Preparing applications that run on VMware or KVM

Before you install IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot on VMware or KVM virtual machines that run Linux™ guest operating systems, you must verify the configuration of the application that you want to protect.

Before you begin

Different applications have specific IBM Storage Protect Snapshot configuration requirements. For more information about application-specific requirements, see Planning.

Procedure

VMware
  • Before you back up data or clone databases on VMware virtual machines, ensure that all source LUNs in the backup or clone operations are attached to the virtual machine with one of the following methods:
    • VMware physical mode raw device mapping (pRDM)
    • iSCSI
    • Network file system (NFS)
  • Run an IBM Storage Protect Snapshot restore operation from a snapshot to an existing pRDM disk.
    The operation does not create a virtual machine or pRDM definition as part of the restore process.
KVM
  • Before you back up data or clone databases on KVM virtual machines, ensure that all source LUNs in the backup or clone operations are attached to the virtual machine with one of the following methods:
    • Block device mapping (BDM)
    • iSCSI
    • Network file system (NFS)
    • PCI Passthrough
  • Run an IBM Storage Protect Snapshot restore operation from a snapshot to an existing BDM disk.
    The restore operation does not create a virtual machine or BDM definition as part of the restore process.