Aggregate snapshots is that the best practice ?

[athreyavc]

Hi All,

I am trying to figure out whether we need to retain the aggregate snapshots

Is it the Best practice to keep them as default 5% ?

I guess the advantages of an Aggregate snapshot would be,

1. Can help if need to restore a complete volume
   
2. Aggregate snapshot can help move an aggregate from on Disk type to another
   

But there are Disadvantages involved too right ?

1. Space usage
   
2. Hits on the Performance of the data(WALF Scan, space reclamation)
   

So, Please let me know your views

Regards,

Athreya

[ekashpureff]

See the recent discussion on Aggregate snapshot reserve:

http://communities.netapp.com/message/41691#41691

Hope this has been helpful.

At your service,

Eugene Kashpureff

[aMOL]

I am unable to refer the given link.

[Darkstar]

Yes, that link seems to be broken or internal (even NetApp partners cannot access it)

To answer your questions, there is only one reason where Aggregate snapshots can help you, and that is if you need to restore a COMPLETE aggregate (with ALL volumes in it) to a previous version, for example if you deleted a volume by accident. There is no way to restore single volumes from an aggregate snapshot. It might also help with recovery if you should ever get a corrupt WAFL (highly unlikely).

The default for NetApp systems has been for quite some time now to disable aggregate snapshots completely. The only reason you might still need them is if you're running MetroCluster (or Local SyncMirror) because then the Snapshots are needed for mirror reconstruction. But that's something that happens behind the scenes and doesn't help you as an admin with anything

So yes, feel free to disable Aggregate snapshot reserve (if you're not on a MetroCluster)