Vmware Consolidate Backup Server

[mohanad_cs]

Hi,

I had Installed Vmware Virtual Center “latest version” on physical machine running Windows 2003 Enterprise edition & this Server will be acting as Vmware Consolidate Backup Server for all Virtual Machines running which were Installed previously on ESX Server 3.0.1, all VM files located on Shared SAN LUN, The question is since all VMs were installed , Configured & running properly on ESX Servers & all Shared LUN will be visible automatically on Virtual Center Server when I Installed the HBA card & allow this HBA “WWN ID” to access same LUNs on SAN Storage , only I need to set the drive letter for each Disk OR the Windows O.S will not be able to see these LUN as formatted disks & it require to be formatted?

Please Advice??

Best Regards,

Mohanad R.Aljabi

[Dave_Mishchenko]

See pages 33 and following of this document for setup instructions.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_vm_backup.pdf

You'll also want to ensure that you don't have multi-pathing software install on the VCB proxy server and you should also be aware of this problem with installing VC and VCB on the same server.

http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=591293

[mohanad_cs]

Hi,

I already read this Document & it is not mention that these Shared LUNs will be visible directly when I install HBA Card on Windows Server 2003 Ent, since these LUN were already formated & using VMFS-3 "File System" & all VMs were stored there.

Regards,

Mohanad R.Aljabi

[dconvery]

First .. Do not install VCB on the virtual center server. There are known issues with this combination.

Second .. The latest version of VCB supports multipathing.

Third .. The VCB proxy will show the LUNs in disk management as unknown format. The Virtual LUN Driver that is installed will get over this, but it will NOT show in Windows disk management.

If you plan on backups using Full-VM, you need sufficient free NTFS space in a disk "holding tank". Make sure you follow the readme for installation. The automount must be disabled before connecting the LUN!. Also, LUN IDs assigned to the VCB need to be the same as LUN IDs assigned to the ESX hosts.

Dave

[dconvery]

To further clarify the third point, you do not need to assign a drive letter to the VMFS partition. The driver will take care of everything.

D