VMware consolidated backup in ESX 3.5

[Sherilj]

Hi,

I am having a VMware datacenter with 5 hosts. In that I have two virtual servers with windows 2003 enterprise 64 Bit OS. Also I have installed oracle 8i on one VM and Microsoft SQL 2005 on other server. While doing consolidated backup the database is not freezing properly at the time of snapshot.

And the backup is not happening properly, it give error there is no space to mount the image. I am using EMC legato as my backup software. Legato version I am using is 7.4

Please help.

Regards,

Sheril

[riker82]

Which VCB version are you using?

VCB 1.5 uses Windows VSS feature for allowing file system to be consistent. if you won't use it, use this suggestion for Exchange 5.5 (that is a SQL database)

Stopping Exchange Server

Use the following pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts to take Exchange Server offline for approximately 60 seconds and then restart it again after the snapshot is taken. This approach leaves Exchange Server inactive, but keeps the SYNC driver enabled while the snapshot is taken, ensuring application consistency. Using this method, you create the quiesced snapshot of Exchange Server.

C:\Windows\pre-freeze-script.bat

@echo off

net stop MSExchangeSA /yes

net stop MSExchangeSA /yes

C:\Windows\post-thaw-script.bat

@echo off

Net Start MsExchangeSA

Net Start MsExchangeIS

Net Start MsExchangeMTA

[Sherilj]

My VCB Ver. is 1.5 and i am having MS SQL Database Server 2005 and oracle 8I

regards,

sheril

[Yattong]

Hey,

How much free space do you have on your backup server?

VCB will try and mount the LUN/vmdk to the backup server and you must have enough space for the mount.

Heres the vcb doc

www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_vm_backup.pdf

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[riker82]

check here

[Sherilj]

free space i am having is 5 GB and my database size is 100 GB. hoe the ratio of disk space and vdk size while mounting the VDK for backup?

[IRIX201110141]

Oracle 8 and 9 doesnt come with support for VSS so when only using VMwares SYNC driver for quiescing your database is in danger.You have to use the post-freeze-script.bat for shutting down the DB before creating the snapshot.

About the needed space.

If your VMDK is 100GB your holding tank also needs 100GB of free diskspace when using VCB. There is a compress option, which is enabled by default, for only storing the used data from your VM on disk, but over the time this ratio might goes down because is only works with written ZEROs for detecting unused space.

At first place VCB is compared to something like "backup to disk", so you need plenty of free diskspace.

Regards,

Joerg

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