Posts tagged Data Protection Manager

Hyper-V Protection with Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1

Dec 27th

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

4 comments

In the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, I had some time to research how DPM2012 SP1 performed with protecting guests on a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V cluster using CSV v2.0.

According to the SP1 release notes we can expect improved backup performance of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over CSV deployments with the following benefits:

  • 900% improvement in Express Full backups
  • Parallel backups
  • No performance difference between backups from CSV owners and non-owners

image

Let me first point out that my setup is based on the following configuration:

Storage Server

  • HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8
  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with iSCSI Target Server Role enabled
  • Dual-port 10Gb HP FlexFabric 554FLB (Emulex) Adapter
  • Converged Fabric network configuration

Hyper-V Cluster Nodes

  • HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8
  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with Hyper-V role and Failover Cluster feature enabled
  • 10Gb HP FlexFabric 554FLB (Emulex) Adapter
  • Converged Fabric network configuration

DPM 2012 SP1 Server

  • Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Virtual Machine
  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
  • 1 x 10Gb virtual network adapter (synthetic)

Network Configuration

Both on the iSCSI Target Server and Hyper-V cluster nodes, the two 10Gb network adapters have been teamed using a switch independent teaming mode with Hyper-V Port as the load balancing algorithm. A Hyper-V Extensible Switch is connected to the NIC Team and several virtual networks have been configured using the Converged Fabric method of Windows Server 2012. Each network has a minimum bandwidth Quality of Service configured on the virtual switch level. On the backend, the servers use a Virtual Connect Flex-10 interconnect.

image

More >

, , , , , , , ,

Virtualization Career Training

Sep 22nd

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Events

No comments

UPDATE October 20th 2011: Here is a link to the video: http://t.co/v1xAMV6x

On Tuesday, October 4th Technical Evangelists Symon Perriman and Rick Claus are hosting an online conference on Virtualization Career Training with Microsoft Learning.  This half day virtual event (8am – 11am PST) will offer a Level 100 to 200 introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Virtualization and how it can help their career.  It is free and public so sign up for this warm-up for the Jump Start event on October 6th.

  • Module 1 – Technology: Learn about Microsoft’s virtualization technologies, how they work, and the future roadmap to the Cloud!
  • Module 2 – Career: Understand the importance of virtualization and Private Cloud, and how it can make or break an IT Professional’s career!
  • Module 3 – Certification: Get prepared for your next steps towards a virtualization career by understanding and preparing for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.

Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270
Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=288

Instructor Bios:  http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=287

clip_image001

More >

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sanbolic releases Melio version 3.5

Jun 20th

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

1 comment

Today Sanbolic announced the availability of its latest version of its distributed clustered file system Melio version 3.5, which is currently the best available alternative for Hyper-V Cluster Shared Volumes. I have helped Sanbolic test and improve some of its earlier versions and was very impressed.

Co-founder and CEO of Sanbolic, Momchil Michailov just informed me that both DPM 2010 and Symantec BackupExec are supported, that the product will ship before the end of the week. Sanbolic has much more to offer that simply to replace CSV. If you haven’t looked at this product and are thinking of building large Hyper-V clusters, VDI or SQL deployments where enterprise ready storage is expected without the compromises, I strongly advise you to start evaluating Sanbolic’s file system Melio version 3.5

If you need any assistance with testing this product or writing a design, don’t hesitate to contact me and make me part of your project.

PS
I have no shares in Sanbolic (although maybe I should)  :-)

image

More >

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hyper-V, DPM and MS Clustering win 2010 Redmond Readers Choice Award

Nov 2nd

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

No comments

image

Several prizes were won by the products we work with every single day. The subtitle says “Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community”. Well I don’t know the magazine very well so I will not begin to doubt that it is. It’s always nice winning prizes, especially if VMware comes in second.

Best Virtual Server Product
6 products in category
Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V, 30.7 percent, Winner
VMware vSphere, 29.2 percent, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
An upset! Finally, Hyper-V, which had been slowly closing the gap, takes this category over 2009 Grand Slam winner VMware. However, vSphere, now ISV Winner five years running, still merits a Five-Star Award honor. For what it’s worth, though, Microsoft is reaching the virtualization market, at least among Redmond readers.

