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kellino
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Application Consistent Quisecing in vSphere 4.1

In the VMware Data Recovery Administration Guide ( http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vdr_12_admin.pdf ) it is explained that in order to obtain application consistent backups on Windows 2008 guests, it is necessary to first power off the guest and edit the disk properties before this is possible.

I did a causual search of KB articles and I wasn't able to find a KB article on this topic.

Is is true that backups for Windows 2008 guests on vSphere 4.1 that are being performed through the vStorage API (by any complaint 3rd party backup solution), that applications will NOT be backed up in an application consistent state (SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, etc.) until the manual proceedure described in the guide -- which includes a power off -- is performed?

Thanks!

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admin
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There is a blog and KB coming - most likely after VMworld.

In the previous releases of vSphere and Windows GOS, the only thing that needs to be done to obtain better quiesced snapshots (for example, crash -> OS consistent; OS consistent-> application consistent), you only had to upgrade to the VMware Tools that came with VI/vSphere.

For Windows 2008R2 VMs to be able to get application consistent (new in vSphere 4.1 - in vSphere 4.0, you could only get OS consistent snapshots of Windows 2008 and its permuations), you will need to do the Tools upgrade as usual. This step does not requires a restart of the VM.

However, just for Windows 2008 VMs, there is also a change to the virtual machine properties that needs to be done before application consistent quiesced snapshots can be taken. This virtual machine property change that can only take effect after a VM power cycle.

So, until these two steps are done, then Windows 2008 VMs snapshots are OS consistent queisced state (assuming you have vSphere 4.0 Tools installed)

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kellino
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This is what happens when I write before my 2nd cup of coffee....

The scope of the above problem is limited to 2008 guests that were created on vSphere 4.0 and are now running from a 4.1 host.

Thanks

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admin
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There is a blog and KB coming - most likely after VMworld.

In the previous releases of vSphere and Windows GOS, the only thing that needs to be done to obtain better quiesced snapshots (for example, crash -> OS consistent; OS consistent-> application consistent), you only had to upgrade to the VMware Tools that came with VI/vSphere.

For Windows 2008R2 VMs to be able to get application consistent (new in vSphere 4.1 - in vSphere 4.0, you could only get OS consistent snapshots of Windows 2008 and its permuations), you will need to do the Tools upgrade as usual. This step does not requires a restart of the VM.

However, just for Windows 2008 VMs, there is also a change to the virtual machine properties that needs to be done before application consistent quiesced snapshots can be taken. This virtual machine property change that can only take effect after a VM power cycle.

So, until these two steps are done, then Windows 2008 VMs snapshots are OS consistent queisced state (assuming you have vSphere 4.0 Tools installed)

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vmroyale
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Hello.

Do you have any updates on the blog and/or kb entry you mentioned earlier?

Thanks!

Note: The URL appears to be http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1028881

Message was edited by: vmroyale to include the link to the kb article.

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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