I’ve been quite busy the last couple weeks, so busy that I’ve neglected VMwareTips.com for far too long!  Today I’d like to tell you about an exciting upcoming release for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) and NetApp SnapMirror users.

NetApp announced a couple weeks back the integration of NetApp SnapMirror to Tape and Snapshot technologies with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) 6. As a result, NetApp and IBM customers using TSM 6 will experience enhanced backup capabilities for data stored on NetApp FAS storage devices.

TSM 6 leverages NetApp SnapMirror to Tape technology, enabling customers to use TSM Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) support to back up FAS volumes directly to tape or across the network to any tape device managed by TSM. This can be done without having to scan each volume to find new and changed files, helping reduce the amount of time customers need to back up their FAS systems, which can make the backup process up to 12 times faster.

TSM 6 also leverages NetApp Snapshot technology to reduce progressive incremental file backup time by comparing the current backup Snapshot copy with the previous backup Snapshot copy to identify new, changed, and deleted files. Traditional backup scans of large file systems can take hours. However, TSM 6, together with NetApp Snapshot technology, completes the identification of new, changed, and deleted files in seconds, drastically reducing the amount of time customers need to complete NetApp file system backups with TSM.

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Created on February 19, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Backup & Recovery, NetApp, Storage.

This blog has 7,256 views and 7 responses.

Tags: fas, NetApp, smvi, snapmirror, tsm, vcb, VMware

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Most people have never heard about NetApp’s Rapid Cloning Utility (RCU) for VMware. This tool is the magic behind the famous YouTube video that show how NetApp can very quickly create and deploy a very large number of Virtual Desktops, while using very little disk space on the filer. With desktop virtualization being hot right now this is a great tool to get to know and use. The tool is available on the NOW tool chest (a free website for NetApp customers and partners).

In this video below, NetApp demonstrates the cost savings of their zero disk cost provisioning and data deduplication software. 5000 Virtual Desktops provisioned in minutes, while only taking a little over 10GB storage.

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Created on February 5, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under ESX 3.5 Tips, ESXi 3.5 Tips, Good Reading, NetApp, Storage, VMware.

This blog has 3,195 views and 5 responses.

Tags: desktops, NetApp, rapid cloning, rcu, vdi, VMware, vmware view

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Live Webcast Protect Your Virtualized Environment Automated Backup and Disaster Recovery Is Within Your Reach Join us for a live Webcast and hear Rick Scherer, San Diego Data Processing Corporation, discuss his team’s strategy for protecting over 300 virtual machines from system, storage, network, and facility failures. Register Now Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009 Time: 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Pacific 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Eastern Outlook Reminder Technical experts from NetApp and VMware will also discuss how you can use SnapManager® for Virtual Infrastructure and VMware® Site Recovery Manager to: Cost-effectively automate disaster recovery. Eliminate host-server bottlenecks with instantaneous virtual machine backups. Implement policy-based backups using Snapshot™ technology. Use 50% less storage with NetApp. Guaranteed.* Bonus Offer Virtual Protection Resource Kit Can’t Make It? Click here to register now and gain access to content and special offers after the event.

Created on February 5, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Backup & Recovery, Conferences, NetApp, Storage, VMware.

This blog has 1,705 views and 2 responses.

Tags: NetApp, protection, Storage, VMware, webcast

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Well, my article in NetApp’s Tech OnTap was published this morning.  It was pretty exciting being asked by the #1 Employer in the United States to write an article for their monthly technical magazine.  In this topic I discuss how utilizing NetApp technologies saves my employer time and money. It is a little refreshing for potential customers to hear about success stories from other actual users, rather than sales pitches from account executives.  I invite you to go read my article for yourself, and while your at it – read the entire issue.

Created on January 26, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Good Reading, NetApp.

This blog has 1,392 views and no responses.

Tags: article, magazine, NetApp, ontap, tech ontap

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As featured today in Fortune Magazine, NetApp was announced to be the #1 Best Company to Work for in 2009.  This is not surprising, their work ethics and benefits speak for themselves – all the employees I’ve ever talked with are always upbeat and extremely happy doing what their doing.  Congratulations to NetApp!

