toasters May 2009

toasters@lists.teaparty.net

23 participants
15 discussions

Netapp and VMware... It's all so confusing!
by Timothy Hollingworth 01 Apr '10

01 Apr '10

So, say for example, I want to virtualize an Exchange server. Lets also say that I want to manage it via Snapdrive and SME. Lets also say, just for the heck of it, that I want both the new front-engined Acura NSX as well as the Porsche RC3. The cars aside, I would have to run iSCSI from within the VM, install and use Snapdrive from within the VM to provision LUNs, install Exchange and then use SME? It seems kind of silly to use iSCSI from within a VM if the ESX box were fiber attached to the Filer, just to be able to use Snapdrive and SME, no? I would love to be able to use the features of SD and SME within a completely virtual environment and am wondering what some real world implementations other VMware/Netapp customers are running. Do you run storage for the databases and logs in VMDK's and manage snapshots and backups from a VMware virtual machine perspective or do you manage them as iSCSI LUNs and use SD and SME? Or am I completely blind and missing something? Timothy L. Hollingworth Sr. Network Engineer, ePlus Technology Inc. 678.462.6698 (cell) AIM: HollingworthTim YIM: t_holling

11 15

How are you using SnapDrive + iSCSI HBAs on a separated storage LAN ?
by Filip Sneppe 29 May '09

29 May '09

Hi, I am struggling to get the following setup to work properly: - A separated storage IP subnet, not routed to the LAN - A multihomed NetApp filer with an IP address on both the storage IP subnet and the LAN - A Windows 2003 server with a normal NIC on the LAN and an iSCSI HBA on the storage subnet. - The iSCSI HBA is a dual Qlogic HBA, but only one of them is connected, the other one is left unconfigured. I don't intend to use MPIO. - The setups I've worked on lately have all been boot-from-SAN setups, but I don't know if that's really relevant to the problem. Now, presenting LUNs and using them on the server (or even booting from them) has not been much of a problem, no issues there. The problem arises when I want to use SnapDrive for LUN management tasks such as snapshotting. From the docs I've read, what I gather is that I have to install the MS iSCSI initiator even when using iSCSI HBAs: https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb8988 (this doc is not 100% clear to me: should I only select the iSCSI service during the installation, or also the MS iSCSI initiator itself ? What is the impact of selecting the MS iSCSI MPIO ?) I also make sure to change the initiator name on the HBA to the iSCSI initiator name used by the MS iSCSI initiator: https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb21672 The end result is that my LUNs are accessible from the HBA. However, when opening the Computer Management MMC and going to the disks managed by SnapDrive, no disks are shown and the SnapDrive service is logging that filer IP address a.b.c.d is dead, as described in this article: https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb30762 This article talks about fixing up domain credentials and name resolution, but from a network routing point of view, I can see where this error is coming from: the Windows server is not aware of the HBA connected to the storage segment and cannot reach it via its normal NIC, so it reports a dead filer IP address. Now, the quick fix would be to add the necessary routes to/from the storage IP network, but that would mean that this network is no longer fully isolated from the rest of the network, whcih I would very much like to avoid. What really drives me mad is that I have a setup at a customer site described as above that works perfectly fine (ie. SnapDrive shows the LUNs in the MMC and SMSQL can create snapshots & backups), yet I have another customer site where SnapDrive is unable to do anything because it cannot find the LUNs. Just today I was at a customer site with a setup as described above, where SnapDrive was able to work with the LUNs. They hadn't installed the host utilities, so I did the following: - Installed a MS hotfix required by the host utils - Installed the host utils - uninstalled a version of SMSQL and installed version 2.1.2 After a server reboot: boom, SnapDrive doesn't see ane LUNs any more, so no way to take any snapshots any more of these LUNs. So that's two out of three setups that are not working. I fiddled around a little with things: ie. installed the MS iSCSI MPIO, reinstallled the host utils (5.1) with MPIO support, etc. At one point, I had uninstalled the host utils & SMSQL, and then reinstalled the MS iSCSI initiator and SnapDrive, and I saw the LUNs again using MMC. I reboot one last time to make sure everything's fine, and ... bang ... no more visible LUNs from SnapDrive. So at this point I would like to know: - Has anyone had similar experiences ? - If you are using iSCSI HBAs on a separated storage network, what is your magic formula to get things working correctly ? Should I be able to get this thing to work without adding a route to the storage network ? Thanks in advance for your suggestions ! Best regards, Filip

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lun resize of FCP vmware lun
by Linux Admin 22 May '09

22 May '09

Can I do lun resize of live vmware lun? What are the steps in Vmware (just rescan?) any consideration?

