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flypast's avatar
flypast
Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
Nov 15, 2018

Snapshot VE as Restoration point

Hi team, to support HSM migration (SafeNet HSM to Thales HSM), we are going to uninstall SafeNet HSM client then install Thales HSM client on our BigIP VE 13.1.

 

Could we use VMWare snapshot to create a restoration point in case anything goes wrong during the HSM migration?

 

Is snapshot of bigIP VE on ESXi host a F5 supported backup method?

 

Thank you very much!

 

application delivery
BIG-IP
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  • Philip_Jonsson's avatar
    Philip_Jonsson
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Nov 15, 2018

    Hey Flypast!

     

    I actually ran into this question during the week. I have heard cautious words of using it but there is an official statement from F5 which you can find in the release notes of version 12.0 stating the following:

     

    Certain hypervisors support a snapshot of the virtual machine taken with the active state of the memory. On VMware, this temporarily freezes the virtual machine. This might produce undesired results. Taking a snapshot of the virtual machine's memory on VMware. Pauses the virtual machine, which might produce undesired results. Workaround: To avoid this problem on VMware hypervisors, do not include the virtual machine's memory when taking snapshots. On VMware, uncheck the option: Snapshot the virtual machine's memory.

     

    In other words, it should be fine as long as you do not take a snapshot of the virtual machines memory. Or perhaps even turn off the machine and perform the snapshot.

     

    Here is my source: Release Note: BIG-IP 12.0.0 VE Release Notes

     

    Hope this answers your question! :)