Release Notes

29 Dell Virtual Storage Manager: Installation Considerations and Local Data Protection | 2079-BP-V-VSM
6 Local data protection strategies with VMFS datastores
Once the VSM appliance is installed and running in the environment, a Dell Virtual Storage Manager icon appears in
the vCenter Web UI.
Throughout this document, the term VSM snapshot refers to the coordinated protection process of VMware snapshots
and PS Series SAN snapshots being used together to create a hypervisor-aware array snapshot recovery point.
In addition to launching VSM from the Home screen icon, there are options available inside the vCenter Web UI. In the
Hosts and Clusters view, right click an object in the left pane to reveal the All Dell VSM Actions menu with the available
and relevant tasks. These PS Series menu options show up throughout the vCenter Web UI whenever a PS Series VSM-
related task can be performed. There are multiple points where the VSM data-protection wizards are accessible. All
achieve the same result, and all are based on ease of use and comfort with the tools.
To launch the VSM GUI and manage or monitor snapshots, click the Dell Virtual Storage Manager icon in the Home
screen > Inventories section.
Figure 10 vCenter inventories
Options available from this screen include launching all of the views within VSM and managing or monitoring
datastores, snapshots, and replicas. This document focuses on local virtual machine data protection with snapshots.
6.1 Protection with VSM snapshots
A VSM Snapshot is a hypervisor- or application-aware VMware snapshot combined with a PS Series SAN snapshot.
When VMware puts the VM into snapshot mode, it quiesces the I/O to the virtual machine VMDK files and, if possible,
quiesces the application inside the VM. The level of application consistency is based on the operating system of the
VM, the VMware tools, and the application. There are multiple options, including the ability to save the memory to a
disk, but once these VMs are quiesced, any new changes to the VM are stored in a separate delta VMDK. Once the VM
is quiesced, VSM coordinates with the SAN to determine which PS Series volume(s) to snapshot. These datastore
volumes have a PS Series snapshot created on them and then VSM coordinates with vCenter to release the VM
snapshot. The benefit to this is that the same consistency is obtained without leaving the virtual machine in snapshot
mode for an extended period of time, which could possibly lead to longer consolidation times for the snapshot and
space consumption on the datastore.
There are multiple ways to launch the Create Snapshot wizard. This design flexibility allows each of the various features
to be launched from a variety of places, including Hosts and Clusters view, VMs and Templates view, and Storage view.