VMWare

No ZFS Support for EMC Replication Manager

As I originally blogged, I was hoping to use EMC snapshots to perform server-less/network-less backups. EMC provides two main tools for managing snapshots in this type of situation:

  • EMC Replication Manager
  • EMC PowerSnap Networker Module

The PowerSnap Module supposedly automates taking snapshots for the purpose of backups, while Replication Manager supposedly provides a much more robust package.

With Replication Manager you might create a policy to take a snapshot every five minutes, keep the last 10, and use those for backups whenever necessary.

To make a long story short, Replication Manager is useless for LUNs with ZFS. According to EMC, this won't change in the near future. PowerSnap also has no support for taking snapshots of LUNs with ZFS on them so basically EMC has no server-less backup offerings for Solaris with ZFS.

The Systems Architect

What is a Systems Architect?

Systems Architects have years of experience in the various parts of the systems they work with. Most probably, they specialize in a specific area area of expertise where they began their careers, but have since expanded their knowledge by learning from their colleagues and from life's lessons. To get to their position, they have proven their ability to analyze and understand the needs and constraints of the business they work in. They are responsible for deciding what technologies will provide the best solutions for a business, how to integrate them with existing systems, and how to retire them when they are obsolete.

There are several flavors of Systems Architects.