SnapManager for Hyper-V (SMHV) leverages NetApp's Snapshot technology to create backups of virtual machines hosted on Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V servers. These backups capture point-in-time images of the VMs stored locally on the NetApp storage. The document describes the backup workflow in three levels - high level, low level, and raw, detailing the sequence of actions taken by SMHV, Hyper-V, and the NetApp storage system to back up the VMs using Snapshot technology in a consistent manner.
Machine Learning in 10 Minutes | What is Machine Learning? | EdurekaEdureka!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/qWHi09C3Dq0
** Machine Learning Training with Python: https://www.edureka.co/machine-learning-certification-training**
This Edureka video on 'Machine Learning in 10 Minutes' will help you understand what exactly is Machine Learning and what are the different types of Machine Learning along with some career opportunities that you can achieve through Machine Learning.
Example
What is AI?
What is Machine Learning
Steps for Machine Learning
Types of Machine Learning
Supervised Learning
Unsupervised Learning
Reinforcement Learning
Applications of Machine Learning
What can you be with Machine Learning?
Follow us to never miss an update in the future.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/edurekaIN
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edureka_learning/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edurekaIN/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edurekain
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edureka
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/networks/505?country=in
Machine Learning in 10 Minutes | What is Machine Learning? | EdurekaEdureka!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/qWHi09C3Dq0
** Machine Learning Training with Python: https://www.edureka.co/machine-learning-certification-training**
This Edureka video on 'Machine Learning in 10 Minutes' will help you understand what exactly is Machine Learning and what are the different types of Machine Learning along with some career opportunities that you can achieve through Machine Learning.
Example
What is AI?
What is Machine Learning
Steps for Machine Learning
Types of Machine Learning
Supervised Learning
Unsupervised Learning
Reinforcement Learning
Applications of Machine Learning
What can you be with Machine Learning?
Follow us to never miss an update in the future.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/edurekaIN
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edureka_learning/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edurekaIN/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edurekain
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edureka
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/networks/505?country=in
SYN404: Best practices for migrating to the latest version of XenAppCitrix
Citrix XenApp continues to evolve, adding new capabilities and features that make life better for IT teams and users. When planning your next XenApp upgrade, you’ll want expert guidance on how to achieve the best results with the minimal amount of effort. Join us to learn what’s new in XenApp 7.5, about migration options and how to use proven tools and best practices.
Citrix VDI on FlexPod with Microsoft Private CloudNetApp
FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud is prevalidated, best-in-class private cloud reference implementation from Microsoft’s partners. Joint collaboration between NetApp, Cisco, and Microsoft to accelerate private cloud adoption, resulting in a single orderable part and unified support.
NetApp Data clustered ONTAP offers a unified scale-out storage solution for an adaptable, always-on storage infrastructure to accommodate today's virtualized infrastructures. For service providers, each customer maps to a separate Vserver on a storage cluster; this is the key to our multi-tenant environment and enables many of our key capabilities. Come and hear this intelligent, immortal, and infinite storage technology from NetApp.
Apresentações | Jantar Exclusivo Cisco e Netapp | 27 de Junho de 2012 | Spett...Softcorp
A Softcorp, em parceria com a NetApp e a Cisco, realizou um jantar especial sobre a tecnologia FlexPod™.
Durante o evento foi possível conhecer os benefícios da solução e tirar dúvidas técnicas, operacionais e consultivas com os especialistas das três empresas.
O momento também foi oportuno para trocar experiências com outros profissionais do setor.
Para descontrair, tivemos uma palestra com boas dicas sobre cortes de carne e os segredos do bom churrasqueiro para garantir o sucesso do churrasco.
FEATRURE BRIEF▶ NetBackup 7.6 - Direct virtual machine creation from backup w...Symantec
Feature Description
The last few years have seen a significant growth in the adoption of virtualized servers in data centers with many organizations converting to purely virtual environments. Even organizations that use physical servers in their production environments are starting to see the benefits of using virtualization in their disaster recovery and test and development environments. NetBackup’s Bare Metal Restore (BMR) feature has always provided an effective mechanism for migrating between physical and virtual environments by recovering backups of physical servers to virtual servers. In NetBackup 7.6 this “physical to virtual” recovery model has been greatly simplified allowing customers to achieve rapid physical to virtual migration and disaster recovery to virtual environments for Windows servers in both local and remote (disaster recovery) sites.
Business Value
The Bare Metal Restore “physical to virtual” recovery capability allows customers to recover backups of physical Windows servers to VMware virtual machines. Using VMware virtualization in a disaster recovery data center can significantly reduce both the capital and operational costs associated with maintaining a disaster recovery position by allowing a “lights out” facility to be rapidly spun up in the event of a site loss.
Bare Metal Restore “physical to virtual” can be combined the NetBackup Auto Image Replication feature, allowing backup of physical servers to be replicated to a remote data center. VMware ESX servers at this disaster recovery facility can be left powered off until required and then powered up. Once the ESX servers are available the replicated backups of the physical servers at the product site can be quickly restored to virtual machines running on the ESX servers rather than needing to deploy physical servers. For disaster recovery testing purposes the virtual machines created during the recovery process can simply be deleted once the testing activities are complete. A similar approach can be used in test and development environments with backups from physical production servers being used to create virtual test servers.
