Understanding NetApp SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure
June 8th, 2008 | 
Author: This post is a supporting post to the discussion earlier this week sparked by Scott Lowe’s tip on avoiding ESX snapshots when using SAN device snapshots. NetApp’s SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure (SMVI) is discussed as a solution for streamlining the coordination of snapshots between ESX and the SAN. Luckily, Nick Triantos from NetApp joined the discussion on Scott’s blog with some “under the hood” information:
“For those who are not familiar with the process SMVI follows here’s how it works:
1) Initiate NetApp snapshot request
2) SMVI call to VC over port 443 – https. VC call to lgtosync.sys driver inside the Guest. Quiesce, flush fs buffers
2) VMsnapshot
3) NetApp Snapshot
4) After NetApp snapshot completion, remove VMsnapshotThe whole process takes somewhere between 5-6 secs. Because it’s so quick, there’s barely any I/Os accumulated in the Redo Log so deleting the VMsnap is a rather quick process.”
So you can see that SMVI covers all the possible causes of snapshot corruption by flushing and quiescing the VM, and then initiating an ESX snapshot before creating a SAN snapshot. SMVI’s single point of management for the whole process is awesome to say the least!
Nick also wrote a SMVI preview on his blog back in March that also has great information and screen shots:
“SVMI has a client based and server based component. The server will be typically installed
on the Virtual Center server, although not required, and the client portion can be installed in your laptop if you’d like or you can install both server/client in the Virtual Center server. SVMI can be driven both by GUI or CLI.”
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