Mark,
You can use a iSCSI initiator from the Guest OS to use Snapmanager for Exchange. The Guest OS will operate as it normally would using a software iSCSI initiator. You could probably use RDM's as well with Snapmanager. I have used the Microsoft iSCSI initiator with Snapmanger for Exchange to perform backups and validations from a VMware guest OS and it worked well.
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From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Neis, Mark Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 7:53 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Another Snapmanager Question (MS Exchange, VMware ESX)
Hi,
we've been using iSCSI storage on Filers for our Exchange installations, but so far Exchange had always been installed on dedicated servers. No we have a new customer with changed requirements. Exchange is to be installed on a VMware ESX, the storage is supposed to be on a 3070 cluster via FC.
Now my question: So far we've used SnapManager for Exchange to create the Snapshots we then back up to tape via NDMP. If I see this correctly, SnapManager/SnapDrive for Exchange won't work if the storage is handed out to the underlying ESX instead of the Exchange server itself. On the other hand, SnapManager for VMware - which is to be released in August, as I could read - doesn't know about the internals of its VMs and hence is not the tool of choice to back up our Exchange StorageGroups.
Does anyone out there have a similar scenario? Is there any way to use SnapManager for Exchange in the environment I described above? What ways do you back up your Exchange installations?
Kind regards, Mark Neis
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Mark Neis System Administrator
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