If you use backup software that utilizes snapshots, but moves those snapshots off the original datastore, you get the best of both worlds. This is exactly what Veeam does (and most other commercial VMware backup products). They basically make snapshots, then move them off to some other storage (or multiple backup destinations) and then delete the snapshot. You don't have snapshots hanging around on your primary datastore, but you have all the advantages of those snapshots when you need them.
As everyone mentioned, you should still do SQL dumps and such. VMware snapshots aren't perfect, particularly when taking a snapshot of a running VM with a running database, but they are a VERY fast way to restore a server. The "safest" way to utilize snapshots is to shut down the running VM, make a snapshot, then boot it back up. You can't run into problems with an open database if the whole machine is shut down. This is what I do on a couple of my production VM's, when I'm upgrading something major. I'll shut it down, take a snapshot (which takes seconds), then boot it back up, install the upgrades, and test things out. I'll usually let it run for a few days and keep that snapshot around just in case something isn't right. If everything is fine and some time has passed, I'll go ahead and delete the snapshot. In most cases, it doesn't make THAT MUCH performance difference to have a single snapshot hanging around. Chris On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Howard White <[email protected]> wrote: > On 04/10/2014 10:26 AM, Joe Swann wrote: > >> It does. That was my original understanding of the feature. The natural >> question that followed in my mind was, "if snapshots can be used for this >> purpose wonder if they could be used for this other purpose?" In this case >> the answer is no. Thanks. >> >> Joe Swann >> Education Technology >> Robertson County Schools >> > > Snapshots may serve a number of purposes. The cost of running those > snapshots on a continuing basis may exceed the value returned. > > Howard > > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+unsubscribe@ > googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/ > group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "NLUG" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
