SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure 2.0

As some of you may have seen NetApp, yesterday, announced, an enhanced version of SnapManager for VI (SMVI 2.0) which among other things provides support for Single File Restores from within a VMDK. However, this is not the only enhancement provides by 2.0.

What's New with SMVI 2.0

Autosupport Integration

With SMVI 2.0, we've integrated Autosupport. This feature can be enabled or disabled on the fly. When it's enabled, SMVI will send Autosupport messages to the storage system. On a Storage System with Autosupport enabled these messages and events will be tracked by the NetApp Support Center. Basically, it's "Call Home" functionality for Host side Software.

Backup Enhancements & GUI Re-design

Previously, manual backups and scheduled jobs were in different screens. These two features are now combined to a single wizard.

Jobs can be created using a new schedule type "None". These jobs can be run using "Run Job Now" and behave similar to the manual backup in SMVI 1.0.

A new read only inventory pane shows datastores on managed storage systems and virtual machines in those datastores.

 

Previously, with SMVI 1.0, Datastores having only independent disks for a VM were excluded from the backup. SMVI 2.0 gives user an option to include/exclude such datastores in the backup.

 

Snapshot Naming Changes

Snapshot naming convention will now be more consistent with other SnapManager products.

Jobs Scheduled via GUI have the snapshot naming pattern "smvi_{jobName}_[novmsnap]_{date}{time}".  A Job has multiple backups associated with it, and may run at different times depending on the schedule.

The most recent backup of the Job will have a snapshot with the name "smvi_{jobName}_[novmsnap]_recent". When the job runs for a next time,  the current recent Snapshot of the job will be renamed to smvi_{backupName}_[novmsnap]_{date}{time}. where {date}{time} are the start time of the backup.

The [novmsnap] string will be present to indicate as to whether or not VMware Snapshots were triggered for that particular backup.

The snapshot naming change, will help admins who use 3rd party backup SW and NDMP to stream backups from the array to tape.

Scripting

SMVI 2.0 now allows the execution of pre/post backup scripts. These scripts will live in the <SMVI Installation>/server/scripts/ directory and will be selectable during the scheduling or the edit of a backup job. Multiple scripts can be selected and run as part of a job.

Restore Enhancements

SMVI 2.0 provides two enhancements made to the Restore feature.

1. Virtual disk restore
2. Advanced Find

SMVI 1.x allows restore at datastore and virtual machine granularity. Restore enhancements extends restore granularity to one more level. This adds the ability to restore individual virtual disks(VMDK) of a VM. This feature also allows the disks to be restored to a different datastore. This is called an out-of-place restore. This would allow the VM admininstrator to test the consistency of the disks before attaching the disk to the VM. The GUI will list the VM itself, as well as, the Virtual Disk(s) associated with it and the Target Datastores.

 

As mentioned above, there's also an new option to search thru Backups. We call this "Advanced Find".  Using this feature the VM admininstrator will have flexibility in searching backups using several options, such as :

• Most Recent Backup
• Backups within Specific Timeframes
• Backups with VMware Snapshots
• Backups mounted for Single File Restore

 

Single File Restore

The new Single File Restore (SFR) feature in SMVI 2.0 enables customer to restore one or more files from guest VM disk (VMDK) without having to restore the entire VM or VMDK. The SFR process involves SMVI admin creating a SFR request and the end-using the Restore Agent to either explore one or multiple backups and mount one or more disks to retrieve one or more files.

In most IT shops, a user who would like to recover a file, would typically open a ticket with the helpdesk, requesting the restoration of a specific file. There are 3 options that enable flexibility depending on how the IT dept. is organized and the company policies:

Self-Service Restore

• End user can see the list of all backups for his machine.
• Once mounted, user can use standard tools (like Explorer or dir & copy commands) to browse contents of mounted disks and copy files over.

Limited Self-Service Restore

• SMVI admin would mount the disks from selected source VM backups to destination VM (source and dest can be the same VM or a different VM)
• End-User can browse all mounted disks, select files from any them and restore them to any location in the VM.

Administrator-Assisted Restore

• Typically used where the company policy prohibits self-service restores.
• SMVI admin acts on behalf of the user and places files to be restored in accessible location.
• End-User copies the file(s) to be restored from accessible location to any location

 

Restore Agent

The Restore Agent (RA) is a Microsoft Management Console snap-in which has built-in support for Windows file systems. It interacts with SMVI by requesting disk mount/unmount functions. That's it's main function.

The Agent, has two main modes of operations: self-service and limited self-service. self-service refers to the mode where user may have direct access to the SMVI server and dynamically request which backup/disk they would like to mount on the Guest VM.

The limited self-service refers to the mode where a specific backup has been pre-mounted by the SMVI admin and made available to the end-user on Guest VM. In this mode, the end-user will only have access to this backup only.

Conclusion

We're very excited with this new release ,which has been in the works for sometime now, because we believe it extends the distance, in functionality, flexibility and simplicity versus comparable solutions from other storage vendors and will allow our customers to take full advantage of our capabilities and integration work with VMware.

 

Technorati Tags: SMVI 2.0,VMware,vSphere,Backup/Recovery,Single File Restore

Comments

[Andrew Miller]

Will this version provide an option to integrate with the vSphere client or is that still in the future?

[Nick Triantos]

Hi,

Yes, making it a vCenter plugin is defeinately in our plans. We had to make some tradeoffs between additional functionality or making it a plugin.

We have chosen functionality because not having it as a plugin will not prevent someone from deploying it. But not having needed functionality, would.

That said, SMVI will become a plugin in a future release.

Thanks

[Vadim Solovey]

When the new version will be available for download from NOW?

[Nick Triantos]

It should be available for download sometime this month. I can't provide exact date because it is NDA information.

[Brian]

When will Virtual Storage Console be available for download? I thought it was going to be in August but we're into September now and I don't see it on NOW :(

We really really need this! Please let us know if you have any new release info.

P.S. SMVI 2.0 looks great...can't wait to get our hands on it as well :)

Thx

[Nick Triantos]

Hi Brian,

We run the VSC Beta longer than anticipated because we decided to add functionality that it wasn't meant for the initial release. That said development/test/beta are all done for this release and it is getting ready to be available shortly. I can not publicly name dates because it is NDA info.

[Nick Howell]

Hey Nick!

GREAT GREAT GREAT improvements!

WHEN?! Are we waiting on the official release of the vStorage APIs for this?

[Nick Triantos]

Hi Nick,

It should be released within the next 2-3 weeks, and maybe earlier.

[Chris]

Wondering if the single file restore option supports Linux guests... specifically ones with LVM based partitions?!

[Jesus Sanchez]

What about integration with SnapVault to 'move' the backups to a secondary (backup) NetApp server?