Failed to mount CDP/Snapshot

[Ironwolf]

I wanted to move a Device to a new target

I 1st Deleted the Target, then I deleted the Device
Next I created a new Target, then I created a new Device (Mount existing)
This all worked fine for the DeDupe Disk, that I have been testing with

But when I tryed mounting the CDP, or creating a clone from a previous snapshot it fails

"A full clone device cannot be created." Details "Failed", I tryed several different snapshots
Also on just mounting the volume Directly leaves a red "!" next to the drive and state reads "Non-Active"
As I am just testing there is not real data on the volume, but would still like to go though the process of recovering, so should it really happen I know how to fix it.

Device: IBV3
Virtual Disk: My Computer\R\ServerOSTarget\ServerData16K - A\ServerData16K - A.ibv
Persistent Reservation: Yes
Asynchronous Mode: Yes
Operation Mode: Snapshot and CDP (Continuous Data Protection)
Snapshot Creation Period: 240 ( I found anything greater, results in a 1 hour period)
Maximum Number of Stared Sessions: 720

I did also notice, Size, Last Session ID, and Current State are missing on the properties sheet

[Anatoly (staff)]

Would you be so kind to provide us with the starwind logs?
Please send them to support@starwindsoftware.com with the reference to this topic.

Thank you

[Anatoly (staff)]

OK, as far as I understoud you have tried to mount the snapshot that you have took form the DDDisk as the way to migrate from deduplication device to the CDP (non-dedup), correct?

If yes then I must tell you that it is impossible - the DD snapshots are stored in the different from CDP format, so the only way for you is to just move all the data from one device to another.

[Ironwolf]

No no no, I'll try to be short to minimize the confustion

1) I created some DeDupe volumes, filled with random Copyies using RichCopy so I could simulate a little bit of load
2) Created some CDP volumes, filled with random Copyies as well
3) Created some more DeDupe on another iSCSI Target, installed a few 2008 R2 VM's to watch he DeDupe Process (DeDupe only appears to work if you only install 1 at a time, you can't install 8 at the same time it will not DeDupe, it just grows the volume)
4) Created some more CDP volumes, installed a few more 2008 R2, to watch the snapshot process (anything greater then 240 min, results in 60 min snapshots)
5) after a while learning what I could, I simulated Hardware faults, removed 2 Random disk from a raid 6(14 Drives total)
6) watched the performance for a while, then installed 1 disk, watched the rebuild pocess
7) installed another disk, and watched the rebuild process
pulled the OS disk out of the system while running to simulate a crash (while stil rebuilding)
9) shutdown, installed a new OS drive, installed 2008 R2
10) installed starwind
11) created 1 iSCSI target, re-attached all the drives to the same iSCSI target
12) the DeDup disk came up fine, no problems, (needed to play with Hyper-V to get the VM's on the DeDupe disk to start up, but did get them to work)
13) Mounted the CDP disk, at first just tryed the parent snapshot, with no luck, assuming it was failed, then tryed several other snapshots of the same volume, and they will not load either

So if you made it through all that, I am having a problem with a CDP volumes not loading/Mounting using the root snapshot or various versions of it, no i didn't try all 30ish versions of it, I find it hard to belive all the ones I tryed from both volumes are bad.

Did you get the Logs I sent?

[Anatoly (staff)]

Would you be so kind to doublecheck if there enough of disk space on the volume where you are trying to create full clone?
Also, may I wonder if you are running Hyper-V or ESX VMs?

Thank you

[Ironwolf]

Used Space: 1.87 TB
Free Space: 30.8 TB

The Starwind host is currently on a Computer with a Xeon W3570, 2008R2
The Hyper-V Computer is running 2008R2 with 2008R2 VM's on iSCSI LUN's on a i7-920

[Anatoly (staff)]

OK, I have some more clarification questions for you:)
Have you tried to mount snapshots without deleting the device (just mount one of the snapshots?
If not, could you try that and if process will be nonsuccessive full and you`ll get the error again, I will ask you to provide me with the detailed description of how exactly that was achieved for we to tried to reproduce the issue in our test lab for further investigation?

Also, can I ask you what was the difference in the dedup ration between the situations when you are installing the VMs simultaneously and one-by-one? And have you tried thin or thick provisioned VHDs?

thanks

[Ironwolf]

There are no snapshots listed in the snapshot manager on the failed CDP devices. I have to do it from the file level (create new device), which is resulting in non-active CDP devices.

I outline what I did, in my 2nd post in this thread, could you let me know what addtional information you needed?

-=-=-=- In responce to your dedup question -=-=-=-

They loaded/mounted/resorted fine from the simulated Hardware failure. I used Dynamic (Thin) VHD's to install 2008R2's.

Simultaneously loaded: I created 10 blank VM's and started them all within 2-5 sec of each other. I went through a normal install of 2008R2 from an ISO. I saw NO DeDupelication with all the VM's installing at the same time, the file just grew in size to a bit over 80GB.

Next I installed them one-at-a-time, on a new DeDupe Device, but from start to finish of each 2008R2 VM before starting the next one. And it DID dedupe the device was right around 9GB.

I did not really focus on testing Dedupe, it was just a result I observed. As it is being replace in the next version, I will probably test it more at that time, before I use them.

[Ironwolf]

Failed CDP Device

CDP pic.PNG (33.94 KiB) Viewed 16487 times

Non-Active CDP Devices

Nothing listed in Snapshot manger for the non-active CDP

Snapshot manager.PNG (16.02 KiB) Viewed 16489 times

Nothing in the snapshot manager

File Path of CDP

FilePAth.PNG (50.8 KiB) Viewed 16488 times

[Ironwolf]

Journal files of IBV4

CDP Journals.PNG (58.17 KiB) Viewed 16481 times

[Ironwolf]

Create a Full clone of IBV4

Create a Full Clone.PNG (8.3 KiB) Viewed 16484 times

Snapshot List of IBV4 doen't matter what is selected here they all give same error

Snapshot List.PNG (59.68 KiB) Viewed 16488 times

Full Clone Save Location, and the 2nd to last snapshot selected

full clone save location.PNG (25.13 KiB) Viewed 16485 times

[Ironwolf]

Final Add Device Wizard before error

Add Device.PNG (90.42 KiB) Viewed 16487 times

Error - Just a Simple - it Failed

Error.PNG (27.49 KiB) Viewed 16484 times

[Anatoly (staff)]

Just a little update - currently we are trying to reproduce the issue in our test lab.

[Ironwolf]

Did you ever get my logs I send to the support e-mail, or should I re-send them?

[Anatoly (staff)]

Yes, we did. Please tel me - can we perform the remote session to your system?

If yes, then. when will you be opened for this?