Changes to target\device, issue with datastore

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JRutski
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Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:16 pm

Just wanted to run this past everyone to get some input, make sure I'm sane...and see if I'm missing anything.

Currently, I publish 2 300GB deduped targets to an ESX cluster (no StarWind HA...just a single server with deduped devices). I recently noticed that one of the spdata files had grown HUGE - around ~450GB due to several SVM actions to and from this datastore (without dedupe-delete). I wanted to recreate the device to get the space back down.

I SVM'd all the VMs off the datastore in question to another datastore (on a completely seperate server) and proceeded to unmount and delete the datastore with the huge spdata file. I then deleted the associated device files and recreated a new 300GB deduped device and assigned it to the same target it was previously assigned to. *Please note that I did NOT modify the second 300GB device AT ALL *

The problem occurred when the Rescan happend on the first ESX host - the new device showed up fine, but the other datastore (didn't modify this one) went into a missing\down state! I tried several things including re-assigning the device to the target, several storage rescans...the device was showing up with a completely different identifier in ESX and NOTHING was changed on this 2nd target\device in StarWind!

If I added this device as a datastore, a partition table was NOT found, and ESX was trying to create a new one thus wiping all data! I tried a few things to recreate the partition table, but it would not recreate. Long story short, I lost the VMs that I did not SVM off (but should not have needed to because I didn't modify this device\target).

Questions:
- Is this a known issue, has it happened before, etc? I have seen a few posts that are similar
- What is the correct procedure when modifying one of many targets on s StarWind server?
- Do the datastores need to be dismounted prior to making changes? Including recreating devices on the same targets or changing the cache size, etc?
- Same question for doing StarWind software updates?

I have no problem SVMing everything off the datastores that are about to be maintained, and I assume this is probably not as big of an issue when using HA....just seems like a bit of a long process, etc.

Thanks
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Alex (staff)
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Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:36 am

It's very strange! We'll try to reproduce the issue in our testlab.
Could you please send us the logs from this StarWind server?
beta-testing@starwindsoftware.com

Add link to this topic in your e-mail with logs, please.
Best regards,
Alexey.
JRutski
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Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 2:05 am
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Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:33 pm

Logs sent. Thanks guys!
alexey (staff)
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Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:23 pm

We have received them and currently investigating the issue. We`ll get back to you as soon as we`ll have some news.
Regards,
Alexey Skotsyk
StarWind Software Inc.
alexey (staff)
Staff
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Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:22 am

JRutski,

We solved this issue and you can download new Starwind build here:
http://starwindsoftware.com/tmplink/Sta ... 120927.exe

Please keep us updated about your progress.
Regards,
Alexey Skotsyk
StarWind Software Inc.
JRutski
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2012 2:05 am
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Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:54 pm

Alexey-

Thanks for the update - curious, any details on what had happened?

Also, I'm a bit hesitent to do an update without first SVMing everything off the datastore in question...is this warranted? I will see if I can find some time to get the updated code running this week.

Thanks again!
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Alex (staff)
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Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:10 am

JRutski,
We have suspicion that problem was with VAAI Compare and Write command that was enabled in the beta build.
There were some fixes added later, and we had disabled VAAI commands for first release of 6.0. We have implemented all VAAI commands now and this functionality will be released with one of the next 6.x versions.
Best regards,
Alexey.
JRutski
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Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:08 pm

I had some time yesterday since our office was closed - I've installed the 20120927 successfully. Granted, I'm not willing to test to make sure that it's working...either way the install was simple and straight forward.

I hope that any of your staff in MA are ok after Sandy - we didn't get hit too bad in MD, but I know it was worse farther north and on the coast. Thanks again for your continued support!
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Anatoly (staff)
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Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:37 pm

Everybody are OK, but thank you for asking - we appreciate this! I hope you and the people that you familiar good as well.

The build that you`ve installed shouldn`t have any VAAI related issues, so the config will hopefully run without issues.
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
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lohelle
Posts: 141
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 2:04 pm

Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:04 pm

When will VAAI be enabled again? :)
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anton (staff)
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Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:26 pm

Next turn-around build. We've got enough of feedback from you guys to keep developers busy for some time with a fixes.
lohelle wrote:When will VAAI be enabled again? :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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