P4300, Data Protector and vSphere Integration - how to create P4000 snapshot prior to backup?

[Christian Reiter]

Hello!

We use a P4300 and VMware vSphere along with HP Data Protector 6.20 and the new DP Virtual Environment Integration.

After the installation of our P4300 we had severe problems with the storage system, which were caused by presenting the VMFS LUNs to our Windows 2008 R2 backup server. HP Support advised not to present the original VMFS volumes for san-based backups but to use P4000 Snapshots and present them instead. The original LUNs should be presented solely to VMware ESXi hosts.

As far as i understand the Data Protector Virtual Environment integration it sends a request to create a snapshot of the virtual machines (at VMFS level - not P4000 level) to vCenter after the start of the backup job. Then it searches for the SAN volume and starts copying data blocks to the backup device.

I'm now looking for a way to call a script which snapshots the volume at P4000 level and presents it to the windows backup hosts exactly between those above mentioned actions. Is this possible?

Thank you in anticipation!

Best Regards,

christian

[RonsDavis]

I have had good luck using scripts I picked up at this blog, http://www.dasblinkenlichten.com/?p=108

This uses the CLiQ interface to snap, and assign the snapshots. I haven't used DP, but I assume you can call a script with it.

[Christian Reiter]

Well, the point where I can call scripts of such a type is exactly what I am looking for.

As far as I can see, Data Protector assumes that the volume is available to the OS from the very beginning of the backup session. This is of course not easy to achieve when VMFS-level snapshots created by the session itself ought to be used.

Thanks,

 christian