EMC Unity REST API and PowerShell

Posted on May 14, 2016
by dmuegge

Earlier this month at EMC World the new Unity storage array was unveiled. There are some cool new features with this product and the architecture is a bit different from the VNX. I like to experiment in my home lab and especially with PowerShell and REST APIs. So when I heard a Unity VSA would be available including the EMC Unity REST API. I was waiting for the EMC World release so I could get my hands on it.
Unity

I downloaded the EMC Unity VSA and set it up the first day of EMC World, then started some initial testing with the Unity REST API and PowerShell. I quickly found some distinct differences in the API when compared to the Isilon and XtremIO API’s. The first difference is the authentication mechanism which took some time to figure out. I found some quirks with the PowerShell Invoke-RestMethod and Invoke-WebRequest cmdlets. These cmdlets did not provide enough control over the web requests so I had to resort to creating my own with the .NET framework.

The EMC Unity REST API uses basic authentication via a request header, but also uses login session cookies. While trying to get this working I found I needed to use the .NET class System.Net.HttpWebRequest object for greater control. The two problems I had with the PowerShell cmdlets was the inability to control auto redirect and use request cookies. The use of request cookies is required to maintain session after initial login. The data required to create one of the cookies was returned in a response after an auto redirect so this had to be turned off to capture the information successfully.

The two cookies which have to be captured during the login process are MOD_AUTH_CAS_S and mod_sec_emc which are then used in all subsequent requests to the API. There are also a couple of additional cookies which are passed back and forth during the authentication process. I created a couple of functions to complete the login process, one of which is a recursive function which handles the auto redirects and collects the required login session cookies into global variables. The complete code is more than makes sense to show in this post, but the below example shows the main elements of building the request. This code is called recursively and collects the required session information to be passed in subsequent requests.

$URI = $Response.Headers.Item('Location')
$Cookies = New-Object -TypeName System.Net.CookieContainer
If($Global:JSESSIONID){$Cookies.Add($Global:JSESSIONID)}
If($Global:CASTGC){$Cookies.Add($Global:CASTGC)}
If($Global:mod_sec_emc){$Cookies.Add($Global:mod_sec_emc)}
If($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S){$Cookies.Add($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S)}
If($Global:CASPRIVACY){$Cookies.Add($Global:CASPRIVACY)}

$Request = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($URI)
$Request.CookieContainer = $Cookies
$Request.AllowAutoRedirect = $false
$Request.Accept = "application/json"
$Request.ContentType = "application/json"
$Request.Headers.Add("X-EMC-REST-CLIENT","true")
$Request.Headers.Add('Authorization',"Basic $($EncodedPassword)")
$NewResponse = $Request.GetResponse()

$URI = $Response.Headers.Item('Location')

$Cookies = New-Object -TypeName System.Net.CookieContainer

If($Global:JSESSIONID){$Cookies.Add($Global:JSESSIONID)}

If($Global:CASTGC){$Cookies.Add($Global:CASTGC)}

If($Global:mod_sec_emc){$Cookies.Add($Global:mod_sec_emc)}

If($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S){$Cookies.Add($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S)}

If($Global:CASPRIVACY){$Cookies.Add($Global:CASPRIVACY)}

$Request = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($URI)

$Request.CookieContainer = $Cookies

$Request.AllowAutoRedirect = $false

$Request.Accept = "application/json"

$Request.ContentType = "application/json"

$Request.Headers.Add("X-EMC-REST-CLIENT","true")

$Request.Headers.Add('Authorization',"Basic $($EncodedPassword)")

$NewResponse = $Request.GetResponse()

Once the login process is complete and the required session cookies are collected data requests to the EMC Unity REST API can be issued. The below code is an example of issuing a request for system information.

$Cookies = New-Object -TypeName System.Net.CookieContainer
If($Global:mod_sec_emc){$Cookies.Add($Global:mod_sec_emc)}
If($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S){$Cookies.Add($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S)}


$UriString = ($UriObject + "/instances/system?fields=id,
                                                     name,
                                                     model,
                                                     platform,
                                                     macAddress,
                                                     isEULAAccepted")

$URI = $Global:APIBaseUri + $UriString
$DataRequest = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($URI)
$DataRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = $false
$DataRequest.CookieContainer = $Cookies
$DataRequest.Method = $Method
$DataRequest.Accept = "application/json"
$DataRequest.Headers.Add("X-EMC-REST-CLIENT","true")
$DataRequest.Headers.Add('Authorization',"Basic $($EncodedPassword)")
If($Global:EMC_CSRF_TOKEN){$DataRequest.Headers.Add('EMC-CSRF-TOKEN',$Global:EMC_CSRF_TOKEN)}
$DataResponse = $DataRequest.GetResponse()

if($DataResponse -ne $null) {
	$rs = $DataResponse.GetResponseStream();
	[System.IO.StreamReader] $sr = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -argumentList $rs;
	[string] $results = $sr.ReadToEnd();
	Return ConvertFrom-Json $results
}

$Cookies = New-Object -TypeName System.Net.CookieContainer

If($Global:mod_sec_emc){$Cookies.Add($Global:mod_sec_emc)}

If($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S){$Cookies.Add($Global:MOD_AUTH_CAS_S)}

$UriString = ($UriObject + "/instances/system?fields=id,

name,

model,

platform,

macAddress,

isEULAAccepted")

$URI = $Global:APIBaseUri + $UriString

$DataRequest = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($URI)

$DataRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = $false

$DataRequest.CookieContainer = $Cookies

$DataRequest.Method = $Method

$DataRequest.Accept = "application/json"

$DataRequest.Headers.Add("X-EMC-REST-CLIENT","true")

$DataRequest.Headers.Add('Authorization',"Basic $($EncodedPassword)")

If($Global:EMC_CSRF_TOKEN){$DataRequest.Headers.Add('EMC-CSRF-TOKEN',$Global:EMC_CSRF_TOKEN)}

$DataResponse = $DataRequest.GetResponse()

if($DataResponse -ne $null) {

$rs = $DataResponse.GetResponseStream();

[System.IO.StreamReader] $sr = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader -argumentList $rs;

[string] $results = $sr.ReadToEnd();

Return ConvertFrom-Json $results

}

The above code also includes the header EMC_CSRF_TOKEN which is actually only required when doing a POST or DELETE. Another thing to notice in the code above is the use of the fields query string. The desired object properties to be returned must be specified using this method. The output is below.

id             : 0
name           : MLABUNT01
model          : UnityVSA
platform       : Tungsten_SingleSP
macAddress     : 00:50:56:A3:15:C0
isEULAAccepted : True

id : 0

name : MLABUNT01

model : UnityVSA

platform : Tungsten_SingleSP

macAddress : 00:50:56:A3:15:C0

isEULAAccepted : True

The EMC Unity REST API was a bit of a challenge to get started and took some time with fiddler to figure out. I will say though for the initial release, the API documentation was pretty good. Unity does seem pretty cool, easy to use, and it’s awesome to have the Unity VSA for experimentation. I will try to get some more comprehensive example code on GitHub soon.

Regards,

Dave

XtremIO PowerShell Module Update

Posted on September 29, 2015
by dmuegge

I have been working with version 4.0 of XtremIO. This version of XtremIO has an updated REST API which provides a bunch of new functionality. The MTSXtremIO PowerShell Module provides PowerShell management of the EMC XtremIO storage array.

This new version of the REST API includes new performance features, new snapshot functionality, and many new objects. I have updated the MTSXtremIO PowerShell module for XtremIO to support the new API and functionality. The current version of the XtremIO PowerShell module contains 85 cmdlets for working with XtremIO.

The first four Cmdlets are to setup a connection to the XtremIO XMS, which is how you connect to the REST API. One XMS can manage multiple XtremIO clusters.

Disable-CertificateValidation

Get-PasswordFromFile

New-PasswordFile

Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo

There are 41 get Cmdlets to retrieve various XtremIO objects.

