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jinxnbu's avatar
jinxnbu
Level 5
10 years ago

Backup of vmdk

I have presented the vmware datastore luns to the media server (after disabling automount)  for lan free backup.  

Will the backups work if the data store LUN is presented to the media server as read only ?

Thanks in advance. 

 

2012
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Virtualization
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    10 years ago

    Well, it has to have automount disabled set, otherwise Windows will write a disk signature to your files and then you've got real problems when it overwrites the data.

    Take the time to read the TN below as this will help you set it up:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH155831

    Here are the best practices:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=howto74443

    Thanks!

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    10 years ago

    Verbatim from this KB - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=tech183072

    When using SAN transport or hot-add mode on a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 VMware Backup Host, make sure to set:

    •  SAN policy to onlineAll
    •  SAN disk as read-only, except during restores

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  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Well, it has to have automount disabled set, otherwise Windows will write a disk signature to your files and then you've got real problems when it overwrites the data.

    Take the time to read the TN below as this will help you set it up:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH155831

    Here are the best practices:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=howto74443

    Thanks!

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Verbatim from this KB - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=tech183072

    When using SAN transport or hot-add mode on a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 VMware Backup Host, make sure to set:

    •  SAN policy to onlineAll
    •  SAN disk as read-only, except during restores
  • jinxnbu's avatar
    jinxnbu
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    Thanks Craig and VJware for your responses. I have read the docs you mentioned previously and heres what is contradicting..

     

    In the technote Craing mentioned TECH155831 it says

    • LUNs should be presented to the BE server with read/write ability.

     

    and the article VJ mentioned it says SAN disk as read-only.. 

     

     

    Thanks

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Read-only should be just fine. In fact, the fitst KB posted by CraigV contains a link to a VMware KB which has verbatim:- "Set SAN disk to read‐only except for restore."

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    ...my first post mentions it has to be read-only, because if Windows detects that they can be written too, it's going to write a Windows signature to the drive and wipe out the data thereon...no VMs anymore.

    Thanks!

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    For backup you should be able to use Read-only or Read/write SAN connections.

    If you use read/write then you just need to take care that the operating system is correctly configured to not try to write signatures to the disk (or automount it) and that no one ever runs any utilities that might write windows disk signatures or takes over full control of the volume.

    At this current time we do not support SAN Transport restores, however if we decide to bring back this facility, then these types of restores will neeed Read/Write access across the SAN connection. NBD restores do not need Read/Write across the SAN connection as they use the LAN. TECH155831 was originally written when SAN Transport restores were possible (hence the Read/Write statement)