topic Re: use of snapmirror vsm vs qsm in ONTAP Discussions

use of snapmirror vsm vs qsm

DANIELSOARES — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:42:36 GMT

hello

I want to take advantage of both solutions of snapmirror and I have a question

here is my pre requisites

I have number of production sites with fas2040 ontap 8.02

1 cifs vol with 1 qtree for datas

4 nfs vols for vmware each vol has its own qtree for datas

each vol has a specific snapshot policie for local restore

I have one DR site where to snapmirror all the volumes : if one site crashes the Netapp on site is reconstructed and a reverse snapmirror is done from the DRsite to the prod site

datas are never used on the DR site

as vms permits to have compression of data during replication

and qsm permits not to transfert the non qtrees datas (local snapshots)

is it possible with vsm to transfert datas with granularity (only data ont the qtree) to the dr site

and if yes if I have to restore the datas from dr to prod is it possible to do a qtree snapmirror ?

use of snapmirror vsm vs qsm

peter_lehmann — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:00:02 GMT

In short:

VSM is easier to setup and handle Mirroring back to the rebuilt system after the disaster happened, and has some restictions...

QSM is a little more complex to setup and use and has less restrictions...

In most cases I'd choose VSM over QSM for various reasons.

Peter

use of snapmirror vsm vs qsm

radek_kubka — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:02:09 GMT

Hi and welcome to the Community!

Have you seen this thread?

http://communities.netapp.com/message/61589#61589

VSM always replicates entire volume.

You can restore data from QSM target replicas, this is fine - you cannot (easily) replicate back any changes made at the target.

Regards,

Radek

Re: use of snapmirror vsm vs qsm

aborzenkov — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:24:32 GMT

You can assuming you do qtree – qtree. The problem is with non-qtree data replication which cannot indeed be synced back.