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Extended Retention for ONTAP SnapVault Snapshots
Backing up QR volumes created with ONTAP SnapVault
Restoring data that was backed up using ONTAP SnapVault
The Quick Recovery Agent can be configured to create QR Volumes of SnapVault ONTAP source volumes through the use of ONTAP SnapVault.
These QR Volumes are created on Network Appliance (NetApp) Network Attached Storage (NAS) file servers that use the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP).
To create QR Volumes from ONTAP source volumes:
The following file systems are supported for ONTAP SnapVault:
The following must be done before using ONTAP SnapVault.
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.
Install the required software.
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.
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.
Create a Scratch Volume Pool that contains the Secondary SnapVault file server volumes to be used as destination volumes for SnapVault operations. See Create a Scratch Volume Pool for instructions on creating the Scratch Volume Pool.
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. Note the following when configuring a QR Policy for use with ONTAP SnapVault:
See QR Policies and Create a QR Policy for more information.
See Create a New Subclient and Configure Subclient Content for instructions on creating subclients.
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. |
The Quick Recovery agent for SnapVault provides the capability to transfer the Windows or Unix volumes residing on a Netapp LUN. This features enables you to include a LUN in the subclient content when using a SnapVault QR Policy. The Volume Explorer detects a NetApp LUN which lies in the qtree as a SnapVault transferable and this LUN can be included in the subclient content. To include a LUN to the subclient content, select the drive letter in case of Windows or the mount point in case of Unix. SnapVault LUN transfer only transfers the qtree in which LUN resides, to the destination and not the complete QR volume.
Following conditions should be satisfied to detect a LUN as a SnapVault transferable:
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.
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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. |
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:
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You can also use a post-copy command in the QR Subclient Properties (see Creating a QR Volume for details) to start an on-demand backup using the NAS Client. 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-copy command are included in the Resource Pack available on the Maintenance Advantage web site.
For information on restoring SnapVault data, see Restore Data - SnapVault.
The following must be installed on the source client computer:
See Deployment - Quick Recovery Agent for installation instructions.
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.
In addition to the system licenses normally required for the Quick Recovery Agent, a system SnapVault license is required for installation of the SnapVault ONTAP Enabler.
A system NAS license is needed for each file server added as a client.
A NetApp Primary SnapVault license must be installed on the source file server, and a NetApp Secondary SnapVault license must be installed on the destination server. These licenses are NetApp software licenses. See the NetApp documentation for instructions on configuring licenses on a file server.