Storage integration for IBM Storwize V5030

[ta_yoshizumi]

Hello,

Case # is 03380690.

Environment
- Assume the storage made by IBM Storwize V5030, assuming FlashCopy of the storage function
- The Snapshot area and VMDK area are separate volumes

I would like to know the answer of following questions.

# Question 1 #
Is it possible to perform backup even if the VMDK area and the snapshot area are different and the FlashCopy target is only the VMDK area?

# Question 2 #
On the storage side, if setting the FlashCopy target to only the VMDK area, will backup fails?
In the case, is it possible to change the FlashCopy target from the Veeam side to the VMDK area and Snapshot area only during backup?

Thank you for reading my topic.

[foggy]

Could you please elaborate on your configuration a bit? What are you referring to by 'area'? Any chance you're using vVol? Thanks!

[Andreas Neufert]

OK, if I get it right you configure VMware to redirect the Snapshot files to another place. I guess you do this because of space?

So this means to other datastores.

We likely create volume snapshots for all volumes.
Backup from Storage Snapshot should work I think.
Restore with Veeam Explorer for Storage Snapshots I do not know.

Let me check with QA.

We do not change the VM snapshot redirection at backup.

[Andreas Neufert]

Overall why do you use it that way?

[ta_yoshizumi]

'area' means that the datastore storing the snapshot is different from the datastore storing the VMDK.

[Andreas Neufert]

OK thanks. Please share with what method you have created the redirection and for what reason. It is important to understand why you did that so that we can modify our testing approach if needed.

I spoke with QA. Their feedback is, if you have implemented the redirections in the official VMware way (like the one described here: https://www.veeam.com/kb1241 ), our Backup from Storage Snapshot and as well MultiHomed VM Restores with Veeam Explorer from Storage Snapshot, it should work. If you face already issues, please open a support ticket and share the number here.

[ta_yoshizumi]

Hello Andreas,

Thank you for your reply.

Similarly if you create a snapshot of the datastore that contains the VMDK using FlashCopy of IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software for Storwize V5030 V8 and the datastore where the snapshot is created is out of the scope of FlashCopy Can you back up?

Because backups from storage snapshots take snapshots of VMware snapshots using FlashCopy and read differentials from VMware snapshots and perform backups, if the datastore where the snapshot is out of the scope with FlashCopy, I think that the backup will fail.

[foggy]

Backup shouldn't fail in this case, but we will check internally to confirm.

[ta_yoshizumi]

Hello foggy,

Thank you for your reply.

I am waiting your response.

[foggy]

Discussed this with R&D in more detail and looks like it might work in snap-only job without quiescence/VSS, where VM snapshot is not created. In regular backup job from storage snapshot or snap-only job with quiescence/VSS, where VM snapshot is created, Veeam B&R will try to create snapshot of the volume where VM snapshot resides and will most likely fail to do this as there's no additional logic to check the license in this case. Unfortunately, we cannot check this in our lab as our storage is FlashCopy licensed by default.

[ta_yoshizumi]

Thank you for investigation.

Please let me know my question below.

>looks like it might work in snap-only job without quiescence/VSS, where VM snapshot is not created.

>Veeam B & R will try create to snapshot of the volume where VM snapshot resides and will most likely fail as there's no additional logic to check in this case.

In the two sentences, there is a statement that it is described as "work in snap-only job without quiescence/VSS," and then "most likely fail as there's no additional logic to check in this case."

In the configuration of this case, will the backup succeed, will it fail?

Also, what does additional logic refer to?

>Unfortunately, we can not check this in our lab as our storage is FlashCopy licensed by default.

The mean that is it difficult to more investigation by Veeam?

[foggy]

The two sentences refer to different cases, specifically, to snap-only jobs with and without VM quiescence (application-consistent and crash-consistent backup). If quiescence is enabled, VM snapshot is triggered, in your case - on a separate volume that is not FlashCopy licensed, and Veeam B&R will not be able to create snapshot of this volume. In case of crash-consistent backup, when no VM snapshot is triggered, Veeam B&R should be able to create snapshot of the volume where VMDK resides, since it is FlashCopy licensed. So by additional logic I mean here the ability to check the license of the main VM volume. And yes, currently we do not have any storage to check this behavior.

Anyway, the backup job itself will not fail in this case but failover to standard backup (not using storage snapshots).

[ta_yoshizumi]

Hello foggy,

Thank you for telling me the result of investigation.

If do not create a data store containing the VMDK and the data store where the snapshot is created in FlashCopy, cannot use the storage consolidation function, so the data store containing the VMDK and the data to be snapshotted We wanted to include the store, otherwise I told our customer that it would be a backup process using traditional VMware snapshots.

[Andreas Neufert]

Yes, basically add a FlashCopy license or make sure that all vm disks belongin to a VM are on same FlashCopy licensed store.

Or use standard backup methods.