Paper: Planning Hyper-V CSV and Backup

Aidan Finn, a Microsoft MVP with the Virtual Machine expertise has released a new whitepaper titled: "Planning Cluster Shared Volumes & Backup". The paper which contains 34 pages, covers Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV), a single storage volume shared by multiple Hyper-V hosts and how to design your backup solution when using CSV.

The paper covers the following topics:

  • What is CSV?
  • How backup works with CSV, covering Volume Shadow Copy Service, Redirected Mode and VSS Providers.
  • Other ways your Hyper-V Cluster design impacts CSV, covering Dynamic VHD and Multi-site Clusters.
  • Planning your CSV and Backup Design
  • Getting Funky with CSV design covering Distributed VHDs and Backup.
  • CSV implementation requirements covering Host Requirements, Networking, Protocols and Security.

Conclusion:

Cluster Shared Volume resolved a major issue with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V clusters. It simplified storage management and made the Hyper-V private cloud a realistic option. However, CSV does require that you understand the technology and plan according to how it behaves. If you follow a valid process then you can have an easier to manage and easier to backup virtualisation environment, and you can build a highly performing Hyper-V private cloud.