RDM backups

[icampbell79]

Hi,

We have had to use physical mode RDM's for all of our VM's as we're using EMC's Recoverpoint for replication and this is a requirement. Unfortunately, this means that we lose a lot of the benifits of VMFS, particularly snapshots.

We can backup servers the same as our physical boxes but would really like to be able to do some sort of online nightly snapshot of our vm's. It would be great if we could use something like vizioncore or esXpress but I don't think that they have a use with RDM's

Can anyone advise on this?

Thanks,

Ian

[kix1979 · Accepted solution]

No one can backup a phsyical RDM as the LUN is locked and cannot be snapshot via VMware. The only way is to backup inside the guest OS or use a storage based tool like Snapview/Mirrorview.

[acr]

You dont have the flexibilty that you see with normal VM's but you could use a Host based replication tool like Double Take, although not cheap, nice product... esxReplicator may also be an option.. Not Snaps but may be useful...

[ronzo]

Hi.

If your willing to shutdown the VM, you can use esxpress. You can configure on a VM level, to have the VM shutdown via the tools, and then it is backed up cold. No snapshot is added. Then after the backup, the VM is powered back on.

If you can schedule down time at least once a week, you still get a backup.

thanks

ron

[m8trixdg]

Just a side note. You do not need RDMs for Recoverpoint to work with VMware ESX. You can use VMDK files, but you need the Cisco MDS switches to do the split of the I/O instead of the host based driver.

Hope this helps,

Brad