ONTAP Discussions

More info regarding Dump files in SnapLock Compliance QSM

muhammad_i_pasha
3,334 Views

I am looking for some info regarding QSM between Qtrees on SnapLock Compliance volumes. I am trying to understand how it is different from non-SnapLock volumes. There isn’t much info regarding this in archieve.pdf of ONTAP7.3.5.1. It briefly talks about “dump file” while using QSM for SnapLock compliance but again it’s not detailed. We want to understand why dump file is required, how it is used in management of QSM, and what is its benefit? Thanks

4 REPLIES 4

lokeshp
3,334 Views

Hi,

QSM between SnapLock Compliance volume is no different from QSM between non-compliance volumes .Below Technical report has details on compliance volume data protection:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3618.pdf

The "dump file" comes into picture only incase of QSM resync scenarios. We use this mechanism to update Primary  after the Disaster recovery.Using dump

file we transfer the latest secondary data back to Primary, before Primary becomes the active site.

Thanks

Lokesh AP

muhammad_i_pasha
3,334 Views

Thank you for the reply and doc.

I am still not clear on the dump file. Even after a resync dump file seem to be remain there. Do we ever need to restore data from dump file? They seem to be carrying a lot of data if destination is updated after a QSM break. They are also in WORM state and can't be deleted.

nareshs
3,334 Views

Hi,

According to Compliance regulations, data once committed to WORM should remain undeleteable and accessible for the specified retention. Hence the method of capturing the differences on WORM files in the destination after a QSM break onto a dump file. These differences could be a regular file getting committed to WORM or the retention period of an existing WORM file being extended etc..If at all a dump file is created after the resync, it implies events such as the ones specified above have occurred at the destination after the break of the QSM relationship.

The primary purpose of the dump image is to ensure that data is available incase of a compliance audit, although nothing restricts it from being used to restore files by the admins.

Thanks,

S.Naresh

muhammad_i_pasha
3,334 Views

Thanks you for reply.

During SnapLock test I found that after resync all the files (WORM or not) at the source goes to the dump files at destination even no changes were done after SM break. This almost doubles the destination volume size. Any idea?

Also restore of dump fille using restore command doesn't restore the file. I wonder any one else has tested this. BTW I am using ONTAP7.3.5.1 for testing

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