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On-Demand Sandbox for Storage Snapshots

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    In the On-Demand Sandbox, you can start VMs from snapshots existing on the production storage array. You can use the On-Demand Sandbox to test VMs, troubleshoot issues, perform training and so on.

    Veeam Backup & Replication offers the On-Demand Sandbox functionality for the following storage systems:

    • EMC VNX(e)
    • NetApp, including secondary NetApp arrays — NetApp SnapMirror and NetApp SnapVault
    • HPE 3PAR StoreServ
    • HPE StoreVirtual P4000 series and HPE StoreVirtual VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance)

    Configuration of the On-Demand Sandbox in which VMs from storage snapshots are started is similar to configuration of the regular On-Demand Sandbox. To start a VM from the storage snapshot in the isolated environment, you must configure the following objects:

    • Virtual lab. The virtual lab must mirror the networking scheme of the production environment. You can configure a new virtual lab or use an existing virtual lab. Any type of the virtual lab configuration is supported: basic single-host, advanced single-host or advanced multi-host. For more information, see Virtual Lab.
    • Application group. The application group must contain one or several VMs that you want to start in the On-Demand Sandbox. You can select VMs from volumes or LUNs on the storage system. During the SureBackup job, Veeam Backup & Replication will detect the latest snapshot for this volume or LUN and start the VM from this snapshot. For more information, see Application Group.
    • SureBackup job. You must link the application group with VMs and virtual lab to the SureBackup job. For more information, see SureBackup Job.

    How On-Demand Sandbox for Storage Snapshots Works

    To start a VM from the storage snapshot in the On-Demand Sandbox, Veeam Backup & Replication needs to present this storage snapshot to an ESX(i) host as a datastore. To do this, Veeam Backup & Replication performs the following actions:

    1. Veeam Backup & Replication detects the latest storage snapshot for the VM whose disks are located on the storage system.
    2. Veeam Backup & Replication triggers the storage system to create a copy of the storage snapshot. The snapshot copy helps protect the storage snapshot from changes.

    To create a snapshot copy, Veeam Backup & Replication uses the same technology as for Veeam Explorer from Storage Snapshots. The technology choice depends on licenses installed on the storage system. For more information, see Veeam Explorer for Storage Snapshots.

    1. The snapshot copy is presented as a new datastore to the ESX(i) host on which the virtual lab is registered.
    2. Veeam Backup & Replication performs regular operations required for On-Demand Sandbox: reconfigures the VMX file, starts the VM, performs necessary tests for it and so on. For more information, see SureBackup Job Processing.
    3. After you finish working with VMs and power off the On-Demand Sandbox, Veeam Backup & Replication performs cleanup operations: powers off the VM and the proxy appliance in the virtual lab, unmounts the datastore from the ESX(i) host and triggers the storage system to remove the snapshot copy.

    On-Demand Sandbox for Storage Snapshots 

    Number of Mounted NFS Datastores

    You can add to the application group several VMs that reside on different storage snapshots. In this case, Veeam Backup & Replication will trigger several snapshot copies (one per each storage snapshot) and present the equal number of datastores to the ESX(i) host.

    The number of NFS datastores that can be mounted to the ESX(i) host is limited by VMware vSphere. If number of snapshot copies is great, Veeam Backup & Replication may fail to present all of them as datastores to the ESX(i) host. In this case, VMs in the application group will not be started and the SureBackup job will fail. For more information about limitations, see http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2239.

    To overcome this situation, Veeam Backup & Replication offers the mechanism of the snapshot copy re-mounting:

    1. If Veeam Backup & Replication detects that there is not enough resources to mount a datastore, it displays a warning and offers you to free up resources on the ESX(i) host.
    2. During the next 20 minutes, Veeam Backup & Replication attempts to mount the datastore with the time interval of 2 minutes.
    3. If resources are freed and Veeam Backup & Replication manages to mount the datastore, VMs in the application group are started and the SureBackup job continues to run. If resources on the ESX(i) hosts are not freed within 20 minutes, the SureBackup job fails.

    Limitations for On-Demand Sandbox for Storage Snapshots

    On-Demand Sandbox for storage snapshots has the following limitation:

    • You cannot add to the On-Demand Sandbox a VM whose disks are located on a VMware datastore that comprises several LUNs.
    • If a VM has several disks that are located on different VMware vSphere datastores, Veeam Backup & Replication will register a temporary VM only with those disks that are located on the storage snapshot from which you added the VM. Other VM disks will be excluded from the VMX configuration file of the temporary VM.