VMware Snapshots Question - What is the purpose of the field "ZFS Filesystem"?

[bmoreitdan]

I have a separate disk array carved out just for backups. If I set the field called "ZFS Filesystem" to this different pool, is that the correct usage? Or should I be choosing the pool which the VMware datastore is hosted from?

 

[sretalla]

You're talking about a snapshot here... it's going to live in the same place as the data is now.

You will need another task to "move" it to your desired backup storage. (move is probably not giving you the right impression... it will be copied, then maybe you could release/destroy the snapshot if you want the space back)

You will not be able to roll back to any copied snapshot in another location, so you'll need to figure out how a restore from your "backup" would look/work.

 

[bmoreitdan]

You're talking about a snapshot here... it's going to live in the same place as the data is now.

You will need another task to "move" it to your desired backup storage. (move is probably not giving you the right impression... it will be copied, then maybe you could release/destroy the snapshot if you want the space back)

You will not be able to roll back to any copied snapshot in another location, so you'll need to figure out how a restore from your "backup" would look/work.

Thanks! So what it the purpose of the field I asked about, "ZFS Filesystem"? Are you saying that this MUST be the pool where my VMware datastore is located?

Regarding moving/copying/backing up snapshots, it seems like the only option is to use a replication task to another TrueNas server. That kinda stinks because I have a ton of storage in THIS server. Plus, I'd like to be able to upload snapshots to Backblaze B2.

[EDIT]
Apparently, it is possible to create a snapshot replication task from a source and target locations on the same server. I'll experiment with that. But, I still want confirmation on the field "ZFS Filesystem" in my original screenshot.

 

[sretalla]

Are you saying that this MUST be the pool where my VMware datastore is located?

The purpose of this facility is for TrueNAS to coordinate doing its snapshots with a snapshot coalesce on the VMware side.

As far as I understand it, the only things involved are the datastore and the ZFS location that matches.

 

[ben.mcharg]

Hello Folks. The only option I see when selecting the ZFS Filesystem is my local NFS storage. In the next field, datastores, I selected the local datatstore on my ESXi host. That said it does not appear to be working. Can anyone provide some guidance on if my setup should work?

'm using TrueNAS Scale version TrueNAS-SCALE-21.08-BETA.1 as a NFS share to backup VMWare snapshots... I am using two licensed VMware esxi 7.0 boxes. Each has its own local datastore and I am using vcenter version 7.0.0.10100.

I added 2 VMWare-SnapShots in TrueNAS Scale. One for each of the local Datastores on the ESXi hosts. I provided the vcenter IP and login credentials. No errors or issues occurred during the configuration. However, no backups are occurring.

 

[sretalla]

using TrueNAS Scale version TrueNAS-SCALE-21.08-BETA.1 as a NFS share to backup VMWare snapshots... I am using two licensed VMware esxi 7.0 boxes. Each has its own local datastore and I am using vcenter version 7.0.0.10100.

I added 2 VMWare-SnapShots in TrueNAS Scale. One for each of the local Datastores on the ESXi hosts. I provided the vcenter IP and login credentials. No errors or issues occurred during the configuration. However, no backups are occurring

It seems to me that you're missing a step to transfer the data to the datastores that you're connecting to TrueNAS.

TrueNAS will only coordinate the snapshot process between the ZVOL and the datastore attached to it. It does nothing to touch the internal datastores (so if you want to snapshot something that lives on the internal datastore in ESX, you need to work out how that will move/be copied to the datastore that TrueNAS is managing... there's nothing that will do that automatically for you).

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

I like ghettoVCB for that task.

 

[blanchet]

To use TrueNAS snapshot for VMware (I have tested only on TrueNAS Core, but I guess it applies also on TrueNAS Scale)

You must

• have a paid-version of VMware ESXi (the cheapest edition is vSphere Essential Kit)
• use a NFS or iSCSI datastore hosted on TrueNAS (NFS is easier than iSCSI to restore)
• configure the VMware snapshot web page on TrueNAS
• configure a periodic ZFS snapshot on TrueNAS (or use the webui to take a snapshot)

Before creating the ZFS snapshot, TrueNAS will send a request to VMware to snapshot the virtual machine at the VMware level to have coherent data.
After creating the ZFS snapshot, TrueNAS will send a request to VMware to remove the virtual machine snapshot at the VMware level (because they are now saved in the ZFS snapshot).

This solution may be useful, but specialized backup software for VMware, like Veeam Backup are really more convenient, because they offer granularity to restore either vm or files and send the backup elsewhere.

The Veeam B&R Community Edition it is free for up to 10 VMs.

 

[ben.mcharg]

To use TrueNAS snapshot for VMware (I have tested only on TrueNAS Core, but I guess it apply also on TrueNAS Scale)

You must

• have a paid-version of VMware ESXi (the cheapest edition is vSphere Essential Kit)
• use a NFS or iSCSI datastore hosted on TrueNAS (NFS is easier than iSCSI to restore)
• configure the VMware snapshot web page on TrueNAS
• configure a periodic ZFS snapshot on TrueNAS (or use the webui to take a snapshot)

Before creating the ZFS snapshot, TrueNAS will send a request to VMware to snapshot the VM at the VMware level to have coherent data.
After creating the ZFS snapshot, TrueNAS will send a request to VMware to remove the VMware snapshot at the VMware level (because they are now saved in the ZFS snapshot).

This solution may be useful, but specialized backup software for VMware, like Veeam Backup are really more convenient, because they offer granularity to restore either vm or files and send the backup elsewhere.

The Veeam B&R Community Edition it is free for up to 10 VMs.

I may have to install TrueNAS Core as I can't find the option for the last step in your list in TrueNAS Scale.

 

[blanchet]

• In TrueNAS Scale, the periodic snapshot are defined in the Data Protection menu
• In TrueNAS Core, the periodic snapshot are defined in the Task menu