NetApp Volume SnapShot on Boot Volume

[Calhoun121212]

Hi,

Our backup management server is a blade whichh is FC boot from SAN. Instead of backing up the backup server we'd like to create a Volume SnapShot of the BOOT volume (Windows 2008 R2).

Is this as simple as configuring a scheduled snapshot or are there gotchas with snapping a BOOT volume?

Also, if possible I'd like to resize the boot volume and add a reserve of 20% for the snapshots. Is this as simple as clicking "resize" in "OnCommand" and resizing the volume and setting a reserve of 20%?

I understand that the volume snapshot won't quiesce the volume and there is no guarantee that the data will be consistent .

Thanks

[aborzenkov]

Snap reserve for volumes containing LUNs is useless, there is no need to set it. It makes sense only in NAS environment (and even there it is not to reserve anything, but to hide some space from clients).

If you really do not care about consistency of data on LUN then yes, it is just as simple as configuring scheduled snapshot. There is really no difference (from NetApp side) whether it is BOOT or not.

[paulstringfellow]

just to add a little to the first answer here... if you want consistent snapshots, then install SnapDrive onto your system, this will allowed consistency in the Windows Snapshot.

one thing to thing about iwth this is page files on boot volumes, they create a lot of data change and lots of blocks moving around, so just be aware when snapshotting about how big some of them may get.

this would be the same regardless of if you do the snap with snapdrive or just snap the volume at the storage level.

what are you trying to achieve maybe should of been the first question!