Hi Raj Yes, there are many people using SnapMirror with ESX datastores, both NFS and VMFS LUNs (both iSCSI and FCP).
As far as crash consistency, you can get consistent backup using SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure in conjunction with VMware Tools VSS provider (ESX 3.5 u2 or later) for those applications that are VSS compatible. For those that aren't, or have a scriptable hot backup mode, you can call scripts from VMware Tools. Pre and post scripts are documented in the Virtual Machine Backup Guide (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_vm_backup.pdf ).
Here are some links for SMVI: http://www.netapp.com/us/products/management-software/snapmanager-virtua l.html http://www.netapp.com/us/library/technical-reports/tr-3737.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JECAgR9YftQ
Share and enjoy!
Peter ________________________________
From: Raj Patel [mailto:phigmov@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:13 PM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Any luck with SnapMirror & ESX LUN's ?
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.