Technical Report This document has been archived and will no longer be maintained or updated. For more information go to the Storage Solutions Technical Documents page on Dell TechCenter or contact support. Virtual Machine Protection with Dell EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager v3.5 Abstract This Technical Report focuses on the usage of the Dell™ EqualLogic™ Virtual Storage Manager v3.
Copyright © 2012 Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved. EqualLogic is a registered trademark of Dell Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Dell, Inc. will not be held liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information in this document is subject to change.
Preface PS Series arrays optimize resources by automating performance and network load balancing. Additionally, PS Series arrays offer all-inclusive array management software, host software, and free firmware updates. Audience The information in this guide is intended for VMware vCenter administrators and PS Series SAN administrators.
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Table of Contents Revision Information ........................................................................................................................................... vi Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................
Revision Information The following table describes the release history of this Technical Report. Report Date Document Revision 1.0 November 2012 Initial Release for VSM v3.5 The following table shows the software and firmware used for the preparation of this Technical Report. Vendor Model Software Revision Dell PS Series SAN 5.2 or higher, 6.x VMware vCenter/ESX 4.1, 5.0, 5.1 Dell Virtual Storage Manager v3.5 The following table lists the documents referred to in this Technical Report.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This technical report is aimed at VMware™ and Dell™ EqualLogic™ PS Series SAN administrators to guide them on the use of the Dell Virtual Storage Manager v3.5 to create and coordinate hypervisor-aware snapshots for data protection and recovery. Throughout this technical report, examples will be given for setting up and configuring snapshots and schedules as well as instructions on data recovery and other advanced options.
space efficient point in time snapshots, and then releasing the VMs from snapshot mode. The benefits allow VSM to combine the hypervisor and application aware snapshots from VMware with the SAN snapshots for a better coordinated data protection plan. VM consistency is determined by a number of factors such as the VMware Tools being present, application support from VMware etc. Administrators are leveraging snapshots on a daily basis to help augment their already existing backup strategies.
preference for accessing / using / the vCenter Client, all will allow you to achieve the same result, and are all based on ease of use and comfort with the tools. To launch the VSM GUI to manage and monitor your Smart Copies click on the Dell EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager icon on the Home screen of the vCenter Client under Solutions and Applications. This will launch a login dialogue box. You will need to log into VSM with credentials that have vCenter administrative access.
Smart Copies. See Table 1 for a description of each of the various panes available to you within the VSM GUI. 1 List of commonly used toolbar shortcut icons. 2 Main object pane for the tool you are using. 3 Tool buttons to launch any of the management tools inside VSM. These can be minimized to small icon buttons. 4 VSM Recent Tasks pane.
Table 1: VSM GUI Table 2 is a description of each of the toolbar shortcut icons.
There are multiple ways to launch the Create Smart Copy wizard and it really comes down to the user and their preference as they all launch the same set of dialogue wizards. This flexibility in design allows for each of the various Smart Copies, schedules, etc. to be launched from a variety of places.
Smart Copy from vCenter UI -> VMs and Templates view Smart Copy from vCenter UI -> Datastores and Datastore Clusters view 7
Step 1 - Create Smart Copy When creating Smart Copies from the VSM Smart Copy interface the first step is to select a managed object. This can be a Virtual Machine or a Virtual Machine folder. The inventory view can be changed to Datastores in which case the managed object can be a Datastore, a Datastore folder or a Datastore cluster.
Datastore, Datastore Folder, and Datastore Cluster selection VSM will analyze the dependencies such as which datastore it lives on, if the VMware Tools are installed, etc and prepare a Smart Copy Plan for review. Step 2 - Smart Copy Options There are a variety of configuration choices depending on the needs of the protection scheme for the VMs.
Smart Copy options: These are optional parameters that can be selected for the Smart Copy. These options apply to all VMs included in the Smart Copy. Include PS Series volumes accessed by guest iSCSI initiators - This option requires the VMs to be powered on and the VMware Tools to be installed. If these conditions are met, VSM will query the tools and any connected PS Series iSCSI initiated volumes and include those in the Smart Copy. These volumes must reside on a Group that is also managed by the VSM.
