HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform Administrator Guide (5697-0934, May 2011)

5. Select Storage and then click Add Storage to open the Add Storage wizard.
6. Choose the Disk/LUN option for the storage type. In the next window you should see the
snapshot recognized with the VMFS label indicating the original Datastore name.
7. Choose the snapshot entry and click Next.
8. Choose one of two options:
• Keep the existing signature if you plan to expose the snapshot to another ESX host that
did not have previous access to the original Datastore.
• Assign a new signature if you plan to expose the snapshot to an ESX host that had previous
access to the original Datastore.
9. Complete the Add Storage wizard. The Datastore appears in the Datastores list with a special
indicator.
10. If the virtual disk snapshots contain Datastores with virtual machines, register them with the
vCenter server, and then power on the virtual machines.
Using VSS with Windows 2003 SP2 running on a virtual machine
Using the Microsoft Virtual Shadow Copy Service (VSS) with Windows 2003 SP2 running on
VMware virtual machines is supported with ESX 3.5 update 2 or higher and ESXi 3.5 update 2
or higher. Generally this service is needed when there is a need for a synchronized snapshot (also
known as consistent quiescent). With VMware virtual machines, the VSS is used to either take
synchronized snapshots of virtual disks that serve applications running on the virtual machine (like
Exchange, MS-SQL, and others) or synchronized snapshots of the virtual machine itself.
Creating synchronized snapshots of application virtual disks
This is currently not supported.
Creating a synchronized snapshot of the virtual machine
• Verify the VMware VSS hardware provider is installed as part of the VMware tools.
• In this scenario, a virtual machine can be created on a DATASTORE/vmfs file system device.
• Follow VMware instructions on how to use the VMware VSS hardware provider with VMware
Consolidated Backup (VCB). See http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/
vsp_vcb_15_u1_admin_guide.pdf.
VMware storage administration best practices 129