Creating Rapid Clone Of Virtual Machine's Using Netapp Virtual Console

Creating Rapid Clones using Netapp Virtual Console 

Right click on the vm_template you want to clone and then scroll down to Netapp VSC and choose the options Create Rapid Clones

It opens up a rapid clone wizard, choose a clone destination in my case cluster1 is my destination

Ignore any FC/FCoE warnings and in the next tab select the format , choose same format as Source or if you have any preference of choosing THIN or THICK

Choose how many virtual processor you want and how many number of clones you want in my case I have chosen 11 and also can change the prefix of the clone machine name and choose No.of virtual processors, Memory in Size etc...

Click Next

Read through the difference between Basic and Advanced and choose which one you want to go with in my case i am going with BASIC.

Now select on to which Data store you want to save the cloned machines or can create a new data store as well I am choosing nfs1

Check the summary and click finish

You should be able to see the cloned vm’s upon refresh, can the check the column QUEUED FOR      ( Probably Milliseconds )from the recent tasks below to know how fast is Rapid Clone.

Netapp PANIC error Root volume: "aggr0" is corrupt in process config_thread

Error :- PANIC: Root volume: "aggr0" is corrupt in process config_thread on release NetApp 

Release 7.3.2 on Fri Jul 3 08:33:45 GMT 2016

version: NetApp Release 7.3.2: Thu Oct 15 04:17:39 PDT 2009

cc flags: 8O

halt after panic during system initialization

AMI BIOS8 Modular BIOS

Copyright (C) 1985-2006, American Megatrends, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Portions Copyright (C) 2006 Network Appliance, Inc. All Rights Reserved

BIOS Version 3.0

+++++++++++++++

Solution:-  Well in this case most of us will be in dead end or contact Netapp Technical support

But what if my support contract already ended and no more support from NetApp L, that is what the exact situation I had with one of my customer and I have to deal with it and fix it.

Netapp has got some excellent features one among them is NETBOOT , in case if you don’t know about NETBOOT a little introduction

Netboot is a procedure that can be used as an alternative way to boot a NetApp Storage system from a Data ONTAP software image that is stored on a HTTP or TFTP server. Netboot is typically used to facilitate specific recovery scenarios. Some common scenarios are; correcting a failed upgrade, repairing a failed boot media, and booting the correct kernel for the current hardware platform.

Where we can Netboot a controller via a TFTP or HTTP server and then perform the repair of the root volume using WAFL_IRON & WAFL_CHECK

Procedure:-

Setup TFTP server on the partner node

https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1012003&locale=en_US

Netboot the node with the corrupted /vol/vol0.

https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=3013804&locale=en_US

Now run WAFL_check or wafliron on the aggregate that is corrupted (mostly likely will show aggr inconsistant). Try WAFL_check first as it will run faster if that doesn't work then try wafliron.

Wafl does checksum on top of software RAID.

the command output looks like below...

*** This system has failed.

Any adapters shown below are those of the live partner, toaster1

Aggregate aggr1 (restricted, raid_dp, wafl inconsistent) (block checksums)

  Plex /aggr1/plex0 (online, normal, active)

    RAID group /aggr1/plex0/rg0 (normal)

      RAID Disk Device                  HA  SHELF BAY CHAN Pool Type  RPM  Used (MB/blks)    Phys (MB/blks)

      --------- ------                  ------------- ---- ---- ---- ----- --------------    --------------

      data      ntcsan6:19.126L0        0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  432876/886530048  437248/895485360

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L2        0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  432876/886530048  437248/895485360

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L1        0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  432876/886530048  437248/895485360

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L6        0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L5        0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

      data      ntcsan6:19.126L8        0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

      data      ntcsan6:19.126L7        0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L10       0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

    RAID group /aggr1/plex0/rg1 (normal)

      RAID Disk Device                  HA  SHELF BAY CHAN Pool Type  RPM  Used (MB/blks)    Phys (MB/blks)

      --------- ------                  ------------- ---- ---- ---- ----- --------------    --------------

      data      ntcsan6:19.126L12       0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  367837/753330176  371553/760940880

      data      ntcsan5:18.126L13       0a    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  367837/753330176  371553/760940880

      data      ntcsan6:18.126L6        0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  415681/851314688  419880/859914720

      data      ntcsan6:18.126L10       0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  411063/841857024  415215/850362240

      data      ntcsan6:18.126L13       0e    -   -          -  LUN   N/A  422730/865751040  427000/874497120

Wait until it finishes as it may take hours based on the size of aggregate.