Step 3 - Summary A variety of informational pieces are displayed. All of the options previously chosen will be displayed. In addition, all of the affected PS Series Volumes that will be part of the Smart Copy and snapshotted will be listed here. Each volume needs to have snapshot reserve space configured for it. The summary screen will display any detected problems such as unsupported datastores, powered off VMs, no tools installed etc. Verify the summary and resolve any detected problems.
During the Smart Copy process, each of the VMs will be placed into VMware snapshot mode, quiescing the virtual machine (if VMtools are installed). Once the VM snapshots are created, VSM will coordinate PS Series snapshots for each of the included PS Series Volumes. When the PS Series snapshots are completed, VSM will then delete the VMware snapshots associated with the Smart Copy. This will not delete any existing VMware snapshots on the VMs, just the ones created for the Smart Copy.
vCenter Recent Tasks Pane Inside the Group Manager GUI the associated PS Series Volumes will have a new snapshot created and the description will read Created by Auto-Snapshot Manager/VMware Edition. Group Manager GUI SCALABILITY WITH FOLDERS AND DATASTORES As virtual environments grow it becomes increasingly important to be able to protect these environments. However protecting these growing and changing environments can also be a challenge.
Example of folders in vCenter for Protection AUTOMATING PROTECTION WITH SCHEDULES Individual Smart Copies are useful for one off situations such as testing a new patch or software build but the real power from VSM comes from the built-in scheduling function. This provides a layer of protection that allows VMs to meet a better SLA for recoverability. Everything that can have a Smart Copy taken can also have a schedule created to automate the process.
Schedule from VSM GUI From within vCenter under the Hosts and Clusters view, Datastores and Datastore Clusters view or VMs and Templates view right click an object, select EqualLogic -> Create Schedule As with creating an individual Smart Copy, when creating a Smart Copy Schedule from the VSM Smart Copy interface the first step is to select a managed object. This can be a Virtual Machine or a Virtual Machine folder.
Smart Copy Schedule that happens every 2 hours and has a keep count, or maximum number of copies, of 10. The additional benefit to this is any new VMs that are created that need the same level of protection only have to be placed inside the 2h folder to inherit that protection, and no changes to the schedule are needed. There are multiple options when choosing your protection schemes. Step 1 - Select Managed Object Make your selection of the object in the correct view and click Next.
Run once - Run once is used to test a schedule or to set it to run once on a particular date and time in the future. Daily schedule - Use Daily schedule to configure a schedule that will run every day with options including all days, weekdays only or weekends only. Weekly schedule - Weekly schedule can be used to configure a schedule that runs only once a week. The days and time for each time it is run can be configured in the wizard.
Configure all of the relevant options and click Next to continue. Step 4 - Options You are presented with the same Smart Copy options to Include PS Series volumes accessed by guest iSCSI initiators and whether or not to perform virtual machine memory dump. In addition to the Smart Copy options, there is a Retention policy to specify the maximum number of Smart Copies to keep. This will allow for a rolling schedule to keep a particular number of Smart Copies and roll them over when the oldest one expires.
The last option for Error Handling is identical to when taking a stand-alone Smart Copy. Make your selections and click Next. Step 5 - Summary Verify all of the information in summary pane. During this time you can choose to disable this schedule as well to run at a later time. Once everything is set click Finish to complete the Smart Copy Schedule wizard.
Verifying and Modifying Smart Copy Schedules Once a Smart Copy schedule has been configured you can see it, along with all the other schedules, by clicking the Scheduled Tasks tool button in the main VSM home page. Expand Smart Copy schedules and all available schedules will be listed. By right clicking on the schedule you can enable/disable the schedule or make modifications to the schedule. You can also see prior runs and verify whether they were successful or not.
Overlapping Datastore Schedules It is very important to have an understanding of what VSM is doing in the background during these schedules otherwise you may end up with overlapping datastore schedules and not accomplishing the data protection scheme you are trying to achieve. Every object that is Smart Copied is first put into VMware snapshot mode and then the underlying datastore volume on the PS Series SAN is snapped.
