topic Re: Snapmirror 7-mode to Cluster Mode: Reality? in Active IQ Unified Manager Discussions

Snapmirror 7-mode to Cluster Mode: Reality?

MURRAYCH1 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:52:34 GMT

I'm working for a customer that has multiple sites with various NetApp 22xx and 32xx systems, all in 7-mode.

They are looking at a new 3220 setup that would today be dedicated to a single task (a large Exchange 2010 setup), but within about a year would take on disks and load from an older 3210 system. I'm considering putting in the new 3220 in Cluster Mode.

The older 3210 is a fairly busy Snapmirror target; the smaller sites replicate a lot of their volumes to the datacenters as part of their offsite backup strategy. I know that today, "officially", 7-mode to cluster mode Snapmirror isn't supported but I also have read that with 8.2 it is used as part of a migration strategy.

If we go this way they will likely look at a long term plan to implement replacement c-mode systems at the sites over time to replace the 7-mode setups (ignoring the site 7-mode to c-mode migration stuff for now). Obviously if everything gets to c-mode all is well, but it may be 2 years before that would be reality.

Given that 7-mode to c-mode snapmirror is unsupported today, but it is physically possible in 8.2 (at least one-way), I'm wondering if Netapp is planning to officially support this at some point? If not, for anyone who has actually done any of these migrations, how feasible do you think it is to do 7-mode to c-mode snapmirror today? I've been told you can do it one way but can't go c-mode to 7-mode (which, based on what they are doing, would be acceptable).

Re: Snapmirror 7-mode to Cluster Mode: Reality?

the_rolle — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 15:26:55 GMT

Information I've had regarding this is that the snapmirror functionality from 7-mode to clustermode is supported only while doing data migration while transitioning from 7-mode to clustermode.

Naturally it is only a business decision what to support in production environments, but personally I don't see why they would want to support this in production. Too big of a install base of old systems and too much of a headache to support some niche demands

Re: Snapmirror 7-mode to Cluster Mode: Reality?

radek_kubka — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 15:45:48 GMT

Guys,

7MTT (7-Mode Transition Tool) uses SnapMirror, but it works for file shares only, not LUNs:

https://fieldportal.netapp.com/Core/DownloadDoc.aspx?documentID=100822&contentID=144679

For LUNs so far it could e either host-based migration, or via DTA2800 appliance.

Regards,
Radek

Re: Snapmirror 7-mode to Cluster Mode: Reality?

MURRAYCH1 — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 11:53:40 GMT

Well, I think for some companies the idea of transitioning ALL their netapp systems to C-mode at the same time is pretty much impossible. This was probably a business decision to drive adoption of C-mode but in this case it will probably result in sticking with 7-mode.