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NetApp have released a powerful new addition to the Open Systems SnapVault range for VMware Virtual Infrastructure.

OSSV installs directly into the VMware ESX service console and acts as a very light-weight interface to backup Virtual Machines on NetApp storage and non-NetApp storage. It works best with NetApp Protection Manager, but works well as a stand-alone product.  There’s also an excellent Best Practice guide for OSSV available here.

To source: Paul Shannon

After writing LUN cloning with NetApp and templating VM’s with RDM I ran in to a problem. LUN cloning was only possible on the same volume. But we created a volume with templates that we want to clone to another volume because templates won’t reside on the same volume as the production virtual machine. After some digging I found the command ndmpcopy. This utility gives you the option to copy a LUN or volume.
So if you want to copy a LUN from your template volume to your production volume you’ll need to do the following:

The steps

ndmpcopy /vol/[Template Vol path]/[LUN] /vol/[destination vol]/

It is also possible to create a Qtree directly. It doesn’t have to exists before copying the LUN. It will look something like this.

ndmpcopy /vol/[Template Volume path]/[LUN] /vol/[destination volume]/[Qtree]

NOTE: this will take quite a lot of CPU power from the filer so be careful when you copy your LUN.
Now you have copied your LUN you will hva to rename it because if you copy a LUN you cannot rename the LUN during copying. For renaming you use lun move. The Qtree is optional again.

Lun move /vol/[ volume]/[Qtree]/[LUN original name] /vol/[ volume]/[Qtree]/[LUN new name]

Now you have you LUN for your new virtual machine. You can add this LUN to your ESX enviorment and import the Virtual Machine or add it as a disc to a other Virtual Machine.

In this post I will discuss the use of lun cloning to get a very easy way of deploying virtual machines. When using RDM’s on your NetApp filer to store your virtual machines templates within VMWare become useless. NetApp has the following solution for it and it called LUN CLONING or creating your golden lun. This lun is your template and will serve as the foundation of your Virtual Machines. You have to create a LUN for all operating systems you support on VMWare. Clones on NetApp are rely on the snapshot technology of NetApp. with other words you need a snapshot of the lun you want to clone. After a snapshot is created or the right snapshot is chosen you can create your clone. I will take you through the step in a short time.Two scenarios are possible.

Scenario one

You want to create a Virtual test environment of a running virtual machine. To do this you can create a LUN clone. This is a very small copy of the original machine because you clone the snapshot and only changes are captured in the snapshot. So your clone is zero bytes in the beginning and will grow if the clone exists longer and the original LUN changes.

Scenario two

You wish to create a machine that is based on a LUN but is a separate machine. Mostly done if the LUN you clone is your “template LUN”.  In this case you want to split the LUN from its Parent. This is done with the LUN clone split operation.The stepsChoose which snapshot you want to use for your clone.

The steps

snap list vol_name 

This command will give you a list of available snapshots.

Lun clone create target_LUNpath –b parent_lunpath parent_snap

This command creates the clone. The parent_snap the LUN is cloned from will be locked. It cannot be deleted. The only way to remove the parent_snap is to destroy or split it. Now you have completed scenario one. If you want scenario two use the following command to split the clone from it’s parent.

Lun clone split start LUN_path

This splits the clone from its parent. The following command gives you a status report.

Lun clone split status LUN_path