Backup VMs during Planned Failover

[onitsistemi]

Hi Everyone,

I've got 4 VM running in Planned Failover in host1 cause host2 needs maintenance for the next 2 weeks.
the 4 VMs have "inside" 20 Snapshot (originated from the replica Job..)

So, my questions are:

1. Can I add those VM in a Backup job during Planned Failover (1 or 2 weeks) ? All that snapshot inside each VM are particulary "Dangerous"?
2. Do I need to consolidate ?
3. What are best practise in this situation? Do a "Permanent Failover?"

Thanks in advance

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi,

1. Yes, you can back up VMs with snapshots (either created by Veeam replication jobs or just regular snapshots). Only the latest VM state will be backed up.
2. No need to do that.
3. If you're planning to do the failback operation, then you should not do permanent failover. If you are planning to use this host as a production one for those 4 VMs, then you can do the permanent failover and then commit/consolidate all the snapshots.

Thanks!

[onitsistemi]

Thank you very much,

last questions

1. will snapshots retention points (about 20) cause bad performance to the VMs during failover time (2 weeks)?? ex: for the backups themselves..
2. is there - Today - a max duration of a planned failover before "choose" failback/permanent or undo ?

[Vitaliy S.]

You're welcome!

1. Running production VMs on snapshots is not recommended due to the potential impact on their performance. Are these highly transactional/busy VMs?
2. No max duration, but the longer you run VMs in this state, the longer the failback operation is going to be since changed data has to be transferred back to the original host.

[onitsistemi]

1. One of those Yes.. It's a Ms SQL server 2012 with about 10 DB..
So you suggest to do a Permanent Failover?

[Vitaliy S.]

I would recommend keeping an eye on this and if your users are impacted (start complaining) do the permanent failover with the snapshot consolidation option. If there is no impact and your maintenance window would not go largely beyond 2 weeks, then leave it as it is now.