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
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
GISA GmbH -
Geschäftsführer: Michael Krüger; Sitz der Gesellschaft: Halle (Saale);
Registergericht: Amtsgericht Stendal; Handelsregister-Nr. HRB 208414; UST-IdNr:
DE 158253683
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