Get-XIOPerformance

Get-XIOAlert

Get-XIOAlertDefinition

Get-XIOAPITypes

Get-XIOBBU

Get-XIOBrick

Get-XIOCluster

Get-XIOConsistencyGroup

Get-XIOConsistencyGroupVolume

Get-XIODAE

Get-XIODAEController

Get-XIODAEPSU

Get-XIODataProtectionGroup

Get-XIOEmailNotifier

Get-XIOEvent

Get-XIOInfinibandSwitch

Get-XIOInitiator

Get-XIOInitiatorGroup

Get-XIOIscsiPortal

Get-XIOIscsiRoute

Get-XIOItem

Get-XIOLDAPConfiguration

Get-XIOLocalDisk

Get-XIOLunMap

Get-XIOPerformance

Get-XIOScheduler

Get-XIOSlot

Get-XIOSnapshot

Get-XIOSnapshotSet

Get-XIOSNMPNotifier

Get-XIOSSD

Get-XIOStorageController

Get-XIOStorageControllerPSU

Get-XIOSYRNotifier

Get-XIOSyslogNotifier

Get-XIOTag

Get-XIOTarget

Get-XIOTargetGroup

Get-XIOUserAccount

Get-XIOVolume

Get-XIOXenvs

Get-XIOXms

There are 11 Cmdlets for creating XtremIO objects.

New-XIOConsistencyGroup

New-XIOInitiator

New-XIOInitiatorGroup

New-XIOIscsiPortal

New-XIOIscsiRoute

New-XIOLunMap

New-XIOScheduler

New-XIOSnapshot

New-XIOTag

New-XIOUserAccount

New-XIOVolume

There are 13 Cmdlets for removing XtremIO objects.

Remove-XIOConsistencyGroup

Remove-XIOConsistencyGroupVolume

Remove-XIOInitiator

Remove-XIOInitiatorGroup

Remove-XIOIscsiPortal

Remove-XIOIscsiRoute

Remove-XIOLunMap

Remove-XIOScheduler

Remove-XIOSnapshot

Remove-XIOSnapshotSet

Remove-XIOTag

Remove-XIOUserAccount

Remove-XIOVolume

There are 16 Cmdlets for changing various XtremIO objects.

Add-XIOConsistencyGroupVolume

Set-XIOAlertDefinition

Set-XIOConsistencyGroup

Set-XIOEmailNotifier

Set-XIOInitiator

Set-XIOInitiatorGroup

Set-XIOLDAPConfiguration

Set-XIOScheduler

Set-XIOSnapshot

Set-XIOSNMPNotifier

Set-XIOSYRNotifier

Set-XIOSyslogNotifier

Set-XIOTag

Set-XIOTarget

Set-XIOVolume

Update-XIOSnapshot

This provides a good basic set of functionality and coverage over 100% of the API. There are still many improvements to be made but this provides a good base set of functionality. There are some items which are at the top of the list to address such as;

Improvements in pipeline support across functions. One known issue that exists with the cmdlets is the ability to pipe the output of a get into a set. There is currently a problem with the set cmdlet using property name as input correctly.
Complete multiple cluster support across all functions
Implement ShouldProcess in all new, set, remove functionality.

Other items on roadmap or under consideration

Complete Get-XIOPerformance function. This function only provides very raw object output and has an incomplete implementation.
Implement use of certificate based authentication
Test use of server certificates on XMS
Add informational output objects on new, set, and remove functions
Implement additional error handling to include informational messages

Get the latest version of the MTSXtremIO XtremIO PowerShell Module . I will work on pipeline improvements, multiple cluster support, and support for should process next. These items will provide a solid foundation for the module functionality. I also have a fair amount of help to complete. Please let me know what other items are missing and where things can be improved.

Regards,

Dave

XtremIO Snapshots SQL Server and PowerShell Part IV

Posted on September 23, 2015
by dmuegge

I have continued to work on the MTSXtremIO module and adding functionality for XtremIO 4.0. One interesting feature in 4.0 that provides even more benefit with snapshots is the ability to refresh a snapshot. With SQL server this saves some steps with LUN mapping and mounting volumes. I have done some testing using two methods to control the snapshot. I will talk about both methods and show a scripting example using each method.

The first method uses a PowerShell Cmdlet included in the PowerShell Toolkit in EMC Storage Integrator for Windows. The XtremIO 4.0 features are found in the latest version on the software, version 3.8. To use this method the EMC Storage Integrator for Windows must be installed on the machine to be used for scripting. This could potentially be each of the participating SQL Servers.

Here is an example script refreshing a database using the PowerShell Toolkit included with version 3.8 of EMC Storage Integrator for Windows.

Import-Module ESIPSToolkit
Import-Module MTSMSSQL

# Initial Snapshot Setup and LUN Mapping
$XtremIOCluster = 'XtremIO01'
$SourceVolume = 'DMSQLVol01'
$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'
$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'
$TargetDeviceName = 'DMSQLVol01.Snap_20150923-102044'
$TargetSnapDeviceID = '514f0c53d2600159'
$VMName = 'DAMAnalysis'
$DriveLetter = 'K:'
$AccessPath = 'K:\'
$datapath = 'K:\SnapTest01.mdf'
$logpath = 'K:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'


# Detach Database
Set-DBDetach -SQLServer $VMName -dbname $SourceDatabase

# Get Disk Number
$OldDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Offline Disk
Set-Disk -Number ($OldDisk.Number) -IsOffline $true

# Connect to XtremIO
$XioSystem = Get-EmcStorageSystem -ID $XtremIOCluster

# Refresh SnapShot
Restore-EmcXtremIOSnapshots -XioStorageSystem $XIOSystem -FromVolumeName $SourceVolume -ToVolumeName $TargetDeviceName

# Rescan Windows Disks
Update-HostStorageCache

# Get Disk Number
$NewDisk = Get-DIsk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Set mount and drive path 
Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsReadOnly $false
Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number)).DriveLetter -eq $DriveLetter)){
    Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number) -PartitionNumber 1 -AccessPath $AccessPath
}

# Verify Files and attach database
if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){
 
	# Attach Database
	$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath
 
}

Import-Module ESIPSToolkit

Import-Module MTSMSSQL

# Initial Snapshot Setup and LUN Mapping

$XtremIOCluster = 'XtremIO01'

$SourceVolume = 'DMSQLVol01'

$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'

$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'

$TargetDeviceName = 'DMSQLVol01.Snap_20150923-102044'

$TargetSnapDeviceID = '514f0c53d2600159'

$VMName = 'DAMAnalysis'

$DriveLetter = 'K:'

$AccessPath = 'K:\'

$datapath = 'K:\SnapTest01.mdf'

$logpath = 'K:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'

# Detach Database

Set-DBDetach -SQLServer $VMName -dbname $SourceDatabase

# Get Disk Number

$OldDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Offline Disk

Set-Disk -Number ($OldDisk.Number) -IsOffline $true

# Connect to XtremIO

$XioSystem = Get-EmcStorageSystem -ID $XtremIOCluster

# Refresh SnapShot

Restore-EmcXtremIOSnapshots -XioStorageSystem $XIOSystem -FromVolumeName $SourceVolume -ToVolumeName $TargetDeviceName

# Rescan Windows Disks

Update-HostStorageCache

# Get Disk Number

$NewDisk = Get-DIsk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Set mount and drive path

Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsReadOnly $false

Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1

if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number)).DriveLetter -eq $DriveLetter)){

Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number) -PartitionNumber 1 -AccessPath $AccessPath

}

# Verify Files and attach database

if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

# Attach Database

$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath

}

The Second method is using an open source PowerShell Module I developed to manage XtremIO. It is a PowerShell interface to the XtremIO REST API. It provides a comprehensive PowerShell management interface including the snapshot refresh functionality in 4.0.

Here is an example refreshing a database using the Update-XIOSnapshot Cmdlet found in MTSXtremIO module.

