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Forum Discussion
ESX + NFS/iSCSI + Snapshot + Backup
Hi,
I come from a NetApp backgound where in order to create backups of my VMware datastores I request VMware to create a quiesced snapshot. Once complete I use the underlying NetApp snapshot technology to create a snapshot of the snapshot. I then remove the VMware snapshot because VMware performance will suffer if I leave it there.
Once complete I use a technology like SnapVault or SnapMirror to replicate these snapshots to another NAS
Now, my friend who is asking for assistance with configuring his backups for his business does not have a NetApp, EMC, HP or IBM SAN but instead has a ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition. This is a new beast for me
So my question is.. can I acheive the same type of backup mechanism using the Readynas Pro Business Edition? I see it supports the use of snapshots. But how about the rest of my required solution? the copying of these snapshots to remote storage? Can the snapshot be presented over CIFS and simply copied to a remote location? Are there specific Netgear/Readynas technolgies that already exist to do this?
How do other people tackle this problem of requiring online quiesced snapshots of production systems?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
I come from a NetApp backgound where in order to create backups of my VMware datastores I request VMware to create a quiesced snapshot. Once complete I use the underlying NetApp snapshot technology to create a snapshot of the snapshot. I then remove the VMware snapshot because VMware performance will suffer if I leave it there.
Once complete I use a technology like SnapVault or SnapMirror to replicate these snapshots to another NAS
Now, my friend who is asking for assistance with configuring his backups for his business does not have a NetApp, EMC, HP or IBM SAN but instead has a ReadyNAS Pro Business Edition. This is a new beast for me
So my question is.. can I acheive the same type of backup mechanism using the Readynas Pro Business Edition? I see it supports the use of snapshots. But how about the rest of my required solution? the copying of these snapshots to remote storage? Can the snapshot be presented over CIFS and simply copied to a remote location? Are there specific Netgear/Readynas technolgies that already exist to do this?
How do other people tackle this problem of requiring online quiesced snapshots of production systems?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
3 Replies
- When you do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) you can create snapshot space up to 100GB in size. Not sure if this will do what you're after.
The ReadyNAS has backup functionality and can backup using CIFS, NFS, Rsync etc.
Take a look at the Software Manual: http://www.readynas.com/docs - Thanks for the links to the manuals I will read them but I doubt very much they will address the issue of taking quiesced vmware snapshots of data and presenting them in a way that can be easily backed up/copied
- Hi there stuengland!
I have an almost identical idea in mind (and btw. NetApp background, too) as you seem to have as I consider creating a WMware lab at home. I cannot afford a NetApp solution at home and I don't want to see the screaming NetApp disk shelves at work on my electrical power bill. I am curious if I can deliver a comparable but smaller solution with comparable functionality with a Readynas RNDPXXXX. NFS seems great for the VMs because with NFS you always deploy the VMDKs using thin provisioning. Maybe you have already purchased a unit and have experience that you can share with me otherwise please excuse me to add the following questions to your posting:
- What are the limitations of the Readynas snapshot functinality?
- Are the snapshots bound to volumes or complete datastores (RAID groups) on the Readynas?
- Can you do one or more script or scheduler triggered snapshots on the Readynas?
- Can you do snapshots on NFS volumes hosted on a Readynas that you use as the VMware datastore?
- Is there a way to roll back to a snapshot within reasonable time?
- In order to restore a single VM within the NFS datastore, can you copy single files out of a Readynas snapshot and paste them back into the original NFS volume on the Readynas?
- Is there a way to mount a Readynas snapshot (readonly) and backup the data it contains?
- Can the Readynas copy this snapshot on its own to the following targets: rsync, ext. NFS target via LAN, ext. disk via USB 3.0?
Sorry if my questions ar so manifold but this is a really good pre sales posting to me and I would love to see answers at least on some of my questions.
Thanks for sharing any of your wisdom :P
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