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VMFS Datastore snapshots
Hello,
I have been experimenting with snapshots on the Unity. Creating them is obviously simple, but I have not had a very easy time restoring from them. Mostly because ESXi is not mounting the snapshot copy, and throwing an error. Has anyone else had issues like this, or a solution. This is the doc from VMWare that give some additional details.
XenoPhone
5 Posts
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October 11th, 2017 09:00
Thanks for the reply! I am aware of the downsides, but we are just looking for a cheap and dirty solution for things that are not in DR. So if you have any insight into mounting the datastore snap that would be awesome.
crklosterman
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October 11th, 2017 09:00
Taking snapshots of an entire VMWare datastore, while nice in theory (whether it's over NFS or VMFS on FC/iSCSI), will at best give you a crash-consistent copy of the VM with no IO quiesed. Think of it as walking into a datacenter and ripping the power cords out of the back of the server. If you power it back on from the snapshotted version, it's like plugging those power cords back in. There are far more elegant solutions to taking snaps using VAAI providers and VASA integration, or third-party applications, which will quiese the IO on the VM and likely give you better results.
Here's a great writeup of some of the options:
https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h15091-dell-emc-unity-virtualization-integration.pdf
Hope it helps,
~Chris Klosterman
Principal Pre-Sales Consultant, Datadobi
chris.klosterman@datadobi.com