Import-Module MTSXtremIO -Force
Import-Module MTSMSSQL

Disable-CertificateValidation
Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\Users\dmuegge\pwd\XtremIO.txt" -hostname "XtremIO01"

# Initial Snapshot Setup and LUN Mapping 
$SourceVolume = 'DMSQLVol01'
$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'
$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'
$TargetDeviceName = 'DMSQLVol01.Snap_QA'
$TargetSnapDeviceID = '514f0c53d2600159'
$VMName = 'DAMAnalysis'
$DriveLetter = 'K:'
$AccessPath = 'K:\'
$datapath = 'K:\SnapTest01.mdf'
$logpath = 'K:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'


# Detach Database
Set-DBDetach -SQLServer $VMName -dbname $SourceDatabase

# Get Disk Number
$OldDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Offline Disk
Set-Disk -Number ($OldDisk.Number) -IsOffline $true

# Refresh SnapShot
Update-XIOSnapshot -SourceVol $SourceVolume -DestVol $TargetDeviceName

# Rescan Windows Disks
Update-HostStorageCache

# Get Disk Number
$NewDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Set mount and drive path 
Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsReadOnly $false
Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number)).DriveLetter -eq $DriveLetter)){
    Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number) -PartitionNumber 1 -AccessPath $AccessPath
}

# Verify Files and attach database
if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){
 
	# Attach Database
	$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath
 
}

Import-Module MTSXtremIO -Force

Import-Module MTSMSSQL

Disable-CertificateValidation

Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\Users\dmuegge\pwd\XtremIO.txt" -hostname "XtremIO01"

# Initial Snapshot Setup and LUN Mapping

$SourceVolume = 'DMSQLVol01'

$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'

$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'

$TargetDeviceName = 'DMSQLVol01.Snap_QA'

$TargetSnapDeviceID = '514f0c53d2600159'

$VMName = 'DAMAnalysis'

$DriveLetter = 'K:'

$AccessPath = 'K:\'

$datapath = 'K:\SnapTest01.mdf'

$logpath = 'K:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'

# Detach Database

Set-DBDetach -SQLServer $VMName -dbname $SourceDatabase

# Get Disk Number

$OldDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Offline Disk

Set-Disk -Number ($OldDisk.Number) -IsOffline $true

# Refresh SnapShot

Update-XIOSnapshot -SourceVol $SourceVolume -DestVol $TargetDeviceName

# Rescan Windows Disks

Update-HostStorageCache

# Get Disk Number

$NewDisk = Get-Disk | Where UniqueId -eq $TargetSnapDeviceID

# Set mount and drive path

Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsReadOnly $false

Set-Disk -Number ($NewDisk.Number) -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1

if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number)).DriveLetter -eq $DriveLetter)){

Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber ($NewDisk.Number) -PartitionNumber 1 -AccessPath $AccessPath

}

# Verify Files and attach database

if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

# Attach Database

$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath

}

The way both of these scripts work relies on some initial setup of a snapshot copy mounted to a server. This could be the same or different servers. The diagram below shows the test scenario used in the example scripts above.

In either scenario above the copy process happens very quickly. In my tests it only took a few seconds. The only difference in the scripts above is the command to connect to the resources and the command to refresh the snapshot. Either method is simple and really makes database snapshots easy. The scripting is very straightforward and easy to understand.

The main benefit of the ESI Toolkit is it is officially supported by EMC. It does require an install an just provides some core provisioning functionality. The MTSXtremIO PowerShell Module does not require installation and can be used for many other XtremIO management and reporting tasks. It is an open source project located here.

Regards,

Dave

SQL Server, PowerShell, and XtremIO Snapshots Part 3 (VSS Native)

Posted on July 6, 2015
by dmuegge

During the writing of this post EMC announced the GA release of XtremIO 4.0 on July 2nd. The new documentation and the native VSS provider are now available on EMC support. This will provide the ability to script application consistent snapshots without using AppSync. Unfortunately we do not have our lab upgraded to 4.0 yet, but that will be coming soon and I will test the script and process soon. In the meantime I will talk about how this will provide another way to do application consistent snapshots for XtremIO. I will show the architecture and a mock script of how I think it will work at this point.

In order to use the XtremIO VSS provider it must be installed on the server where we want to do an application consistent snapshot. The install is downloaded from EMC support, at the time of this post the file name for the latest version is XtremIOVSSProvider-1.0.8.msi. After installation the connection to XtremIO is configured through the control panel using the applet.

The control panel applet is only to configure the connection to the XtremIO XMS.

The VSS Provider installation can be verified by opening a command line as administrator and typing vssadmin list providers. This shows us the XtremIO VSS Provider.

The process to use an XtremIO snapshot for a database copy using the VSS provider is very similar to the process used in part 1 of this blog series. The primary difference is the VSS Provider is called to create the XtremIO snapshot. The following image shows the basic VSS architecture.

The test environment is a SQL Server virtual machine on vSphere. The SnapTest01 volume is on a 50GB RDM on XtremIO and the SnapTest01_QA volume is a snapshot of the SnapTest01 volume.

The example script will show the process to refresh the QA volume with a new snapshot copy. The script is almost identical to the part 1 script. The first step is to load a few PowerShell modules, define some constants, and connect to VCenter and XtremIO. This is done by using the PowerCli and a function from my MTSXtremIO module, read about that here. This function uses the XtremIO REST API to create the snapshot. I also use a couple of other modules with some of my common functions and a NTFS Security Module which I did not write. I will put links to those at the end of the post.

Import-Module MTSXtremIO
Import-Module NTFSSecurity
Import-Module MTSAuthentication 
 
# Setup PowerCli and VCenter Connection
Set-Variable -Name vCenterUserPasswordFile -Value C:\!Passwords\VCenter01.txt
if(-not (get-pssnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq 'VMware.VimAutomation.Core'})){add-pssnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core}
$vCenterUserPassword = Get-PasswordFromFile -FullPath $vCenterUserPasswordFile -AsSecureString
$VCCred = Set-WindowsAuthenticationCredential -userid 'LAB\vcuser' -password $vCenterUserPassword
$VCConnectResult = Connect-VIServer 'vcenter.lab.com' -Credential $VCCred
 
# Load SQL Server Management Objects
$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo") 
 
# XtremIO Connection
Disable-CertificateValidation
Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\!Passwords\XtremIO.txt" -baseuri "https://192.168.1.100/api/json/types/"
 

# Define a few constants for this operation
$SnapPrefix = 'SQLVol01_SNAP_'
$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'
$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'
$TargetHardDiskName = 'Hard Disk 7'
$VMName = 'Server01'
$TargetSearchString = 'esx*'
$datapath = 'E:\SnapTest01.mdf'
$logpath = 'E:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'
$DiskNumber = 6
$PartitionNumber  = 1
$SnapSearchString = '_SNAP_*'
$MountPath = 'E:'
$ScriptName = 'SQLDShadow'
$MetadataFile = 'E:\SnapMeta'
$VerboseMode = 'ON'

Import-Module MTSXtremIO

Import-Module NTFSSecurity

Import-Module MTSAuthentication

# Setup PowerCli and VCenter Connection

Set-Variable -Name vCenterUserPasswordFile -Value C:\!Passwords\VCenter01.txt

if(-not (get-pssnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq 'VMware.VimAutomation.Core'})){add-pssnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core}

$vCenterUserPassword = Get-PasswordFromFile -FullPath $vCenterUserPasswordFile -AsSecureString

$VCCred = Set-WindowsAuthenticationCredential -userid 'LAB\vcuser' -password $vCenterUserPassword

$VCConnectResult = Connect-VIServer 'vcenter.lab.com' -Credential $VCCred

# Load SQL Server Management Objects

$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo")

# XtremIO Connection

Disable-CertificateValidation

Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\!Passwords\XtremIO.txt" -baseuri "https://192.168.1.100/api/json/types/"

# Define a few constants for this operation

$SnapPrefix = 'SQLVol01_SNAP_'

$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'

$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'

$TargetHardDiskName = 'Hard Disk 7'

$VMName = 'Server01'

$TargetSearchString = 'esx*'

$datapath = 'E:\SnapTest01.mdf'

$logpath = 'E:\SnapTest01_log.ldf'

$DiskNumber = 6

$PartitionNumber = 1

$SnapSearchString = '_SNAP_*'

$MountPath = 'E:'

$ScriptName = 'SQLDShadow'

$MetadataFile = 'E:\SnapMeta'

$VerboseMode = 'ON'

The example above loads module dependencies and connects to VCenter and XtremIO. The SQL Management Objects are loaded to provide SQL Server functionality.

