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SorenHuus
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LUN Copy, Backup LabManager

Hi,

I am running VC 4.0, hosts are ESX 3.5 and LabManager is 4.0.

The main goal is to backup the LabManager VM's using least amount of backup space and without having to shutdown VMs while performing the backup.

My plan was to make a snapshot of the LUN (I have a all LM data isolated on a single LUN) and then take a backup of that. The LUN snapshot is easy, but then what do I do with it? I want to present the LUN to a host which can read VMFS so I can get my data to tape. That rules out any Windows host, as it wont be able to read the file system, right?

So I present the LUN to an ESX host? But that cant be done right away, as the LUN ID wont match the one on the LUN. Thats an issue I need to fix or the host will see the new LUN as a snapshot LUN?

Once I have the LUN readable from a host i need it processed by my backup agent. I would really prefer not to have to install any agents on my ESX host, but that seems to be the only way of doing it? Unless I copy it from my ESX host to a windows server, and have that back it up. Which would mean that I now need space to have the live LUN, space for the snapshot LUN, space for the backup on a windows host and space for it on my backup system.

I was hoping to hear what others are doing, cause surly I've got it wrong Smiley Happy

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rahqa
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It looks like you are looking for a solution to backup your VMs basically that are hosting Labmanager. So a solution to use here would be something like VMware consolidated backup or any other enterprise level backup software that has VCB integration enabling them to backup vmfs file system.

Product information : http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vcb_partner_integration_guide.pdf

VCB backup guide can be found at : http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_vcb_15_u1_admin_guide.pdf

thanks

Rahul

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SorenHuus
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Maybe I rambled too much Smiley Happy

Let me refrase, how do you guys handle backup of LabManager using LUN snapshots?

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rahqa
VMware Employee
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It looks like you are looking for a solution to backup your VMs basically that are hosting Labmanager. So a solution to use here would be something like VMware consolidated backup or any other enterprise level backup software that has VCB integration enabling them to backup vmfs file system.

Product information : http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vcb_partner_integration_guide.pdf

VCB backup guide can be found at : http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_vcb_15_u1_admin_guide.pdf

thanks

Rahul

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swiftangelus
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Using Lab Manager you will need to backup all VMs and the Lab Manager server at the same time. If you do not then you will have problems. Backing up using snapshots is the only way that I have seen in the documentation and best practices.

Once you have a snapshot you should then mount that onto another server and backup the files.

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