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER▸ NetBackup 7.6 Plugin for VMware vCenterSymantec
In NetBackup 7.6, the NetBackup plug-in for vCenter integrates with VMware’s vSphere Client user interface to provide new VMware virtual machine administration capabilities.
The plug-in enables VMware administrators…
▸ To monitor their Virtual machine backups directly from the VMware vSphere Client UI.
▸ To export virtual machine backup reports from the vSphere Client UI.
▸ Initiate full virtual machine recovery directly from a Recovery Portal in the vSphere Client UI.
SYN404: Best practices for migrating to the latest version of XenAppCitrix
Citrix XenApp continues to evolve, adding new capabilities and features that make life better for IT teams and users. When planning your next XenApp upgrade, you’ll want expert guidance on how to achieve the best results with the minimal amount of effort. Join us to learn what’s new in XenApp 7.5, about migration options and how to use proven tools and best practices.
Citrix VDI on FlexPod with Microsoft Private CloudNetApp
FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud is prevalidated, best-in-class private cloud reference implementation from Microsoft’s partners. Joint collaboration between NetApp, Cisco, and Microsoft to accelerate private cloud adoption, resulting in a single orderable part and unified support.
NetApp Data clustered ONTAP offers a unified scale-out storage solution for an adaptable, always-on storage infrastructure to accommodate today's virtualized infrastructures. For service providers, each customer maps to a separate Vserver on a storage cluster; this is the key to our multi-tenant environment and enables many of our key capabilities. Come and hear this intelligent, immortal, and infinite storage technology from NetApp.
Apresentações | Jantar Exclusivo Cisco e Netapp | 27 de Junho de 2012 | Spett...Softcorp
A Softcorp, em parceria com a NetApp e a Cisco, realizou um jantar especial sobre a tecnologia FlexPod™.
Durante o evento foi possível conhecer os benefícios da solução e tirar dúvidas técnicas, operacionais e consultivas com os especialistas das três empresas.
O momento também foi oportuno para trocar experiências com outros profissionais do setor.
Para descontrair, tivemos uma palestra com boas dicas sobre cortes de carne e os segredos do bom churrasqueiro para garantir o sucesso do churrasco.
FEATRURE BRIEF▶ NetBackup 7.6 - Direct virtual machine creation from backup w...Symantec
Feature Description
The last few years have seen a significant growth in the adoption of virtualized servers in data centers with many organizations converting to purely virtual environments. Even organizations that use physical servers in their production environments are starting to see the benefits of using virtualization in their disaster recovery and test and development environments. NetBackup’s Bare Metal Restore (BMR) feature has always provided an effective mechanism for migrating between physical and virtual environments by recovering backups of physical servers to virtual servers. In NetBackup 7.6 this “physical to virtual” recovery model has been greatly simplified allowing customers to achieve rapid physical to virtual migration and disaster recovery to virtual environments for Windows servers in both local and remote (disaster recovery) sites.
Business Value
The Bare Metal Restore “physical to virtual” recovery capability allows customers to recover backups of physical Windows servers to VMware virtual machines. Using VMware virtualization in a disaster recovery data center can significantly reduce both the capital and operational costs associated with maintaining a disaster recovery position by allowing a “lights out” facility to be rapidly spun up in the event of a site loss.
Bare Metal Restore “physical to virtual” can be combined the NetBackup Auto Image Replication feature, allowing backup of physical servers to be replicated to a remote data center. VMware ESX servers at this disaster recovery facility can be left powered off until required and then powered up. Once the ESX servers are available the replicated backups of the physical servers at the product site can be quickly restored to virtual machines running on the ESX servers rather than needing to deploy physical servers. For disaster recovery testing purposes the virtual machines created during the recovery process can simply be deleted once the testing activities are complete. A similar approach can be used in test and development environments with backups from physical production servers being used to create virtual test servers.
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER▸ NetBackup 7.6 Plugin for VMware vCenterSymantec
In NetBackup 7.6, the NetBackup plug-in for vCenter integrates with VMware’s vSphere Client user interface to provide new VMware virtual machine administration capabilities.
The plug-in enables VMware administrators…
▸ To monitor their Virtual machine backups directly from the VMware vSphere Client UI.
▸ To export virtual machine backup reports from the vSphere Client UI.
▸ Initiate full virtual machine recovery directly from a Recovery Portal in the vSphere Client UI.
VMware vSphere vMotion: 5.4 times faster than Hyper-V Live MigrationVMware
Businesses using a virtualized infrastructure have many reasons to move active virtual machines (VMs) from one physical server to another. Whether the migrations are for routine maintenance, balancing performance needs, work distribution (consolidating VMs onto fewer servers during non-peak hours to conserve resources), or another reason, the best virtual infrastructure platform executes the move as quickly as possible and with minimal impact to end users.
