Dell PowerVault NX1950 - Manual (Page 45)

Detailed End-to-End iSCSI Setup 45
To automate the creation of snapshots and the mounting of iSCSI Virtual
Disks for regular backups, you can use the Schedule Snapshot Wizard.
Snapshots of Virtual Disks that reside on an NTFS file system volume are
persistent, which means they remain after a system restart.
Snapshots that are created on the iSCSI Target server are crash consistent.
iSCSI Snapshots are created using VSS and a storage array with a hardware
provider designed for use with VSS. To enable consistent snapshots in Microsoft
iSCSI Software Target, you require the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target VSS
Hardware Provider. The Microsoft iSCSI Software Target VSS Hardware
Provider is available as an installation option in iSCSI Software Target. The
hardware provider coordinates with the local VSS to create a consistent image of
the volume that can be transported to a central backup server.
In a PowerVault NX 1950 Storage system, you can create an iSCSI Snapshot
in two ways:
• Manually create a Snapshot of a single Virtual Disk in the Microsoft iSCSI
Software Target console.
• Use the Schedule Snapshot Wizard to set up a schedule for creating a
single Snapshot or recurring Snapshots automatically.
Before Creating Snapshots
Before creating snapshots for Virtual Disks perform the following steps. Use
the Windows Explorer and go to the volume that contains the Virtual Disks
that you are creating snapshots for.
1 Go to Volume→ Properties→ Shadow Copies→ Settings. Ensure that the
Located on this volume option in the Storage Area tab displays the same
drive letter as that of the volume.
2 Click Details to verify the volume usage. The default settings are as
follows:
–
Maximum size
– Use limit—size in MB or No Limit
Change the size according to Virtual Disk/Snapshot size or change the
settings to No Limit.
NOTICE: Ensure that you have enough space in the volume to hold Virtual Disk
Snapshots. If there is not enough space, the Snapshots are lost.