We had been running straight backups on SQL servers since we started using esXpress. Well, we restored a SQL server VM and found there was DB corruption. Is there a recommended way of backing up SQL server with esXpress? How safe is using VSS for this process? Is there a way to initiate backup scripts to stop/start SQL services with esXpress?

Thanks
Tony

Hi Tony,

You can optionally configure esXpress to "quiesce" all VMs in the global configuration or on a per VM basis. The default global setting in esXpress is to disable quiesce as for many VMs, it can cause issues.

Recently, VMware has added to their tools the ability to take advantage of VSS so that when calling on VMware to make a snapshot with the quiesce enabled, it will also do VSS.

VSS quiescing is a process that seems stable for ESX3.5U2. VSS snapshots require some work to setup, but are only really useful for Exchange, ADS and SQL. Otherwise, we still do not recommend turning it on globally.

To enable VSS freeze/thaw snapshots during esXpress backups:

1) You must be running ESX 3.5 Update 2 or later
2) You must have the latest version of the VMware Tools running in the VM. If you upgraded from an earlier version of the tools VMware does NOT automatically install the VSS sync driver. You must go to add/remove programs and click "Change" on the VMware Tools and add in the VSS Sync Driver.
3) You must enable the Volume Shadow Copy service in Services, VMware does not enable it by default.
4) You must enable quiescing for the VM that is being backed up. Do NOT enable quiescing globally unless you are sure that the above steps have been completed for ALL of your Windows VMs that run some type of transactional service (Exchange, AD, SQL, etc). To enable it for individual VMs it must by enabled in the per-VM config file from the 'phd' menu on the console.

Be aware that VSS snaps are not instantaneous. All I/O inside of your VM will freeze for up to 10 seconds when a snapshot is added to begin a backup. The I/O will not be lost, it is simply queued until the snap completes.

If you complete all of the above steps you will got VSS aware backups from esXpress.

Regards,

Ed Jukniewicz
PHD Virtual Support