#SnapCenter for VMware and VM snapshots

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

ember maple
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Kinda quiet in here...

With SnapCenter for VMware, how are VM snapshots scheduled when using VM consistency? The docs aren't quite clear.

When you check the VM consistency box, backup operations might take longer and require more storage space. In this scenario, the VMs are first quiesced, then VMware performs a VM consistent snapshot, then SnapCenter performs its backup operation, and then VM operations are resumed.
VM guest memory is not included in VM consistency Snapshots.

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/sc-plugin-vmware-vsphere/scpivs44_create_backup_policies_for_vms_and_datastores.html

Specifically wondering whether this ends up telling all VMs in a datastore to do a VM snapshot at the simultaneously, or going through the list of VMs and doing it sequentially. Also curious about any impact to the VMs during this process.

ember maple
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Seems like maybe my coworker found the answer.

vmware.max.concurrent.snapshots=30

Specifies the maximum number of concurrent VMware snapshots that the SnapCenter VMware plug-in performs on the server.

This number is checked on a per datastore basis and is checked only if the policy has "VM consistent" selected. If you are performing crash-consistent backups, this setting does not apply.

The default value is "30".

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/sc-plugin-vmware-vsphere/scpivs44_customize_your_configuration.html#properties-you-can-override

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I assume that's supposed to be "If you are not performing crash-consistent backups..."

opaque trench
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@hasty violet You wanna take this one? 🙂

hard bolt
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@ember maple how it works (well at least how i remember it works when i was the tme) what that option does is tell vCenter to do a vCenter snapshot 1st per vm, once all of those are done (if you're doing a datastore level backup vs single vm) then it will tell ONTAP to take a volume level snapshot

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i personally would not use VM consistency backups and only utilize ONTAP crash consistent backups...if you need more safe guards in place then i would look at combining SCV with application based backups from SnapCenter like SQL, Windows, Oracle, etc

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i say this because if something goes crazy with the VMware level snapshot your disk is totally hosed and really hard to recover plus doesn't provide anymore level of protection than the crash level SCV backup

manic pollen
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When I was an admin in a ~2000 VM environment we only had a crash consistent recovery fail once, and that was on a database. The previous snap was fine

ember maple
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Thanks for the insight. It's certainly easier and faster to not use VM consistency. We'll do some testing.