How to make SnapMirror use a dedicated interface from System Manager?

[stjerna]

Hi,

Is there a way to make/force System Manager to select a specific interface when setting up a relationship?

A customer of mine has setup a dedicated VLAN for SnapMirror. We can make it work for the CLI but he wants to know if this can be done from the System Manager GUI to make the life easier for his operators.

--erik

[GMCKAIGE2009]

Not sure about doing it through the GUI. From what I know you have to set the snapmirror.conf file to either use IP for the source or the connection-name = multi(src-ip, dest-ip) then reference the connection name in the snapmirror relationship instead of the filer name......Problem seems to be once you set it up System Manager tries to connect to the private inteface instead of using the managment interface. That's where my issue is anyway.

[karthikv · Accepted solution]

System Manager does not support SnapMirror connections or using a dedicated interface for SnapMirror relationships.

-Karthik

[stjerna]

OK, so at least it's not me being too stupid to understand how it works

[dominicb]

Hi Karthik,

Are there any plans to support this in the future?

I have another customer who also needs access to this feature.

Thanks

Dominic

[karthikv]

Yes. We do have plans to support his in the future.

We still do not know which version of SM it will be included in though.

-Karthik

[dominicb]

Great, if you remember can you post back once this gets updated or a firm date is in place.

In the interim we have got around this issue by adding an entry in the /etc/hosts file for the short name of the source controller and the replication interface ip of that controller. Snapmirror updates still seem to work through System Manager and a netstat shows the traffic flowing over replication interfaces now. Not ideal having hosts file entries so still keen to see interface selection added as a feature to System Manager.

Thanks

Dominic

[glen_cornell]

Have the same issue, dedicated network for moving snapmirrors that spans two forests without a trust.  FilerView works fine for managing the mirrors but am forced to use CLI with my 8.1 filers as system managers does not support this.  In my scenario adding entries in the host file does not solve the issue. On a side note I opened a ticket with Netapp and was told there are no plans for adding this functionality to System Manager. 

[glen_cornell]

This functionality was added to 2.X beta for SnapVualt so hoping they can add it to SnapMirror now. 

[HOTDUST00]

I managed to get this working using connections in the /etc/snapmirror.conf

Add something like this to the snapmirror.conf on the destination filer...

SOURCEHOST = failover(SOURCEHOST-mirror-ifgrp1, DESTHOST-mirror-ifgrp1) (SOURCEHOST-mgmt-ifgrp1, DESTHOST-mgmt-ifgrp1)
SOURCEHOST:VOL DESTHOST:VOL - 15 0,6,12,18 * *

[jmmorrell]

I added that to the snapmirror.conf but System Manager is still trying to use the management network. Were you able to get it to work in system manager? If i create the snapmirror relationship using the IP address or a different host entry I get an error from System Manager.

"netapp400a-sm is not a managed system. If netapp400a-sm is a
storage system, add it through the home page to make it managed
system."

[HOTDUST00]

I did get it to work in system manager, what does your snapmirror.conf contain?

[jmmorrell]

NETAPP400B=failover(netapp400b-iscsi,netapp400d-vif0)(netapp400b-iscsi,netapp400d-vif0)

netapp400b:vol1 NETAPP400D:vol1_snapmirror - 15 2 * *

[HOTDUST00]

Are netapp400b and netapp400d in system manager and contactable? 

The first error you mentioned was exactly what I was getting before amending the snapmirror.conf to use a failover connection.  The key to this workaround is to call the connection in snapmirror.conf the same as the name of the FAS you use in system manager, but in fact it uses the connection string to send the traffic over a different interface.  You will need to refresh system manager interface if you change the snapmirror.conf with the refresh button.

In my system manager snapmirror view for the destination FAS, I see the source listed as just the name of the FAS without any -interface on the end.  Once it was seen like this all the system manager functionality starting working.