ADSM-L

Re: [ADSM-L] VE 6.4 Testing - think & thin

2012-12-11 03:50:34
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] VE 6.4 Testing - think & thin
From: Robert Ouzen <rouzen AT UNIV.HAIFA.AC DOT IL>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 08:41:01 +0000
Hi Wanda

About your wondering I have the same one . 

I ask for the VMware managers when adding a VM to already configure it with the 
ChangedTracking ON so the first backup will be a Full backup but with used 
areas of the disk only  .... correct I hope so !

So in our case of doing the first backup CBT not enabled , will be with used 
and unused areas . But in the second and far on it will be O.K so why not , not 
to use the first one only  for restoring the others next backups ?

Did you tried too the DP recovery agent , the iSCSI restoring ?  When I loaded 
from a windows machine and restoring a windows partition ... no problem.

But the same trying to restoring a Linux partition on a Windows system  no 
success till now , see the partition in my Windows manage but cannot give a 
letter. Continuing of investigating 

Regards Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Prather, Wanda
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:17 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] VE 6.4 Testing - think & thin

Testing VE 6.4 on TSM server 6.3.2 Win2K64.  ESX hosts are VSphere 5.

So on the first VE backup we see as expected:

12/10/2012 05:18:22 TSM for Virtual Environments TDP VMware 6.4.0.00
12/10/2012 05:19:01 ANS1711W Incremental backup selected for 'HHHHH', but a 
Full backup has not yet been performed. Performing a Full backup instead.
.
Then we see
.
.
12/10/2012 05:20:14 ANS9384W Unable to get VMware Changed Block Tracking(CBT) 
data for virtual machine 'HHHHH'. Full VM backup continues, and includes both 
used and unused areas of the disk.

The "unable to get VMWare CBT data" is also expected on the first backup.  But 
I thought with VE it was supposed to be smart enough not to include unused 
areas of the disk?

We've checked with show VM all:  CBT is enabled, and subsequent backups are 
true incrementals.
We've also tried blowing the filespace away and starting over with the same VM, 
same results.

The problem is that these are thin-provisioned disks.
When you get this first full including all the unused space, then when you 
restore the VM, it comes back as full sized, no longer thin-provisioned, with 
the possibility of blowing out the datastore and causing a nasty outage.

Anybody got a solution?

Wanda


Wanda Prather  |  Senior Technical Specialist  | Wanda.Prather AT icfi DOT com  
|  www.icfi.com ICF International  | 401 E. Pratt St, Suite 2214, Baltimore, MD 
21202 | 410.539.1135 (o)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>