We tested two competing features that move active VMs from one server to another, VMware vSphere 5 vMotion and Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Live Migration. While both perform these moves with no VM downtime, in our testing the VMware solution did so faster, with greater application stability, and with less impact to application performance – clearly showing that not all live migration technologies are the same. VMware also holds an enormous advantage in concurrency: VMware vSphere 5 can move eight VMs at a time while a Microsoft Hyper-V cluster node can take part only as the source or destination in one live migration at a time. In our two test scenarios, the VMware vMotion solution was up to 5.4 times faster than the Microsoft Hyper-V Live Migration solution.
Networker integration for optimal performanceMohamed Sohail
In large, modern data centers, integrating multiple products—whether from the same vendor or multiple vendors—to form a stable, consistent workflow is a major challenge. In their award-winning Knowledge Sharing article, Mohamed Sohail and Shareef Bassiouny offer some best practices for integrating NetWorker and different EMC products and present some best practices for the optimum performance of this integration.
VMware vSphere memory overcommitment delivered greater VM density than Red Ha...Principled Technologies
The VMware vSphere server comfortably ran 24 VMs, 1.60 times as many as it ran without memory overcommitment, and delivered 1.57 times the total number of orders per minute. As we have emphasized throughout this report, this dramatic improvement occurred using the vSphere out-of-the-box settings and required no manual tuning. The RHV could not run more than 16 VMs.
vSphere employs multiple memory management techniques, including ballooning and compression to keep VMs running and highly available. In extreme cases when additional memory is necessary to keep VMs running, vSphere engages memory swapping as long as sufficient disk space is available to swap the overcommitted memory. This comes at a small cost to per-VM performance, but ensures that VMs can power on in almost any configuration of RAM allocation, as long as other server resources, such as CPU and storage, are not constrained. Note that admins can also enable Transparent Page Sharing to consolidate memory even further; because we wanted to represent the out-of-the-box experience with vSphere, we did not enable Transparent Page Sharing or use it in any of our tests.
In contrast, the RHV approach to managing memory overcommitment requires manual tuning to increase VM density. Moreover, unless an individual VM’s Maximum RAM is available on the host RHV cannot power on the VM. This means that even with Memory Optimization enabled, RHV cannot overcommit memory indefinitely.
While vSphere comfortably ran 24 VMs per server using out-of-the-box settings, RHV with a reasonable amount of adjusting settings maxed out at 16 VMs (see Figure 12). Based on these findings, you’d be able to run 72 VMs on only three VMware vSphere servers, more than the 64 VMs that four RHV servers would support.
The greater VM density that the vSphere approach to memory overcommitment makes possible has enormous potential to optimize your server usage and boost datacenter efficiency. Every server in your datacenter comes with a hefty price tag—for space, power and cooling, software licensing, and IT management. Being able to do more with fewer servers has a direct benefit on your company’s bottom line.
Disaster recovery and business continuity plan using VMware Site Recovery Man...Mohammed Raffic
This article will help you to understand detailed procedure to implement Disaster recovery and business continuity plan using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
Disaster recovery and business continuity plan using vmware site recovery man...Mohammed Raffic
This article helps you understand the detailed procedure to implement Disaster recovery and business continuity plan using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM).
Symantec NetBackup 7.6 benchmark comparison: Data protection in a large-scale...Principled Technologies
The footprint of a VM can grow quickly in an enterprise environment and large-scale VM deployments in the thousands are common. As this number of deployed systems grows, so does the risk of failure. Critical failures can become unavoidable and offering data protection from a backup solution promotes business continuity. Elongated protection windows requiring multiple jobs of different types can create resource contention with production environments and may require valuable IT admin time, so a finite window for system backups can have plenty of importance.
In our hands-on SAN backup testing, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance running NetBackup 7.6 offered application protection to 1,000 VMs in 66.8 percent less time than Competitor “E” did. In addition, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance with NetBackup 7.6 created backup images that offered granular recovery without additional steps. These time and effort savings can scale as your VM footprint grows, allowing you to execute both system protection and user-friendly, simplified recovery.
Disaster recovery strategies for oVirtPawel Maczka
RHV/oVirt environments can be backed up in several ways. In this presentation we'll show how Storware vProtect allows you to backup your environment in several different ways, protecting not only your VMs, but also applications and RHV/oVirt configuration itself. The presentation will also include the concept of DRoVirt – Open source project for Disaster Recovery & Replication for RHV/oVirt
"Mastering VMware Snapshot" offers a comprehensive understanding of VMware snapshots which includes lot of tips and tricks related to the VMware Snapshot. This books enable the reader to gain deep understanding of VMware Snapshots with different detailed information about the various snapshot related files and snapshot operations such as deleting snapshot, reverting snapshot and snapshot consolidation. It also focuses on how to manage Snapshots from command line and changes made to the snapshot algorithm on vSphere 6.0 and vSphere 6.5
http://www.vmwarearena.com
Similar to Backup workflow for SMHV on windows 2008R2 HYPER-V (20)
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: Passkeys at Amazon.pdf
Backup workflow for SMHV on windows 2008R2 HYPER-V
1. Backup workflow
On
Windows 2008 R2 HYPER-V
SMHV [SnapManager for HYPER-V] leverages NetApp Data ONTAP Snapshot technology to
create fast and space-efficient backups of SMHV datasets and their associated VMs. These
backups offer point-in-time images, or copies, of the VMs and are stored locally on the same
storage platform on which the VMs physically reside. In addition to the Snapshot copy stored
locally, SMHV also provides an option to update an existing SnapMirror relationship upon the
completion of a backup.
