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Reconfigure 2012 R2 Hyper-V Failover Cluster 7-day snapshot maximum age

bobby_bwfc 21 Reputation points
2022-02-08T15:56:55.4+00:00

Hi All,
I'm using Veeam Backup and Replication to take a WAN-based backup of a large machine with a relatively slow connection. I estimate that the initial full backup will take ~12 days to complete. The virtual machine resides on a Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Failover Cluster utilising a Cluster Shared Volume. I believe that as a result of this, if a 3rd Party backup tool initiated snapshot exists for longer than 7 days it is automatically deleted by the OS/Cluster; this causes my backup to fail. Is there any way of temporarily allowing my 3rd party backup tool initiated snapshot to exceed this 7 day cap?
Thanks!
bobby_bwfc

Hyper-V
Hyper-V
A Windows technology providing a hypervisor-based virtualization solution enabling customers to consolidate workloads onto a single server.
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  1. Eric Siron 1,251 Reputation points MVP
    2022-02-11T16:43:23.9+00:00

    This property has been removed in all of the versions available to me, so I was not able to test this. It works for all other disk properties, though, so it should work.

    1. Optional, but makes it faster: in PowerShell on a cluster node, run Get-ClusterSharedVolume | fl *. This will show you the GUID(s) of the CSV(s). Note the GUID of the CSV that you want.
    2. In the registry on a cluster node, walk down through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster\Resources. It will have a sub-key that matches the GUID that you found in step 1. If you didn't do step 1, then you can just step through each sub-key until you find the one with a type of "Physical Disk" and the correct name.
    3. Expand the sub-key that you found in step 2 and click on its Parameters sub-key.
    4. Locate and change the value of the KVP named SnapshotAgeLimit.
    5. Verify that it updated across the other nodes.

    They don't like you tinkering with the registry. The "official" way is to use WMI, but it's obnoxious. As long as the value propagates to the other nodes, then it "took".

    Again, because I don't have 2012R2, I have no way to test this.

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  1. Limitless Technology 39,436 Reputation points
    2022-02-09T10:33:36.82+00:00

    Hello Bobbybwfc

    In this case, you should contact the community or forums of the 3rd party backup solution in order to receive specialized support and expert discussion about the configuration needed.

    As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.