Failing Direct SAN copy

[chum]

When backing up VMs it is failing over to network mode.

We have two SANs connected via 8Gb fibre to a Brocade fabric. I want to backup VMs located on a LUN on one SAN (SAS) to a Lun on the other SAN (SATA). Veeam is installed on a Win 2K3 SP2 physical server connected via fibre into the fabric.

Hoping someone can help with my setup.

[Alexey D.]

Hello Craig,

Please refer to this section of our FAQ and check if you configured the connection properly: Direct SAN Access Mode.
Also, you may try this tool, it could give you a clue.

[chum]

Thanks, I have had a read through that post, however the Windows Server with Veeam and VirtualCenter 2.5 installed can't see any of the VMFS LUNS on the SAN via Windows Disk Management. There are a couple of LUNS on the SAN that Windows can see, but these are NTFS LUNS.

[Gostev]

Hello Craig, in that case you may want to contact your SAN vendor for assistance. It should be pretty straightforward to connect SAN LUN to a Windows Server though. Also, I am sure this is well covered in SAN documentation. I imagine there should be the corresponding step-by-step, as this is arguably most common operation you need to be able to perform to make any use of SAN? Thanks.

[TaylorB]

Thanks, I have had a read through that post, however the Windows Server with Veeam and VirtualCenter 2.5 installed can't see any of the VMFS LUNS on the SAN via Windows Disk Management. There are a couple of LUNS on the SAN that Windows can see, but these are NTFS LUNS.

Until windows can see those LUNS in disk management, Veeam can't back them up. You have likely not configured your SAN access properly.

[chum]

Thanks. I don't have access to the configuration of the SAN. I have passed this onto the required people to investigate. I'll post and let you know how I go.

[chum]

The SAN team are nervous about exposing the VMFS LUNs to the Veeam BR Server, due to the fact that the LUNs will be visable in Windows Disk Management and someone might try to initialise them.

Can someone provide comments on how to avoid this or best practices when having the VMFS SAN LUNs exposed to Windows. Also the going the other direction is NTFS LUNS exposed to ESXi Hosts if they try to rewrite the disk signatures. By default that is disabled, but if enabled, ESX could corrupt the NTFS LUNs.

[Vitaliy S.]

Craig, this topic should help you and your storage team: Direct SAN concerns

Also it might not be a good idea to store your backups on the same SAN, as you would be putting all the eggs in the same basket, meaning that in case of any disaster you would lose both production VMs and backup files.

[TaylorB]

The SAN team are nervous about exposing the VMFS LUNs to the Veeam BR Server, due to the fact that the LUNs will be visable in Windows Disk Management and someone might try to initialise them.

Sure someone could accidentally format the LUNs, but the SAN team could also accidentally delete them all. Why are you less trustworthy with data than the SAN manager?

Anyway, if possible you can set the Veeam server to have read-only access to the LUNs and then it would be impossible to alter data. Our SAN can't do read only, so we couldn't. Beyond that, you choose slower LAN backups or a nervous SAN team.

[Gostev]

Beyond that, you choose slower LAN backups or a nervous SAN team.

This made me smile

[chum]

Why are you less trustworthy with data than the SAN manager?

Probably because I'm the "New Guy" and they don't know me for a bar of soap. I've since suggested they investigate the possibility of whether the SAN can expose the LUNs as Read-Only to the Veeam host. Maybe that will make them less nervous.