This document focuses only on the 'Backup workflow'. If you need information on SMHV
Install/Admin Guide or Best Practices Guide, please refer to the links provided at the end of
this document; else go to netapp support site or simply google.
What is workflow - Workflow is sometimes described as a series of tasks that produce an
outcome. In the context of NetApp SMHV, this document defines workflow as a sequence of
actions or tasks that work together to accomplish successful backup job.
ashwinwriter@gmail.com
April, 2014
2. There are two basic methods you can use to perform a backup. You can:
Perform a backup from the server running Hyper-V:
This is the recommend method to perform a full server backup because it captures
more data than the other method. If the backup application is compatible with
Hyper-V and the Hyper-V VSS writer, you can perform a full server backup that helps
protect all of the data required to fully restore the server, except the virtual
networks. The data included in such a backup includes the configuration of virtual
machines, snapshots associated with the virtual machines, and virtual hard disks used
by the virtual machines. As a result, using this method can make it easier to recover
the server if you need to, because you do not have to recreate virtual machines or
reinstall Hyper-V. However, virtual networks are not included in a full server backup.
You will need to reconfigure the virtual networking by recreating the virtual networks
and then reattaching the virtual network adapters in each virtual machine to the
appropriate virtual network. As part of your backup planning, make sure you
document the configuration and all relevant settings of your virtual network if you
want to be able to recreate it.
Perform a backup from within the guest operating system of a virtual machine:
Use this method when you need to back up data from storage that is not supported by
the Hyper-V VSS writer. When you use this method, you run a backup application from
the guest operating system of the virtual machine [with backup agent inside the VM].
If you need to use this method, you should use it in addition to a full server backup
and not as an alternative to a full server backup. Perform a backup from within the
guest operating system before you perform a full backup of the server running Hyper-
V. For more information about storage considerations, see the following section.
This document covers workflow for SMHV in three levels:
High level workflow
Low level workflow
RAW workflow
3. high level Backup workflow for SMHV
WINDOWS 2008 R2 HYPER-V
1. The NetApp SMHV service [VSS requestor] on the HYPER-V host in coordination with
the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS starts a backup.
2. The NetApp SMHV service on the Hyper-V host sends a request to the HYPER-V VSS on
the host OS to freeze the guest OS.
3. HYPER-V VSS on the host OS sends a request to the Hyper-V writer to freeze the guest
OS.
4. The Hyper-V writer passes the freeze request to VSS on the guest OS through the
Hyper-V 'BIS' [Backup Integration Services].
HANDY TIP: Like Backup Softwares [SMHV, Veeam, Altaro, Symantec etc] are called Volume
Shadow Copy 'Requestor' on the HYPER-V Host [called Parent Partition], similarly the backup
integration service IC is considered Volume Shadow Copy ‘Requestor’ inside the guest
operating system [called Child Partition].
5. VSS on the guest OS sends a request to the VSS application writer to freeze the
application.
6. The VSS application writer freezes the application and flushes data from the guest OS
memory.
7. HYPER-V VSS on the host OS sends a request to the NetApp VSS Hardware Provider to
create a snapshot.
8. The NetApp storage system creates a snapshot.
9. At the completion of the local backup, SMHV updates an existing SnapMirror
relationship on the volume if the SnapMirror option was selected.
4. Low level Backup workflow for SMHV
WINDOWS 2008 R2 HYPER-V
Customized flowchart
Steps numbered in the flowchart are explained in the next page.
Note: The complete workflow shown above does not exist in NetApp SMHV documentation,
though part of it does exist. I have put together this workflow with the help of flow chart and
documentation from other backup vendors [specifically – courtesy: ‘Veeam.com’]. I am hoping
it’s correct and in line with what happens in background during auto-recovery.
[As all backup vendors (requestors) for HYPER-V environment implements standard Microsoft
VSS framework to perform HYPER-V backups]
5. Low level Backup workflow in steps
1. SMHV interacts with the Hyper-V host VSS Service and requests backup of specific VMs.
2. The VSS Writer on the Hyper-V host passes the request to the Hyper-V Integration
Components (HV-IC) installed inside the VM guest OS.
3. The HV-IC, in its turn, acts as a VSS Requestor for the VSS framework inside the VM — it
communicates with the VSS framework installed in the VM guest OS and requests backup of
VSS-aware applications running inside this VM.
4. The VSS Writers within the VSS-aware applications inside the guest OS are instructed to get
the application data to a state suitable for backup.
5. After the applications are quiesced, the VSS inside the VM takes an internal snapshot within
the VM using a VSS software provider in the VM guest OS.
6. After the internal snapshot is taken, the VM returns from the read-only state to the read-
write state and operations inside the VM are resumed. The created snapshot is passed to the
HV-IC.
7. The HV-IC notifies the hypervisor that the VM is ready for backup.
8. The Hyper-V host VSS Hardware provider takes a snapshot of a volume on which the VM is
located (external snapshot).
