Release Notes

53 Dell Virtual Storage Manager: Installation Considerations and Local Data Protection | 2079-BP-V-VSM
Note: A choice must be made between selecting Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory and Quiesce guest file
system. Generally the longer a snapshot is retained, the less valuable the virtual machine memory is.
5. Click OK to create the snapshot.
Remember that with Virtual Volumes, VMware will offload the creation of virtual machine snapshots to an array,
where the array native snapshot capabilities can be used. This means that snapshots do not need to be deleted after a
short period of time, nor does the best practice of only going two or three snapshots deep apply. Array-based
snapshots have become a new tool in the vSphere admins toolbox, and can be used to add granularity of protection
when used in conjunction with backup programs, or to provide a mean of rapidly restoring from high risk software
changes.
7.2.2 Restoring from a snapshot
Restoring a virtual-volume-based virtual machine from an array-based snapshot is a rapid process. However, if a
memory dump was included at the time of taking the snapshot, the process will take longer since this will need to be
read into memory on the ESXi host. This rapid restoration process is due to the nature of array snapshots. At restore
time, the process on the array is:
1. vSphere shuts down the virtual machine, and sends the restore request.
2. The restore request is received from vSphere through the VASA Provider.
3. The currently attached data virtual volumes for the virtual machine are detached from the virtual machine.
4. The virtual machine is reconfigured to point to a specified snapshot of virtual volumes.