HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform Manager Command Line Interface User Guide (5697-0936, May 2011)

3 Server-free backup with the VSM CLI
One of the most commonly performed tasks is running backups. When running backups, a
requirement is to minimize, or in some cases completely eliminate, the impact of the backup on
the disk and the host performance. To achieve this goal, a snapshot of the disk is taken and mounted
to the backup server. The backup process then runs from the backup host and not the application,
hence “server-free backup,” against the snapshot and not against the production disk. This method
requires coordination between the storage side (VSM) and the backup system because each side
needs to perform several steps. This chapter describes how to use the VSM CLI scripting capabilities
to automate this process in a non-Windows operating system environment and a Windows operating
system environment.
Typical server-free backup process
A typical server-free backup has four major steps:
1. Creating a snapshot.
2. Mount the snapshot to the backup server.
3. Run the backups.
4. Unmount the snapshot from the backup server and delete the snapshot.
Server-free backup for a non-Windows operating system
The following steps are required to implement server-free backup in the VSM environment:
1. Create a PIT on the virtual disk you want to back up.
2. Create a snapshot for that PiT.
3. Assign the snapshot to the backup host.
4. Mount the snapshot to the backup server.
5. Run the backup.
6. Unmount the snapshot from the backup server.
7. Remove the snapshot presentation to the backup host.
8. Delete the snapshot.
9. Delete the PiT (optional).
Automating a server-free backup for a non-Windows operating system
The following sections describe how to automate a server-free backup using VSM CLI scripts:
1. Create the PiT by using a script that runs the following command:
CreatePiT -VirtualDisk VirtualDiskName, -Pit NameofPiT [Template], ~
-timeout 900
2. Create the snapshot and assign the snapshot to the backup server by using a script that runs
the following command:
CreateSnapshot ~
-Pit PiTRootName LastInstance , ~
-snapshot SnapshotName , ~
-host BackupServerName RW ~
-StoragePool PoolName, ~
-cluster 0, -timeout 900
MountVirtualDisk -MountPoint H:\, -VirtualDisk SnapshotName ~
-Override
58 Server-free backup with the VSM CLI