Backup solution based on the Netapp Storage technoligy

[zhangfred_vm]

Hi Experts,

What is the best practice for the Virtual machine back solution for the netapp Storage technoligy.

Such as snapshot?

Are there any documents?

Thanks.

[EdiB]

I am running 2 ESX clusters which have NFS on netapp as shared storage and things are working great.

As far as backup solution with netapp it is really pretty simple.

All I am doing is setup the snapshots on 8 hours intervals on the filer and have the TSM backups running on weekly basis.

if I need to restore a VM which is older than a week I just use ~snapshot switch to restore the vm files from the snapshots

I I need to restore a file older than a week then I use the TSm client to restore the vm files from the backup.

It works great.

I am attachin a Netapp document which might help you.

[fgl]

Hi EdiB,

I'm trying to do something like what you did and I want to ask you a few question on it.

I also have a 2 ESX host cluster and the shared storage is also a NetApp NAS which is connected to the 2 host via iSCSI and formatted as VMFS3. Now if I enable snapshot for this on the NetApp side, I assume I need to also make a iSCSI connection to the same storage on one of my backup server which are Windows based server running either Backup Exec or Legato Networker. My question is will the Windows based server be able to see and read the ~snapshot folder if the file format is VMFS3?

Can you provide some more details on how yours is setup and working?

Thank you.

[EdiB]

FGL,

netapp as you know has its own snapshot technology.

I am using TSM to backup the Filers which is running on a AIX unix.

I am also using NFS shares as my shared storage for my cluster which is not VMFS.

We now got Netapp SMS for VI3 from netapp to get very consistent snapshots and backups.

Now as far as your scenario is concerned my understanding is that you have an ESX cluster which is using iSCSI shared storage which is sitting on netapp filer, you also have a windows server which is running netbackup or legato backup software to get the backups.

That means you are using VCB integrated with netbackup and VCB will read any VMFS partition and VCB will create its own snapshot and it wont use the snapshots set on the filer.

My recommendation is that if you're using a VCB proxy server you do not need to to use Netapp snapshots cause VCB it is already doing that but with Netapp ~snapshot technology you dont need to go through through painful restore precedures used by third party backup solutions like veritas or any other cause you can revert back to a snapshot on the fly as you already know.

the choice is yours.

EdiB

[TomHowarth]

FGL,

netapp as you know has its own snapshot technology.

This is correct, it is only a Block snap and not a true backup, it does not give you the ability to do point in time restores of individual files with in the VMDK

I am using TSM to backup the Filers which is running on a AIX unix.

What are you using TSM for, to back up the full VMDK or to do file level back up within the VMDK, if you have not integrated TSM with VCB or utilised the TSM agent to do file level backups you could be leaving yourself open to data loss. this may or may not be acceptable as you have the ability to do a point in time restore.

I am also using NFS shares as my shared storage for my cluster which is not VMFS.

We now got Netapp SMS for VI3 from netapp to get very consistent snapshots and backups.

I would be careful of what you say about SMS for VI3 as it is still a closed Beta and if you have got it you will be under NDA

Now as far as your scenario is concerned my understanding is that you have an ESX cluster which is using iSCSI shared storage which is sitting on netapp filer, you also have a windows server which is running netbackup or legato backup software to get the backups.

That means you are using VCB integrated with netbackup and VCB will read any VMFS partition and VCB will create its own snapshot and it wont use the snapshots set on the filer.

Correct VCB just backs up the VMDK, the Netfiler Snaps are in the stored in the SnapReserve and are not available to the VCB

My recommendation is that if you're using a VCB proxy server you do not need to to use Netapp snapshots cause VCB it is already doing that.

Here I do not agree with you, they are complimentary, not exclusive.

but with Netapp ~snapshot technology you dont need to go through through painful restore precedures used by third party backup solutions like veritas or any other cause you can revert back to a snapshot on the fly as you already know.

Correct the use of Snapshot technology will allow a much quicker restore of the VM Guest than a VCB Restore. also if you have 2 filers and are using SnapMirror you have a physical copy of the data ready to take over on a failure.

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[fgl]

We currently don't have a real backup solution for our VM's at the moment which is why I'm looking at all the possiblilities.

I'm currently looking at using esXpress backup utitilty (free version) to do a daily backup to a SMB share on the NetApp, enable snapshot function of the NetApp to snap weekly to keep 4 weeks of snapshot, created a script to delete any files older than 7 days on the NetApp share, and then use our backup server to backup that share once a week for offsite storage.

We also have some VMware Server (the free version) based VM's that I also need to find a way to backup live VM's. I again am looking at creating a LUN on the NetApp and attach it to all the VMware Server via iSCSI and move all the VM's on this LUN, then enable snapshot function of the NetApp to snap daily for 4 weeks worth of snapshot, then use our backup server to backup the ~snapshot folder of the LUN.

What do you guys think of my possible solution considering I have a budget of zero dollars to work with?