ONTAP Discussions

Best way to prepare a DR for NFS volumes/datastores

mdvillanueva
4,150 Views

Hello fellow admins

On our production Netapp environment we have many NFS volumes mounted as NFS datastores in our VM environment. We currently use SMVI to get snapshots of all the VI. We now have a DR site with another Netapp environment. What is the best way to configure a DR for the NFS volumes?

1. Do I just do a SnapMirror of the NFS volume using Protection Manager?

2. Do I use the "SnapMirro" option in SMVI? Is it integrated to Protection Manager?

Thanks in advance.

Maico

8 REPLIES 8

andrc
4,150 Views

I would initialize SnapMirror relationships between the source and destination datastore volumes then edit the backup jobs to kick off SnapMirror updates.

I'm not an expert on Protection Manager but you can create datasets containing the datastore volumes then add policies and notification thresholds etc. There may be a way to automate this but it's not something I've done myself.

mdvillanueva
4,150 Views

Thanks for the response andrc. Yes Protection Manager uses datasets. You can also import external relationships (snapmirror or snapvault relationships created outside of PM) into the Protection Manager. So if I SnapMirror it, in case of disaster, I will need to break the mirror and then mount mirrored volume into Vmware environment as an NFS datastore?

What do you use for Vmware snapshots? We are trying to minimize the number of snapshot we keep on our production nfs volume. Is there a way to archive it. SnapManager for SQL/Exchange allows it, I am not sure about SMVI.

andrc
4,150 Views

Correct, once the mirror is broken the destination volume becomes read-writable and you mount it the same as at the primary site. You could also look into VMware Site Recovery manager: http://www.netapp.com/us/communities/tech-ontap/srm-0708.html

SnapVault is NetApp's archiving product, although SnapVault updates cannot be kicked off directly by SMVI you could create a policy in Protection Manager to do so for the dataset(s).

https://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel736/html/ontap/onlinebk/GUID-6E696DA3-3E66-47BF-A8EA-CBBF2A7D7AEB.html

scottgelb
4,150 Views

The new OnCommand Host agent will add SnapVault support (finally) for VMware snapshots so it can be automated... currently customers have been using the sv-smvi script which works well but is a separate process outside of SMVI that queries the latest snapshot to update.

mdvillanueva
4,150 Views

Hi Scott,

Thanks for this information. Do you have any useful link on how to start using that script? I heard about the OnCommand, is that a separate licensed Netapp tool?

scottgelb
4,150 Views

Sv-smvi is on this community site with community support

Oncommand is licensed but is no charge so check your now entitlements and if missing contact your rep.

Sent from my iPhone 4S

mdvillanueva
4,150 Views

Thanks andrc. Is the SRM a free tool that they offer much like OSSV?

Yes, scheduling SnapVault will be easy, however, the only difference is the VM restore or file restore will be different if done outside of SMVI. SnapManager for SQL integrates SnapVault. Do you have any experience using the SnapMirror option inside SMVI?

andrc
4,150 Views

SRM is a VMware tool and AFAIK it's not free, there is a 60 day trial version available though: http://www.vmware.com/products/site-recovery-manager/

Using SnapMirror within SMVI is pretty simple, it's just a case of initialising the SnapMirror relationship(s) and checking the box for Initiate SnapMirror Update when configuring a backup job. All info is in the SMVI IAG: https://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/SnapManager/relsmvi_20/pdfs/admin.pdf

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