How do I attach snapshots to my VM's usign admsnap or alternative?

[DigitalEssence]

Hi,

I am trying to set up snapshots on our ESXi VM's and running into problems.

Hardware: Poweredge 1850's and an EMC AX150i running NaviSphere Express

On the physical machines I create a snapshot using admsnap by running the following command on the source server:

admsnap flush -o f:

admsnap start -s snapsession -o f:

Then I would run this command on the target server:

admsnap activate -s snapsession

and then start replicating the data over to another LUN attached to the target.

Now when I run the activate command on my Target VM I get the following error:

No devices were found that could activate this session.

When I had this all running on the physical machines I was using the Microssoft iSCSi initiator but now I am usign the ESX adapter. Is there an alternative way of mounting/dismounting snapshots in a virtual environment?

thanks.

[AndreTheGiant]

Are you run those commands from the ESXi or from another system?

How do you plan to replicate the data? Using a file copy command?

Andre

[DigitalEssence]

I run the activate command from the target VM. The other commands are run on the source server which is still physical.

We replicate the data using a batched Robocopy script.

[AndreTheGiant]

But you are using RDM disk you your VM disk?

Cause you cannot read the content of a VMFS LUN from a Windows physical machine...

Andre

[DigitalEssence]

I haven't gone any further than starting the snapshot session on the physical machine then attempting to activate it on the VM.

I have run a rescan of the iSCSi adapter in Infrastructure Client and the snapshot now shows but I am not sure how to progress because if I add this snapshot as a RDM drive to the server then I have to do this manullay and I can't see how this will work in a scripted automated way.

[kjb007 · Accepted solution]

You can script the rescan of the iSCSI hba, or you can simply use the MS iSCSI adapter the same way you did previously. This will keep you from having to use RDM's, which you can add while the vm is up and running, but can not remove from a vm while it is up and running.

-KjB

[DigitalEssence]

Ah,

so if I use RDM then I won't be able to attach and un-attach the snapshot while the VM is up and running?

I think i will give the MS initiator a try.

[kjb007]

That is correct. The attach is no problem, it is the removal that will not be allowed.

-KjB