Automatic VMWare VM "snapping" prior to Virtual Copy.

[franck.fuziol]

Hello all,

I wrote this script a while back and it has been very usefull to us; maybe somebody else can benefit from it.

Basically what it does, is trigger a VMWare snapshoot of all VM in a Datastore prior to trigerring a 3PAR Virtual Copy of the associated LUN (need to have a 1 to 1 relationship of VMWare datastore to LUN). Once completed, it then remove the VMWare shapshoots.

In case of a VM failure, the Virtual Copy can be presented back to a VMWare host, the datastore re-discovered (VMWare will complain about a duplicate disk ID and will ask to re-ID it). At that point you can browse the datastore, re-import the VM, go back to the last snapshoot to have a crash consistant VM. We typically power up the VM from the the Virtual Copy Datastore and then do a storage vMotion to a production datastore to keep downtime to a minimum. Once completed, you can just unmount and unpresent the datastore.

Hope this make sense.
Franck.



#**************************
# Project Name: PowerSnap *
#*******************************************************************************
# Author: Franck Fuziol - Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood *
# Revision History: *
# - 1.0 - 01/20/12 - Original Relase *
#*******************************************************************************
# Role: *
# The role of this script is to obtain a crash consistent copy of all VMs in a *
# datastore(s) and save them into a 3PAR Virtual Copy(s) for a pre-set number *
# of days (7). If needed the 3PAR Virtual Copy can be presented to a VMWare *
# host and the relevant crash consistent VM (ie VMWare Snaped) recovered. *
#*******************************************************************************
# Usage: *
# Typically this script would be called from a batch file (see sample below) *
# that would itself be called daily from Microsoft scheduler *
#*******************************************************************************
# * Software Dependencies: *
# - Microsoft PowerShell *
# - VMWare PowerCLI *
# - Putty.exe (recommend placing in System32) *
# * Authentication Dependencies: *
# - VMWare vCenter account with right to create/remove snapshots to VMs *
# - 3PAR account with right to create Virtual Copy *
# * 3PAR requirement: *
# - the Virtual Volume for the Datastore MUST have a copy space set *
# * PowerShell Execution Policy: *
# By default the PowerShell execution Policy is set to restricted.(for more *
# info type get-help about_signing in powershell). *
# In order for the script to run you will have to set the policy to *
# unrestricted by opening a CMD, then launching "powershell", then entering: *
# set-executionpolicy unrestricted *
# * PowerSnap.BAT file sample: *
# POWERSHELL "C:\Backup-ESX-Datastores.ps1" *
#*******************************************************************************

Function PowerSnap
{param ($VMWareDatastore, $3PARVV, $3PARSnapPrefix)
$SnapTime = GET-DATE -UFORMAT "%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M"
get-vm -Datastore $VMWareDatastore | new-snapshot -name PowerSnap
$TempFile = $Env:temp + '\3PAR-CMD.TXT'
if (Test-Path $TempFile) {del $TempFile}
[System.IO.File]::AppendAllText($TempFile, "createsv -ro -exp 7D " + $3PARSnapPrefix + "_" + $SnapTime + " " + $3PARVV, [System.Text.Encoding]::default)
$3PARTarget = $3PARUser + '@' + $3PARServer
putty.exe -ssh $3PARTarget -pw $3PARPassword -m $TempFile
Start-Sleep -s 15
get-vm -Datastore $VMWareDatastore | get-snapshot -name PowerSnap | remove-snapshot -confirm:$false
}

#*******************************************************************************
# VMWare Virtual Center Credentials *
#*******************************************************************************
$VCServer = 'VCenterServerName'
$VCUser = 'domain/user'
$VCPassowrd = 'XXXXXXXX'
#*******************************************************************************
# 3PAR Credentials *
#*******************************************************************************
$3PARServer = '12.34.56.78'
$3PARUser = '3paradm'
$3PARPassword = 'XXXXXXXXX'

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core
connect-viserver -server $VCServer -user $VCUser -password $VCPassowrd

#*******************************************************************************
# PowerSnap function synthax: *
# PowerSnap 'VMWare Datastore' '3PAR Virtual Volume' '3PAR Virtual Copy Prefix'*
# 'VMWare Datastore' - Name of the Datastore in VMWare *
# '3PAR Virtual Volume' - Name of the associated 3PAR Virtual Volume *
# '3PAR Virtual Copy Prefix' - Prefix of the 3PAR Virtual Copy. This prefix *
# will be followed by the Date Time of the VC *
#*******************************************************************************
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 001' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_001' 'ESX-DS-001'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 002' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_002' 'ESX-DS-002'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 003' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_003' 'ESX-DS-003'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 004' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_004' 'ESX-DS-004'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 005' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_005' 'ESX-DS-005'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 006' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_006' 'ESX-DS-006'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 007' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_007' 'ESX-DS-007'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 008' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_008' 'ESX-DS-008'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 009' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_009' 'ESX-DS-009'
PowerSnap '3PAR Datastore 010' 'HWHR-ESX_Datastore_010' 'ESX-DS-010'

[Richard Siemers]

Franck, that is a great script and good info about ESX prompting to re-id the volume.

Thank you for sharing.