Remote snapshots.

[SteveNetAdmin]

I've tried searching and I apologize for the ignorance. in ESXi 5 is it possible to store snapshot delta files in a remote location, such as a NAS? My boss likes using snapshots as a practice before making major changes, but they tend to get very large very quickly on some of our production servers due to how often data changes (production SQL servers mostly), and we've had instances where the disk filled stopped the show.

I've read through the following but it still leaves some questions:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2007563

VMware KB: Creating snapshots in a different location than default virtual machine directory

Would it be required to set up something like FreeNAS on a spare machine with large disks to use as an iSCSI target, or can other protocols be used that allow UNC pathing?

[a_p_]

Although it is possible to change the snapshot location, I'd not recommend that at all. Snapshots in VMware products are treated as a chain where each chain link is in use and if you place one of the chain links on another storage system (i.e. not on another LUN in the same storage/tier) you may run into performance or even worse issues. Please take a look at VMware KB: Understanding virtual machine snapshots in VMware ESXi and ESX for details. I'm not even sure whether it is supported to place snapshots on a different storage/tier!?

Best practice is to keep snapshots only as long as they are required, and in case of a database server it's even another question whether you really can revert to a snapshot without loosing data!?

André

[SteveNetAdmin]

I understand that it's not a good idea, but I want to explore the technical feasibility and procedures to do so anyways. At worse we'll all learn something :smileyhappy:

Here; http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1002929 it states that you can set the working directory, but i'm assuming it has to be a mounted location in the vmfs file system. Would I be correct in assuming that I would have to do this via ssh console, to mount a remote location?

[a_p_]

Yes, The workingDir has to be a location on an existing datastore.

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand your last sentence, can you please clarify this?

André

[SteveNetAdmin]

For example, workingDir = "/vmfs/volumes/46f1225f-552b0069-e03b-00145e808070/vm-snapshots"

Would I need to mount a location in the hypervisor OS under /vmfs/volumes/ using ssh or something, to mount what amounts to a network share in the OS.

[a_p_]

In the example you mentioned, "46f1225f-552b0069-e03b-00145e808070" is the UUID of an exising datastore. You can either specify the datastore friendly name or the UUID as the datastore. However, keep in mind that only the UUID persists in case you rename the datastore. Also ensure the virtual machine folder ("vm-snapshots" in your example) already exist. I'd suggest you choose a name which is related to the VM's original folder name rather than "vm-snapshot". The datastore you use for snapshots can be created from the GUI, i.e. no need for ssh, CLI,  ...

André