The next step is to detach the current QA database copy, remove the virtual hard disk, and remove snapshots.

# Detach current copy of database
$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)
$srv.DetachDatabase($dbname,$False,$False)

# Remove Disk From VM
#Remove-HardDisk -DeletePermanently -Confirm $false
Remove-HardDisk -HardDisk (Get-HardDisk -VM $VMName -Name $TargetHardDiskName)

# Rescan Windows disks
Update-HostStorageCache

# Delete LUNMAP for existing snap
$LMResult = Get-XIOLunMap | Where-Object vol-name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | Foreach-object{Remove-XIOLunMap -Name $_.'mapping-id'[1]}

# Rescan VMware HBA's
$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Remove last snapshots
$SPResult = Get-XIOSnapshot | Where-Object Name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | ForEach-Object {Remove-XIOSnapshot -VolName $_.Name}

# Detach current copy of database

$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)

$srv.DetachDatabase($dbname,$False,$False)

# Remove Disk From VM

#Remove-HardDisk -DeletePermanently -Confirm $false

Remove-HardDisk -HardDisk (Get-HardDisk -VM $VMName -Name $TargetHardDiskName)

# Rescan Windows disks

Update-HostStorageCache

# Delete LUNMAP for existing snap

$LMResult = Get-XIOLunMap | Where-Object vol-name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | Foreach-object{Remove-XIOLunMap -Name $_.'mapping-id'[1]}

# Rescan VMware HBA's

$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Remove last snapshots

$SPResult = Get-XIOSnapshot | Where-Object Name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | ForEach-Object {Remove-XIOSnapshot -VolName $_.Name}

The example above uses SQL Management Objects to access SQL and detach the database. It the uses the VMware PowerCli to remove the RDM from the virtual machine. Then connects to the XtremIO via REST API and deletes snapshots

Now we are ready to create a new snapshot, add it to the lunmap, add the disk to the vm, and attach the database.

# Create snapshot of source volume
$Snapname = ($SnapPrefix + (Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss))
$SNResult = New-XIOSnapshot -VolName $SourceVolume -SnapName $Snapname -FolderID $SnapFolder

# Application Consistent Method - XtremIO VSS Provider
$dsh = "./$ScriptName.dsh"
'RESET',
'SET CONTEXT PERSISTENT',
'SET OPTION TRANSPORTABLE',
"SET METADATA $MetadataFile",
"SET VERBOSE $VerboseMode",
'BEGIN BACKUP',
"ADD VOLUME $Volume ALIAS $ShadowCopyAlias PROVIDER {b57190af-454a-4dd0-8afd-e57facd5d9af}",
'CREATE',
'END BACKUP' | Set-Content $dsh
DISKSHADOW /s $dsh
Remove-Item $dsh

# Create Lun Map for snap volume
$LMResult = Get-XIOInitiatorGroup | Where-Object Name -Like $TargetSearchString | Select-Object name,index | foreach-object{New-XIOLunMap -Name $Snapname -InitiatorGroup $_.index}

# Rescan VMware HBA's
$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Add Disk to VM
$vm = Get-VM -Name $VMName
$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name $vm.VMHost
$deviceName = ($vmhost | Get-ScsiLun | Where-Object {$_.CanonicalName -match ('naa.' + (Get-XIOVolume | Where-Object name -EQ $Snapname).'naa-name')})[0].ConsoleDeviceName
$HDResult = New-HardDisk -DeviceName $deviceName -VM $vm -DiskType RawPhysical

# Rescan Windows
Update-HostStorageCache

# Set mount and drive path 
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber).DriveLetter -eq $MountPath)){
	Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber $DiskNumber -PartitionNumber $PartitionNumber -AccessPath $MountPath
}
 
# Verify Files and Attach Database
Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $datapath
Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $logpath
if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

	# Attach Database
	$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)
	$db = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Database
	$db = $srv.Databases.Item($dbname)
	$sc = new-object System.collections.specialized.stringcollection 
	$sc.Add($datapath)
	$sc.Add($logpath)
	$srv.AttachDatabase($dbname,$sc,[Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.AttachOptions]::None)

}

# Create snapshot of source volume

$Snapname = ($SnapPrefix + (Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss))

$SNResult = New-XIOSnapshot -VolName $SourceVolume -SnapName $Snapname -FolderID $SnapFolder

# Application Consistent Method - XtremIO VSS Provider

$dsh = "./$ScriptName.dsh"

'RESET',

'SET CONTEXT PERSISTENT',

'SET OPTION TRANSPORTABLE',

"SET METADATA $MetadataFile",

"SET VERBOSE $VerboseMode",

'BEGIN BACKUP',

"ADD VOLUME $Volume ALIAS $ShadowCopyAlias PROVIDER {b57190af-454a-4dd0-8afd-e57facd5d9af}",

'CREATE',

'END BACKUP' | Set-Content $dsh

DISKSHADOW /s $dsh

Remove-Item $dsh

# Create Lun Map for snap volume

$LMResult = Get-XIOInitiatorGroup | Where-Object Name -Like $TargetSearchString | Select-Object name,index | foreach-object{New-XIOLunMap -Name $Snapname -InitiatorGroup $_.index}

# Rescan VMware HBA's

$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Add Disk to VM

$vm = Get-VM -Name $VMName

$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name $vm.VMHost

$deviceName = ($vmhost | Get-ScsiLun | Where-Object {$_.CanonicalName -match ('naa.' + (Get-XIOVolume | Where-Object name -EQ $Snapname).'naa-name')})[0].ConsoleDeviceName

$HDResult = New-HardDisk -DeviceName $deviceName -VM $vm -DiskType RawPhysical

# Rescan Windows

Update-HostStorageCache

# Set mount and drive path

Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false

Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1

if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber).DriveLetter -eq $MountPath)){

Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber $DiskNumber -PartitionNumber $PartitionNumber -AccessPath $MountPath

}

# Verify Files and Attach Database

Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $datapath

Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $logpath

if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

# Attach Database

$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)

$db = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Database

$db = $srv.Databases.Item($dbname)

$sc = new-object System.collections.specialized.stringcollection

$sc.Add($datapath)

$sc.Add($logpath)

$srv.AttachDatabase($dbname,$sc,[Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.AttachOptions]::None)

}

The above example creates a snapshot via the VSS provider and maps the volume to the host using the XtremIO REST API. It also rescans the disks and then adds the RDM to the virtual machine. Then the database is attached using SQL SMO.

Although I have not been able to test this code it as we need to upgrade XtremIO first. I had hoped the VSS provider would work with 3.0 but unfortunately I received the following message when I tried it.

“The registered provider does not support shadow copy of this volume”

Hopefully this example should be pretty close.

Regards,

Dave

MTSXtremIO Module
NTFSSecurity Module
MTSAuthentication Module

SQL Server, PowerShell, and XtremIO Snapshots Part 2 (EMC AppSync)

Posted on July 1, 2015
by dmuegge

In my last post I talked about using PowerShell to do crash consistent snapshots on XtremIO. Then mount the snapshot and use for a secondary SQL Server database copy.