To make sure the VM data is consistent at the moment of backup, Hyper-V VSS Writer
performs additional processing inside the created external snapshot – this process is also
known as auto-recovery.
a. SnapDrive takes the first snapshot of the LUN where the VM resides.
b. It mounts the LUN inside the snapshot to add AUTORECOVERY information (mounts as
CLONE).
c. The original LUN is renamed as exclude_{GUID}, and the CLONE is renamed as the
original LUN.
d. SnapDrive then takes the second snapshot of the CLONE LUN, and the clone is
destroyed. The LUN is renamed to its original name from exclude_{GUID}.
9. Upon completion of the local backup, SMHV updates an existing SnapMirror relationship on
the volume if the SnapMirror option was selected
6. RAW workflow
[As recorded on the HYPER-V Host – In Windows Application Event log]
1. SnapManager for Hyper-V backup is now started
Dataset Name = Virtual-Machines
Backup id = 6ad83514-21a0-4a99-a774-8bf6e38c281e
Backup Type = Application consistent
2. ONTAP VSS hardware provider service has started.
[Note: The Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider ships as part of and is installed with
NetApp SnapDrive for Windows, which is licensed per storage controller, or per physical
Windows Server.]
3. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider is loaded.
4. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider is adding a source lun [VendorId=NETAPP,
ProductId=LUN, SerialNo=dnlPWZfVCoVK] to SnapshotSetId {4d6e1978-1b45-4176-
81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}.
5. SnapDrive is ready to create Snapshot copy ({4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-
94ee3d4a5be4}) of LUN(s).
6. Snapshot ({4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}) of LUN(s) on storage system
(Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_csv03|) was successfully created. [As per step 8a in the
Low level workflow]
7. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider has successfully completed CommitSnapshots for
SnapshotSetId {4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4} in 203 milliseconds.
8. GetTargetLunInfo succeeded.
Storage System Name = Filer05
lunPath = /vol/vol_clvsh01_csv03/clvsh01_csv03.lun
Snapshot copy Name = {4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}
9. CreateTargetLun succeeded.
Storage System Name = Filer05
lunPath = /vol/vol_clvsh01_csv03/clvsh01_csv03.lun
Snapshot copy Name = {4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}
10. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider has successfully mapped a lun [VendorId=NETAPP,
ProductId=LUN, SerialNo=7S-zp$Bb5jSb].
11. Revert operation for volume ?Volume{2cd0fffa-f006-11e0-a76b-002655db9b10} has
begun. Volume is being reverted to the shadow copy with id {927d2780-ce23-4990-
90ac-3df404041dbc}.
7. Operation:
Revert a Shadow Copy
Context:
Execution Context: Coordinator
12. SnapDrive is ready to create Snapshot copy ({4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-
94ee3d4a5be4}_backup) of LUN(s).
13. Snapshot ({4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}_backup) of LUN(s) on storage
system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_csv03|) was successfully created. [As per step
8d in the Low level workflow]
14. DeleteTargetLun succeeded.
Storage System Name = Filer05
lunPath = /vol/vol_clvsh01_csv03/{8b0053c1-8cec-4cc6-8400-3220eaa8ecc3}.rws
15. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider has successfully unmapped and deleted a lun
[VendorId=NETAPP, ProductId=LUN, SerialNo=7S-zp$Bb5jSb].
16. The Snapshot copy ({4d6e1978-1b45-4176-81d6-94ee3d4a5be4}_backup) of the LUN
was renamed to (Virtual-Machines_clvsh01_CNVSH05_03-21-2014_22.00.00_backup).
LUN Name = clvsh01_csv03.lun
Storage Path = /vol/vol_clvsh01_csv03
Protocol Type =
Storage System Name = Filer05
17. SnapManager for Hyper-V backup operation completed successfully
Backup of the Dataset Name: Virtual-Machines
Backup id: 6ad83514-21a0-4a99-a774-8bf6e38c281e succeeded
18. The Snapshot copy (@snapmir@{91F05093-39B1-421E-8BF7-8C3A0526F253}) of the LUN
(C:ClusterStorageVolume3) on storage system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_csv03)
was deleted
19. SnapDrive is ready to create Snapshot copy (@snapmir@{0C5AB7A3-182E-455C-919E-
E787EBDFD589}) of LUN(s).
20. Snapshot (@snapmir@{0C5AB7A3-182E-455C-919E-E787EBDFD589}) of LUN(s) on
storage system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_csv03) was successfully created.
21. A SnapMirror update request from source (Filer05:vol_clvsh01_csv03) to destination
(filer06:vol_clvsh01_csv03) was successfully sent.
22. The VSS service is shutting down due to idle timeout.
23. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider is unloaded.
24. Data ONTAP VSS hardware provider service has stopped.
8. 25. SnapDrive is ready to create Snapshot copy (smhv_snapinfo_clvsh01_03-21-
2014_22.00.00.1.24) of LUN(s).
26. Snapshot (smhv_snapinfo_clvsh01_03-21-2014_22.00.00.1.24) of LUN(s) on storage
system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) was successfully created.
