Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
236 Posts
1
1144
VNX Snapshots on VMware block LUNs
Hi All,
Does anyone use snapshots on VNX block LUNs presented to VMware? How do you go about it? There seems to be no way to schedule them in the Unisphere?
Appreciate your input.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
January 20th, 2015 10:00
first question is "why ?
There is no built-in scheduler so you will need to script something using naviseccli/external scheduler or use apps like Recovery Manager.
victory_is_mine
236 Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 04:00
Thanks dynamox.
Why? - To have snapshots happening at the specified time, and not to do them manually, let's say once a day at 1am.
However you have answered my question - there is no way to schedule them using Unisphere GUI.
I have not worked with Recovery Manager, but worked with AppSync and it has this capability.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 07:00
there is no snapcli for ESXi, you will need to send commands out of band using naviseccli.
Rainer_EMC
8.6K Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 07:00
Correct – there is no VNX block snapshot scheduling built into VNX or UniSphere.
If you need that you need to use external schedulers. AppSync can do that. You an also use snapcli commands.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 10:00
i am curious to hear your business requirements for VNX snapshots for VMware datastores. As you know you won't be able to restore individual VMs, it's all or nothing. Yes, you could potentially present that snapshot to an ESX server, discover that datastore and restore individual VMs but it's so cumbersome. From your other discussions
i know you have a Data Domain in place, what is your backup application ?
victory_is_mine
236 Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 11:00
dynamox, I am just trying to come up with the best deployment models, and see what other EMC engineers are doing. Business requirements may differ from location to location. The backup applications are mostly BE, sometimes Avamar.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
January 21st, 2015 11:00
Avamar/DD is an excellent backup solution for VMware envioronment. We backup around 1k VMs daily and it only takes 2.5 hours, impressive.
As you consider your options and educate your customers, remind them that snapshots are not backups.
victory_is_mine
236 Posts
0
January 22nd, 2015 11:00
Sure, that goes without saying.