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Created on January 22, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Good Reading, NetApp.

This blog has 1,875 views and no responses.

Tags: best company, fortune magazine, NetApp

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Scott Lowe covered this over two years ago but I thought I’d revisit just in case there is someone out there looking to SSH from their ESX hosts directly into the NetApp OnTAP operating system.

By default, ESX only supports AES encryption, OnTAP requires 3DES encryption. This means we’ll need to make a modification to the SSH configuration on ESX to have it support 3DES.  If your asking why would I want this, sometimes it comes in real handy to run OnTAP commands direct from your ESX command-line.  For example, if you want to see how much space an aggregate has left you can simply type; ssh fas1 df -Ag aggr0 — or if you want to grow the size of your LUN; ssh fas1 lun resize /vol/vol#/qtree/lun# 500g — Anyways, the possibilities are endless.

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Created on January 16, 2009 by Rick Scherer

Posted under ESX 3.5 Tips, ESXi 3.5 Tips, NetApp.

This blog has 4,855 views and 2 responses.

Tags: 3des, aes, cipher, esx, firewall, NetApp, ontap, ssh

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So, I’ve already had a couple posts including some shell scripts that I wrote that will quiesce your Virtual Machines then initiate a NetApp level snapshot.  Some have noted (including myself) how they are not the best tools for getting the job done….mind you, they worked for me and my purpose, but they were lacking.  I’m not going to get into what they were lacking, but lets just leave it at that (definietly not a commercial product). Luckily for us, NetApp has released a new product called SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure (SMVI) which a lot of people have already discussed in the blogging world.  This is another tool of the SnapManager series which automates the snapshot process for your application, including system quiescing (VM snapshots) and also integration with SnapMirror (if your using it).  Tons of information on SMVI can be found on the links at the bottom of this blog.

OK — so lets take it a step further, say you don’t want to fork out the money for SMVI, what can you do?  Well, NetApp released on its NOW ToolChest (support subscription required) a tool called VIBE, Virtual Infrastructure Backup Engine.

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Created on December 23, 2008 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Backup & Recovery, NetApp, Storage.

This blog has 5,391 views and one response.

Tags: backup, esx, NetApp, smvi, snapshot, vibe

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Alright, well I finally set aside some time to sit and think about my script that runs my snapshots (VMware Snapshots then NetApp Snapshots then remove VMware Snapshot).   The problem with my current script is that if you have multiple VMware Snapshots they all get removed… which IMO maybe isn’t a bad thing (since your not suppose to keep snapshots for that long), but I can see in some environments it may not be a good thing.

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Created on December 5, 2008 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Backup & Recovery, ESX 3.5 Tips, NetApp, Storage, VMware.

This blog has 11,018 views and 19 responses.

Tags: backup, esx, NetApp, script, snapshot, VMware

(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Today an ask the experts session went live on “Getting the Most ROI with Data Deduplication“, this was a presentation I recorded mainly focused on NetApp’s A-SIS (Data Deduplication).  Please feel free to visit the session, check out the documentation and ask questions.  The session will be live until December 19th.

For those of you attending VMware vForum in San Diego on Wednesday, I will be speaking during the NetApp Platinum Sponsor/Customer Story session.  My presentation will be on the benefits of utilizing NetApp storage for a virtualized environment.

Created on December 1, 2008 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Conferences, Good Reading, NetApp, vForum, VMware.

This blog has 1,333 views and no responses.

Tags: ask the experts, deduplication, NetApp, roi, vForum, VMworld

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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I was recently interviewed by NetApp for a Customer Success Story, it was in regards to server virtualization and utilizing NetApp storage.  This success story was recently released by NetApp and can be found online by clicking here.

Created on November 25, 2008 by Rick Scherer

Posted under Good Reading, NetApp, VMware.

This blog has 1,377 views and one response.

Tags: deduplication, flexclones, flexvols, NetApp, ontap, savings, VMware

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