27. The Snapshot copy (smhv_snapinfo_clvsh01_12-10-2013_22.00.00.398.18) of the LUN
(S) on storage system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) was deleted
28. The Snapshot copy (@snapmir@{66C85B3D-4B9B-42A9-BAB2-B6C5784FB0A0}) of the
LUN (?Volume{32776c92-5309-4361-8d99-cdf419374bef}) on storage system
(Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) was deleted
29. SnapDrive is ready to create Snapshot copy (@snapmir@{8D8B23C3-6577-4D13-8D19-
5DC0A7DED8C6}) of LUN(s).
30. Snapshot (@snapmir@{8D8B23C3-6577-4D13-8D19-5DC0A7DED8C6}) of LUN(s) on
storage system (Filer05) volume (vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) was successfully created.
31. A SnapMirror update request from source (Filer05:vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) to destination
(filer06:vol_clvsh01_snapinfo) was successfully sent.
Note: In the workflow described above, Filer05 is the production NetApp FAS/filer & Filer06 is
the replication DR partner.
DRAWBACK in WINOWS 2008 R2 HYPER-V
The same process continues for Host2, Host 3 & so on depending upon the number of hosts in
the cluster hosting the VMs, and the backup is then complete from the VSS requestor's
perspective. This makes the Hyper-V backup complex for CSV. Performance is big issue since
multiple VSS initializations/backup complete are done on each node in the cluster. This type
of solution is hard to scale as the number of nodes and VMs in a cluster increases like in
WS2012.
9. Types of snapshots created by SMHV during HYPER-V Backup
NetApp SMHV creates three types of snapshots as part of the HYPERV Backup.
First two snapshots are located under the respective CSV volume snapshot in NetApp Systems
Manager
1. DatasetName-Virtual-Machines-25-2014_22.00.00
2. DatasetName-Virtual-Machines-25-2014_22.00.00_Backup
Third snapshot is located under the snapinfo volume in NetApp Systems Manager
3. smhv_snapinfo_clvsh01_04-25-2014_22.00.00.818.21
Do I need to keep all three backups?
Yes, all the three backups are required for successful restore.
1. "_backup" volume snapshot
2. Base snapshot (the one without _backup suffix).
2. 'snapshot' of SnapInfo LUN [This snapshot captures the backup metadata. SnapManager for
Hyper-V makes a Snapshot copy of the SnapInfo LUN at the end of the dataset backup]
operation.
Why this is needed - This is the catalog information [Like any other Backup Software, we need
catalog information to restore data]. Please note SMHV cannot restore a VM from backup if
corresponding backup metadata is not available.
More info on 'snapinfo'
The SnapInfo LUN stores the dataset backup metadata. NetApp recommends having the
SnapInfo LUN on a volume of its own. SMHV records the snapshot name in the metadata
[snapinfo] of the backup. So if the snapshot name is renamed in the storage system volume
after the backup is taken then the restore operation for that backup will fail. This is because
SMHV checks to make sure that the snapshot name in the backup metadata does exists in the
filer and if the same name snapshot is not found the restore operation will fail.
10. Good News
Microsoft has re-architected Cluster Shared Volume and has introduced 'Distributed CSV
Application consistent backup' feature in WINDOWS 2012 to address this problem.
Watch this video to get detailed information on the 're-born' architecture.
Cluster Shared Volumes Reborn in Windows Server 2012: Deep Dive
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/WSV430
FAQ
Why autorecovery is required?
In short, auto-recovery is required b'cos virtual machine and storage system snapshots may
not be in a consistent state due to a time lag between the two [child VM snapshot & Storage
system snapshot] snapshots.
What is auto-recovery?
Auto-recovery is a process in which 'shadow copy' created by the 'VSS Hardware provider' is
temporarily made available as a read-write volume so that VSS and one or more applications
can alter the contents of the shadow copy before the shadow copy is finished.
After VSS and the applications [SMHV] make their alterations, the shadow copy is made read-
only. This phase is called Auto-recovery, and it is used to undo any file-system or application
transactions on the shadow copy volume that were not completed before the shadow copy
was created.
Why does HYPER-V host does not support backing up pass-through & iSCSI disk in the
child partitioned VM?
It is b'cos the Pass-through and iSCSI disks are not visible to the host operating system and
therefore not backed up by the Hyper-V VSS writer. Backups of these volumes must be done
entirely within the VM.
Major benefits of CSV over traditional cluster disk:
CSV can fail over quickly without requiring a change in drive ownership
The failover will not require a dismount or remount of the CSV Volume
It helps simplify management
Scale-out File Server can use an CSV
CSV supports Bitlocker
CSV supports Storage spaces
CSV supports backup
CSV supports Anti-Virus
11. How CSV disks are viewed in the HYPER-V Host?
Disks in CSV are identified with a path name. Each path appears to be on the system drive of
the node as a numbered volume under the ClusterStorage folder. This path is the same when
viewed from any node in the cluster. You can rename the volumes if needed.
To use CSV, your nodes must meet the following requirements:
Drive letter of system disk. On all nodes, the drive letter for the system disk must be
the same.
Authentication protocol. The NTLM protocol must be enabled on all nodes. This is
enabled by default.
