topic Backup / Snapshot LUNs in ONTAP Discussions

Backup / Snapshot LUNs

MOONATWORK — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:50:55 GMT

Hi Guys,

I got no. of LUNs created in our Netapp filer and they are mapped to various VMs.

For example

LUN1 & LUN2 are mapped to VM1 - this VM got snapmanager for MSSQL running, so that means I got the backup copies of those LUNs (not exactly the backup of LUN, but backup of the Databases)

LUN3 & LUN4 are mapped to VM2 - this VM got No snap manager running (we don't want use snap manager because the database backups are taking using 3rd party application for a reason)

These LUNs are replicating to DR site using Volume snapmirroring every hour

Question:

In this scenario I don't have the backup of LUNs in local filer. So

would it be better to use System Manager to create the Snapshot copies for Volumes (where these LUNs reside) ?

is there any other option to backup / snapshot these LUNs (multiple local copies), ?

I got couple of LUNs reside on same Volume

If you require any further details please let me know

Regards,

Chan

Re: Backup / Snapshot LUNs

mfriedenfeld — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 16:12:21 GMT

Hey Chan,

Using System Manager to get a snapshot of the volumes containing your LUNs would give you what you are requesting, unfortunately, snapdrive will see these snapshots as inconsistent states of the drives. I've personally never had an issue getting these drives mapped in this "inconsistent" state, but the risk is there.

If you wanted to get the drives in a consistent state, you could schedule a Snapdrive snapshot of the drive just prior to your snapmirror updates. There are a few excellent utilities and posts detailing how to do this on the site, though many of them are dated.

https://communities.netapp.com/thread/11897 - Batch file discussion on snapdrive snapshots

https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-2091 - Utility to take snapdrive snapshots

https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-9189 - Powershell snapdrive snapshots

https://communities.netapp.com/thread/30478 - Snapdrive snapshot retention examples

If you wanted to create your own batch file for these snapshots and schedule it within windows, the command line syntax is:

sdcli snap create -m MACHINENAME -s SNAPSHOTNAME -D VOLUMENAME

You can get the volume name by running a mountvol on the machine and finding the drive you'd like backed up.

Full help file on the sdcli snap create command is here:

sdcli snap create  [-m <MachineName>] -s <SnapshotName> -D <MountPointList> [...] [-x] [-u [yes|no]]
Creates new snapshot copy of the LUNs.
-D List of mount points, volume names or csv reparse points
-x Snapshot copy will be taken only for the LUNs explicitly specified in the <MountPointList>, otherwise snapshot copy of all LUNs drives residing on the storage system(s) volume(s) will be taken.
-u Initiates snapmirror update after snapshot copy creation for any snapmirror source volumes having disks specified in the <MountPointList>. If this key is not specified snapmirror update will be initiated.
If the machine name is not specified the command is executed on a local machine.

Re: Backup / Snapshot LUNs

CHANDRA_BOMMIDICA — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:39:29 GMT

Thank you, the above information is helpful