SnapProtect questions

peluso · ‎2011-05-31

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

Thanks so much!
Terri Peluso
Senior Community Program Manager

thomas_glodde · ‎2011-06-10

@Nick - right now the different scops and conecepts etc. are a true pain in the a** for us as supporters and for our customers. And for us it seems we will see both products for a long time, snapmanager for * and snapprotect software, which means double the trouble etc.. NetApp used to have a nice idea with the snapcreator framework but since it isnt a shiny bling bling application and actualy a real nice and working thing, netapp still wont pick it up instead of giving it a nice and working gui ...

netapp produces decent machines and ontap has very nice features, but the latest software products are just full of bugs and not properly thought out products like having snapmirror in one app but no svault etc.. yes, we do know that other vendors suffer the same problems but it starts with internal tools not available to partners and ends with apps logging in binary mode so noone can properly debug these.

datacenterdude · ‎2011-06-10

@thomas - all I can say is, you're preaching to the choir! I would encourage you to continue to be vocal about this, participate actively in these types of discussions here on the communities and with your account teams. The field truly does drive what is created here. That is one thing I have learned since joining.

The implications involved in scrapping almost a decade of development across SO many of these SnapManager products. Think about that for a second. I totally agree that (if nothing else were in the pipeline) the SPoG for all SM's would be the way to go, but I think bigger and better things (such as SnapProtect) are coming, so....stay tuned, continue to be a voice from the field, and tell us what we need to hear. Because all of this is being read and talked about internally!

thomas_glodde · ‎2011-06-10

@Nick - we´ve done so for years and unless some top 100 enterprise account is vocal about that, and usualy they arent since they are a lot slower on adapting to new technology, nothing will happen. and if a customers asks me about snapprotect i will tell him not to think about it before Q2/2012 at earlierst, solution is not yet ontap 8 ready as well as isnt metrocluster certified yet, oncommand isnt even released yet etc pp 🙂

snapprotect has, like many netapp products, huge potential but it still needs to go down a long long road. lets just hope for the best 🙂

datacenterdude · ‎2011-06-10

A great question came up, and I thought I would share it here:

"Can a current CommVault / NetApp customer get the SnapProtect functionality for their existing Simpana installation? If so, what are the licensing requirements?"

Simpana has the same functionality as NetApp SnapProtect. We have OEM'ed CommVault's product as we think that highly of it, and are already intimately integrated with it. For existing CommVault Simpana customers, you would just keep Simpana, and add more NetApp storage on the backend for the varying replication scenario's, as you see fit.

e_honcoop · ‎2011-06-10

Im using a Simpana 9 setup in combination with DFM.

When im trying to add the DFM server to the Array management in Simpana Control, im missing the radio button to select Filer Server / DFM.

Am I overlooking something? a licence maybe?

bwood · ‎2011-06-11

You would need Simpana 9 SP2b for this funcitonality.

e_honcoop · ‎2011-06-17

Is this servicepack available yet? Both Autoupdate and InnerVault only offer 2a

Edit:

Just spoke to a CommVault representative: SP2b will be available somewhere this week.

e_honcoop · ‎2011-06-23

SP2B is availeble for download from InnerVault (not yet from automatic update)

e_honcoop · ‎2011-06-26

No luck yet 😞

Both CommServe and MediaAgent running 2b now but still havent got the radio button.

Anything else I should check?

e_honcoop · ‎2011-06-30

Im close to getting somewhere (I hope).

It seems I'm missing an essential license:

According to documentation.commvault.com:

The SnapProtect feature requires the Snap Protect Enabler license.
The NetApp SnapVault/SnapMirror feature requires the NetApp Snap Management license.

I seem to have the former, but it looks like I'm missing the latter.

Hope to have my license updates soon, to be able to finaly take the product for a testdrive.

stephenb · ‎2011-06-14

Is a FlexClone license also required per Controller?

lmunro_hug · ‎2012-01-26

Hi,

Can anyone let me know how SnapProtect works in the following
scenario? We are using block based storage for our VMFS datastores. We are not
using the Snapmanager for SQL/EXCH as they are too cumbersome and waste so many
LUNs in our VMware clusters, we just use the VSC based backups. If for example
with have a 2TB LUN that is not thin provisioned with 100GB of VMs on it. How
much data will SnapProtect write to tape when backing up this LUN to tape assuming
it is a FULL type backup?