using SMVI instead of SMSQL to backup SQL Server - will clients disconnect from SQL server?

[lacerte]

My customer is trying to use SMVI to backup a VMWare volume which hosts an SQL Server, if a vmware snapshot is executed, there are not problems, but when SMVI is used the various SQL Server client systems disconnect and timeout.. is this expected behavior?  Can SMVI be used to non-disruptively backup SQL Server in a vmware environment?   what causes the difference in client behavior between SMVI and a plain old vmware snapshot?

[luker]

How did you take the VMware snapshot?

If you take it using the VI / vSphere client, then it will not quiesce the guest file systems (which SMVI does when it takes a VMware snapshot).

So if a snapshot via the client worked fine, but an SMVI created VMware snapshot caused a timeout, then that suggests to me that there was a problem during the quiesce process.

Have you got the VMware tools VSS components installed inside the VM?

[radek_kubka]

Hi,

This thread is worth reading plus the TR-3737 mentioned there:

http://communities.netapp.com/message/21113#21113

Regards,
Radek

[amritad]

Hi

In addition can you also check if the latest VMware tools are installed? Also are the  VMs aligned? We have seen that these 2 issues can also cause issues with VMware snapshots.

Regards

Amrita