SnapProtect questions

[peluso]

Hi all,

You may have seen the latest announcement for our new product, SnapProtect.  Please ask your questions - we have technical expertise ready to provide answers and point to useful information.  I will post a few questions here as well to break the ice and open up the conversation.  For more information about the product, start with our product pages. http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapprotect.html

Best,

Terri

[shaunjurr]

I've tried to read the documentation and at some point I sort of drowned in the marketing bla-bla.

Basically, this is a re-branding of mostly existing functionality and some things that most of us probably wished for for many years from DFM/OM as Storage (and Backup) administrators. (I don't blame anyone... companies like EMC make tons just changing the names of things and adding some fireworks)

Why the split?

Why is NetApp making more disparate products instead of a real "single pane" management system? 

We've been wishing for end-to-end data management of NetApp NAS/SAN for years, from NFS/CIFS/LUN to secondary (tertiary) mirrors and on to tape, essentially SLA monitoring. What I have seen and tried to use from DFM/OM has been a source of great frustration and a full implementation was so riddled with technical hurdles that it was simply left to decay.  Where is the "single pane" for storage administration? Integration of SAN administration/monitoring?  Integration with backup systems?

Will any of this integrate with DFM/OM?

What we have here is a server backup solution that involves as much NetApp equipment and software as possible.  I don't want to rain on anybody's parade here, but I'd be more excited if this looked like an extension of current management tools (that could possibly sold separately) that was working towards a "single pane" (not that I like that marketing term either... ) solution.

[eberlein]

SnapProtect combines the benefits of NetApp Snapshot™ & replication technologies with comprehensive backup workflow management to improve on traditional backupmethodologies.  This level of integration has not been available in the market until now.    This combination also means that there are new backup & recovery capabilities available from NetApp, notably a backupcatalog for Snapshots, and an integrated path to tape.

You are correct that SnapProtect is not a single pane of glass (SPOG) for storage and backup management.  SnapProtect is a SPOGfor backup, and is designed for customers who have a group responsible forbackup for multiple environments (across applications, OSes, virtual/physical,etc).  On the other hand, SnapProtect is tightly integrated with NetApp FAS via DFM APIs, and thus storage management for backup purposes is greatly simplified: the storage admin creates resource pools in DFM that are transparently accessed by SnapProtect, providing automatic secondary storage provisioning.

Re: "server backup", just want to clarify that the core of  napProtect backups are FAS snapshots & replication, which have zero data movement through application or other external servers, unlike traditional backup clients.

[vmsjaak13]

Is Ontap 8.x supported ?

Is indexing of NAS data in vfilers supported ?

Are metroclusters supported ?

Regards,

Niek

[peter_lehmann]

If a customer has DFM/OM, is SnapProtect a "free upgrade"?

Thanks,

Peter

[mar]

Peter,

SnapProtect will requires a license that's controller-based similar to our other NetApp data protection software offerings.

Ray

[mar]

Niek,

Thanks for the questions.

- Currently, ONTAP 8.x is not supported with SnapProtect.

- It is not possible to do NAS indexing of a vFiler volume

- MetroCluster has not completed qualification at this time. Please refer to the Interoperability Matrix on the NetApp support site to find out what's supported today, and check back later for updates.

Ray

[vmsjaak13]

Hi Ray,

Is there a roadmap available for ONTAP 8.x and MetroCluster support ?

Regards,

Niek

[mar]

Niek,

ONTAP 8.x and MetroCluster are currently being qualified and timing to be determined. Stay tuned.

Ray

[radek_kubka]

Guys,

Let's make it straight here: SnapProtect is just re-badged CommVault Simpana, it's not a secret & can make the whole story easier to digest for many people who are already familiar with this product.

http://www.netapp.com/us/company/news/news-rel-20110531-291587.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/31/netapp_oems_simpana_9/

Regards,
Radek

[peter_lehmann]

Hi Radek

Thanks for clarifying my suspicion...

Radek Kubka schrieb:
Guys,
Let's make it straight here: SnapProtect is just re-badged CommVault Simpana, it's not a secret & can make the whole story easier to digest for many people who are already familiar with this product.

So, this would also answer my question, assuming this is not a free upgrade for DFM/OM customers.

But, yet again another Backup Strategy from NetApp... would be about time to get this topic adressed finally in the right manner...

1. Backup in DFM

2. Protection Manager is the answer...

3. now SnapProtect is the answer,,

Whats next???

[radek_kubka]

...and don't forget about SnapCreator which is another (very interesting) topic!

[glennm]

The SnapProtect team is in the process of investigating integration with SnapCreator.

[admbranjo]

put another dollar in...

order all new systems with DFM and Protection manager.

next systems are order'd with complete Snapmanager bundle.

and now we have to pay for SnapProtect ???

[peter_lehmann]

Just imagine... until now you had to get several SnapManagers (and SnapDrive) and Operations Manager and Protection Manager, and best of all you would still not be able to get everything integrated and connected (e.g. SMVI and SnapVault)...

In the future you just have to buy SnapProtect (or even get Simpana from Commvault) and everything is covered.

If I have a choice, I'll always choose the simple one - do you hear NetApp?

[admbranjo]

future...nice, I have all these allready payed products, some of them working but not realy integrated.

what do i have to do with my older installations?

I think I have to buy now additional SnapProtect license

[glennm]

If the existing products are working fine, you should continue using them. SnapProtect is a new product that is focused on providing a complete solution with backup catalog, tape integration, etc.

[sajeev]

SnapProtect is modified to use Snapvault and Snapmirror for backup and replication. I don't think non-branded Simpana can do that.

[radek_kubka]

SnapProtect is modified to use Snapvault and Snapmirror for backup and replication. I don't think non-branded Simpana can do that.

It can - plus few other tricks, like NDMP & SnapMirror to Tape (SMT): http://www.commvault.com/pdf/CV_SolutionBrief_NetApp.pdf

It is a great product though, so actually I don't mind that SnapProtect is just a marketing name

[eberlein]

Re: "SnapProtect is just re-badged CommVault Simpana", technology-wise yes, and we're very proud to be leveraging the industry-leading snapshot & replication-based backup management software from our long-time partner.  Of course, note that NetApp SnapProtect is specifically for backing up NetApp FAS, and is licensed in a unique and incredibly simple way: single license per FAS controller (i.e. consistent with the NetApp approach).

[radek_kubka]

Re: "SnapProtect is just re-badged CommVault Simpana", technology-wise yes

From my perspective, there is nothing wrong it that either - the product is great & integrates nicely with NetApp, so why not leverage this?

My point was, for the benefit of Community users, it just make sense to make it perfectly clear what SnapProtect really is: less confusion & better understanding why NetApp unleashes 'yet another' product.

BTW - there is a new blog from Vaughn Stewart who I suspect to be the key champion of striking this deal

http://blogs.netapp.com/virtualstorageguy/2011/05/introducing-netapp-snapprotect-backup.html