Instant Restore / Redirect Disk Updates does allow svMotion!

[cronosinternet]

Thought I'd just post this quickly.

Was testing the effect of "Redirect Virtual Disk Updates" during an Instant Restore. No prizes for spotting that Veeam simply creates a snapshot of the VM on the datastore you specify, so any new writes go into the snapshot delta file.

From the manual/help pages:

"Redirecting disk changes improves recovery performance but makes Storage vMotion not possible."

O'RLY

I right clicked the VM and chose "Migrate" and then "Change Datastore". I then chose a new Datastore. This was greeted with a compatibility success message and a warning

"Snapshot directory settings will be reset to the VM's home directory after the migration."

OK fair enough that makes sense and frankly is desirable. So I have kicked off the svMotion.

We're on ESXi 5.5 with Veeam 7 R2a, not sure if something has changed since time of writing (ESXi 5.5 improvements?)

[veremin]

Hi, Lee, redirecting disk changes makes Storage vMotion not possible for ESX 4.x and earlier, as it's explained in VMware KB article. Funny thing, it's mentioned in the User Guide, but only in vCloud Director section (p.346), while Instant VM Recovery section hasn't undergone any changes.

Thanks for pointing this out; highly appreciated.

[cronosinternet]

aha I see, thanks for the clarification.

The problem I've found of late (and this isn't necessarily Veeam) is that the rate of change in functionality/limitations is quite high. Many of the articles I read no longer apply to ESXi 5.5 for instance or the commands have changed. Makes for interesting times !

I guess on this specific, the manual/help needs updating to just say "Storage vMotion will only be possible with ESXi 5.0 and later if redirection is enabled" or something.

cheers !

[veremin]

Yep, the amount of changes is quite high in in both virtual and backup market, and our technical writers are doing their best to catch up with them. So, thank you pointing our inconsistency that you've found in the User Guide.

[Gostev]

I guess on this specific, the manual/help needs updating to just say "Storage vMotion will only be possible with ESXi 5.0 and later if redirection is

I may surprise you again, but check out the description on the corresponding step of Instant VM Recovery wizard now you see the reason why I personally create and update every single user interface resource in this product