In this post I will talk about scripting application consistent XtremIO snapshots using EMC AppSync and EMC Storage Integrator for Windows (ESI). I will also talk about how the process and architecture differs from part 1 where we just did crash consistent snapshots. EMC AppSync is a server application that can create and manage snapshots for application and virtualization environments using EMC storage arrays. It uses a Host plug-in which allows the AppSync server to control host operations. ESI is a windows application and set of tools which provides EMC management capabilities from a windows machine. One of the features of ESI is a PowerShell toolkit that allows controlling EMC arrays and EMC AppSync using PowerShell CmdLets.

We’ll use the same basic scenario as the last time, but utilizing EMC AppSync. The test environment is a SQL Server virtual machine on vSphere. The SnapTest01 volume is on a 50GB RDM on XtremIO and the SnapTest01_QA volume is a snapshot of the SnapTest01 volume.

With our previous test the script would generally run on the SQL Server to perform the snapshot operations. With the AppSync application the script does not have a requirement to run locally as the agent performs local operations. Here is a diagram of the architecture.

In this scenario the script would run on the ESI host using a windows account that has SQL admin rights on the SQL server. This is required to attach the database. The latest version of appsync as of this writing (2.2) does not have the ability to attach a copy from an XtremIO volume. Here is the statement from the admin guide on page 105.

“This version of Appsync does not support automated restore of copies on XtremIO. Learn

to use AppSync and XtremIO to restore SQL Server databases to a point in time with a

semi-manual restore process.”

However, this is easily worked around using PowerShell and SQL SMO to fill in the gap. The end script is still simpler than in part 1 because AppSync does a lot of the tedious work for us and we get application consistent snapshots to boot. The other benefit of the architecture is it allows you to use a central host to control all of your database refresh operations. Here is the first part of the script which loads the ESI module, SQL SMO, and defines some constants.

Import-Module ESIPSToolkit

# Load SQL Server Management Objects
$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo") 

$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'
$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'
$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'
$VMName = 'Server01'
$AppSYncServicePlan = 'sql bronze'
$MountPath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01'
$datapath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01\FDrive\SnapTest01.mdf'
$logpath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01\FDrive\SnapTest01_log.ldf'

Import-Module ESIPSToolkit

# Load SQL Server Management Objects

$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo")

$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'

$SourceDatabase = 'SnapTest01'

$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'

$VMName = 'Server01'

$AppSYncServicePlan = 'sql bronze'

$MountPath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01'

$datapath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01\FDrive\SnapTest01.mdf'

$logpath = 'C:\AppSyncMounts\Server01\FDrive\SnapTest01_log.ldf'

The next section detaches the database, initializes the AppSync Objects, gets and dismounts the current snapshot.

# Detach current copy of database
$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($VMName)
$srv.DetachDatabase($TargetDatabaseName,$False,$False)

# Initialize AppSync Objects
$ReplService = Get-EmcReplicationService -ID emcappsync
$SvrInstance = Get-EmcAppSyncSqlServerInstance -AppSyncSystem $ReplService | Where-Object Name -eq $VMName
$DbInstance = Get-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabase -AppSyncSystem $ReplService -UserDatabase $SOurceDatabase
$SPlan = Get-EmcAppSyncServicePlan -AppSyncSystem $ReplService | Where-Object Name -eq $AppSYncServicePlan
$SQLServerHost = Get-EmcSqlServer -HostNamesOrIPAddresses $VMName
$AppSYncHost = Get-EmcAppSyncRegisteredHost -ID $VMName -AppSyncSystem $ReplService

# Unmount Current Copy
$DBCopy = Get-EmcAppSyncCopy -SqlServerDatabase $DbInstance | Where {(($_.CopyMountStatus -eq 'Mounted') -and ($_.Name -eq $SOurceDatabase))} | Sort -Desc | Select -First 1
Dismount-EmcAppSyncCopy -SqlServerDatabaseCopy $DBCopy -Silent -Confirm -Force

# Detach current copy of database

$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($VMName)

$srv.DetachDatabase($TargetDatabaseName,$False,$False)

# Initialize AppSync Objects

$ReplService = Get-EmcReplicationService -ID emcappsync

$SvrInstance = Get-EmcAppSyncSqlServerInstance -AppSyncSystem $ReplService | Where-Object Name -eq $VMName

$DbInstance = Get-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabase -AppSyncSystem $ReplService -UserDatabase $SOurceDatabase

$SPlan = Get-EmcAppSyncServicePlan -AppSyncSystem $ReplService | Where-Object Name -eq $AppSYncServicePlan

$SQLServerHost = Get-EmcSqlServer -HostNamesOrIPAddresses $VMName

$AppSYncHost = Get-EmcAppSyncRegisteredHost -ID $VMName -AppSyncSystem $ReplService

# Unmount Current Copy

$DBCopy = Get-EmcAppSyncCopy -SqlServerDatabase $DbInstance | Where {(($_.CopyMountStatus -eq 'Mounted') -and ($_.Name -eq $SOurceDatabase))} | Sort -Desc | Select -First 1

Dismount-EmcAppSyncCopy -SqlServerDatabaseCopy $DBCopy -Silent -Confirm -Force

The detach database operation uses SQL Server Management Objects and the AppSync objects are all created using the ESI PowerShell Toolkit CmdLets.

The next section creates a new snapshot mounts it to the host and attaches the database.

# Create snapshot of source volume/database
$DBCopy = New-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabaseCopy -SqlServerDatabase $DbInstance -ServicePlan $SPlan

# Mount snapshot of source volume/database
Mount-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabaseCopy -SqlServerDatabaseCopy $DBCopy -TargetHost $AppSYncHost -MountPath $MountPath

# Verify Files and attach database
if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

	# Attach Database
	$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath

}

# Create snapshot of source volume/database

$DBCopy = New-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabaseCopy -SqlServerDatabase $DbInstance -ServicePlan $SPlan

# Mount snapshot of source volume/database

Mount-EmcAppSyncSqlServerDatabaseCopy -SqlServerDatabaseCopy $DBCopy -TargetHost $AppSYncHost -MountPath $MountPath

# Verify Files and attach database

if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

# Attach Database

$DBAttachResult = Set-DBAttach -dbname $TargetDatabaseName -datapath $datapath -logpath $logpath

}

This also uses ESI for the AppSync operations and SQL SMO for the database attach.

An important point to note is we did not have to create steps for all of the individual disk operations and LUN mapping. The AppSync server and host agent took care of the details for us.

That is it for application consistent snapshots with AppSync. Next time I will talk about the method we will be able to use when XtremIO 4.0 gets here and the native VSS Provider is available.

Regards,

Dave

SQL Server, PowerShell, and XtremIO Snapshots Part 1

Posted on June 28, 2015
by dmuegge

XtremIO is becoming a popular platform for SQL Server. It performs excellent and has a great space benefit for database copies when using XtremIO snapshots. I have had a few customers asking questions about scripting snapshots for SQL Server on XtremIO using PowerShell.

Most Windows administrators these days are using PowerShell and many SQL DBA’s are also starting to use it. I decided to setup EMC AppSync with XtremIO in our lab, do a little testing, and create some PowerShell scripts to help our customers get started. My plan was to test two different scenarios, one for crash consistent and one for application consistent snapshots with EMC AppSync, but EMC announced a new native VSS provider with XtremIO 4.0 so now there will also be another way to do application consistent snapshots when 4.0 is released. This post will cover creating a crash consistent copy of a SQL database volume using XtremIO snapshots and mounting the snapshot to create a secondary QA database. This method will use the XtremIO REST API to create a snapshot of the source volume. PowerShell will be used to execute the required steps on XtremIO, VMware, and Windows.

The test environment is a SQL Server virtual machine on vSphere. The SnapTest01 volume is on a 50GB RDM on XtremIO and the SnapTest01_QA volume is a snapshot of the SnapTest01 volume.

SQL_Server

The example script will show the process to refresh the QA volume with a new snapshot copy. Here is the basic logical flow of the process.

