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From: W on 8 May 2010 16:53
On a Windows 2003 Server with a a 1 TB D: volume, we store and run about
eight virtual machines. Currently we use a Dynamic volume to make a
real-time mirror of this critical volume to two different hardware RAID
volumes. What I would like to know is whether there is a
straightforward way we could additionally maintain "snapshots" of the
logical volume on a third RAID device, to guard specifically against the
nightmare scenario where an operator accidentally deletes the volume.

Currently we do backups of our virtual machines with a procedure something
like the following:

1) Stop all virtual machines

2) Break the Dynamic volume mirror so that we end up with a snapshot in time
of the data volume

3) Restart all virtual machines

4) Backup the disconnected mirror to tape

5) Reconnect and rebuild the Dynamic volume

The above procedure is great because we get a pure system image of each
virtual machine, and the backup is against an offline volume that won't
impact performance. The whole procedure up to step 3) only takes 10
minutes so the downtime window is minimal.

The problem with the above procedure is that it involves a human being.
And that human being has to perform a very sensitive set of steps to
disconnect a dynamic volume. One time out of 9999 that human being might
accidentally *delete* the volume instead of breaking it.

I would ideally like to have a technology that gives me the ability to
create a snapshot before step 2), and a key requirement is that if the user
then deleted the volume, that the snapshot could immediately be used to
recover the volume.

What technologies give me that capability? Will Veritas Storage
Foundation's snapshot capability give the ability to recreate a volume when
the volume is accidentally deleted?

--
W


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