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Restoring from snapshot question Vcenter
Hi Community,
I've done some digging but can't seem to find the answer I'm looking for.
We currently are taking snapshots on the EQL every 60 mins. If I wanted to restore to a snapshot on the EQL with the the volume connected to Vcenter, what is the best step by step process to restore a volume with vms running on it?
Origin3k
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November 6th, 2017 05:00
Well... it depends on what an how you doing the snapshot (smart copy/clone).
1. If you have integrated VSM (the old ASM/VE) it gives the possibility to create a snapshot of a single VM through the vSphere Client/WebClient GUI. At the backend the EQL creates a snapshot of the entire volume where the VM is located on. Always the entire volume is snapshoted.
On that way a more quescied snapshot is possible because VSM triggers also a vSphere Snapshot if you like.
An Restore is possible through the vSphere/WebClient GUI!. For us it takes a long time for large VMs because the EQL copy the complete volume around.
2. Simple Snapshot based on a collection configured and managed by EQL GroupManager.
All selected Volumes. No Quiescing.
For an "restore" you promote a Snap temporary to an ESXi Host. You have to tell the ESXi to mount this Volume with the help of the command line because ESXi detects the Volume as an existing datastore (same signature). If you allowed it creates automaticly an " -snapshot" Datastore in which you can browse around. You have to add VMs back to the vCenter inventory or just add additionals vDisk to an existing[1] VM.
[1] Dont add the "same" vDisk twice to a VM. Choose always a similar and copy files over the network if needed
We use option 2... but you need some practice and a roadbook. If you do it the first time you will be lost until you find "esxcfg-volume -l" :)
Regards,
Joerg
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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November 6th, 2017 05:00
Hello,
You can't restore a "volume" with VMs running on it. Rolling back the entire volume requires that the volume is offline.
However, it sounds like you want to restore a VM or a VMDK inside a single VM.
If that's the case, then you can bring the snapshot online. On one node to a rescan of the ISCSI adapter.
Then use "Add Storage" to resignature the snapshot. You'll now see a Datastore SNAPSHOT- -
You can now browse that Datastore. Fine the directory where the VM you want to restore is. You can then copy and paste the VMDK file back to the original VM. (Note: VM will have to be down in order to do this)
If you just need a file, then instead of coping the entire VMDK back, mount it to another VM. A VM that you will be able to power down when this is done. You can add a VMDK from the snapshot to another VM and power it up. Now you can access the file (or files) inside and restore them quickly.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Don
Anonymous
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November 6th, 2017 06:00
BTW, The restoring a single VMDK or files within a VMDK still works even if you are using VSM to create the snapshots.
Vmware Storage Manager helps create more consistent snapshots compared to running a schedule on the array itself.
Don