Hi Simon, The answer to your question is 'kind of'. The Storage Subsystem API (https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CLOUDSTACK/Storage+subsystem+2.0) allows storage providers to implement a suite of methods for the purpose of storage management, including taking and reverting snapshots of VM volumes.
However, it sounds like you aren't talking at the level of storage providers. It sounds like you would like to hook in third party software between the API call to perform a snapshot and the hypervisor actually taking the snapshot. It also sounds like you are talking about easier scheduling of entire VM backups. This, on the other hand, does have an effort behind it. Take a look at the email thread I started here: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/cloudstack-dev/201309.mbox/%3c18a67ed7-9cb0-486a-be80-e16152f33...@netapp.com%3E<http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/cloudstack-dev/201309.mbox/<18a67ed7-9cb0-486a-be80-e16152f33...@netapp.com>> All that said, you are definitely not the only people struggling with this. Would you mind elaborating a bit on what you have in mind for non-native backup features (1) and the 3rd party tools you'd like to integrate (2)? That may help us provide a better answer than 'kind of'. =) -Chris -- Chris Suich chris.su...@netapp.com<mailto:chris.su...@netapp.com> NetApp Software Engineer Data Center Platforms – Cloud Solutions Citrix, Cisco & Red Hat On Oct 8, 2013, at 3:28 PM, Simon Murphy <simon.mur...@vifx.co.nz<mailto:simon.mur...@vifx.co.nz>> wrote: Hi, Can anyone tell me if there are plans to implement a more comprehensive mechanism to backup data within guest VM's, or to provide a framework for backup vendors to plug into? This is needed because: 1. The native volume snapshot functionality is slow and does not provide the required feature set. (Incremental forever, Dedup, file level indexing, tape support etc) 2. Integrating 3rd party tools is painful and can only be done at the guest/hypervisor layers which is outside of CCP. Restoring entire VM's is problematic and billing even more so. What would be ideal is a plug-in framework that lets backup vendors integrate their software with CS, so that CS aware backup and restore can be scheduled and exectued by end users. Im hoping we are not the only people out there who are struggling with this! Many thanks, Simon Murphy Solutions Architect ViFX | Cloud Infrastructure Level 7, 57 Fort Street, Auckland, New Zealand 1010 PO Box 106700, Auckland, New Zealand 1143 M +64 21 285 4519 | S simon_a_murphy www.vifx.co.nz<http://www.vifx.co.nz/> follow us on twitter<https://twitter.com/ViFX> Auckland | Wellington | Christchurch experience. expertise. execution. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential, without prejudice and may contain information that is subject to legal privilege. It is intended solely for the use of the individual/s to whom it is addressed in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act (1993). The content contained in this email does not, necessarily, reflect the official policy position of ViFX nor does ViFX have any responsibility for any alterations to the contents of this email that may occur following transmission. If you are not the addressee it may be unlawful for you to read, copy, distribute, disclose or otherwise use the information contained within this email. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender prior to deleting this email message from your system. Please note ViFX reserves the right to monitor, from time to time, the communications sent to and from its email network.
