Snap Creator contains a tab for Archive Log Settings. These settings should not be confused with Archive Logs for any particular application or database - they are specific to Snap Creator and are essentially used to purge unnecessary files. This video talks through how to setup Archive Log Settings in Snap Creator and builds on the configuration file created in ... View more

Introduction Cloud is a major disruptor in the storage market, and to counter this, most infrastructure verticals within the data center are undergoing a rapid evolution. Although cloud affords flexibility, it lacks the security offered by on-premise storage and proves costly when the data and its copies (Copy Data) grow over a period. NetApp Data Fabric, NetApp’s offering in hybrid cloud along with its Copy Data Management solution, can address these customer data challenges in simple and cost-effective manner.  NetApp SnapCenter is the next generation copy data management software that automates and simplifies the manual, complex and time-consuming processes associated with the backup, recovery, and cloning of the application workloads across the Data Fabric within a single pane of glass management. Let’s explore few of the hybrid cloud models and how NetApp SnapCenter helps in protecting those applications at various Copy data infrastructures.   Model 1: NPS (NetApp Private storage) for Cloud solution consists of a NetApp FAS or FlexArray™ storage system, co-located in an Equinix data center, and directly connected with a service provider’s cloud compute using a dedicated, high-bandwidth, low-latency network connection. In this Example, NPS is used as a SnapMirror destination and compute is leveraged directly from the AWS Cloud. SnapCenter is used to take Backups, replicate local copies to NPS and finally Clone DEV/Test to the cloud. A good thing about this model is that you can connect to many cloud and switch cloud at any time with data control.         Model 2: Software defined ONTAP is directly deployed on the AWS Cloud as a SnapMirror/DR destination for the Local Datacenter. SnapCenter has a similar role like model 1 however the only difference is that both the secondary replicated storage and compute exist in the same cloud.       In this example, we have listed only the essential steps with Oracle database as a reference for Backup and Clone operation. The configuration steps are similar for other database workloads.  Login to SnapCenter     Register the storage with SnapCenter: The On-Premise storage SVMs along with other SnapMirror destinations like NetApp Private storage SVMs, ONTAP Cloud SVMs are supposed to be registered with SnapCenter.         Backup policies: A new backup policy is created with SnapMirror checkbox enabled. During backup, SnapCenter imports the existing protection relationships and helps to replicate the Snapshot copy from primary storage to NPS /ONTAP Cloud storage.         Create Backups: Once the Backup policy is created, it must be attached to a specific resource/Database. To trigger an On-demand backup the user must click on Backup now button and associate the newly created policy with the resource.                 Each job is tracked by its job id and can be monitored in the monitor page.    Copy Infrastructure Topology: Once the backup gets completed, the topology view is updated with the latest number of backups at all the copy infrastructures. To access the backup details or to perform any operations for a specific backup, DBA must select any of these copy destination and click the backups row to list down the details. The below snippet shows the details of backup present in the NetApp Private storage.       Clone DEV/Test to the Cloud: The first step is to bring up a RHEL compute instance in AWS and get it registered with the SnapCenter.         Once the AWS host is registered with SnapCenter, select a backup from AWS destination (Vault) and click on the clone button to invoke the clone wizard.             The Clone wizard will prompt for the Clone DB settings (Clone SID, Location for Mounts, DB parameters).         Choose AWS RHEL host from the Clone host drop-down and submit the job.       Once the Clone job is successful, the resources page gets updated with an entry for the clone DB.  From the below snippet, TESTERP is a new Clone DB running in a AWS RHEL instance.           The topology view of the Production DB also gets updated with the new clone details as shown below.       Thus, SnapCenter helps to create, manage and track multiple copies at various copy infrastructures in Hybrid Cloud .     Storage space savings:         The last and the most interesting aspect of Copy Data Management is in showing a significant space savings in the overall storage consumption even after having multiple copies. In SnapCenter, NetApp Flexclone technology is fundamentally used behind every Read-Writable copies and the overall storage space savings is tracked in the dashboard against each plugin. As shown in the snippet, After running 19 similar Clones/Copies of the same production database (approx. 460G), SnapCenter had shown a tremendous space savings of overall 95%, thus making it a compelling solution for the hybrid cloud. ... View more

