Thursday, March 26, 2009

NetApp Tips and few commads

SnapManager for VI 1.0 (Virtual Infrastructure)

In Vmware environments:

1. snapshots may not be granular enough.

2. vmware is best in NFS than ISCSI.

3. Traditional backups disadvantages.. (i) dont match your VI (ii) No cpu power left on the server.

4. Recommended.. only 4 snapshot copies a day.

5. how SMVI works.. (i) Backup initiated. (ii) Vm snapshot copy created. (iii) Snapmanager for VI triggers instant NetApp snapshot. (iv) vm snapshot removed.

6. only VMFS/NFS support. No RDM support.

7. Protocols - ISCSI, FCP, NFS.

8. snapmirror is integrated.

9. Backup scheduling and retention policies

10. SMVI only support netapp storage.

11. Efficiently meet the backup and DR needs of your ESX environment. (i) Leverages netapp snapshot tech (ii) provides a way to restore VM and data stores

Snap Manager

SnapManager provides rapid online backup and near instantaneous restoration of Exchange databases by using online Snapshot™ technology that is part of the Data ONTAP® software and integrating the Microsoft Exchange backup and restore APIs and VSS. SnapManager can also leverage the SnapMirror capabilities of storage systems to provide on-site or off-site SnapManager backup set mirroring for disaster recovery.


Data management:

SnapManager supports the following data management capabilities:

· Migrating Exchange databases and transaction logs to LUNs on storage systems

· Backing up Exchange databases and transaction logs from LUNs on storage systems

· Verifying the backed-up Exchange databases and transaction logs

· Managing the SnapManager backup sets

· Restoring Exchange databases and transaction logs from previously created SnapManager backup sets

· You can use SnapManager to create offline archives of Snapshot copies containing Exchange backup sets for long term or remote backup storage.

Three different archive methods are supported:

1. Manually initiated archival using NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) or the storage system's dump command

2. Manually initiated archival using a Windows backup utility

3. Automatic archival using the Run Command After Operation feature with your backup operation

The SnapVault software can be used to archive backup sets.

What Snap Manager does NOT do:

SnapManager 4.0 for Microsoft Exchange does not support the following uses:

  • SnapManager does not support the capability to restore individual mailboxes or public folders.
  • SnapManager does not support SnapDrive versions prior to 4.2.1.
  • SnapManager does not create or restore backups of Microsoft Exchange databases that are stored on storage devices that are provided by companies other than NetApp.
  • SnapManager does not support Microsoft Windows 2000.
  • SnapManager does not restore Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 databases to an alternate location.
  • SnapManager does not backup and restore Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 databases.
  • SnapManager is not supported for use on Windows Server 2003 IA-64 edition.

VIFS on NetApp

Vifs (Virtual interfaces) are used for multi-homing and load balancing. A Single mode vif is for failovers only and Multi-mode vif is for load balancing, but you can use a combination of multi-mode and single mode to be fully redundant and load balanced.

For more information on VIFS please check the NetApp now site.

To create a single mode vif

vif create single sample-vif0 e0a e0c

To configure an interface to use a vif

ifconfig sample-vif0 `hostname`-pub mediatype auto netmask 255.255.255.0 wins partner cluster-vif0

Make sure you reference the vif name not the interface name

To view all interfaces including vifs

Ifconfig –a

To view a single interface or vif (note you must view the vif in order to see ip address)

Ifconfig sample e0a

Ifconfig sample-vif0

To view all vifs status

vif status

To view single vif

vif status sample-vif0

To view statistics

vif stat sample-vif0

If you need to remove an interface from a vif

vif delete sample-vif0 e0c (This will remove e0c from sample-vif0)

To favor one interface in a VIF (this always be the one that's used if up, if it ever goes down and then comes back up it will fail back to it)

vif favor e0a

To see more commands type the following at a command prompt.

Vif ?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post.

Can you create a Sample based on the following:

ESX WITH MULTIPLE VMKERNELS, TRADITIONAL ETHERNET, AND NETAPP NETWORKING WITH MUTI-LEVEL VIFS

Filer A : management ip : 10.170.4.11 vlan 11
Filer A : NFS ip : 10.170.164.11 vlan 13

Filer B : management ip : 10.170.4.12 vlan 11
Filer B : NFS ip : 10.170.164.12 vlan 13

2 NFS Volumes ; 10 ESX hosts;