SnapSshot

The first step is to load a few PowerShell modules, define some constants, and connect to VCenter and XtremIO. This is done by using the PowerCli and a function from my MTSXtremIO module, read about that here. This function uses the XtremIO REST API to create the snapshot. I also use a couple of other modules with some of my common functions and a NTFS Security Module which I did not write. I will put links to those at the end of the post.

Import-Module MTSXtremIO
Import-Module NTFSSecurity
Import-Module MTSAuthentication 

# Setup PowerCli and VCenter Connection
Set-Variable -Name vCenterUserPasswordFile -Value C:\!Passwords\VCenter01.txt
if(-not (get-pssnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq 'VMware.VimAutomation.Core'})){add-pssnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core}
$vCenterUserPassword = Get-PasswordFromFile -FullPath $vCenterUserPasswordFile -AsSecureString
$VCCred = Set-WindowsAuthenticationCredential -userid 'LAB\vcuser' -password $vCenterUserPassword
$VCConnectResult = Connect-VIServer 'vcenter.lab.com' -Credential $VCCred

# Load SQL Server Management Objects
$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo") 

# XtremIO Connection
Disable-CertificateValidation
Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\!Passwords\XtremIO.txt" -baseuri "https://192.168.1.100/api/json/types/"


# Define a few constants for this operation
$SnapPrefix = 'SQLVol01_SNAP_'
$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'
$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'
$TargetHardDiskName = 'Hard Disk 6'
$VMName = 'Server01'
$MountPath = "E:"
$DiskNumber = 6
$PartitionNumber = 1
$TargetSearchString = 'esx*' 
$datapath = "E:\SnapTest01.mdf"
$logpath = "E:\SnapTest01_log.ldf"

Import-Module MTSXtremIO

Import-Module NTFSSecurity

Import-Module MTSAuthentication

# Setup PowerCli and VCenter Connection

Set-Variable -Name vCenterUserPasswordFile -Value C:\!Passwords\VCenter01.txt

if(-not (get-pssnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq 'VMware.VimAutomation.Core'})){add-pssnapin -Name VMware.VimAutomation.Core}

$vCenterUserPassword = Get-PasswordFromFile -FullPath $vCenterUserPasswordFile -AsSecureString

$VCCred = Set-WindowsAuthenticationCredential -userid 'LAB\vcuser' -password $vCenterUserPassword

$VCConnectResult = Connect-VIServer 'vcenter.lab.com' -Credential $VCCred

# Load SQL Server Management Objects

$LoadResult = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo")

# XtremIO Connection

Disable-CertificateValidation

Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo -username "admin" -passwordfile "C:\!Passwords\XtremIO.txt" -baseuri "https://192.168.1.100/api/json/types/"

# Define a few constants for this operation

$SnapPrefix = 'SQLVol01_SNAP_'

$SourceVolume = 'SQLVol01'

$TargetDatabaseName = 'SnapTest01_QA'

$TargetHardDiskName = 'Hard Disk 6'

$VMName = 'Server01'

$MountPath = "E:"

$DiskNumber = 6

$PartitionNumber = 1

$TargetSearchString = 'esx*'

$datapath = "E:\SnapTest01.mdf"

$logpath = "E:\SnapTest01_log.ldf"

The example above loads module dependencies and connects to VCenter and XtremIO. The SQL Management Objects are loaded to provide SQL Server functionality.

The next step is to detach the current QA database copy, remove the virtual hard disk, and remove snapshots. We will also do a couple of rescans in the process and remove the old snapshots.

# Detach current copy of database
$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)
$srv.DetachDatabase($dbname,$False,$False)

# Remove Disk From VM
Remove-HardDisk -HardDisk (Get-HardDisk -VM $VMName -Name $TargetHardDiskName) -DeletePermanently -Confirm

# Rescan Windows disks
Update-HostStorageCache

# Delete LUNMAP for existing snap
$LMResult = Get-XIOLunMap | Where-Object vol-name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | Foreach-object{Remove-XIOLunMap -Name $_.'mapping-id'[1]}

# Rescan VMware HBA's
$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Remove last snapshots
$SPResult = Get-XIOSnapshot | Where-Object Name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | ForEach-Object {Remove-XIOSnapshot -VolName $_.Name}

# Detach current copy of database

$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)

$srv.DetachDatabase($dbname,$False,$False)

# Remove Disk From VM

Remove-HardDisk -HardDisk (Get-HardDisk -VM $VMName -Name $TargetHardDiskName) -DeletePermanently -Confirm

# Rescan Windows disks

Update-HostStorageCache

# Delete LUNMAP for existing snap

$LMResult = Get-XIOLunMap | Where-Object vol-name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | Foreach-object{Remove-XIOLunMap -Name $_.'mapping-id'[1]}

# Rescan VMware HBA's

$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Remove last snapshots

$SPResult = Get-XIOSnapshot | Where-Object Name -like ($SourceVolume + $SnapSearchString) | ForEach-Object {Remove-XIOSnapshot -VolName $_.Name}

Now we are ready to create a new snapshot, add it to the lunmap, add the disk to the vm, and attach the database.

# Create snapshot of source volume
$Snapname = ($SnapPrefix + (Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss))
$SNResult = New-XIOSnapshot -VolName $SourceVolume -SnapName $Snapname -FolderID $SnapFolder

# Create Lun Map for snap volume
$LMResult = Get-XIOInitiatorGroup | Where-Object Name -Like $TargetSearchString | Select-Object name,index | foreach-object{New-XIOLunMap -Name $Snapname -InitiatorGroup $_.index}

# Rescan VMware HBA's
$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Add Disk to VM
$vm = Get-VM -Name $VMName
$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name $vm.VMHost
$deviceName = ($vmhost | Get-ScsiLun | Where-Object {$_.CanonicalName -match ('naa.' + (Get-XIOVolume | Where-Object name -EQ $Snapname).'naa-name')})[0].ConsoleDeviceName
$HDResult = New-HardDisk -DeviceName $deviceName -VM $vm -DiskType RawPhysical

# Rescan Windows
Update-HostStorageCache

# Set mount and drive path 
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber).DriveLetter -eq "$MountPath)){
	Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber $DiskNumber -PartitionNumber $PartitionNumber -AccessPath $MountPath
}
 
# Set permissions Verify Files and Attach Database
Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $datapath
Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $logpath
if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

	# Attach Database
	$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)
	$db = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Database
	$db = $srv.Databases.Item($dbname)
	$sc = new-object System.collections.specialized.stringcollection 
	$sc.Add($datapath)
	$sc.Add($logpath)
	$srv.AttachDatabase($dbname,$sc,[Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.AttachOptions]::None)

}

# Create snapshot of source volume

$Snapname = ($SnapPrefix + (Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss))

$SNResult = New-XIOSnapshot -VolName $SourceVolume -SnapName $Snapname -FolderID $SnapFolder

# Create Lun Map for snap volume

$LMResult = Get-XIOInitiatorGroup | Where-Object Name -Like $TargetSearchString | Select-Object name,index | foreach-object{New-XIOLunMap -Name $Snapname -InitiatorGroup $_.index}

# Rescan VMware HBA's

$CLResult = Get-Cluster | Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStorage -RescanAllHBA

# Add Disk to VM

$vm = Get-VM -Name $VMName

$vmhost = Get-VMHost -Name $vm.VMHost

$deviceName = ($vmhost | Get-ScsiLun | Where-Object {$_.CanonicalName -match ('naa.' + (Get-XIOVolume | Where-Object name -EQ $Snapname).'naa-name')})[0].ConsoleDeviceName

$HDResult = New-HardDisk -DeviceName $deviceName -VM $vm -DiskType RawPhysical

# Rescan Windows

Update-HostStorageCache

# Set mount and drive path

Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false

Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false

Start-Sleep -Seconds 1

if(( -not (get-partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber).DriveLetter -eq "$MountPath)){

Add-PartitionAccessPath -DiskNumber $DiskNumber -PartitionNumber $PartitionNumber -AccessPath $MountPath

}

# Set permissions Verify Files and Attach Database

Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $datapath

Enable-NTFSAccessInheritance -Path $logpath

if ((Test-Path -Path $datapath) -and (Test-path -Path $logpath)){

# Attach Database

$srv = new-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server($SQLServer)

$db = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Database

$db = $srv.Databases.Item($dbname)

$sc = new-object System.collections.specialized.stringcollection

$sc.Add($datapath)

$sc.Add($logpath)

$srv.AttachDatabase($dbname,$sc,[Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.AttachOptions]::None)

}

The above example creates a snapshot and maps the volume to the host using the XtremIO REST API. It also rescans the disks and then adds the RDM to the virtual machine. Then the database is attached using SQL SMO.