VMs to a different or new datastore. It is because of this, that proper VM placement for protection strategies is important. MANAGING SMART COPIES AND OPERATIONS VSM includes a variety of tools to manage the Smart Copies that are created. From within the Smart Copies Getting Started tab you have the option to Verify all Smart Copies or to Delete all Smart Copies. When the verify runs, it will query the VSM database and make sure that the PS Series snapshots still exist that relate to each Smart Copy.
Another benefit to the VSM is the ability to see the recent tasks that have been performed. You can look through this to see which Smart Copies or scheduled operations have been completed along with any errors. For more detailed information click the Open Tasks link. This will show a list of all of the VSM tasks that have been run along with their status.
By selecting an operation such as a Smart Copy, you can click the Job Results tab to get a better understanding of the operations that were performed as well as if it was successful. In the Job Results tab there will also be any further user interactions that have to be performed listed here.
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RECOVERING WITH SMARTCOPIES The reasons for to recover virtual machines can be many; bad patch or software build, corrupt file or virtual machine, or even a file that was deleted by accident. Creating Smart Copies on a standard schedule adds additional recovery points of the virtual environment to a traditional backup schedule in case data needs to be restored. By utilizing the Smart Copies in addition to the traditional backup schemes, administrators gain a shorter recovery time objective.
Step 1 - Smart Copy Inventory A Smart Copy can contain multiple VMs from multiple datastores. In certain recovery scenarios restoring an entire Smart Copy might be desired but in other recovery scenarios only a select few VMs, or an individual VM, are needed to be recovered. Select the VM or VMs that are to be recovered and click Next. Step 2 - Configure Restore Plan In Step 2, each of the VMs to be recovered is displayed under their associated datastore. There are two ways to recover VMs.
Restore by rollback - By selecting Rollback datastore, all of the affected VMs will be powered off and then the entire datastore is reverted to a previous PS Series snapshot. The ESXi servers will rescan the HBAs and then the VMs are refreshed from this point in time. NOTE: The entire datastore will be rolled back, this will affect all VMs on the datastore including new VMs that might not be part of an older Smart Copy. VSM will warn you of these impacts if they exist.
Step 3 - Target Volumes If there are any iSCSI attached volumes as part of the Smart Copy these can also be selected for restoration. The iSCSI volume will be reverted to the PS Series snapshot. Select any target volumes to recover and click Next. Step 4 - Summary Verify all of the choices. If there are any VMs that are impacted because of a roll back they will be listed here along with any other detected issues. Click Finish to begin the Smart Copy recovery process.
During the restore process you can monitor the progress in the Recent Tasks pane of the VSM GUI. During a restore by copy a new PS Series volume will appear that is the clone of the PS Series snapshot. It will be appended with VSM-temp. When vCenter rescans you will see a new datastore appended with snap- and the name of the base datastore. The volumes will be cleaned up and deleted after the restore by copy is completed.
Example of snap- datastore for restore by copy After the restore is complete, you can see in the Job Results any additional user intervention that might need to be taken as well as any information or warnings.
Example Job Results 32
CREATING SMART CLONES Creating clones in any environment can be very useful for a number of reasons. They allow you to quickly deploy multiple sets of virtual machines to either test configurations or create identical environments to use. VSM has the capability to not only clone running virtual machine environments but also create clon es from previous Smart Copies. This allows the administrator to bring online copies of virtual machines from a prior point in time.
Smart Clones can be created from existing objects in vCenter in the exact same manner as creating a Smart Copy, or more commonly, can be created from previously run Smart Copies. To create a Smart Clone from an existing Smart Copy open the VSM GUI and click the tool button Smart Copies. Select a Smart Copy object you wish to clone. In the right pane right click on the desired Smart Copy and select Clone from Smart Copy.
Step 2 - Virtual Machines In the next page of the wizard, select the folder location for the newly cloned VMs. They will also have a unique name and timestamp of the Smart Copy. Select the inventory location and click Next.
Step 3 - Resource Pool There may be times in which the cloned VMs should run in a different resource pool than the original. In this step you can choose to have the VM s run in the same resource pool as the original VMs, or have them draw their resources from a different resource pool. Make your selection and click Next.
Step 4 - Summary In the final page of the wizard verify all of the settings and click Finish to begin the cloning process.
