Re: Are vfilers supported with SnapProtect?

parrizas · ‎2011-10-18

Hi there,

We are experiencing some problems when using SnapProtect with vfilers.

We are trying to backup a NFS ESX Datastore which is served through a vfiler. SnapProtect creates the required snapshots on primary storage fine. On a second step, SnapProtect talks to DFM to archive that snapshot to secondary storage, but the operation fails, probably because SnapProtect treats de vfiler as a physical FAS although there are some operations that cannot be performed against the vfiler.

Do we have any official statement about what is supported/unsupported with SnapProtect and vfilers?

Thanks!

glennm · ‎2011-10-19

SnapProtect supports vFilers as sources and pFilers as destinations for replication. SnapProtect does not support the configuration of vFilers as replication targets.

parida · ‎2011-10-20

Note that SnapVault and SnapDiff – both components used by SnapProtect – currently have limited support for vFilers. At present, SnapDiff API does not support vFilers; SnapVault does not support vFiler as a backup destination.

Both limitations will be addressed in RR.1.

Himanshu Parida

DPG Product Mgmt

408.822.6821

parrizas · ‎2011-11-03

Thanks for your anwsers.

I will try to be more specific.

I was talking about using a vfiler as the snapvault source. According to the documentation it's supported and should be working... but the truth is that we are finding problems to make it work. Has anyone tested this configuration?, are there any special considerations when dealing with vfilers?... we just added them to SnapProtect as any other physical array...

Here's a description of the problem we are experiencing:

When getting to do the secondary snapshot (snapvault), SnapProtect talks to the DFM and according to the DFM logs, it lists all the hosts using API host-list-info-iter-start, this list includes physical filers and virtual filers (vfilers). For each of these hosts SP tries to get a list of interfaces using the API netif-ip-interface-list-info, which uses a snmpwalk. The problem is that vfilers don't implement SNMP so the call to that API fails when trying to run the query against a vfiler. SP outputs an error similar to "DFM error: SNMP walk failed" and the secondary snap job fails.

That's why I am asking if we need to make any special configuration for vfilers or we can treat them just as standard arrays...

Is this an issue of SnapProtect not making the proper API calls to the DFM when dealing with vfilers as primary storage?

Thanks for your help!

bwood · ‎2011-11-04

Can you describe what systems you have defined in Array Management (in SnapProtect) as well as in Host Storage Systems in Protection Manager? I want to know where you have vfilers listed vs the physical host.

parrizas · ‎2011-11-04

Hello,

It seems I'm not authorized to upload any screenshots to the communities so I will try to explain it with omly text:

I have used ComCell Console > Control Panel > Array Management to configure physical systems, vfilers and DFM in SnapProtect:

For Physical System and vfiler I used "File Server" type and marked the checkbox "Primary"
For DFM I used "Data Fabric Manager" type

So in the Array Management window I have IP address and login information for DFM, Physical System and Vfiler.

The following is the output from a "dfm hosts list". The one in bold and underlined is the vfiler that I'm trying to backup.

C:\Users\administrator.DEMONA>dfm hosts list

ID Type Host Name Host Address ProductId Deleted

---- ------------------------ ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------ --------

83 Cluster cmode 10.68.49.211 No

84 Active/Active Controller curso15.DemoNA.NetAppU.com 10.68.49.215 0101185268 No

85 Active/Active Controller curso16.DemoNA.NetAppU.com 10.68.49.216 0101183380 No

82 Active/Active Controller curso8.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.208 0101179731 No

78 Active/Active Controller fdemo2.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.202 0101199156 No

74 Active/Active Controller fdemo3.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.203 0101174433 No

79 Active/Active Controller fdemo6.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.206 0101174445 No

81 Active/Active Controller fdemo7.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.207 0101174090 No

77 Controller nas.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.204 0135058274 No

809 Controller node0 10.68.49.210 0101184897 No

810 Controller node1 10.68.49.211 0101169894 No

811 Controller node2 10.68.49.212 0101180473 No

812 Controller node3 10.68.49.213 0101176781 No

75 Active/Active Controller test0.DemoNA.NetAppU.com 10.68.49.200 0118051550 No

76 Active/Active Controller test1.DemoNA.NetAppU.com 10.68.49.201 0118053016 No

80 Active/Active Controller urso9.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.209 0101168852 No

971 vFiler vfiler1 10.68.49.199 No

1220 vFiler vfiler_test.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.169 No

2688 vFiler vfilermariano 10.68.49.253 No

1456 vFiler vfNETAPP03 10.68.49.190 No

1448 vFiler vfNETAPP03.demona.netappu.com 10.68.49.190 No

880 vserver vs0 10.68.49.143 No

878 vserver vs1 No

879 vserver vsTEST No

877 vserver vsXEN No

I am not sure if this is the information you are requesting, please let me know if you need any additional info.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Cheers!

jgriffit · ‎2013-07-12

Has anything come of this?