Release Notes

37 Dell Virtual Storage Manager: Installation Considerations and Local Data Protection | 2079-BP-V-VSM
In this scenario, imagine that there is a folder with a VM in a two-hour reoccurring snapshot. Elsewhere in the cluster,
another folder with a VM is in a six-hour reoccurring snapshot. The second VM resides on the same datastore volume
as the first VM. This causes the PS Series SAN to create multiple snapshots of the same volume, but snapshots of the
first VM only happen during its schedule. While the second snapshot is occurring on the same datastore volume, VSM
is not placing the first VM in VMware snapshot mode. Therefore, the snapshot of the second folder is not usable as a
consistent restore point for the VM in the first folder. The solution to this problem is to either place both VM folders in
a higher-level folder, or move the folder of VMs to a different or new datastore. Because of this, proper VM placement
for protection strategies is important.
When looking at objects in the Snapshot Schedules pane, if one is a part of a higher-level snapshot schedule, an alert is
displayed.
6.4 Managing and monitoring snapshots
VSM includes a variety of tools to use for managing the snapshots. The Recovery section lists the snapshot schedules
and all of the snapshots of an object. Snapshots can be deleted individually or as a whole. Objects are also displayed as
part of a particular snapshot, which is useful for recovery purposes.
Another benefit to VSM is the ability to see the recently performed tasks. Completed snapshots and scheduled
operations are displayed, along with any errors. For detailed information, click Jobs in the VSM window. Select a
snapshot to list all of the tasks associated with running that job.
Figure 12 VSM task list
6.5 Recovering with snapshots
There are many reasons for recovering virtual machines: A bad patch or software build, corrupt file or virtual machine,
or even a file that was deleted by accident. Creating snapshots on a standard schedule adds time-specific recovery