Veeam backups and the Dell ASM/ME snapshotting

[waldo]

I wonder if anyone can throw any light on this problem for me...

I am considering buying Veeam Backup & Replication but want to find out what the recomended solution would be for my existing Dell SAN environment?

We are using the Dell EquaLogic ASM/ME functionality for our Exchange & SQL virtual servers. So all data for these systems is stored on its own volumes that are connected to via a iSCSI initiator from inside the VM. Vmware does’nt know anything about these volumes. We have set this up EXACTLY to the letter as per Dells documentation/whitepapers. It works wonderfully and allows me to restore quickly and easily knowing that the data is consistent and the snapshots that are taken have been taken in a ‘application aware’ manner.

How does ‘the Dell application aware’ SAN snapshotting model fit around Veeam? There is obviously no way for Veeam Bacup & Replication to connect to the Exchange & SQL iSCSI connected data volumes, so what is the recommended way forward? Or is Veeam the wrong backup solution for my virtual environment if I want to still utilise the Dell ASM/ME for snapshotting?

Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly received?

[Vitaliy S.]

How does ‘the Dell application aware’ SAN snapshotting model fit around Veeam?

Since SAN snapshots and VM snapshots are performed on different layers, you can easily use both.

There is obviously no way for Veeam Bacup & Replication to connect to the Exchange & SQL iSCSI connected data volumes, so what is the recommended way forward?

Correct, to be able to backup this data you need to covert this disk into vRDM or VMDK disk. Here is an existing topic for more details:
iSCSI initiated volumes from within a VM

[waldo]

Thanks guys.... As I suspected I will need to rethink my volume stratergy and move away from the snapshotting using Dell ASM/ME and get Veeam to take care of everything.