Last "official" word that I heard from NetApp was that they were hoping to have it out around the August/September timeframe.

-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Nick Silkey Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 8:13 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure

Glenn Walker wrote:

I heard it got delayed - but seeing the unfinished product, it was pretty slick. Patiently waiting to procure/implement this for our upcoming VMWare deployment.

Same boat here at ece.utexas.edu. Word last week was that SMVI was a couple of months out until it was available for purchase.

Thanks a lot for all the (bad) news :-) As I suspected it has been announced, there's a link on web pages to a poor datasheet and stop...only rumors for now.

Anyway, reading somewhere I don't think it will do more than the scripts we use to run to snap&backup VMs.

Bye

-----Messaggio originale----- Da: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] Per conto di Davies,Matt Inviato: lunedì 19 maggio 2008 16.33 A: Chris Muellner; toasters@mathworks.com Oggetto: RE: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure

I heard they won't be supporting NFS day 1 either......

-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Chris Muellner Sent: 19 May 2008 15:07 To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: RE: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure

Last "official" word that I heard from NetApp was that they were hoping to have it out around the August/September timeframe.

-----Original Message----- From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Nick Silkey Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 8:13 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Re: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure

Glenn Walker wrote:

I heard it got delayed - but seeing the unfinished product, it was pretty slick. Patiently waiting to procure/implement this for our upcoming VMWare deployment.

Same boat here at ece.utexas.edu. Word last week was that SMVI was a couple of months out until it was available for purchase.

Hi Glenn,

I am the product manager for SMVI (SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure). Offline I can answer any specific questions around SMVI you may have.

Here are few data points based on what I see on this thread:

* Product will be released mid August 2008 * Will support iSCSI, FCP, (and NFS) * Will support NFS and VMFS datastore * Will be able to initiate Snapmirror (after a snapshot) * Will have backup scheduling & retention capability * Will have GUI and CLI

thanks Silesh

------------------------------------ Silesh Bijjahalli 408-822-6580 SMAI Product Management

________________________________

From: Glenn Walker [mailto:ggwalker@mindspring.com] Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 6:03 AM To: Milazzo Giacomo; toasters@mathworks.com Subject: RE: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure

I heard it got delayed - but seeing the unfinished product, it was pretty slick. Patiently waiting to procure/implement this for our upcoming VMWare deployment.

________________________________

From: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] On Behalf Of Milazzo Giacomo Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 8:23 AM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Snapmanager for Virtual Infrastructure Importance: High

Hi all

Among (poor) white papers, announcements and so on, Snapmanager for VMWare (or VI3) has been announced on february 2008...

Is there somebody explain why I can't find detailed white papers, tecg resosurce docs on now and so on?

And, more, is there somebody who tested it and that can tell me (us) if this produtct can really do more that the script we usually use to backup VMs on NetApp storage?

Thanks a lot

Hi Mark,

2008/5/20 Neis, Mark Mark.Neis@gisa.de:

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?

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.

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 ;) HTH & HAND,

Nils

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 Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Empfänger sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail oder des Inhalts dieser Mail sind nicht gestattet. Diese Kommunikation per E-Mail ist nicht gegen den Zugriff durch Dritte geschützt. Die GISA GmbH haftet ausdrücklich nicht für den Inhalt und die Vollständigkeit von E-Mails und den gegebenenfalls daraus entsehenden Schaden. Sollte trotz der bestehenden Viren-Schutzprogramme durch diese E-Mail ein Virus in Ihr System gelangen, so haftet die GISA GmbH - soweit gesetzlich zulässig - nicht für die hieraus entstehenden Schäden.

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

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

Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Empfänger sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail oder des Inhalts dieser Mail sind nicht gestattet. Diese Kommunikation per E-Mail ist nicht gegen den Zugriff durch Dritte geschützt. Die GISA GmbH haftet ausdrücklich nicht für den Inhalt und die Vollständigkeit von E-Mails und den gegebenenfalls daraus entsehenden Schaden. Sollte trotz der bestehenden Viren-Schutzprogramme durch diese E-Mail ein Virus in Ihr System gelangen, so haftet die GISA GmbH - soweit gesetzlich zulässig - nicht für die hieraus entstehenden Schäden.

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

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

Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Empfänger sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail oder des Inhalts dieser Mail sind nicht gestattet. Diese Kommunikation per E-Mail ist nicht gegen den Zugriff durch Dritte geschützt. Die GISA GmbH haftet ausdrücklich nicht für den Inhalt und die Vollständigkeit von E-Mails und den gegebenenfalls daraus entsehenden Schaden. Sollte trotz der bestehenden Viren-Schutzprogramme durch diese E-Mail ein Virus in Ihr System gelangen, so haftet die GISA GmbH - soweit gesetzlich zulässig - nicht für die hieraus entstehenden Schäden.

Hi Neis

Brent and other were rights.

For which concern mixed environment where having VMFS LUNs by FC and guest running iSCSI to attach LUN by this last protocol is not a problem. We use them since VMware 2.5 and they work with no suffering or performances penalty on guests. This is the only way toh ave Snapdrive and Snapmanager products working inside a guest for the FC HBA aren't virtualized and exposed from ESX to the guests. So you have to mix FC for VMFS and iSCSI from guest if you want, I repeat, to use Snapdrive a/o Snapmanager.

But there's another way to expose to guests parts of the FC SAN storage: the raw device and its mapping on guest. This is the way i.e., the only one, to create a MS cluster formed by to VMs or a mixed physical/virtual. But, here, you can not use SD/SM.

But reading you it seems you have other kind of doubts.

If you already have LUNs containing db data you can easily mount on the guests once you have i.e. virtualized the old physical server. Or maybe you can start from scratch installing new guests, the Exchange software and the reattaching to them the iSCSI LUN...more jobs to do to restore Exchange on another server anyway!

Da: owner-toasters@mathworks.com [mailto:owner-toasters@mathworks.com] Per conto di Neis, Mark Inviato: martedì 20 maggio 2008 18.04 A: toasters@mathworks.com Oggetto: 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

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

Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Empfänger sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail oder des Inhalts dieser Mail sind nicht gestattet. Diese Kommunikation per E-Mail ist nicht gegen den Zugriff durch Dritte geschützt. Die GISA GmbH haftet ausdrücklich nicht für den Inhalt und die Vollständigkeit von E-Mails und den gegebenenfalls daraus entsehenden Schaden. Sollte trotz der bestehenden Viren-Schutzprogramme durch diese E-Mail ein Virus in Ihr System gelangen, so haftet die GISA GmbH - soweit gesetzlich zulässig - nicht für die hieraus entstehenden Schäden.

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.

________________________________

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

--

Mark Neis System Administrator

GISA GmbH Chemnitztalstr. 13 D-09114 Chemnitz

Phone: +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

Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Empfänger sind oder diese E-Mail irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte Weitergabe dieser Mail oder des Inhalts dieser Mail sind nicht gestattet. Diese Kommunikation per E-Mail ist nicht gegen den Zugriff durch Dritte geschützt. Die GISA GmbH haftet ausdrücklich nicht für den Inhalt und die Vollständigkeit von E-Mails und den gegebenenfalls daraus entsehenden Schaden. Sollte trotz der bestehenden Viren-Schutzprogramme durch diese E-Mail ein Virus in Ihr System gelangen, so haftet die GISA GmbH - soweit gesetzlich zulässig - nicht für die hieraus entstehenden Schäden.