I must add that SnapDrive 6.0 will support RDM LUNs for FC HBA (QLogic or Emulex) connected LUNs in the ESX.
 
Thanks,
Niraj


From: Milazzo Giacomo [mailto:G.Milazzo@sinergy.it]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:52 AM
To: Jaiswal, Niraj; Neis, Mark; toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: R: Another Snapmanager Question (MS Exchange, VMware ESX)

This is really a great thing! J

 

For now, rdm in ESX have nothing to do with SD! They’re simply raw space seen by guest using another virtual scsi controller exposed by VMware. SD does the same but the guest cannot use FCP used by ESX servers! It must use iSCSI!

 

Da: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] Per conto di Jaiswal, Niraj
Inviato: martedì 20 maggio 2008 18.34
A: Neis, Mark; toasters@mathworks.com
Oggetto: RE: Another Snapmanager Question (MS Exchange, VMware ESX)

 

Mark,

 

SnapDrive 6.0 (soon to be released) will support RDM LUNs (Physical Compatibility Mode) in the VMware ESX Guest OS. You can use SnapManager for Exchange in the Guest OS and take advantage of all the benefits and features as in a Physical Server.

 

Hope this helps,

Niraj

 


From: Neis, Mark [mailto:Mark.Neis@gisa.de]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:04 AM
To: toasters@mathworks.com
Subject: Re: Another Snapmanager Question (MS Exchange, VMware ESX)

Hi Nils,

 

you wrote:

> For every customer a different scenario offcourse, but you can install MS iSCSI Initiator in

> a VM, stack SnapDrive on top of that, and in this way run SnapManager for Exchange.

> Basically, you connect a dedicated LUN from within the VM directly to a NetApp, and not

> use any VMWare functionality (except for OS disks) to run Exchange.

> 

> This way you have your snapshotted LUNs and you can back them up any way you like.

 

I'm afraid I wasn't fully clear. We just replaced a FAS940c by a 3070c which is attached to the

(already existing) FC fabric. The FAS940c wasn't. That's why we used iSCSI for our other

customers in the past. But now we would like to get the storage from the FC fabric.

The problem, as I see it, is that afaik there is no way to attach the fabric to the guest OS directly,

as you'd need a FC HBA inside the VM.

 

From the point of view of the guest OS, the storage that is attached to the ESX looks just like an

ordinary hard drive. And I suppose SnapDrive won't work if there is no LUNs for it to see.

However, to keep the Exchange storage groups consistent when doing back up, you need to start

the backup from within the guest OS. We might use the NT backup mechanism, though - but I'm

not yet sure if that's our best bet.

 

> There are many variation to this theme, and I heard rumours that NetApp is working on

> expanding possibilities of SnapManager for VI and SnapDrive, but I'm sure your SE will

> have more information on that ;)

 

I hope so - but I figured I had better try to check the possibilities there are so I'd be able to

ask the right questions ;)


Kind regards,
Mark Neis

--

Mark Neis
System Administrator

GISA GmbH
Chemnitztalstr. 13
09114 Chemnitz
Tel. +49.(0)371.482.6737
Fax  +49.(0)345.585.100.6737

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