During this time VSM will coordinate with the PS Series SAN and create volume clones of all of the snapshots that are part of the Smart Copy. Once these volumes are cloned VSM will tell vCenter to rescan and bring these new cloned volumes into the environment. Then depending on if you selected to register the VMs, VSM may register these VMs and assign them to the appropriate resource pool. VSM will not power on any VMs. This is to protect the original VM environment.
Cloned volumes inside PS Series Group Manager GUI Cloned datastores in vCenter GUI Smart Clones from vCenter environment Occasionally you may wish to create a Smart Clone of existing virtual machines and not from a previously taken Smart Copy. The process is similar to taking a Smart Clone. Just as there are multiple ways to take a Smart Copy there are the same options when taking a Smart Clone.
This will launch the Smart Clone wizard but the managed object will need to be selected. If the wizard is launched from the shortcut toolbar button you have the option of selecting the managed object. If Create Smart Clone is launched through the vCenter UI on an object, as shown in the above screenshot, VSM will use that object for the Smart Clone. From here the steps for creating a Smart Clone of a running environment versus creating one from a previous Smart Copy, as previously documented, are identical.
hot add data disks. The other option is to have a temporary or standby recovery VM available that can have data drives mounted to it and then used to find the files to recover and copy them back to the original location. The process is very similar to creating a Smart Clone but with some additional steps. First find the Smart Copy that contains the data that needs to be recovered. Choose to Clone from Smart Copy.
Step 3 - iSCSI Access Choose to Auto-Generate ACL records or use an ACL policy to assign to the cloned volumes to ensure that the designated cluster can rescan and see the volumes. For more information on creating and using ACL policies see TR1067 EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager: Installation Considerations and Datastore Manager. Select the iSCSI Access and click Next.
Step 4 - Summary Verify the clone settings and click Finish. This will create clones on the PS Series SAN of all of the datastore volumes associated with the Smart Copy. Then it will rescan the vCenter cluster that was designated.
Step 5 - Edit VM After this is done you can continue with attaching the data drive to the initial VM or recovery VM. Once the datastores have been cloned and are seen by vCenter right click on the VM that will be receiving the recovery data disk and click Edit Settings. Step 6 - Attach Disk The next step is to add an existing hard disk to the VM pointing to the snapshot datastore. Click Add Hardware and select Hard Disk and click Next.
Choose to Use an existing virtual disk and click Next. Click Browse and browse to the cloned datastore that has the data disk. Select the datastore, and click Open. Browse to the Virtual Machine folder and select the data disk .vmdk you wish to attach. Click Ok.
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Keep the defaults for the virtual disk and click Next. Normally in persistent data drives you would configure a different virtualized SCSI adapter but in a recovery scenario the defaults are sufficient. Verify all the settings and click Finish. Click Ok to finalize adding the virtual disk to the VM.
NOTE: You might receive a virtual machine message about this disk having the same UUID. During the recovery process this disk will not exist long so you can continue adding it and removing it after the recovery process. If you plan on keeping the recovery volume around for a period of time including a reboot of the recovery VM, choose a new UUID for it.
Once the recovery data disk has been mounted to the VM, utilize the native OS tools to recover the data. For example, in Windows 2008R2, first open up disk management. Online the disk and it will assign a drive letter to that disk. After the drive letter is assigned, browse that drive letter and it will be the version of the original data drive from the point in time that the Smart Copy was taken. Copy or move the files or data that need to be recovered inside the VM.
seen as new writes. Leveraging Storage DRS (sDRS) or constantly moving VMs from one volume to another could dramatically increase the amount of snapshot space consumed on the SAN to keep track of this movement. VSM Smart Copies can also be used in conjunction with a variety of the other Dell EqualLogic host integration tools for more granular protection of the application data within the virtual machine.
Technical Support and Customer Service Dell support service is available to answer your questions about PS Series SAN arrays. Contacting Dell 1. If you have an Express Service Code, have it ready. The code helps the Dell automated support telephone system direct your call more efficiently. 2. If you are a customer in the United States or Canada in need of technical support, call 1-800-945-3355. If not, go to Step 3. 3. Visit support.equallogic.com. 4.
