Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf

DBOUTORWOST — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:13:55 GMT

Dear Community Gurus,

I have a customer with a FAS2040A at primary site and a FAS2040 at DR site, WAN pipe size is 6Mpbs. He has a 3TB volume at primary that he wants to SnapMirror to DR, but the WAN pipe is only 6Mbps so initializing over
the WAN is not a very good option. SnapMirror to tape is not a good option either because of the cost of a fiber library and limited fiber ports on primary controllers. They do, however, have an extra DS4243 shelf with 12x1TB drives at their disposal. Would it be possible to use this extra shelf to SnapMirror the data locally, then ship the shelf to the DR location, and resync the mirror?

Here's how I'm thinking it would go:

Attach DS4243 to primary site FAS2040A
Create a new aggregate
Create a new volume on the aggregate
Initialize SnapMirror relationship from existing
3TB volume to newly created volume on new aggregate
Quiesce and break relationship
Offline new volume and aggr
Remove shelf, ship it to DR site
Attach DS4243 to DR site FAS2040
Resync SnapMirror relationship

Looking for some help to know if this is even possible to do. If so, I know there will be some disk ownership considerations. For example, do I remove the ownership of the drives before I remove it from the FAS2040A, or do I wait until the shelf gets to the DR site? I know there will also likely be some foreign aggr/volume considerations as well.

Again, any and all feedback is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

Dennis

Re: Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf

aborzenkov — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:57:12 GMT

Yes, that’s possible and I did it several times, but do not forget - hot shelf removal is not supported, so you need to plan downtime to disconnect “seeding shelf”.

Re: Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf

octave_rodrigues — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 04:32:05 GMT

Hello,

Is it possible even in CDOT ?

topic Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf in ONTAP Discussions

Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf

Re: Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf

Re: Volume SnapMirror Seeding Using Spare Disk Shelf