Doing backups in addition to snapshots and replication?

[scottgraun]

Is there a need to do backups in addition to snapshot and replication?  If snapshots go back long enough from a retention period, are there any other concerns that we should be aware of.  If the disk has corruption, would you be able to restore a snapshot or replication (probably not?)?  Are there any other issues that may come up that we wouldn't be able to restore the files or backups would play a critical role? 

Thanks,
Scott

[ralfaro01zero]

Hello Scott,

If something bad happens to your primary filer, you can always recover from the replica on a secondary site, but keep in mind that SnapMirror is a "mirror" technology, that means that if you have data corruption or lost data on your source, that corruption or missing data is going to be replicated to your destination; I believe the best approach is to use SnapVault, SnapVault is a backup solution rather than a mirror like SnapMirror, a common strategy is to SnapVault from primary filer to secondary filer onsite, and then SnapMirror your vaulted data to a third filer offsite (DR site).

SnapShots are great for fast, short term recovery (from minutes to days), but they are not very efficient for long term recovery (months +), that's where SnapVault comes into play.

Cheers.