Which are the Conditions when SMHV will backup virtual machines using 'save-state':
Virtual machines that do not have Integration Services installed will be put in a saved
state while the VSS snapshot is created.
Virtual machines that are running operating systems that do not support VSS, such as
Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP, will be put in a saved state while the VSS
snapshot is created.
Virtual machines that contain dynamic disks (not dynamically expanding) must be
backed up offline.
How many Virtual Machines can be placed on the single CSV volume?
There are no limitations for the number of virtual machines that can be supported on a single
CSV volume. However, you should consider the number of virtual machines that you plan to
have in the cluster and the workload (I/O operations per second) for each virtual machine.
Consider the following examples:
One organization is deploying virtual machines that will support a virtual desktop
infrastructure (VDI), which is a relatively light workload. The cluster uses high-
performance storage. The cluster administrator, after consulting with the storage
vendor, decides to place a relatively large number of virtual machines per CSV
volume.
Another organization is deploying a large number of virtual machines that will support
a heavily used database application, which is a heavier workload. The cluster uses
lower-performing storage. The cluster administrator, after consulting with the storage
vendor, decides to place a relatively small number of virtual machines per CSV
volume.
Is there a recommendation for creating VMs on CSV volume?
There is no hard & fast recommendation but, follow arrangement is recommended.
System files, including a page file, in a VHD file on one CSV Data files in a VHD file on another
CSV
12. What is VSS?
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a feature of Microsoft Windows Server that coordinates
dataservers, backup applications, and storage management software to support the creation
and management of consistent backups.
VSS coordinates Snapshot copy-based backup and restore operations and includes these
components:
VSS Requestor:
The VSS requestor is a backup application, such as SnapManager for Hyper-V or Netbackup. It
initiates VSS backup and restore operations. The requestor also specifies Snapshot copy
attributes for backups it initiates.
VSS Writer:
The VSS writer owns and manages the data to be captured in the Snapshot copy. Microsoft
Hyper-V VSS Writer is an example of a VSS writer.
VSS provider:
The VSS provider is responsible for creating and managing the Snapshot copy. A provider can
be either a hardware provider or a software provider:
What is a hardware provider?
A hardware provider integrates storage array-specific Snapshot copy and cloning functionality
into the VSS framework.
Note: To ensure that the Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider works properly, do not use the
VSS software provider on Data ONTAP LUNs. If you use the VSS software provider to create
Snapshot copies on a Data ONTAP LUN, you cannot delete that LUN by using the VSS Hardware
Provider.
Why hardware provider is called hardware?
A provider that manages shadow copies at the hardware level by working in conjunction with
a hardware storage adapter or controller.
Why software provider is called software?
A provider that intercepts I/O requests at the software level between the file system and the
volume manager.
What is freeze during shadow copy creation?
Freeze is a period of time during the shadow copy creation process when all writers have
flushed their writes to the volumes and are not initiating additional writes.
What is the purpose of hardware provider?
The Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider integrates the SnapDrive service and storage systems
running Data ONTAP into the VSS framework. This is required for VMs running on SANstorage.
13. Do I need to download and the install hardware provider separately [NetApp
Specific]?
No! The Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider is installed automatically as part of the SnapDrive
software installation.
How do I find out, if NetApp VSS Hardware provider installed?
On the HYPER-V host, where you have installed 'snapdrive', go to command prompt:
type –
c:>vssadmin list providers
The output should be similar to the following:
Provider name: ‘Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider’
Provider type: Hardware
Provider ID: {ddd3d232-a96f-4ac5-8f7b-250fd91fd102}
Version: 6.4.1.xxxx
Is there a time limit for commiting a snapshot by provider in the VSS
framework?
VSS framework requires that the provider commit a Snapshot copy within 10 seconds. If this
time limit is exceeded, the Data ONTAP VSS Hardware Provider logs Event ID 4364. This limit
could be exceeded due to a transient problem.
What are the different types of VSS Hardware providers?
Tested hardware VSS providers table is provided in this link.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2010/02/05/tested-hardware-vss-provider-
table.aspx
How to choose a backup vendor for HYPER-V?
When looking for backup software, make sure it states it supports Cluster Shared Volumes;
such as System Centre Data Protection Manager 2010, NetApp, Veeam & Altaro. Also, to
ensure the best performance backup, if you have hardware that supports Volume Shadow
Copy Service (VSS), make sure you have the VSS hardware provider installed on all nodes in
the cluster.
In SMHV [SnapManager for HYPER-V], what is application-consistent backup?
Application-consistent backup jobs are thorough, reliable, and resource intensive. They are
performed in coordination with Microsoft Volume Shadow CopyService (VSS) to ensure that
each application running on the VM is quiesced before making a Snapshot copy. This backup
method guarantees application data consistency.
In SMHV [SnapManager for HYPER-V], what is Crash-consistent backup?
Crash-consistent backup jobs are quick Snapshot copies of all the LUNs used by VMs involved
in a dataset. The resulting backup copies are similar to the data captures of VMs that crash or
are otherwise abruptly powered off. Crashconsistent backup jobs provide a quick way to
capture data, but the VMs must be present to be restored from a crash-consistent backup.
