From time to time I am in the situation where I need to get data back from storage-side snapshots of cluster shared volumes. I suppose I just never figured out a way to do it right, so I always needed to:
- expose the shadow copy as a separate LUN
- offline the original CSV in the cluster
- un-expose the LUN carrying the original CSV
- make sure my cluster nodes have detected the new LUN and no longer list the original one
- add the volume to the list of cluster volumes, promote it to be a CSV
- copy off the data I need
- undo steps 5. – 1. to revert to the original configuration
This is quite tedious and requires downtime for the original volume. Is there a better way to do this without involving a separate host outside of the cluster?
Best Answer
Sometimes vendors can integrate with the windows "previous versions" feature to allow you to grab data from snapshots. If that's supported with your storage, that would be the ideal. Otherwise, you'll have to either figure out a way to mount the shadow copy in read-only without having it cause trouble to the server or the R/W production volume.