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RE: SMVI "Operation timed out" during queice / vmware-level snapshot
by Ken Williams 22 May '09

22 May '09

We just moved these VMs to this datastore, They are freshly rebooted after having the Vmtools updated... -----Original Message----- From: Matt Hallmark [mailto:matt@cosmictoaster.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 4:51 PM To: Sto Rage(c) Cc: Ken Williams; toasters(a)mathworks.com Subject: Re: SMVI "Operation timed out" during queice / vmware-level snapshot Is this a new VM, or with tools newly installed? Try rebooting the VM, that sometimes fixes these symptoms for me. Matt Hallmark On May 20, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Sto Rage(c) wrote: > We have seen something similar recently. Is "snqfpapp01" a Windows VM? > Check the version of VMware tools installed on that VM and > reinstall/upgrade if necessary. That fixed the issue for us. > Hope that helps > > -Sto Rage > > On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Ken Williams <kwillia(a)smud.org> > wrote: >> Anyone seeing these types of issues? >> >> I have a FAS3070 cluster serving VMFS datastore over fiber channel to >> a 6 server cluster of ESX 3.5 latest SP. I seem to get a couple VMs >> (randomly) >> that are unable to perform the VMWare snapshot and cause the snapshot >> to fail. The problem seems to be hit or miss. >> >> Here's an excerpt from the log: >> 2009-05-19 19:18:47,556 INFO - FLOW-11012: Operation requested retry >> 2009-05-19 19:18:57,681 INFO - FLOW-11006: Starting operation in >> threadpool backup >> 2009-05-19 19:18:57,697 INFO - FLOW-11012: Operation requested retry >> 2009-05-19 19:19:07,822 INFO - FLOW-11006: Starting operation in >> threadpool backup >> 2009-05-19 19:19:07,837 WARN - VMware Task "CreateSnapshot_Task" >> for entity >> "snqfpapp01" failed with the following error: Operation timed out. >> 2009-05-19 19:19:07,837 ERROR - VM "snqfpapp01" will not be backed up >> since vmware snapshot create operation failed. >> >> I have a case open with Netapp but I'd like to see if the community >> has seen this. >> So has anyone else seen this problem? Any suggestions? >> __________________________________________________________ >> Ken Williams >> Storage Administrator, Business Technology Operations Sacramento >> Municipal Utility District >> E-Mail: kwillia(a)smud.org >> Phone: (916) 732-6744 >> Cell: (916) 240-4213 >

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SMVI "Operation timed out" during queice / vmware-level snapshot
by Ken Williams 20 May '09

20 May '09

Anyone seeing these types of issues? I have a FAS3070 cluster serving VMFS datastore over fiber channel to a 6 server cluster of ESX 3.5 latest SP. I seem to get a couple VMs (randomly) that are unable to perform the VMWare snapshot and cause the snapshot to fail. The problem seems to be hit or miss. Here's an excerpt from the log: 2009-05-19 19:18:47,556 INFO - FLOW-11012: Operation requested retry 2009-05-19 19:18:57,681 INFO - FLOW-11006: Starting operation in threadpool backup 2009-05-19 19:18:57,697 INFO - FLOW-11012: Operation requested retry 2009-05-19 19:19:07,822 INFO - FLOW-11006: Starting operation in threadpool backup 2009-05-19 19:19:07,837 WARN - VMware Task "CreateSnapshot_Task" for entity "snqfpapp01" failed with the following error: Operation timed out. 2009-05-19 19:19:07,837 ERROR - VM "snqfpapp01" will not be backed up since vmware snapshot create operation failed. I have a case open with Netapp but I'd like to see if the community has seen this. So has anyone else seen this problem? Any suggestions? __________________________________________________________ Ken Williams Storage Administrator, Business Technology Operations Sacramento Municipal Utility District E-Mail: kwillia(a)smud.org Phone: (916) 732-6744 Cell: (916) 240-4213

2 1

cifs share umask for a unix qtree
by Roy McMorran 20 May '09

20 May '09

I have a qtree that's shared among NFS and CIFS clients. The security style is Unix. If I set the umask to be 002, ie: filer> cifs shares -change myshare -umask 2 Then the files created in the share via CIFS still have the *execute bits set*: $ ls -al test.txt -rwxrwxr-x 1 user group 4 May 19 16:41 test.txt That's not what I want; none of these files should really be executable. I have read at least one thread in the list archives that suggest using a umask of 113, ie: filer> cifs shares -change myshare -umask 113 This seems sketchy, but I gave it a try. Well, it works for files, but also omits the execute bits from newly-created *directories*: $ ls -ald test* -rwxrwxr-x 1 user group 4 May 19 16:41 test.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 user group 4 May 19 16:43 test2.txt drw-rw-r-- 2 user group 4096 May 19 16:48 test And directories don't work so well in that case! Am I missing something? Why should it not behave like the Unix umask command (with respect to directories)? OnTap 7.2.5 if it matters. Thanks, -- Roy McMorran Systems Administrator MDI Biological Laboratory mcmorran(a)mdibl.org

