topic Re: How do I Access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume? CDOT in ONTAP Discussions

How do I Access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume? CDOT

JOEFLEISCH — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:31:58 GMT

Is there a way to access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume under CDOT 8.2? There is almost a year worth of weekly snapshots in the SnapVault volume.

The SnapVault was disconnected in OnCommand Manager 3.1 and the snapshots on the primary were deleted. The last snapshot had not completed in 2 weeks and is now busy. NetApp tech support could not delete the busy snapshot and said it could not be connected to the primary. They said start a new Vault in an empty volume

The volume is mounted and shared via CIFS. Snapshots are set to visible in the share properties. I cannot access previous versions in Windows. The "~snapshot" folder is not exposed in the share but works in my other vault shares. I cannot Flexclone a snapshot from the SnapVault volume. Only the last version of the data is visible.

Is this expected behavior of SnapVault? Am I asking too much to be able to access the Snapshots in a CDOT SnapVault?

Re: How do I Access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume? CDOT

JOEFLEISCH — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:31:27 GMT

NetApp support reopened my case and spent some time and finally a work around to get access to data in the snapvault volume was found.

OnCommand System Manager 3.1 w/ DataONTAP 8.2 Clustered P3 leaves a busy snapshot on disconnection. The busy snapshot cannot be deleted because the DP volume is read only and the volume cannot be made read/write because there is a busy snapshot.

Attempting to work with clones or snapshots in OnCommand System Manager had grayed out menus.

At the CLI in privilege diagnostic commands were tested.

volume snapshot remove-owner –vserver <vserver name> -volume <volume name> -snapshot <snapshot name> -owner <owner>

Did not work because the volume was RO.

volume snapshot restore-file –vserver <vserver name> -volume <volume name> -snapshot <snapshot name> -path <path to file*> -restore-path <restore path**>

Did not work because the volume was RO even if the restore path was a RW volume.

volume clone create -vserver <vserver name> -flexclone <clone volume name> -parent-volume <volume name> -parent-snapshot <snapshot name> -type RW

This is the only way that worked. I have now begun dumping snapshots to tape.

Re: How do I Access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume? CDOT

aborzenkov — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 15:00:58 GMT

volume snapshot restore-file –vserver <vserver name> -volume <volume name> -snapshot <snapshot name> -path <path to file*> -restore-path <restore path**>
Did not work because the volume was RO even if the restore path was a RW volume.

snap restore to different volume is not possible by definition, RO or not RO.

Re: How do I Access Snapshots from a disconnected SnapVault volume? CDOT

JOEFLEISCH — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:23:44 GMT

Thank you. I will update NetApp support.