ONTAP Snapshot for the Quick Recovery Agent

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Overview

Configuration

Extended Retention for ONTAP Snapshots

De-Duplication

Backing up Snapshots Created with ONTAP Snapshot

Restoring Data that was Backed up Using ONTAP Snapshot

Required Software

License Requirement


Overview

The ONTAP Snapshot enabler, which works with the Quick Recovery Agent, is used to create a snapshot of a Network Appliance server. You can back up the snapshot to disk or tape through use of a post-snap command.

Supported Data Types

The following file systems are supported for ONTAP Snapshot:


Configuration

The following must be done before using ONTAP Snapshot.

  1. Verify Licensing

    ONTAP SnapVault requires a specific license configuration that differs from a typical Quick Recovery Agent setup. See the License Requirement section for information on the required licenses for ONTAP SnapVault.

  2. Install the Software

    Install the required software.

  3. Add the Source File Server

    From the CommCell Browser, right-click Client Computers, click New Client, select the NAS Client radio button, and click OK. Enter your information in the Add NDMP Server dialog box and click OK when you are done.

  4. Configure the QR Policy

    The subclient(s) that control the contents of a QR Volume must be associated with a QR Policy. The QR Policy determines which snap engine and copy manager are used to create the snapshot.

    See QR Policies and Create a QR Policy for more information.

  5. Configure Subclients

    See Create a New Subclient and Configure Subclient Content for instructions on creating subclients.


Extended Retention for ONTAP Snapshots

The Quick Recovery agent provides the capability to maintain SnapVault destination snapshots (OSSV and ONTAP) and ONTAP SnapShots for extended periods. This capability is provided using registry keys.

This feature enables you to specify a retention period for the daily, weekly, or monthly snapshots. By default, the last snapshot added to the database in the period (daily, weekly, monthly) is selected for extended retention. For example, if the QR policy is set to keep snaps for 10 days and the SaveDailySnaps registry key is set to 20 days, then for snaps older than 10 days, the pruning will remove all but the last one on a day.

The extended retention can be either specified to apply to all QR policies or to a specific QR policy.

The extended retention specified for a specific QR policy overrides the extended retention applied to all QR policies.

  If you change the name of a QR policy then it will be required to update the registry keys to use the updated name for extended retention of snapshots to work.

De-Duplication

The Quick Recovery agent for SnapVault provides an option to run de-duplication on the destination snapshots after the transfer is complete. This de-duplication detects blocks on a volume that are identical and modifies the file system so that only one of these blocks is used thus freeing-up the space used by the duplicate blocks. When creating a QR volume, there is an option for running de-duplication on the destination snapshots. See Run De-Duplication for ONTAP SnapVault, for a step-by-step instructions.

  The de-duplication process can take a few minutes and any data protection operations run during this time when the job is running, will not start until de-duplication completes.

De-duplication will not be performed if the filer does not support de-duplication or the destination volume is not configured. For more information about this feature, refer to the NetApp documentation.


Backing up Snapshots Created with ONTAP Snapshot

This feature provides a capability to backup SnapVault, SnapMirror, and ONTAP snapshots to media from the CommCell Console. The snapshots can be configured to be backed up automatically when they are created. In addition, you can select any existing snapshot and perform an immediate full backup to media.

 See the following for step-by-step procedures:

  • You can only perform a full backup of the snapshot when using the Browse QR Volume to perform a backup of a snapshot to tape.
  • When you perform an immediate full backup of a snapshot to tape, the next backup will be converted to a full backup.
  • If you change the Storage Policy for a subclient, the next backup will be converted to a full.

When you are creating QR Volumes based on ONTAP snapshots, you can also use a post-snap command in the QR Subclient Properties (see Creating a QR Volume for details) to start a backup using the appropriate File System iDataAgent. For more information about Pre/Post commands, see Pre/Post Processes. For more information about performing backups using a File System iDataAgent, refer to Backup - Microsoft Windows File Systems or Backup - Unix File Systems.

Sample scripts for the post-snap command are included in the Resource Pack available on the Maintenance Advantage web site.


Restoring Data that was Backed up Using ONTAP Snapshot

For information on restoring data that was backed up using ONTAP Snapshot, see Restore Data - ONTAP Snapshot.


Required Software

The following must be installed on the source client computer:


License Requirement

To perform a data protection operation using this Agent a specific Product License must be available in the CommServe® Server.

Review general license requirements included in License Administration. Also, View All Licenses provides step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information.

System Licenses

In addition to the system licenses normally required for the Quick Recovery Agent, an ONTAP Snapshot license is needed for each file server that will use the enabler.

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