Sneak Preview: SnapDrive 6.0 with VMware GuestOS support

I've been getting a lot of questions lately for the upcoming SnapDrive 6.0 release which supports VMware Windows GuestOS.

SnapDrive 6.0 introduces support for Windows 2008 (Standalone or GuestOS), it's based on the new MMC 3.0 and supports Windows GuestOS machines. From a VMware standpoint there's integration with VirtualCenter or the ESX server if you don't use VC. In fact during the installation, SnapDrive will ask for the ESX or VC credentials.  SnapDrive provides VSS integration as well as integration with our SnapManager solutions (i.e SnapManager for Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint), and allows administrators to obtain instantaneous application consistent backups and near-instantaneous restores.

Furthermore, it allows GuestOS Administrators to provision disks for their Windows Guests as well as expand these disks on-the-fly. It also allows the ability to connect an existing Snapshot to a Windows GuestOS and recover files related to an application. Furthermore, it provides the ability revert the entire LUN to a point-in-time as captured by a snapshot.

SnapDrive can use RPC, HTTP or HTTPS as the transport protocol and utilizes NetApp APIs as well as VMware's SDK and APIs  to communicate with Virtual Center or the ESX server.                                                                                                 

One of the issue we've seen over the years is OS partition mis-alignment with respect to the underlying storage. This is an issue for every storage vendor for Windows and Linux servers, standalone or not.

 

 

 

 

 

So, when using SnapDrive to create a virtual disk, it will align the partitions by using the proper partition starting offset. The benefit here is you don't have to be concerned with running Diskpart anymore inside the Windows Guest.

SnapDrive 6.0 has been in Beta at several customer sites and will be available very soon.

Comments

[Andy Leonard]

The VMware features sound pretty compelling; are there any plans to make equivalent functionality available (presumably in a different product) for NFS VMware datastores?

Andy

[Nick Triantos]

Hi Andy,

As far as Snapdrive goes and given that this is NDA information and can not be shared in public forums, I will only state that we're always looking for ways to enhance the functionlity of the product.

That said, there is a another product that has been announced called "SnapManager for VI" that provides FCP, NFS and iSCSI support for VM backup and recovery. I plan to write about it next week at some point.

Cheers