VCB with VMFX and RDM disks

[NathalieMarshal]

We are currently looking at implementing VCB, and we have some machines with RDM Disks. These disks have been connected in physical mode because of SAN implications, but the OS is all installed on VMFX disks (C$). The RDM's are just data. I know that VCB can't back up RDM Physical disks, but can we use VCM to back up the C$'s so that we can restore the server and reconnect the RDM's if we need to? We will use a separate back up utility to back up the data. I've looked at the docs and can't say anywhere where it talks about this. I May of course be being dim - please tell me if I am!

[NathalieMarshal]

Do I take it that no one knows the answer to this??

[fatih]

I don't know the exact way to do it with vcb commands but we do it with Vranger. We do a backup of the VM and select only the first disk which is a regular .vmdk file. The Vranger lets you deselect the drives you dont want to backup, for example the rdm volumes.

[kjb007]

The problem is with snapshots. I would try and take a snapshot of the vm. If it succeeds without problem, then you should be fine. There are others who were having issues, but I believe they were running SQL/Exchange on the data disk and the server was not "quiescing" properly.

-KjB

[eldee201110141]

You cannot take snapshots of VM's with RDM in physical mode. Therefore VCB or any other VM level backup program will not work. So no, VCB will not work with what you are trying to do. If you change the mode from physical to Virtual, you can do what you are trying to do.

[NathalieMarshal]

Can one not just exclude the RDM disks? I'll have a play with taking snapshots later but it seems a bit daft if you can't exclude disks...

[NathalieMarshal]

Did some more web searching (how is it that every time you do a search for the same thing you get different pages come up?! I don't understand!) and found this

()

Allows snapshots of VMDK files of virtual machines that utilize physical compatibility mode RDMs.

VCB 1.0.3 U1 can access and back up the VMDK files belonging to virtual machines with this configuration. You must still use other methods to back up the virtual machine's RDM data, however.

This suggests that what I want to do can be done - can anyone verify it?? Has anyone done it? I guess I've answered my own question but...!

[joergriether · Accepted solution]

the latest vcb brought a few new features, even they are mostly overseen, but two of the most important ones are a) can do backup without san (directly over wire) and b) can do backup of vm´s with rdm´s, BUT won´t backup the rdm. To make it clear: it only will backup the volumes which can be snapshotted, all the other will be skipped, please keep this in mind and backup them seperately!

best regards

Joerg