Snapdrive: Single file restore from LUN without Flexclone licence

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-10-21

Hello everyone,

I think I already know the answer to this question, but I figured it's still worth asking.. Is it possible, in any way, to perform a single file restore from a LUN with SC/SD without the need of a Flexclone licence? Whenever I mount a snapshot, I'm asked to activate the licence on our filer. I'm asking this because I convinced our management earlier on to invest in an iSCSI licence in order to get our Domino/Oracle data on our FAS3220 and to use SC/SD to replace our current backup tool. Not sure they'll be thrilled to here we need another licence..

Thanks for your time.

Wkr,

Laurens

spinks · ‎2014-11-04

Laurens,

For single file restore with Domino essentially what you are doing is mounting an existing Snapshot copy to the host.

If you do not have flexclone then this should mount a read-only Snapshot copy. You can then copy your data onto a read/write disk location.

This is outside of the Snap Creator workflow itself, but should work fine.

Hope this helps.

Note: Sorry for the delay in response. Due to the platform change no one from the SC team has been getting notified when new comments are posted. We're working to resolve this.

John

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-04

Hey John,

Thx a lot for answering 🙂

That's exactly what I tried to do and I'll try it out again tomorrow, but if I remember correctly I was unable to mount (even in RO) the snapshot copy using SnapDrive.

It was in fact during the mount operation that I received the "Flexclone licence required" message.

I'll post an update tomorrow.

Wkr,

Laurens

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-27

Hey John,

It's been a while but I've finally had the time to look at this issue again.

As I feared, I'm unable to mount the snapshot using SnapDrive (error message attached).

Are you absolutely sure I should be able to mount the snapshot without flexclone license? If so, how do I achieve that?

Thanks a lot.

Wkr,

Laurens

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-27

Hey John,

It's been a while but I've finally had the time to look at this issue again.

As I feared, I'm unable to mount the snapshot using SnapDrive (error message attached).

Are you absolutely sure I should be able to mount the snapshot without flexclone license? If so, how do I achieve that?

Thanks a lot.

Wkr,

Laurens

spinks · ‎2014-11-27

Laurens,

I'm positive I USED to be able to do this -- Its been a few years (5?) since I didn't have flexclone licensed.

It might also be a 7-Mode vs. Clustered Data ONTAP difference - I used to connect on 7-Mode maybe in the 7.2 timeframe (can't recall exactly).

I was also using Snapdrive 4 or 5 at the time.

It appears that they removed this capability.

It looks like SnapDrive 7+ requires FlexClone - I saw this in the user guide just now:

"You are required to have SnapRestore and FlexClone licenses before setting up your virtual storage server credentials."

Not sure if the direct link will work: https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMP1201909

page 10 in the SnapDrive licensing section.

I'm Sorry I steered you wrong in the original message - I knew it was something that I used to be able to do.

It looks like SnapDrive does now require FlexClone.

John

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-27

Bummer.. so I do not only need a Flexclone license but a Snaprestore license as well 😮

We are actually moving from an IBM SAN with TSM environment to a NetApp mixed SAN (Domino, Oracle on iSCSI)/NAS (Fileserver, Hyper-V, SQL on SMB3) with SC/SM tools (Purchased SM Suite license for this) but these "hidden" costs keep popping up. I know this isn't NetApp's fault, but our partner assured us that we could backup all our different types of data with just the SC/SM tools (and licenses we purchased with our FAS3220 & FAS2240). While they are technically right (backups are possible, SFR's are NOT), this puts me in a really bad postition towards management (new storage bought this year, didn't expect to have new costs so quickly).

Anyway, thanks again for the help. Have a good day 🙂

Wkr,

Laurens

aborzenkov · ‎2014-11-27

Must it be SnapDrive or manual mount of LUN from snapshot would do as workaround? Do you have 7 or C mode?

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-28

Hey Aborzenkov,

We're using C mode (v. 8.2.1)..

I don't necessairily have to use SnapDrive, if a manual mount of a LUN from snapshot does the trick then I'm all in..

Is this really possible? I'd expect if would need the flexclone license as well.

Wkr,

Laurens

aborzenkov · ‎2014-11-28

In 7-Mode you can create writable LUN clone using "LUN clone" command; it does not require any additional license.

In C-Mode equivalent command would be "volume file clone"; unfortunately, cDOT documentation leaves much to be desired and manages to never say whether it needs FlexClone license. Give it a try.

NETAPPCFE · ‎2014-11-28

Thanks for the tip, but looks like you even need a flexclone license to clone a file inside a same vol..

Error: command failed: You do not have a valid license for
"FlexClone". Reason: Package "FlexClone" is not
licensed in the cluster.

Wkr,

Laurens

aborzenkov · ‎2014-11-28

Yes, I more or less expected it. FIle clone (as opposed to LUN clone) requires FlexClone license in 7-Mode as well (but at least you see it clearly stated in documenation).

Looks like you are stuck; the only remaining option is to snapmirror to another volume to make LUN writable. There is small chance you will be able to mount LUN on read-only device; I think it may work, but I do not know how to present LUN inside snapshot to host directly ...