Mounting and unmounting snapshot volumes in vSphere 5.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The procedures for mounting and unmounting snapshot volumes using vicfg-volume and esxcli are changed in vSphere 5.x.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

To persistent mount a snapshot volume using vicfg-volume and esxcli

1. Create a new VMFS volume.
2. Take a snapshot of the new VMFS volume.
3. Scan the volume.
   # vmkfstools <vSphere login credentials> -V
4. Verify the volume.
   # vicfg-volume <vSphere login credentials> -l
5. Unmount the original volume.
   # esxcli <vSphere login credentials> filesystem volume unmount -l <volume name>
6. Scan the volume.
   # vmkfstools <vSphere login credentials> -V
7. Perform a persistent mount for the snapshot volume.
   # vicfg-volume <vSphere login credentials> -M <volume name>
   

To unmount the snapshot and mount the original volume

Unmount the snapshot volume using vicfg-volume and mount the original volume using esxcli.

1. Unmount the snapshot volume.
   # vicfg-volume <vSphere login credentials> -u <volume name>
   
   Note: Using this command results in an incorrect failure report. The command does work.
   
   
2. Mount the original volume.
   # esxcli <vSphere login credentials> filesystem volume mount -l <volume name>

For additional information, see:

• vSphere handling of LUNs detected as snapshot LUNs (1011387).
• vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference section of the VMware vSphere Documentation Center.