Both (compared to RDM LUNs) have another disadvantage, though: you need to manually align your first
and only partition in your VMDK when the VMFS LUN or NFS VMDK is on the Filer.
 
Filer's strict 4KB read/write requires NTFS in the VMDK to align perfectly with WAFL 4kb blocks.
From: Page, Jeremy [mailto:jeremy.page@gilbarco.com]
Sent: woensdag 8 juli 2009 15:53
To: Leimann, Olaf; Skip Norman; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: RE: Mounting VMware Volume Snapshot on Windows Host

This is one of the biggest benefits of running over NFS, seeing your VMDK files with out having to go through a block device is very handy.

 

Jeremy Page____________________            

From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Leimann, Olaf
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 8:04 AM
To: Skip Norman; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: RE: Mounting VMware Volume Snapshot on Windows Host

 

That's happening because the VMWare LUN does not have NTFS on there - you can't read VMFS from Windows.

The Disk will be visible in the Disk management, though, so you can go ahead and destroy all data by partitioning and reformatting it if you like ;-).

-- 
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From: Skip Norman [mailto:snorman@alexza.com]
Sent: woensdag 8 juli 2009 1:30
To: toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: Mounting VMware Volume Snapshot on Windows Host

I have a windows 2003 server with Snapdrive 4.2.1 and I was wondering how I can mount a snapshot of a volume that holds vmware luns. Is this possible? I was told that this is feasible with VCB framework installed; however, I currently receive an error: “unable to connect disk. Failure in connecting to the virtual disk. Error: A timeout of 600 secs elapsed while waiting for the volume arrival notification from the operating system”.

I have verified that I can mount exchange volume snapshots for SMBR recovery on this machine.

 

Also, what are others here doing for image level backups of their VM’s? Are there better/cheaper alternatives to VCB and SMVI? How is SMVI working out for those of you out there using it?

 

Thanks.

 

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