Restoring from FC Nimble snapshots with a virtual proxy

[BPBSGF]

Is it possible to restore from Nimble SAN snapshots using a virtual proxy when the SAN is Fibre Channel? Let me explain:

We have a SmartStack (Nimble CS500 and Cisco UCS B200 M4 running vsphere 6.0) that replicates volumes and snapshots to an offsite stand alone Nimble CS215. Our primary array (the CS500) contains a group of volumes that are clustered in vCenter for most VM datastores and the OS datastores for our large file servers. The data drives on our file servers are in their own datastores outside of the cluster on independent Nimble volumes. All volumes are part of a single initiator group, have the same access rules, and are visible to all esxi hosts. All volumes are also part of the same volume collection and protection schedule.

We wanted to use Veeam to restore from the snapshots on the primary array. We have no need or desire to backup from the snapshots on the primary array. I have created a VM and installed all of the VEEAM roles to it. I do not have the means to set up a physical Veeam proxy to connect to the san via fibre channel as suggested in the proxy setup documentation for backing up from snapshots (which we don't desire to do anyway). I added the primary Nimble SAN to the Veeam server. I am able to see all of the snapshots. I can even restore all files from all drives on VMs who's disks and datastores are part of the cluster of datastores. What I cannot do is restore files from the data drives of our file servers whos data drives are on independent datastores and volumes on the Nimble. I receive an error that Veeam is unable to find any files on the snapshot during the restore.

The restore using a virtual proxy seems to work in at least a partial capacity. Any guidance as to why restoring from snapshot with the virtual proxy works with the VMs in the clustered datastores/volumes but not the independent ones?

Btw, I do have a support case open for this (02179244) but it has been a few days since a support engineer has contacted me so I thought I'd turn to the forums for help.

[foggy]

Hi Brian, please review the current limitations of the Veeam Explorer for Storage Snapshots. You are able to restore only from those VM disks that are located on the same datastore as the VMX file.

[BPBSGF]

That makes perfect sense. Looks like we need to consider expanding our clustered datastores and setting up some affinity rules to ensure all of our vm's disks stay together. Thank you.