This completes the database refresh. I hope someone finds this helpful. Next post will introduce AppSync into the mix for application consistency and some additional benefits.

Regards,

Dave

MTSXtremIO Module
NTFSSecurity Module
MTSAuthentication Module

EMC Knowledge Sharing Competition – Article Selected for Publishing

Posted on April 2, 2015
by dmuegge

In the fall last year I learned about the 2015 EMC Knowledge Sharing Competition. This is a writing competition hosted by EMC to promote sharing of information about technology topics. All EMC certified professionals are welcome to submit abstracts for consideration in the contest. I thought the work I had done with Data Domain Boost (DD Boost) for SQL Server would a good topic and decided to give the contest a shot.

The previous work I have done on this topic can be found at the links below.

Data Domain Boost for SQL – Deployment Planning Considerations for DBAs

SQL Server Data Domain Boost Scripting Toolkit

Toolkit Project on GitHub

In November I was notified my abstract was accepted and it was time to get started writing the article. It was a lot of work especially because I was in the middle of writing and publishing the SQL Server Data Domain Boost Scripting Toolkit. It turned out to be a great experience and last week I was notified my article, How to Boost SQL Server Backups with Data Domain, was selected for publishing. It will be included in the 2015 book of abstracts and published at some point during the year.

Find our more about the EMC Knowledge Sharing Competition here

While I was not selected as a finalist, the experience was enjoyable and interesting. I think this is a very cool event EMC does, I appreciate being part of it, and I’m sure it takes a lot of work internally. I will be looking forward to the awards session at EMC World 2015 to hear the winners announced and congratulate them.

Regards,

Dave

SQL Server Data Domain Boost Scripting Toolkit

Posted on March 26, 2015
by dmuegge

Over the past several months I have worked with customers who have been implementing EMC Data Domain Boost for SQL Server. A common challenge for these customers is automating backups and restores using SQL Server tools such as T-SQL, maintenance plans, and agent jobs. I have posted about this previously here but found some organizations still needed additional help getting started. This led me to create the SQL Server Data Domain Boost Scripting Toolkit to provide DBAs with a head start. Currently the toolkit provides T-SQL stored procedures and a table definition to provide additional functionality on top of EMC’s Data Domain Boost for SQL Server.

The toolkit is published on GitHub at this address https://github.com/dmuegge/ddb-sql-toolkit. The toolkit is licensed under the MIT open source license agreement.

With this post I felt a demo video would provide the most value and you can also find documentation on using the toolkit in the scripts and files included with the toolkit. The video is approximately 24 minutes, Enjoy.

The goal of the SQL Server Data Domain Scripting Toolkit is to provide DBAs with a head start to T-SQL scripting and automation using DD Boost for SQL Server which is part of Data Domain Boost for Microsoft Applications. The initial toolkit utilizes the xp_cmdshell system stored procedure in a set of T-SQL stored procedures to execute the DD Boost for SQL executables. I also hope to extend this toolkit in the future with additional options to utilize SQL DD Boost.

See the previous post I wrote which led me to create the SQL Server Data Domain Boost Scripting Toolkit. I hope someone finds this toolkit useful. Please provide any feedback and updates to the toolkit.

Regards,

Dave

EMC XtremIO and PowerShell

Posted on March 10, 2015
by dmuegge

I have had the opportunity to work with XtremIO quite a bit lately. One of the benefits of working for an EMC partner is lab gearJ. XtremIO hast a REST based API and I wondered what others in the community had done with the API for XtremIO and PowerShell. I started searching for the available PowerShell functionality and found a couple of different modules.

The first one I ran across is here; a module created by Matt Boren. It has some great functionality and I explored it quite a bit. It is written to take advantage of PowerShell features such as the pipeline. The primary challenge I had was understanding the code well enough to be able to extend it and have a good handle on how it works. It has some complex decision and looping structures which I had difficulty following. The next module I found was here; a module created by Brandon Kvarda. This module also has good functionality and although I did not explore it as much as the module mentioned above, it had some tidbits to leverage. The primary reason I did not want to take this module and run with it was some of the development paradigms. I personally like to use a more “PowerShelly” type of approach utilizing PowerShell objects and leveraging the pipeline differently than this module.

I decided to learn some things from the code and create my own module. The articles and code provided some helpful insight and shortened the learning process. My end goal was to create a module which I better understood and could easily extend, while keeping things as simple as possible. I will provide some examples on using the PowerShell module for XtremIO and you can find it here on GitHub.

The module provides standard CRUD functionality from the XtremIO REST API. It has full coverage of all the HTTP GET functions as well as PUT, POST, and DELETE for the most common objects. To start with I am just ignoring certificate errors and it is on my list to add in use of certificates in the login process for both validation and authentication. I am currently using a simple method to store password information in a file to enable creation of scripts that can be run automatically. So let’s go through the process of setting the module up, preparing a password file and executing some commands.

The first thing that is required is to place the module in your modules folder. I will not go into specifics here as there are many sources of that information. Once the module is loaded the first step is to create a password file. The great thing about this method is the password file is encrypted based on the credentials of the currently logged on user and machine. It cannot be used on another machine or by another account on the same machine. So if you are going to setup a password file to be used in a scheduled task make sure you create the file using the account that will run the scheduled task.

Here is a screenshot of the password file creation process.

Here we see the contents of the encrypted password file.

Now that the authentication is setup and ready to use I will talk about the functionality of the module. If we issue a Get-Command –Module MTSXtremIO it will return a list of all the cmdlets currently included in the module.

The first step is to connect to the XtremIO XMS management server. This is done by using the Set-XIOAPIConnectionInfo cmdlet. The example below shows the connection process and an example of the Get-XIOCluster cmdlet returning some basic information about the cluster.

Now I will show an example of creating a volume folder and some volumes. First we will list the names of the current volume folders.

The next step is to create a new volume folder to hold the volumes. The example below shows this along with a listing of the new folder. Now the folder is ready to create the new volumes.

The example below shows how PowerShell can help to create 8 volumes very quickly.

The screenshot below shows an example of how we can view only the resulting volumes. Also in this example I show the VAAI thin provisioning alert setting. One thing to point out is the REST API does not actually set the various alert settings on volume creation and it is done as an additional task after volume creation.

The example below shows how this is accomplished using the Update-XIOVolume cmdlet and lists the updated volumes.

One note here, the New-XIOVolume and Update-XIOVolume cmdlets will be updated soon to accept pipeline input and not require the use of the foreach-object cmdlet. I discovered this flaw creating this post, Doh! That update will also enable putting the New-XIOVolume and Update-XIOVolume together on the pipeline to allow creation and setting options to happen in a simple one liner.

The other common tasks which can be managed with the module today is LUN mapping and snapshots. I will be working on other functionality and adding it to the module as time permits. I hope folks find this useful and I always appreciate feedback and comments. One last thing, if you have not had a chance to do any testing with an XtremIO all flash array I recommend it highly. It is quite fun.

