• IT Systems Engineering

    Use hardware VSS writers in DPM 2012 R2:

    I was trying to leverage our SAN hardware’s snapshot capabilities for backup and restore purposes. I noticed that DPM is able to use hardware VSS writers instead of using the regular VSS software provider. The advantage is that snapping is done by the hardware….meaning it is much faster! Here is how I did it for our 3PAR 7400 SAN and our LeftHand P4000 SAN. The backup software I am using is SC DPM 2012 R2 Steps to be taken on all backup servers, all Hyper-V nodes in the HV cluster and all Hyper- Standalone nodes:   1. Install DOT NET 3 from “Add Roles and features” in Server Manager 2.…

  • IT Systems Engineering

    Thin provisioning savings in a 3PAR SAN

    I recently implemented a 3PAR SAN. After migrating 10-15 VMs onto it, I looked at the disk utilization. I was happy to see how good the thin provisioning in the 3PAR SAN’s operating system was working. Summary: Total space the Hyper-V servers “think” they have = 1600 GB Total space the Hyper-V servers “think” they have used = 596 GB Actual space the SAN has reserved for these LUNs =  403 GB So that counts as a savings of around 193GB worth of real disk space (32%). Sweet, eh?) Full details below.

  • IT Systems Engineering

    Presenting LUNs to Hyper-V 2012

    Here are my notes on presenting a LUN from a 3PAR 7400 SAN to a Hyper-V 2012 server running no GUI. The SAN is connected to the server via Fiber. There is a FC switch in between which has been properly configure, zoned, etc. Multiple paths to the same LUNs are configured for redundancy and speed so we need MPIO. Procedure: 1. Install MPIO feature and reboot the Hyper-V server Note that I did not run the mpiocpl GUI or the mpclaim command as I described here earlier. You may have to do that. 2. From  inside the SAN management console, present a LUN to the Hyper-V server. Note: while…