AES VM Snapshots and HA

[Stinney]

Big debate going on and I need input.

Avaya AES documentation clearly states that before taking a snapshot that the VM or app should be shutdown. Vendor is saying that VM or app does not have to be shut down.

Secondly, in an HA environment do you need to disable HA before taking a snapshot of the primary AES? We have been told by vendor during upgrades of our AES servers that it does and we have followed that process for several upgrades. Now they are stating that it should be done before disabling HA because if HA fails to recover the snapshot can be restored to resolve.

Any input is appreciated.

- Stinney

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius

 

[kyle555]

Page 88 - Major upgrades - break HA, backup primary, turn both off, install new major release.

Page 3 - GHRA only need superpatches on the primary. They get copied over to the standby.

https://download.avaya.com/css/public/documents/101080433

Page 88 - Linux security upadates go on the secondary first while it's in standby, reboot, make sure the pair is in sync, interchange, repeat on server 1.

https://download.avaya.com/css/public/documents/101058004

Not sure why snapshots would be required. Maybe before Linux security updates and service packes just in case it pukes, but you're incurring an outage and rebooting anyway. I can't see why shutting down to snapshot is a problem.

 

[Wanebo]

I've done snapshots on live AES servers and have even restored a few of them and have never encountered a problem doing so.

 

[Arlo555]

https://download.avaya.com/css/public/documents/101058260

page 103
VMware Snapshots
A snapshot preserves the state and data of a virtual machine at a specific point in time. You can create a snapshot before upgrading or installing a patch.
The best time to take a snapshot is when no applications in the virtual machine are communicating with other computers. The potential for problems is greatest if the virtual machine is communicating with another computer. For example, if you take a snapshot while the virtual machine is downloading a file from a server on the network, the virtual machine continues downloading the file and communicating its progress to the server. If you revert to the snapshot, communications between the virtual machine and the server are confused and the file transfer fails.
Caution:
Snapshot operations can adversely affect service. Before performing a snapshot operation, you must stop the application that is running on the virtual machine or place the application out-of-service. When the snapshot operation is complete, start or bring the application back into service.