Crash-consistent backup jobs are not intended to replace application-consistent backup jobs.
A crash-consistent backup job makes only one Snapshot copy, always. It does not provide VSS
integration.
14. Cluster shared volume
CSV is a feature of failover clustering that was introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2. CSV
allows you to store multiple virtual machines running on multiple hosts in a cluster on a single
storage volume. A CSV is a shared single disk that contains an NTFS volume. Multiple virtual
machines can be stored on a CSV, and the CSV can be accessed by multiple Hyper-V host
servers installed on failover cluster nodes. You can have multiple CSVs in a Hyper-V cluster.
Typically, all of the virtual hard disks (VHDs) of virtual machines in the cluster are stored on a
common CSV, so that any node in the cluster can access the VHDs.
Note: CSV isn't referenced by a drive letter; it's a redirect point from
%SystemPartition%ClusterStorageVolumeX
As 'C: ' is used as the system drive most of the time, it basically translates to
C:ClusterStorageVolumeX
TIP: When creating a dataset, select all VMs that reside on a particular Data ONTAP LUN. This
enables you to get all backups in one Snapshot copy and to reduce the space consumption on
the storage system. It is preferable to add VMs running on the same CSV in the same dataset.
Deploying Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) in Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2009/02/19/9433146.aspx
Typical CSV diagram
CSV [Introduced in Windows 2008R2] Vs Physical disk resource [Used in Windows 2008]
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2009/03/02/9453288.aspx
15. What is Direct and Redirect I/O?
Each Hyper-V host has a direct path (direct I/O) to the CSV storage Logical Unit Number
(LUN). However, in Windows Server 2008 R2 there are a couple of limitations:
For some actions, such as backup, snapshot, de-frag [any low-level fileystem task] the CSV
coordinator takes control of the volume and uses redirected instead of direct I/O. With
redirection, storage operations are no longer through a host’s direct SAN connection, but are
instead routed through the CSV coordinator. This has a direct impact on performance.
CSV backup is serialized, so that only one virtual machine on a CSV is backed up at a time,
but this is only true if you are using VSS software provider. When using a hardware VSS backup
the volume only stays in redirected mode for a short period, i.e. during snapshot.
When a backup is initiated on a CSV volume, the volume is placed in Redirected Access mode.
The type of backup being executed determines how long a CSV volume stays in redirected
mode. If a software backup is being executed, the CSV volume remains in redirected mode
until the backup completes. If hardware snapshots are being used as part of the backup
process, the amount of time a CSV volume stays in redirected mode will be very short.
In Windows Server 2012, these limitations were removed: I/ORedirection is no longer used.
16. USEFUL LINKS
Overview of Processing a Backup under VSS
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384589(v=vs.85).aspx
Volume Shadow Copy Service
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee923636(v=ws.10).aspx
Cluster Shared Volumes in a Failover Cluster
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612868.aspx
Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) Inside Out [Windows 2012]
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2013/12/02/10473247.aspx
What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831414.aspx
SMHV: Virtual Machine backups take a long time to complete
Microsoft has released a hotfix to correct this issue and allow the Hyper-V Backup Integration
Services to utilize the native software provider for VSS.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975354
Note: This hotfix is also included in Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
TR-4234: NetApp SnapManager 2.0 for Hyper-V on Data ONTAP Operating in 7-Mode Best
Practices Guide
https://fieldportal.netapp.com/Core/DownloadDoc.aspxdocumentID=107024&contentID=1694
44
NetApp Storage Best Practices for Microsoft Virtualization and NetApp SnapManagerfor HyperV
http://www.netapp.com/us/system/pdf-reader.aspx?m=tr-3702.pdf&cc=us
Cluster Shared Volumes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_Shared_Volumes
John Savill, Introduction to Cluster Shared Volumes
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-server-2008/q-i-am-using-cluster-shared-volumes-my-
windows-2008-r2-hyper-v-environment-how-s
Unable to access ClusterStorage folder on a passive node in a server 2008 R2 cluster:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2008795
MIGRATING VMWARE TO HYPER-V
https://gilgrossblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/migrating-vmware-to-hyper-v/
17. Good News on Veeam & NetApp collaboration [April, 2014]:
Veeam Software is collaborating with NetApp to create a new data protection solution for the
modern data centre to enable always-on business. [I am assuming this will allow Veeam to use
NetApp VSS Hardware Provider for storage snapshot].
This integration, according to the company, will bring together the low RPO enabled by
NetApp Snapshot, which lets enterprise IT back up the production environment to other
storage options every 15 minutes with no impact on performance, and the low recovery time
objective (RTO) capability enabled by Veeam Backup & Replication, whose Explorer for
Storage Snapshots provides quick and convenient item-level recovery from NetApp Snapshot,
SnapMirror and SnapVault.
For more info, go to this link:
http://go.veeam.com/v8-netapp
Courtesy: Veeam Backup & Replication for HYPER-V
http://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/70/hyperv/backup_process.html
Courtesy: NetApp SnapManager for HYPER-V
Courtesy: Microsoft
Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/
ashwinwriter@gmail.com
April, 2014