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jarnold706
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Netapp SnapDrive 6.0 in Windows 2003 guest question

Does anyone know if Netapp's DSM for Windows MPIO driver is required for running SnapDrive 6.0 and SME5.0 in Windows 2003 server guest VM that uses RDM's.

My guess is no, since there is really no fiber HBA or multipathing within the VM, but I can't get any definetive answers on this. My setup is: esx3.5 u3 with FC attached storage. Anyone out there have a similare setup in production?

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BUGCHK
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Not needed. The multipaths are handled by the VMkernel and the 'canonical device name' is used for the RDM.

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BUGCHK
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Not needed. The multipaths are handled by the VMkernel and the 'canonical device name' is used for the RDM.

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jarnold706
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That's the answer I was hoping for. Thanks.

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JeremyHaynes
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That depends on how you are going to be presenting the Disks. If you are presenting to the OS from a VMFS datastore, then the answer is no. If you are going to be using Snapdrive (which presents the LUN directly to the OS) then yes. Snapmanager for Exchange will not recognize a VMFS datastore as being on the Filer (oops I didn't just say filer). So the very fact that you asked regarding Snapdrive and SME means you want to leverage the Filer (there I go again) snapshots. The answer is then yes.

Hope this helps.

Jeremy Haynes

Consulting Engineer

NetApp (ASAP, NCDA)

VMWare (VCP)

rm3
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Perhaps abit off topic, in an FC environement how could one use snapdrive when the guest cannot see the FC HBA's ?

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JeremyHaynes
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Snapdrive sees the Host HBA when you install snapdrive there is an option to install VMware ESX support. With that checked you then enter the IP/Hostname of the ESX machine, or the virtual center IP/hostname, the username and password. On the Filer end create an igroup either through filerview or cli with the WWPNs of the ESX HBAs.

Hope that helps

rm3
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Thanks for your help Jeremy, all good....

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ulservicesonlin
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I run Netapp SnapDrive 6.0 in windows 2007 however, on one my coworker at ULServicesOnline which is a company about personal loans and totally unrelated to your question. But it does work as my co worker is running it as we speak! Hope this helps....

MT~

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jarnold706
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Thanks everyone. I guess what confuses me is that I thought the snapshots would be handled by the Snapmanager for Exchange software ,not filer initiated snapshots. Am I wrong? Also in researching further this, I've created other questions/concerns?

1.If Snapdrive is a requirement for Snapmanager for Exchange, then all my FC LUN's I want protected must be presented to the Windows VM as Physical mode RDMs and not virtual mode RDMs correct?

2. If question 1 is true then I cannot use VMware snapshots to protect the Exchange OS vmdk located on VMFS datastore.(VMware snapsot fails for any VM with physical mode RDMs). VMware recommends to change RDM from physical mode to Virtual mode, but this would break the Snapdrive config right?

3. What I thought I could do was leverage SMVI to take vmware snapshots then netapp snapshots of VM OS disks on vmfs datastores and initiate snapmirror to DR site.Then as a separate process I could use SME to do the same for the VM's RDM's that contain the Exchange data. This appears not to be possible.

Any thought/Ideas?

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