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harshgw2k3

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harshgw2k3

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June 18th, 2015 08:00

VM with many RDM needs to be backed up

We have a customer who has a VM which is a Unisphere server (Windows 2008 R2) managing VMAX 20K.

This server has tiny 2MB disks attached to it (total 8). When inquired, I was told that these are gatekeeper devices they are used by unisphere and vmax for communication purposes. attached is report

RDM.jpg

Now, I have to backup this VM by using Networker image backup, but as these RDMs are connected as raw disks, I cannot do that.

Can I get rid of these RDMs by converting to vdisks, if not, what is the best strategy to backup this server.

Thanks

Harshal

  • dynamox

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    Posted June 18th, 2015 09:00

    figure out a way to exclude them. Avamar excludes them for me automatically. These devices need to stay as RDM, physical compatability mode.

  • harshgw2k3

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    Posted June 28th, 2015 22:00

    Hi Dynamox,

    I am unable to figure it out, how to exclude them from Networker 8.1.

    Could you please let me know some other way to backup this machine?

    Regards

    Harshal

  • dynamox

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    Posted June 28th, 2015 22:00

    i don't have experience with Networker, you might want to ask in Networker forum.

  • dynamox

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    Posted June 29th, 2015 03:00

    gatekeepers typically are 3mb devices, you don't need to put a file system on them to be used by symcli.

  • sechm

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    Posted June 29th, 2015 03:00

    I assume there are no actual vital files on these devices, do they even have a filesystem?

    You can just go ahead and configure an image backup as per normal procedure with save set *FULL*. NetWorker will automatically skip them since it is just as you say not possible to back them up with the VADP interface, assuming you use VMware as your hypervisor. You won't even get any error or warnings, but if you look in the log you will probably see information messages that the devices were skipped.

  • harshgw2k3

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    Posted June 29th, 2015 21:00

    Hey cmorrall,

    Thanks for your reply.

    Could you please let me know if this is documented in any whitepaper or KB?

    Need to convince the customer with the same.

    Regards

    Harshal

  • harshgw2k3

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    Posted June 29th, 2015 23:00

    Hi Cmorrall,

    This is the error that is received when tried to take Full save set from Networker.

    Is there a manual way to exclude these RDMs?

    Thanks

  • harshgw2k3

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    Posted June 30th, 2015 01:00

    Hi Dynamox,

    This may sound silly, but I wanted know, whether there is really any need to backup a server that has these RDM devices connected. As the devices are directly on VMAX and will be protected on array level.

    My second question is, Unisphere is just a interface to the storage array, or does the server on which its installed holds some kind of database that will hold the changes performed such as configuration changes or LUN creation/deletion etc.

    The customer need to be very much sure before excluding this server from backup.

    This server is solely used to access VMAX through Unisphere.

    Thanks

    Harshal

  • dynamox

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    Posted June 30th, 2015 05:00

    There could be customer files on that server (device groups for example) that are not located on the storage array but local to that server. So my recommendation is to backup it up.

  • harshgw2k3

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    Posted June 30th, 2015 20:00

    Hi Dynamox,

    Please let me know, if the OS corruption on this server will have any effect on the configuration changes performed through unisphere (like configuration changes or LUN creation/deletion etc.)

    I just want to be sure that image backup may be skipped for this server and normal backup can be applied.

    Customer is concerned whether OS corruption will have any effect on configuration changes?

    Thanks for your help..