HP 3PAR Recovery Manager 2.0 Software for Microsoft Hyper-V User Guide (QL226-97701, May 2014)

About Virtual Copy Management
HP 3PAR Recovery Manager for Microsoft Hyper-V features an essential Virtual Copy management
tool with enhanced recovery commands that allow you to create and restore application consistent
Virtual Copies of running Hyper-V Virtual Machines (VMs). When creating a VM Virtual Copy,
Recovery Manager for Microsoft Hyper-V identifies all the underlying HP 3PAR volumes and creates
Virtual Copies simultaneously for all volumes to ensure consistency. Recovery Manager for Microsoft
Hyper-V manages the set of Virtual Copies as a single entity.
NOTE: HP 3PAR Recovery Manager for Microsoft Hyper-V requires a license. In addition, specific
licenses are required for HP 3PAR Virtual Copy and HP 3PAR Virtual Lock when performing Virtual
Copy operations and setting volume retention policies.
Virtual Copy Data Consistency
Recovery Manager for Hyper-V creates application consistent Virtual copies of Hyper-V Virtual
Machines with Microsoft VSS technology and the HP 3PAR VSS Provider, using the Child VM
snapshot backup method.
For application consistent backups (Child VM Snapshot method) to be supported, the following
conditions must be met:
• All VM files must reside on HP 3PAR LUNs.
• Backup (volume snapshot) Integration Service is installed and running in the child VM. The
service name is Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor.
• The child VM must be in the running state.
• The snapshot file location for the VM is set to be the same volume in the host operating system
as the VHD files for the VM.
• All volumes in the child VM are basic disks and there are no dynamic disks.
• All disks in the child VM must use a file system that supports snapshots. For example, NTFS.
If the preceding conditions are not met, then a saved state (crash consistent) backup is taken, where
the VM is put into saved state during the backup process, and then returned to its previous state
on completion.
Recovery Manager for Hyper-V saves the Virtual Copy details, along with the VSS backup document,
for browsing and restoring purposes.
Application consistency is provided for HP 3PAR snapshots of Virtual Machines for data compatibility
with supported applications through the VSS Child VM Snapshot method, and supports crash
consistent backups using the Saved state method.
Virtual Copy Policy
Recovery Manager for Microsoft Hyper-V provides the ability to create Virtual Copy policies for
VMs. Only a single policy is permitted for every Virtual Machine and the policies exist independently
of the virtual disks the VM is using.
In Recovery Manager for Microsoft Hyper-V, the Virtual Copy policy contains the following
attributes:
• Enable expirable Virtual Copies allows you to specify that created Virtual Copies are removed
according to a specified schedule and are not affected by the maximum count.
• Retain Virtual Copy Set supports the number of hours and days of a Virtual Copy set being
retained.
NOTE: The Retain Virtual Copy Set option requires a HP 3PAR Virtual Lock™ license. For
more information about obtaining a license for HP 3PAR Virtual Lock™, contact your local
service provider.
About Virtual Copy Management 11