VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 09, 2011 10:28 PM

    I just found out this bad news...

    http://support.microsoft.com/?id=956893

    "Virtualization Snapshots for Hyper-V or for any virtualization vendor are not supported to use with SQL Server in a virtual machine. It is possible that you may not encounter any problems when using snapshots and SQL Server, but Microsoft will not provide technical support to SQL Server customers for a virtual machine that was restored from a snapshot."

    Can anyone suggest a product that will do similar to what snapshots do, and which fits within Microsoft's parameters of supported solution?



  • 2.  RE: Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 09, 2011 10:50 PM

    What are you wanting snapshots to do?



  • 3.  RE: Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 10, 2011 12:47 AM

    if it's vmware vsphere the vmware tools with trigger VSS and it provides a consistent snapshot virtual machine copy.



  • 4.  RE: Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 10, 2011 02:43 PM

    The snapshots are a fail-safe in case a software update goes bad.  Because they grow, I don't plan to keep them long-term. 

    The comment that vSphere triggers VSS, and this provides a consistent copy is probably 100% true.  If Microsoft doesn't support that, however, there could be problems.  I wonder what is wrong with snapshots that they think it is risky?  They don't even support snapshots taken when the VM is powered down.

    Anyway, back to the original question.  If software exists that does something like a snapshot, but is MS supported, I'm all ears.



  • 5.  RE: Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 10, 2011 06:08 PM

    The snapshots are a fail-safe in case a software update goes bad.  Because they grow, I don't plan to keep them long-term. 

    The comment that vSphere triggers VSS, and this provides a consistent copy is probably 100% true.  If Microsoft doesn't support that, however, there could be problems.  I wonder what is wrong with snapshots that they think it is risky?  They don't even support snapshots taken when the VM is powered down.

    Anyway, back to the original question.  If software exists that does something like a snapshot, but is MS supported, I'm all ears.

    Replicate the steps you would do in a physical world. A combination of processes. A VMware snapshot combined with the native SQL backup. An agent based backup like Backup Exec. Shut down SQL services, use VMware converter to clone the VM.



  • 6.  RE: Snapshots of SQL servers not supported. Alternatives to snapshot?

    Posted Mar 10, 2011 10:02 PM

    If this were really true?  Wouldn't it stop Vmotion from working?    Which works fine by the way on all out SQL servers.  Some SQL2000, some 2005, some 2008 too.    Vmo and Svmo both work.    It is my understanding the snapshot capability is used during Vmo's.