Best Storage Management Product
38 products in category
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, 15.1 percent, Winner
Acronis Backup and Recovery Advanced Server, 12.9 percent, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
EMC ControlCenter SRM Software, 7.9 percent, Preferred Product
Symantec Storage Central, 7.9 percent, Preferred Product

Best Clustering and Failover Solution
11 products in category
Microsoft Windows Server Clustering Services, 29.5 percent, Winner, Five-Star Award
VMware Fault Tolerance, 24.2 percent, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Barracuda Load Balancer, 9.6 percent, Preferred Product
The margin closes every year, but Microsoft Windows Server Clustering Services held off VMware Fault Tolerance this year to earn a Five-Star Award. The VMware product, having won consecutive ISV awards. Barracuda Load Balancer jumped into Preferred Product status after being shut out in 2009.

http://redmondmag.com/Articles/2010/11/01/2010-Redmond-Readers-Choice-Awards.aspx?Page=6

, , , , ,

Hotfix for a specific problem with backup applications on Windows Server 2008 R2 clusters

Oct 1st

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

No comments

This hotfix is only for the described symptoms:

If you see that the Cluster services stops responding in a Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster while some backup application that use VSS in parallel, you might solve this with hotfix KB2277439.

Cause:

This issue occurs because of a race condition between the calls of the VSS writer on the cluster. If an OnBackupShutdown method call occurs between an OnFreeze method call and an OnThaw method call, the lock on the cluster hive is not released. Therefore, a deadlock occurs, and the Cluster service stops responding.

If you are using Hyper-V R2 cluster with CSV, install this hotfix on the coordinator node.image

With respect to parallel backups of Hyper-V Virtual Machines with DPM 2010, I can refer to a very helpful blog by Matthew Hodgkins: Enabling Serialized Hyper-V Virtual Machine Backups in DPM 2010 RC

, , , , , , , , ,

Conditions when DPM cannot backup a Hyper-V VM

Jul 2nd

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

No comments

We recently saw a situation where a running VM could not be backed up by Data Protection Manager.

Here is why:

If at least one of the following conditions is true

  • The Hyper-V integration components for volume snapshot copy disabled for the VM
  • Dynamic disks configured inside of the VM
  • Non-NTFS based partitions inside the VM
  • Changed shadow storage assignments within the VM
  • VM is not in running state.

In such a case, the VM is put into saved state before the host volumes are snapshotted for back up. For such VMs, Hyper-V writer reports the VM datasouce name in the format "Backup Using Saved State<VMName>". If online backup is possible for a VM, the format will be "Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot<VMName>".

image

, , , , , ,

Migrating disks in Data Protection Manager

Jul 1st

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

No comments

Ruud Baars, consultant and DPM expert at Microsoft NL explains how a disk in Data Protection Manager can be migrated to another disk by freeing up space, even if there are volumes spanning multiple disks.

See his blog at Ctrl P – The Data Protection Manager Blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2010/06/05/space-needed-to-migrate-a-disk.aspx

image

,

Hyper-V R2 hotfixes for DPM 2010

Feb 9th

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

Install at least these two hotfixes on Hyper-V R2 servers:

  • KB975354 A Hyper-V rollup package dealing with parallel backups on same cluster shared volumes and VM’s hosted by different servers; Avoiding data truncation as a result of simultaneous backup of VM from host and from within virtual machine; properly restoring a VM with snapshots to another location
  • KB975921 You may be unable to perform certain disk-related operations after an exception when a hardware provider tries to create a snapshot in Windows Server 2008 R2 or Win 7.

Although not specifically related to Hyper-V and DPM2010, I also install hotfix KB974909 which solves loss of the network connection within a virtual machine with heavy outgoing network traffic and many concurrent network connections. This could easily be the case when a VM level backup is being conducted.

There is also a list of tested hardware VSS providers:
http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/archive/2010/02/05/tested-hardware-vss-provider-table.aspx

I may have a chance to test the HP LeftHand VSS hardware provider, which is not yet on this list. The HP EVA 4×00, 6×00 and 8×00 is on the list by the way.

