

I just tried going into a VM, rather than the datastore, and in the SnapCenter Plugin I can see the previous VSC backups. Is this expected behaviour that I can't access the VSC backups at the Datastore level, but only at the VM level? This is fine if it is, just need to be aware of that caveat.

I also noticed another minor caveat.

When restoring a VM or mounting a VM Disk using the SnapCenter Plugin, if I select a backup that was run with SnapCenter then I can choose to restore from the Primary or Secondary (for me this is a SnapVault destination). If I select one of the backups that was created with VSC then I can only choose the Primary snapshot. I assume this has to do with the SnapVault update being triggered by VSC and performed by ONTAP, so SnapCenter isn't really aware of that backup at the destination. Does that sound logical?

Thanks,

Chris

[scortez]

Chris,

      are you refering to SnapCenter's capabilities to index previously established snapshots?  if so atm SnapCenter does not have this feature

[pjoel]

In addition to what Steve mentioned -

1. Datastore Restores are not supported by the SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware.

    Migrated backups will be shown when you right click on a datastore and select NetApp SnapCenter -> Mount Backup.

2. Migrated Backups do not allow you to restore from secondary snapshots.

Regards,

Joel

[Chandler]

Is the import of previously created Snapshots into SnapCenter going to be supported?  I made the mistake of removing the SnapCenter plugin on a Windows host and removed it from SnapCenter (we were decomissioning that host) and when I realized all backups (Resource Groups) were missing I installed the SnapCenter plugin on a new Windows host but pointed it to another vCenter server.  When this happened it didn't bring any previous backups back into SnapCenter but the NetApp SnapShots and SnapVault snapshots are still there.  So I'm curious if there is a plan to import existing Snapshots on both primary and secondary storage?  I've contemplated manually creating entries in the SC database but if there is a future option to import that would be easier.  At the moment we have no way of restoring from backups within SC or vCenter plugin that occured prior to this event other than doing it directly on the controller using SnapRestore.

Thanks