topic Re: SnapMirror Issues in ONTAP Discussions

SnapMirror Issues

Serge_Hoedts — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:15:08 GMT

All,

I have been running a Snapmirror for a few days. Something happened and my logs showed: Current Transfer Error: cannot connect to source filer

I checked a few things but could not understand why this happened. In my head i though that a new 'initialize' would maybe help me.

So, i started a new snapmirror initialize and as seen below my volume is now in a siutiation where i can not get it back online and check my status, resync etc.

So my questions is as follows:

Is there something i can do to, Exit the restricted mode, resync my volumes and get back to where the system was before my initialize?

Snapmirror status today:

Source: ekbcon_2:cdedata02
Destination: FILER2:cdedata02_dest
Status: Idle
Progress: -
State: Unknown
Lag: 21:24:24
Mirror Timestamp: Mon Apr 25 12:58:02 CEST 2016
Base Snapshot: FILER22(0123456789)_cdedata02_dest.47
Current Transfer Type: Retry
Current Transfer Error: volume is not online; cannot execute operation
Contents: Replica
Last Transfer Type: Scheduled
Last Transfer Size: 1372 KB
Last Transfer Duration: 00:00:03
Last Transfer From: ekbcon_2:cdedata02

FILER2> vol online cdedata02_dest
vol online: Volume 'cdedata02_dest' does not contain a valid filesystem.
That can happen as a result of an aborted vol copy or an aborted
snapmirror initial (level 0) transfer.
In order to bring it online, you must either destroy and re-create
the volume, or complete an initial snapmirror transfer or vol copy.

Snapmirror status before my initilize:

FILER2> snapmirror status -l
Snapmirror is on.

Source: ekbcon_2:cdedata02
Destination: FILER2:cdedata02_dest
Status: Idle
Progress: -
State: Snapmirrored
Lag: 00:58:27
Mirror Timestamp: Mon Apr 25 12:58:02 CEST 2016
Base Snapshot: FILER2(0123456789)_cdedata02_dest.47
Current Transfer Type: Scheduled
Current Transfer Error: cannot connect to source filer
Contents: Replica
Last Transfer Type: Scheduled
Last Transfer Size: 1372 KB
Last Transfer Duration: 00:00:03
Last Transfer From: snapcon_2:cdedata02

FILER2> snapmirror status
Snapmirror is on.
Source Destination State Lag Status
snapcon_2:cdedata02 FILER2:cdedata02_dest Snapmirrored 00:58:59 Idle
FILER2>

/etc/snapmirror.conf

FILER2> rdfile /etc/snapmirror.conf
snapcon_2=multi(FILER1,FILER2)
snapcon_2:cdedata02 FILER2:cdedata02_dest compression=enable 30 0-23/4 * *

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Naveenkumarp22 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:17:04 GMT

Hello

Can you please post the output of options snapmirror on both source and destination. This may be the issue with snapmirror access and also plz check that you have entries on /etc/hosts file.

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Serge_Hoedts — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:27:23 GMT

Hello,

I have been using the IP's of each filer so the hosts file contains no entries.

Filer1 (ONTAP 7.3.3):

FILER1> options snapmirror
snapmirror.access legacy
snapmirror.checkip.enable off
snapmirror.delayed_acks.enable on
snapmirror.enable on
snapmirror.log.enable on
snapmirror.vbn_log_enable off (value might be overwritten in takeover)

Filer2 (ONTAP 8.1.4P6):

FILER2> options snapmirror
snapmirror.access legacy
snapmirror.checkip.enable off
snapmirror.delayed_acks.enable on
snapmirror.enable on
snapmirror.log.enable on
snapmirror.vbn_log_enable off (value might be overwritten in takeover)
snapmirror.volume.local_nwk_bypass.enable on
snapmirror.vsm.volread.smtape_enable on

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Naveenkumarp22 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:53:44 GMT

I have noticed that your source is running on ontap version 7.3.3. Can you please check that aggregate where the source volume resides is 32 bit or 64 bit. Also please check it on destination.

My recumandation is its better to maintain hostfile entries and use them instead of ip addresses. If you don't maintain host file entries it might impact while any of node got rebooted.

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Serge_Hoedts — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 10:54:10 GMT

Hi,

Yes, we are running in different modes here. Transfering data from external sites with different HW.

The Dest. Filer is only a 'place holder' for the data. We will transfer the data to a new and shiny Netapp.

I already have one volume snapmirrored. Just having issues with my second volume from same 'old' source Netapp.

My misstake was re-running an inititialize due the my first error. I think that my best option is to restart the initial transfer.

FILER1> aggr status aggr0
Aggr State Status Options
aggr0 online raid_dp, aggr root, raidsize=16

Volumes: vol0, cdedata01, cdedata02, cdedata03

FILER2> aggr status aggr1
Aggr State Status Options
aggr1 online raid_dp, aggr raidsize=20
64-bit

Volumes: cdedata01_dest, cdedata02_dest

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Naveenkumarp22 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 11:05:01 GMT

Yes, do onething. Please run the below commands.

snapmirror off

snapmirror on

snapmirror initialize -S <Source path> <Destination path>.

I have noticed that for your previous transfer base snapshot is already created. If you follow the above process then the snapmirror will start from where it got stopped. It will not run from the beggining, snapmirror replication will restart from the check point. Please let me know the output of the above solution.

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Serge_Hoedts — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:04:32 GMT

Hi,

Thanks a bunch for your help.

Yes that's what i did. However, it does not look like things are restarting from where it stopped. More like restarting from the beginning.

Initialize:

FILER2> snapmirror initialize -S FILER1:cdedata02 FILER2:cdedata02_dest
Transfer started.
Monitor progress with 'snapmirror status' or the snapmirror log.

FILER2> snapmirror status -l
Snapmirror is on.

Source: FILER1:cdedata02
Destination: FILER2:cdedata02_dest
Status: Transferring
Progress: 35328 KB
State: Uninitialized
Lag: -
Mirror Timestamp: -
Base Snapshot: -
Current Transfer Type: Initialize
Current Transfer Error: -
Contents: -
Last Transfer Type: Scheduled
Last Transfer Size: 1372 KB
Last Transfer Duration: 00:00:03
Last Transfer From: ekbcon_2:cdedata02

Seen after ~3h:

FILER2> snapmirror status
Snapmirror is on.
Source Destination State Lag Status
FILER1:cdedata01 FILER2:cdedata01_dest Snapmirrored 01:45:01 Idle
FILER1:cdedata02 FILER2:cdedata02_dest Uninitialized - Transferring (18 GB done)

FILER2>

Re: SnapMirror Issues

Naveenkumarp22 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:15:35 GMT

Sometimes it will show you like that only. You may come to know the actual result in the END 😉