Snapshot Hunter

[baber]

Dear friend
Hi

do snapshot hunter start automatically with backup or replication job or i have to run that manually?

BR

[foggy]

it is started automatically during each job session.

[baber]

dear all
Hi

in document said about snapshot hunter now i want to know
1- this feature by default is active and will be run after each backup and replication or have to enable that ?

2 - can run manually snapshot hunter ?

BR

[DGrinev]

Hi Babak,

1. Snapshot hunter starts as part of the job session.
2. No.

Thanks!

[baber]

now if on my vm appear warning consolidate and when run consolidate it will be fail now in this time if get backup from that machine is t hat possible do consolidate with snapshot hunter without fail?

BR

[foggy]

Yes, since Snapshot Hunter tries several different consolidation methods.

[baber]

so thanks in your document mention "The 3-steps consolidation procedure is launched up to 4 times with a 4-hour interval."

1- 3-step consolidate will be take 4hours ??
2- is that your means if appear consolidate warning on one of my VM then i create a backup from that VM this backup in last step (remove snapshot) maybe take 4 hours for delete snapshots or consolidate them ?

BR

[DGrinev]

Hi,

1. No, there are 3 different consolidation algorithms which can be retried up to 4 times with the 4 hour interval between retries.
2. No, there is no strict time length of the consolidation process, it depends on different parameters of the infrastructure and snapshot itself. Thanks!

[baber]

thanks

But 4hours that you mention in document what is means?
can you give an example?

[DGrinev]

Snapshot hunter retries to solve the issue with the orphaned snapshots every 4 hours, if the first try failed. So, 4 hour interval is set to wait for conditions to be changed before another try.
If all 4 retries failed, it will notify you by email and propose to solve the issue manually. Thanks!

[baber]

thanks
but you imagine untill now i did not install veeam and used other 3rd party applications for get backup from vms
and appear consolidate warning on one of my vm now i want to know if install veeam and get backup from that vm is that possible consolidate warning solve ?

BR

[tdewin]

If you have a consolidate warning today, right click the VM, snapshot > consolidate
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2003638

[baber]

dear tdewin
so thanks

but in above posts i said consolidate failed
now i want to know veeam with snapshot hunter feature can do this?

if consolidate appear on vm and now install veeam and get backup will that solve consolidate problem ?

BR

[nielsengelen]

If u keep getting consolidate failures please contact VMware as this is a VMware issue.

[baber]

i know this is vmware issue but i want to know is that possible veeam can solve that ?

[nielsengelen]

Snapshot hunter will try to remove leftover snapshot. However consolidation issues/errors may still occur and this means you have another problem ongoing which needs to be resolved via VMware.

Snapshot hunter won't resolve the consolidation issue.

[baber]

Snapshot hunter retries to solve the issue with the orphaned snapshots every 4 hours, if the first try failed. So, 4 hour interval is set to wait for conditions to be changed before another try.
If all 4 retries failed, it will notify you by email and propose to solve the issue manually. Thanks!

realy confused
now want to know if start a job and after job finished the snapshot not deleted it will take 4 hours for delete that ?

BR

[tdewin]

Snapshot hunter is only a rescue mechanism. Normally the snapshot is instantly removed as part of the backup job

[baber]

So Thanks
I understand Snapshot Hunter will be start as part of backup - replication job but could not understand your means about this
" Snapshot hunter retries to solve the issue with the orphaned snapshots every 4 hours, if the first try failed. So, 4 hour interval is set to wait for conditions to be changed before another try "

my backup job will be start at 04:00 and will be finished at 05:00 maybe in this backup job appear with consolidate snapshots now backup time will be take 4 hours to solve conslidate or delete snapshot ?

BR

[tdewin]

No this is not how it works. In normal cases this is what happens:
1. Backup job makes snapshots
2. Backup job reads data for the backup
3. Backup job removes snapshots

However in some case the snapshot is not removed successfully. This is actually more of a VMware issue tbh. However to help our customers and to remove a burden from our support, we build snapshot hunter which will try to remove snapshots that are orphaned after the backup job has run. It is true Green Magic!

But if you don't feel confident about Snapshot hunter, and you don't want it, you can always disable it:
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication
Value name: DisableAutoSnapshotConsolidation
Value type: DWORD
Value: 1 = disable consolidation, 0 = enable consolidation

[baber]

Dear friend
I understand your means i know snapshot hunter by default is enabled i don't want disable that but just i want to know if appear snapshot consolidate during backup job what does this means
" Snapshot hunter retries to solve the issue with the orphaned snapshots every 4 hours " when backup job finished and could not delete snapshot , snapshot hunter will be try to delete snapshot for 4 hours?

BR

[foggy]

It will perform 4 attempts with 4 hours periods.

[baber]

is that your means if my backup job finished with consolidate snapshot at 04:00 oclock
snapshot hunter will be start automatically at 08:00 oclock ?

BR

[foggy]

I believe that the first consolidation attempt is performed right after the job and, in case it fails, the next one is scheduled in 4 hours.

[baber]

I believe that the first consolidation attempt is performed right after the job and, in case it fails, the next one is scheduled in 4 hours.

how can i change that interval time for example check after 1 hours instead of 4 hours?

BR
Babak

[nielsengelen]

It is not possible to change this interval. If there is a leftover snapshot which can’t be deleted after 4 tries (16 hours total, 4x4) it means something is blocking it and this should be resolved via VMware support.

[tsightler]

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's possible to change the interval with the ViSnapshotConsolidationRetryIntervalMinutes registry key. The default for this is 240 minutes, which represents the 4 hour interval. I will admit I haven't tested this though.

[baber]

I believe that the first consolidation attempt is performed right after the job and, in case it fails, the next one is scheduled in 4 hours.

is that your means after 4 hours it will be show such as a job in veeam?

BR

[Shestakov]

The snapshot consolidation procedure will be started 4 times with a 4-hour interval.
If all attempts fail, VBR sends an e-mail notification informing that you need to manually troubleshoot the problem. Note that you need to have the global email notifications option enabled.

[nielsengelen]

Snapshot hunter is not a seperate job, it runs together in a backup job.