This video covers how to nest Snap Creator configuration files, or put differently, how to call a configuration file from another configuration file. There are a few cases when you may need to do this.  A common case would be an application that has a underlying database.  To take a true application consistent Snapshot you need to quiesce not only the application, but the database underneath the application. This video shows how to call the SMSQL config (created here: http://youtu.be/E5WIwfn0b64 ) from the Teamcenter config (created here: http://youtu.be/ceFTChiwu0Q ) ... View more

In this video you see how to install SnapManager 7.0 for SharePoint. ... View more

Introduction:   NetApp® SnapCenter is a centralized product suite that provides a single pane of glass management for a variety of applications, databases and hypervisors. Through SnapCenter, you can centrally deploy plug-ins to remote hosts, schedule and monitor backups, Clone, Restore and perform Backup verification operations. SnapCenter uses centralized role-based access control (RBAC) and offers reports and centralized dashboard across all plug-ins. The Plug-in for Oracle is a host-side component of the NetApp integrated storage solution offering application-aware backup management, restore, recovery, and Cloning of Oracle Database.   Let’s learn how to perform Data protection and management for Oracle databases using SnapCenter software.   Step1:  Assuming that the SnapCenter software is already installed and following pre-requisites are performed by your Storage/Server administrators. This is a One-Time activity.   Register NetApp storage SVM’s Register RUNAS credentials for all the Hosts to avoid the repeated use of credentials during workflows Register your Linux Hosts to the SnapCenter server which auto installs Oracle plugins to these hosts and their clustered hosts (if any). Auto-discover the Oracle databases in Inventory page. Detailed steps for installation and configuration is mentioned below Installation and Setup Guide   Step2:  Create Backup Policies and Datasets for your Oracle databases [One-Time activity] Login as Oracle Admin or SnapCenter admin user on the SnapCenter GUI:-   Open Policies tab and click Add Provide policy name and select the scope of Backup Choose Archivelog management or pruning [ if required] Provide your Backup retention based on days or number Choose secondary replication option such SnapVault /Mirror to archive your backups to a secondary destination for a longer retention Provide any schedules [ If required ] Click Finish and confirm the policies are created . Open Datasets tab and click new backup dataset Provide Dataset name and associate this dataset to a list of policies created earlier. Select a given database that needs to be backed up. You can also group multiple databases in a single dataset and Click finish Step 3: Take an Online/ Offline Backup of your Oracle database   Method 1- Select a given Dataset and click Backup Now Choose a given policy and click OK. The Backup takes few seconds to minutes to complete. Track the job id in Monitor screen. You can track the progress of each Backup at the granular level You can also view the logs or download them from Monitor page If you have secondary replication enabled in the Backup policy , the Backup snapshots will get updated automatically to the secondary storage. Method 2- Choose a given and click Backup Create your own dataset and click Ok. Check Monitor screen to track the progress of the backup. Step 4: Create a clone of your Oracle database using a given Snapshot Oracle Backup   Open Inventory page , choose a given database and click clone backup On the Clone wizard , Enter the Target SID name and choose a given backup from either primary or secondary replicated storage Choose the host and the location where the cloned database to be staged Provide Oracle Home settings Choose recovery scope for the clone [ SCN , DATE AND TIME , No recovery] Click finish and track the Job progress in Monitor screen. Step 5:  Perform a Restore/Recovery Operation for a given Pluggable database on a given Container database   Open Inventory page , choose a given database and click Restore On the Restore wizard, choose a preferred backup for your restore operation. Select the scope of restore [ datafiles , PDB tablespaces ,PDB ,Controlfiles ] Select the Recovery scope as either All Logs or Date and Time or No recovery. Enable the checkbox for database open option after recovery and click finish. Track the progress in the Monitor screen Step 6:  Dashboard and Reports   Dashboards To check the overall Dashboard of all the Jobs , Open Dashboard page and review the success , failure and warning counts for each jobs [ Backups ,restore, clone and secondary replication] Check for Clone savings after each clone in GB /TB  Reports Open reports page, use the filters for selecting the database, date and time and generate detailed reports for Backup, Clone and restore. Resources: Data Protection Guide for Oracle Databases  Review the PDF to see command line syntaxes for the above jobs which would be more simple and comfortable to perform any automation task. ... View more