Taking VMware Snapshots of Cisco Prime Infrastructure

[leitwerk_smartnet]

Hello Community,

we have several Cisco Prime 2.x and 3.x installations in the field. All of them are virtual machines on ESX servers. Before crtitcal system operations (like updates, etc.) I usually take a VMware snapshot. Until now I never had to use a snapshot to go back to previous system state but I always felt safe having a snapshot, just in case something goes wrong.

Now a customer recently asked me if the database would not get corrupted if I just take a snapshot of the running system. I got courious and tried to look this up, but could not find clear instructions for this. The question that bothers me is: do I have to stop NCS before taking a snapshot or not? Does anyone know what Cisco recommends (kind of best practice) for taking VMware snaphsot?

Best Regards,

Benjamin

[Prabath Godevithanage · Accepted solution]

Hi Benjamin,

Please see the release notes below..Snapshots are supported but recommended to take them while they are shutdown. I have done quite a few installations and upgrades and always take snapshots while the VM is off,Is quicker and safer on large high transaction VMs. 

Prime 3.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/3-0-1/release/notes/cpi_rn.html

Prime 2

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/net_mgmt/prime/infrastructure/2-2-2/release/notes/cpi_rn.pdf

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1025279

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1025279

Cheers

Prabath

[leitwerk_smartnet]

Hello Prabath,

thanks for enlighten me. I guess I will shutdown VMs in the future then :D

Best Regards,

Benjamin

[Prabath Godevithanage]

You are welcome Benjamin . Please mark your question as answered if you think if it has been. Thank you