EVA Snapshots and Windows 2003

[Simon White]

Currently I have an EVA3000 connected over a fabric to a number of Windows 2003 hosts. I would like to create and present a snapshot of an EVA Vdisk to a windows 2003 server every evening for backup. I have written a script to do this using SSSU and windows commands which basically does the following:

Create snapshot and present to host
Assign and label volume using diskpart utilty

This works fine as far as I can tell. The problem comes the next evening when I need to create the snapshot again. With Business Copy for VA you used to be able to "Refresh the Business Copy" but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent in EVA Business Copy.
So to achieve this I delete the snapshot and recreate it again. When I do this the Windows host gets a bit upset and logs events saying disks have been deleted without safe removal.

What is the best way to achieve this?
Does anyone else on the forum do something similar?
Thanks
Simon

[christos_12]

Hi , i think in your script you have to remove your presented snapshot from windows using diskpart utility in order to avoid these messages in windows

[Simon White]

Thanks Christos - I have tried that by using diskpart delete volume command. The next time I went to create and mount the snapshot, the snapshot was created but I couldn't see it from the server. From diskpart when I did a list volume it wasn't displayed.
To fix this I had to reboot the server - obviously not an ideal fix if I want to do this every evening

[christos_12]

If you use remote desktop to see the newly created-presented drive you missed the point.
you cannot see it
So, take a look if your snapshot is already presented

[Ian Grobler]

Simon, did you manage to solve your problem with the snapshot not working the next evening? I have seen a similar situation where the snapshot will not present back to Windows 2003 second time around. Fortunately for us the server in question is on a daily reboot schedule so it works unless the reboot does not occur... which is unfortunately what is happening because I am trying to 'neatly' remove the presented snapshot.

I have added an extra step in the diskpart script to remove/dismount the presented drive letter first and then remove the snapclone. This gets rid of the Windows Raidisk & PlugPlayManager errors and is very 'neat'. Diskpart script as follows:

select volume 4
remove letter=z
delete volume
exit

This works well but now the server won't reboot with the usual 'shutdown /r' script! If I just take the disk away using SSSU I am pretty sure the reboots will work but it's messy with errors being logged for the removed disk again. At least the presentations should work every day (!?). Not 'clean'. I would like to get away from the reboots but yes, need the snapshots to present daily... If you find a solution please post!

[Simon White]

Ian,

My diskpart script looks very similar and I am getting different results - sometimes it appears as mounted and sometimes not. Although each time I can see the disk in diskpart but no volume.
We are now looking at scripting it all from Replication Manager on the SMA instead of using SSSU. This has templates to dismount, mount, create snapshots etc - so far so good.
I will keep you posted

[Ian Grobler]

Simon, have you tried adding a delay to your scripts after doing a scan for the presented clone? After doing a rescan it takes a few seconds for the volume to fully appear in diskpart, only then can a drive letter be assigned. Example .bat file as follows:

diskpart.exe /s diskmount1.txt > diskmount1.log
timeout /t 10
diskpart.exe /s diskmount2.txt > diskmount2.log

diskmount1.txt containing:

rescan
exit

and diskmount2.txt containing:

list volume
select volume 4
assign letter=Z
exit

I had the same problem with drive letter appearing randomly until I added the 10 second delay and split the diskpart commands into two files. The logging is what helped pinpoint this one!

We are unfortunately not licensed for Replication so I will struggle ahead with SSSU.
I actually think SecurePath is causing the disk 're-present' problem you have; somehow it does not like the disk being deleted by diskpart and the reboot then is the only means of cleaning up the mess.
In Secure Path manager there is a 'Clean up LUN' option to clean up the left overs of disks presented & removed from the system. I suspect it may help clean out the the server securepath 'mess' and enable reboots properly.. (!?)

[Uwe Zessin]

>We are unfortunately not licensed for Replication

Wait a second...
The Replication Solutions Manager if for Continuous Access and/or Business Copy!

(BC is also called local replication ;-)

[Ian Grobler]

Uwe, seems to good to be true! As we are licensed for BC we should legally be able to use this product to automate local snapshots via a gui or it's CLUI. Am busy downloading and will check it out.... Seems good.
It won't solve any OS issues but hopefully will be more robust than SSSU which sometimes is a little unreliable.

[Digex]

Yes, RSM is a great product. The new version 4.0 is out now. We currently use 3.1 and it has templates that script the whole process of presenting snapshots, snapclones, etc. It's a must for user friendly access and script creation with a GUI. We currently have a few jobs that snapshot multiple luns from a single server to a media server that backups the snaps.