topic Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention in Active IQ Unified Manager Discussions

Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

gopinathp — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:25:10 GMT

This is a continuation of the thread posted under Support -> Software - https://forums.netapp.com/message/8707

Adai,

I followed your suggestion on changing the options under DFM.

pmCustomNameUseQtreeList No
pmCustomNameUseRetentionType No

This still doesn't seem to address my issue of not being able to list the snapshots using Microsoft's Previous Version tab. After changing the options list above, the new snapshots are being created with the following names

2009-08-03 09:03:08_<sec_filer_name_volumename>

2009-08-02 08:40:20_<sec_filer_name_volumename>
2009-08-01 08:38:14_<sec_filer_name_volumename>
2009-07-31 08:37:15_<sec_filer_name_volumename>

I think the problem is because of the space in between the date and the time. How do I get rid of the date and time prefix? Is there a way to revert back to 3.7 naming convention? At least that naming scheme did not break any thing, though it was a bit complex to figure out when a snapshot was created while looking at the snap list output. I don't see any advantage of this new naming convention.As I said in my earlier post, Bright Idea, wrong implementation

One of the main reason why we chose OSSV for our disk based backup solution was because of its simplicity. One could do a quick file restore WITHOUT having to use any backup client. Just browsing to the network share on the secondary filer and bringing up Previous version's tab. So simple and fast.

I am sorry to say that with the intorduction of Protection Manager, things have become too complicated, our front-end support staff can no longer perform restores quickly.

-Gopinath

Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

adaikkap — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:27:06 GMT

hi gopi

have you turned the following options.

pmUseSDUCompatibleSnapshotNames to yes.

that will create snapshot with _ instead of dot.

we had issue of windows cifs share truncating the name when special character dot was used.

there is no way to revert back to 3.7 snapshot naming AFAIK.

Also you can turn of all opitons but not the timestamps from the snapshot name.

Will try to find out if there is any work around and let you know.

regards

adai

Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

adaikkap — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:20:37 GMT

Hi Gopinath,

There is no way to disable the timestamps from the snapshot names.The time is in UTC format.

Regards

adai

Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

lagenevoise — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:49:54 GMT

Hi,

I have an issue on DFM / Operation Manager and Operation Manger regarding SnapShot naming process in case of SnapVault Backup.

If I change the pm Naming options, I'm not able to have the backupo retention in my SnapShot Name.

I use DFM 4.0 it's an upgrade of DFM 3.8

pmCustomNameUseHostName               No
pmCustomNameUsePrefix                 Yes
pmCustomNameUseQtreeList              No
pmCustomNameUseRetentionType          Yes
pmCustomNameUseType                   Yes
pmCustomNameUseVolumeName             Yes
pmQSMBackupPreferred                  No

With these options set I have this SnapShot Name:

0% ( 0%) 0% ( 0%) Oct 14 08:09 2010-10-14 06:03:43 _APX_SV_VMWARE_GOLD_FRCF1SDA32C2LAB

Volume Name / Time Stamp (UTC)

Please find an Export of what I sent to Proectection Manager:

$VAR1 = bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'dp-backup-version-create',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => 'DS_VM_LUN_C2_400_V3',

'name' => 'dataset-name-or-id',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => 'LUN_C2_400_V3',

'name' => 'backup-description',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => 'true',

'name' => 'is-for-propagation',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => 'weekly',

'name' => 'retention-type',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => '1287036114',

'name' => 'version-timestamp',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'version-members',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'version-member-info',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => 'mysourcefiler:/ESX40_C2_V3_vol00',

'name' => 'volume-name',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => 'smvi__weekly-LUN_C2_400_V3-2010.10.14-08.00.01.939_20101014080013',

'name' => 'snapshot-name',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => '1287036114',

'name' => 'snapshot-unique-id',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'snapshot-contents',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'snapshot-member-info',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => 'mysourcefiler:/ESX40_C2_V3_vol00/ESX40_C2_V3_qt00',

'name' => 'primary-name',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' );

$VAR1 = bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'results',

'children' => [

bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'dp-jobs-data',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' ),

bless( {

'content' => '41520',

'name' => 'job-id',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [],

'attrkeys' => []

}, 'NaElement' )

'attrvals' => [

'passed'

'attrkeys' => [

'status'

]

}, 'NaElement' );

$VAR1 = bless( {

'content' => '',

'name' => 'results',

'children' => [],

'attrvals' => [

'passed'

'attrkeys' => [

'status'

]

}, 'NaElement' );

Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

lagenevoise — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:27:25 GMT

Dear all,

I found the issue, As I have for SMVI & Exchange a custom Data Set I must set in the dp-backup-start the retention-policy I don't know why but it's seam working fine.

$VAR1 = bless( {
                 'content' => '',
                 'name' => 'dp-backup-start',
                 'children' => [
                                 bless( {
                                          'content' => 'DS_VM_LUN_C2_400_V3',
                                          'name' => 'dataset-name-or-id',
                                          'children' => [],
                                          'attrvals' => [],
                                          'attrkeys' => []
                                        }, 'NaElement' ),
                                 bless( {
                                          'content' => 'daily',
                                          'name' => 'retention-type',
                                          'children' => [],
                                          'attrvals' => [],
                                          'attrkeys' => []
                                        }, 'NaElement' )
                               ],
                 'attrvals' => [],
                 'attrkeys' => []
               }, 'NaElement' );

Re: Protection Manager 3.8 - Snapshot naming convention

adaikkap — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:02:41 GMT

I never knew that retention-type was optional in the API, though it makes lot of sense.

As i have always used the cli and there its mandatory.

[root@lnx ~]# dfpm backup start help

NAME
start -- Start an on-demand backup of a dataset.

SYNOPSIS
dfpm backup start [ -d <backup-description> ] [ -n <node-name> ]
<data-set-name-or-id> <retention-type>

DESCRIPTION
    retention-type can be one of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or unlimited.
    backup-description can be specified using -d option.
    destination node can be specified using -n option.

[root@lnx ~]#

Regards

adai