MTSXtremIO PowerShell Module Download https://github.com/dmuegge/MTSXtremIO/releases

Regards,

Dave

Data Domain Boost for SQL – Deployment Planning Considerations for DBA’s

Posted on August 8, 2014
by dmuegge

Update: This work has been expanded upon in the following post – DD Boost T-SQL Scripting Toolkit

EMC recently released Data Domain Boost for Microsoft Applications. This tool includes a SQL Management Studio plugin that allows SQL backups via a familiar SQL GUI or a CLI application.

EMC whitepaper – The business value of Data Domain Boost

This tool does a good job of keeping control of backups in the hands of a DBA and taking advantage of the benefits of Data Domain.

While helping a client recently, I had a chance to dig into DD Boost for SQL and do some testing. This post outlines some key things I learned about the architectural aspects of the software. Also some potential operational impact organizations should be aware of when planning an implementation. The amount of impact on your particular organization will vary depending on how SQL backups are managed today. In most cases the backups are currently managed by the SQL DBA’s. This is a common reason organizations choose DD Boost for SQL.

In this scenario there are some important questions to ask.

Are backups managed by T-SQL in agent jobs?
Are backups managed with maintenance plans?
What automation is done in jobs? Particularly automation in restores.
What logging and reporting is done today?
Can TSQL backup routines be modified?
Can xp_cmdshell be enabled on servers?

Many or most DBA’s have T-SQL procedures running the backups. These procedures commonly have additional logic for other operations, logging and reporting. The Data Domain boost plugin for SQL server runs as a command line executable. It has a GUI front end to help create the commands or run the process directly.

The backup program is ddbmsqlsv.exe and the restore program is ddbmsqlrc.exe. The DD Boost administrator guide recommends using windows task scheduler to execute theses commands and manage backup and restore jobs. This presents an issue for many DBA’s because they have a much greater set of functionality in the SQL Agent job engine. Additionally, agent jobs and T-SQL procedures have easy access to all relevant data in the SQL environment needed to drive the logic of the DBA’s operational processes.

This hurdle can be overcome, but there is tradeoff and compromise involved. The DD Boost plugin can be run from T-SQL scripts using the xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure. This does allow the DBA’s to keep the backup jobs and processes running in T-SQL and the agent. The trade-off will be the increased attack surface for SQL server. The following command examples show the use of xp_cmdshell with the DD Boost applications.

exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlsv.exe -c SQL2012-01.vlab.local -l full -N "Test03" -b "Test03" -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlrc.exe -c sql2012-01.vlab.local -f -S normal -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlsv.exe -c SQL2012-01.vlab.local -l full -N "Test03" -b "Test03" -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlrc.exe -c sql2012-01.vlab.local -f -S normal -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

This method should work for most organizations, which are OK with the trade-offs. One of the trade-offs will likely be some logic change in the SQL agent jobs for backup. One question a DBA posed to me was a way to run the backup from a SQL Agent job and be able to report on success while keeping a log. Here is the quick solution I came up with. This should be a good start for most DBA’s and I am sure many can improve on this greatly.

The first step is to enable xp_cmdshell on the server and there are many places on the internet to show how to do this. Then we need to create a job for the backup.

The job has a single step to run the T-SQL.

The following T-SQL code runs the job.

declare @cur cursor;
declare @line nvarchar(4000);
declare @rcode bit;
Set @rcode = 1;
DECLARE @t TABLE (LINE NVARCHAR(4000))
INSERT INTO @t
exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlsv.exe -c SQL2012-01.vlab.local -l full -N "Test05" -b "Test05" -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

Set @cur = Cursor for
SELECT LINE FROM @t
open @cur
fetch next from @cur into @line
while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
    IF @line like '%Backing up of DB1 succeeded.'
    BEGIN
        Set @rcode = 0
    END
    print @line
    fetch next from @cur into @line
end
close @cur;
Deallocate @cur;
if @rcode = 1
    raiserror('An error occured with the backup',16,1)

declare @cur cursor;

declare @line nvarchar(4000);

declare @rcode bit;

Set @rcode = 1;

DECLARE @t TABLE (LINE NVARCHAR(4000))

INSERT INTO @t

exec xp_cmdshell 'ddbmsqlsv.exe -c SQL2012-01.vlab.local -l full -N "Test05" -b "Test05" -a "NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost" -a "NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL" "MSSQL$INST1:DB1"'

Set @cur = Cursor for

SELECT LINE FROM @t

open @cur

fetch next from @cur into @line

while @@fetch_status = 0

begin

IF @line like '%Backing up of DB1 succeeded.'

BEGIN

Set @rcode = 0

END

print @line

fetch next from @cur into @line

end

close @cur;

Deallocate @cur;

if @rcode = 1

raiserror('An error occured with the backup',16,1)

This code uses an in memory table and a cursor to loop through the output of the DD Boost command. This allows the detection of success strings and if they are not found an error is raised to the job engine. This script also prints the command output, which can get captured for the history logs. I am sure there are many SQL gurus out there who can improve this code. Please post your improvements, they are welcome.

The screen shot below shows the job step advanced properties page. The “include step output in history” option will allow the output to be seen in the job activity history.

The screenshot below shows the job activity monitor log viewer, which has both successful and failed jobs.

The output of the backup command is stored in the message field in the history. This provides a way to go back and find out what happened to the backup.

I believe this method should be sufficient for most organizations except those with strict security requirements and a high level of automation in database restores. The security requirement is due to the use of xp_cmdshell, which some organizations may not want to use. The level of automation in restores could pose an issue because of how specific backup sets are accessed via the DD Boost application.

There is at least one situation I know of that could present issues. If automated database restores of particular point in times are required this may be very difficult to script reliably. With a normal SQL backup the information about that backup is recorded in tables in the MSDB database. When DD Boost for SQL does a backup it does invoke a SQL backup which logs the job information to the MSDB database. Although, the DD Boost plugin GUI appears to retrieve the backup image data from the Data Domain file system.

This causes an issue in scripting a DD Boost restore of a specific image. The command line tool allows for two modes to identify the backup image used for restore. It will restore the last backup by default or if the –t switch is supplied with a timestamp of the backup image it will use that particular image. The problem is the timestamp comes from the Data Domain file system timestamp for the backup image(I think, someone from EMC correct me if I am wrong). There may also be a way to query this, but it would be via SSH and I have not gone down that road.

In many environments DBA’s will use backup set or file naming schemes in their processes. Since the DD Boost app only allows timestamp to identify the backup the lack of timestamp correlation between DD and SQL causes an issue. The command and output below illustrates the issue.

ddbmsqlsv.exe -c SQL2012-01.vlab.local -l full -a “NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL” “MSSQL$INST1:DB1”

Abbreviated Log Output

43708:(pid 3208):Start time: Wed Aug 06 10:55:44 2014
43621:(pid 3208):Computer Name: SQL2012-01 User Name: administrator
….
43709:(pid 3208):Stop time: Wed Aug 06 10:56:05 2014

This job does get logged in the MSDB database like other SQL jobs, but unfortunately the timestamps do not match up to the DD Boost data.

When looking at the DD Boost restore for the above backup. The time shown on this screen does not show the same backup start and end times as the msdb.backupset table. This is an issue because a backup could be found by description in a query, but DD Boost save sets cannot be referenced properly from DBA’s TSQL maintenance scripts as timestamps do not correlate.

ddbmsqlrc.exe -c sql2012-01.vlab.local -f -t “08/06/2014 10:55:45” -S normal -a “NSR_DFA_SI=TRUE” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_USE_DD=TRUE” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DD_HOST=dd-01.vlab.local” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DD_USER=ddboost” -a “NSR_DFA_SI_DEVICE_PATH=/SQL” “MSSQL$INST1:DB1”

It is not likely many organizations will have a level of automation in their SQL database restores to be caught by this, but it is one to be aware of if considering a DD Boost for SQL deployment. I am sure features will be added in future releases that will correct or eliminate this issue. In the meantime EMC, could you please provide a way for DBA’s to reference the DD Boost jobs/image files from T-SQL.

Regards,

Dave

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