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Re: Any luck with SnapMirror & ESX LUN's ?
by Raj Patel 18 May '09

18 May '09

I guess one key factor is that VIBE is free(ish) and unsupported(?) from what I've read but SMVI is a supported product at a commercial price-point. Anyone tried the VMWare Site Recovery Manager tool ? Is there a NetApp integration component in the works (my understanding is the product leverages SAN vendor API's to ensure consistant intersite replication of VM's) ? On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 10:16 AM, oakley <oakerz(a)lycos.com> wrote: > How difficult is VIBE to implement though? I had a brief conversation with > my SE and with a NetApp Virtualization Architect and both highly suggested > using Professional Services to do it. Also, and I've barely done any reading > on it, does VIBE give you all of the same benefits that SM-VI does? If not, > what are the primary differences? What experiences, good/bad, have you had > with it? > > ---------[ Received Mail Content ]---------- > > Subject : RE: Any luck with SnapMirror & ESX LUN's ? > Date : Thu, 14 May 2009 10:51:46 -0700 > From : Ken Williams <kwillia(a)smud.org> > To : "Learmonth, Peter" <Peter.Learmonth(a)netapp.com>, "Raj Patel" < > phigmov(a)gmail.com>, <toasters(a)mathworks.com> > > VIBE is also an option for those who aren't ready to take the plunge to > SMVI. > VIBE is available if you have an active NOW account under downloads>tool > chest. > ________________________________ > > >

4 3

vmware userland file-level restores (vmdks on nfs + smvi)
by Nick Silkey 14 May '09

14 May '09

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Toasters -- Our bare-metal systems[1] are able to self-service themselves with TSM clients to perform file-level restores. There is a push to standardize on VMWare to replace the kit behind a lot of the low-hanging fruit Windows/Linux x86 systems. But theres a desire to not reduce function regarding file-level restores with the introduction of this new VMWare platform. We dont want to stick TSM clients on these guests due to redundant backup data shuffling over to pricy FC 3Par disk and the inordinate I/O load on the guests impacting ESX. We want to find a crafty means to leverage crash-consistent snaps on the NetApp (ala, SMVI) which is hosting all the vmdks in order to source restores, but no one is able to order the steps and pieces in such a way that allows people to self-service file-level restores. Theres been talk of craziness of exporting/serving snaps of vmdks to staging guests which can then browse the vmdk to pluck out files and other such hoop-jumping ... but this far from an elegant, scalable solution. The NetApp hosting VMWare serves VMDKs via NFS (3160 under 7.2.6.1). A-SIS and SMVI are components in this architecture as well. If anyone has crossed this path before, insight is appreciated. Thanks. [1]: Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, and Tru64 ... oh my. - -- Nick Silkey -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin) iEYEARECAAYFAkoMKrQACgkQrDQjhjXrMeK++wCfZdTkxRUFpWVM7caUatOcC5wp GlQAn0amnstES04kngn9wyKNyb8RbHGg =QjuQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Any luck with SnapMirror & ESX LUN's ?
by Raj Patel 14 May '09

14 May '09

Hi, Anyone used SnapMirror successfully with ESX LUN's ? I realise it will only be a crash-consistent copy and I have to enable LUN re-signaturing for ESX to pick it up but this seems like a handy way for me to backup a few DMZ VM's on a LUN (on a seperate secured iSCSI vlan) to another LUN on the same SAN. Cheers, Raj.

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SnapMirror to tape ; anyone adopters?
by Nick Silkey 07 May '09

07 May '09

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 If anyone has words to share on FAS -- SnapMirror --> TSM[1], good bad or ugly, send them my way. I was hoping for a TR but didnt hit on one during my brief search. Thanks! - -- Nick Silkey [1]: http://www.netapp.com/us/company/news/press-releases/news-rel-20090205.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin) iEYEARECAAYFAkoDSVgACgkQrDQjhjXrMeIKWwCgzSA1TiwoFfYuIcQshOIKWKrb qBkAn1VTkVT/cyr9rc8NlnE2ghmjb8PM =LjHt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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toasters May 2009