A comprehensive list of Windows updates and hotfixes for Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2 can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430893(WS.10).aspx

If you need to update your Hyper-V servers, you might just as well include this recent security update:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-010 – Important
Vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Could Allow Denial of Service (977894)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-010.mspx

 image

When you try to protect VM’s on a Hyper-V R2 clusters with DPM2010 RC you now get a warning if the required hotfixes are not installed.

image

This is very helpful!

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Data Protection Manager 2010 Release Candidate has arrived

Feb 9th

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

The release candidate of DPM2010 has just been released. 

The download location is:
http://connect.microsoft.com/site840/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=26452

image         

The RC features support backup of machines within your intranet, which includes:

  • Workgroup machines
  • Machines in untrusted domains within your intranet

Please note that in this release, this feature has been built for backing up machines within environment and DPM2010 RC does not support backup of machines outside your intranet, which includes:

  • Machines in DMZ network
  • Machines in untrusted domains on customers’ sites connected through VPN

In a subsequent release (not sure if this is RTM), support for extranet scenario’s might be added.

Support for Hyper-V R2 clusters and cluster shared volumes (CSV) was already available in the beta.

Important to know is you can upgrade from beta to RC to RTM, or directly from DPM2007 to RC or RTM or any other combination.

In our practice we have deployed quite a number of beta versions of DPM2010 and we are quite happy with the result. I am glad we are getting closer to RTM which is expected to be on schedule for mid April 2010.

DPM2010 RC support can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.dataprotectionmanager

, , , ,

A Hyper-V update rollup package is available for Windows Server 2008 R2

Nov 25th

Posted by Hans Vredevoort in Hans Vredevoort

No comments

Several issues around VSS based protection & recovery are being addressed with this Hyper-V update rollup package. The package can be downloaded from:
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=975354&kbln=en-us

The last three issues might sound familiar if you already perform host level protection of virtual machines on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) with Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010.

Issues that are fixed in this update rollup package

Issue 1
Consider the following scenario:

  • Some Internet SCSI (iSCSI) connections are created in a virtual machine that is running Windows Server 2003.
  • You back up this virtual machine on the virtual machine host server.

In this scenario, the error code 0x800423f4 occurs when you back up the virtual machine. Additionally, the following event is logged into the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service event log:

The number of reverted volumes does not match the number of volumes in the snapshot set for virtual machine "’virtual machine name’ (Virtual machine ID <GUID>)".

Cause of Issue 1
When a virtual machine is being backed up, the VSS writer of the server that is running Hyper-V makes a call to the guest virtual machine to check whether any iSCSI connections exists. This call has a default time-out of 60 seconds. If this call does not return within the time limitation, the VSS writer of the server that is running Hyper-V incorrectly assumes that there is no iSCSI connection. Therefore, the backup operation fails.

Issue 2
Consider the following scenario:

  • Cluster shared volumes are enabled on a failover cluster for Hyper-V.
  • Some virtual machines are saved on the same volume. But they are running on different nodes.
  • These virtual machines are backed up in parallel.

In this scenario, the virtual machine backup operation fails.

Cause of Issue 2
When the virtual machines on different nodes are backed up in parallel, every node waits to become the cluster shared volume owner to create the snapshots. However, the Cluster service moves the volume owner from one node to another node immediately after a snapshot is created without waiting for post-snapshot tasks to be completed. If another node requests the same shared volume for a backup operation before the post-snapshot tasks are completed, the Cluster service changes the volume to another node. Therefore, the VSS writer that is in the previous node cannot find the cluster shared volume locally when it performs post-snapshot tasks. This behavior causes the virtual machine backup operation to fail.

Issue 3
Consider the following scenario:

  • A virtual machine is being backed up on a server that is running Hyper-V.
  • At the same time, an application backup operation is being performed in the same virtual machine.

In this scenario, some data is truncated from the application backup in the virtual machine. Therefore, this behavior causes data loss.

Cause of Issue 3
The application backup operation in the virtual machine is incorrectly affected by the virtual machine backup operation on the server that is running Hyper-V.

Issue 4
Consider the following scenario:

  • A virtual machine that has some snapshots is backed up on a server that is running Hyper-V.
  • Then, this virtual machine is restored to another location.

In this scenario, the restore operation fails and the virtual machine may be corrupted.

Cause of Issue 4
The snapshot files are not restored successfully when you restore the virtual machine.

image

Full details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975354

, , , , , ,
12»