ONTAP Discussions

What are these snapshots that appear on my vol0? (and system config backup settings)

dkorns
8,378 Views

I've been noticing some oddly named snapshots show up on vol0 on a system where I have snapshots completely turned for vol0. Anyone else ever see these or know what causes them?

 

FWIW: this is an 8.3.2 simulator environment.

 

= = = = = = = = = = = 

 

hq-stor::> vol snap show vol0

                                                                 ---Blocks---

Vserver  Volume   Snapshot                                  Size Total% Used%

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

hq-stor-01 

         vol0

                  .tmp.bk.hq-stor.8hour.6.1480580100     325.2MB     4%   16%

 

hq-stor::> vol snap show vol0 -fields create-time 

vserver    volume snapshot                           create-time              

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

hq-stor-01 vol0   .tmp.bk.hq-stor.8hour.6.1480580100 Thu Dec 01 03:34:40 2016 

 

hq-stor::> vol show vol0 -fields snapshot-policy 

vserver    volume snapshot-policy 

---------- ------ --------------- 

hq-stor-01 vol0   -               

 

hq-stor::> run local -command snap sched vol0

Volume vol0: 0 0 0

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

parisi
8,325 Views

Those snapshot names correspond with the system configuration backup.

 

The system is likely taking a temporary snap to protect the backup in case something happens.

 

You can see the system configuration backup files with:

 

::> set advanced

 

::*>  system configuration backup show

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8

Sahana
8,347 Views

Hi,

 

Please try running volume snapshot policy modify -enabled false. refer https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1610202/html/volume/snapshot/policy/modify.html

If this post resolved your issue, help others by selecting ACCEPT AS SOLUTION or adding a KUDO.

parisi
8,326 Views

Those snapshot names correspond with the system configuration backup.

 

The system is likely taking a temporary snap to protect the backup in case something happens.

 

You can see the system configuration backup files with:

 

::> set advanced

 

::*>  system configuration backup show

dkorns
8,315 Views

I confirmed my 'volume snapshot policy' for 'none' was -enable=false.

 

... and yes, these snapshots do seem to line up with the confuration backups that are occuring. Hadn't thought of that.

 

However, while not a big deal, I've got a pair of clusters (both installed as 8.3.2) and I'm watching and comparing vol0 snapshots and sys-conf-backup settings. I'm  seeing one system tending to retain just one of these named (.tmp.bk*) snapshots while the other one retains up to 6 I think (2 of each kind: 8hour,daily,weekly). However, I'm gonna keep watching it as I played around with vol0 size yesterday after getting some aggr0 space-util alerts that look like they cooresponded in time to when these backups run. Could be the backups where aborting and not cleaning up snapshots.

 

Thanks.

dkorns
8,239 Views

I'd like to move the focus of this topic from 'mystery snapshots' to the 'configuration backup process' running in cDOT. As a result of researching the above issue I've come upon another fact: I want to tune down the system configuration process and don't see a way to do it. 

 

Important note: this question is somewhat specific to ONTAP Simulators because I don't think a normal system running on FAS hardware would have this same issue. But I'm running qty=2 1-node-cluster VMs (cdot 8.3.2 & 9.0) on the same ESXi hypervisor (quad-core Xeon, 3.3Ghz, on a single-drive SATA datastore). Sometimess I run qty=3 cDOT VMs. So when the sys-config-backup kicks off, I have 2 or 3 ONTAPs backup up (hammering) their configurations on vol0's on that single ESX with a single disk.

 

FWIW: The .tmp.bk snapshots (orig topic of this discussion) have disappeared after I resolved the aggr0 space issue I previously had. But now I've been watching the 'system configuration backup' settings and files more closely. Everything appears to be running fine with the sys-conf-backup process, HOWEVER, I'm now more aware of sys-conf-backup and think it is hosing me every morning at 10:15am. It probably hoses me at midnight, 2am and 6pm too but I'm not around then :-). Below are some harvest/grapha graphs over 24-hours showing sys-conf-backup process hammering both vol0s and it seems to take (when they compete) 1.5-hours to complete. 

 

I'm not complaining ... just looking for a way to control better. I've played with the 'system config backup' commands but all I see is a way to control the how many of the backup files are retained of each type ... and I can't say 0 (zero) to turn it off complelety for type (-numbackups1|2|3). What I thought I would do is either chnage the Schedule-1 from '8hour' to 'none' or create a new schedule completely for Schedule-1 that didn't fire off during the day.

 

The only thing I can think of now is to change the system-wide schedule called '8hour' to not include the 10am setting ... but I don't think it's wise to change a system-wide schedule just for this one thing as I don't know what else might be using it.

 

Am I missing anything? other suggestions? (Note: I even explored advanced and diag mode but still do not see a way)

 

PS: Harvest/Graphana graphs showing both my aggr0s getting hammerer for 1.5 hours. (the 00:10 is the daily, the 2:15am, 10:15am and 18:15pm are the 8hour 'ly ... I'd like to eliminate the 8hour 'ly ones. Any suggestions?

 

top-aggr-24-hr.png

 

node-disk-util-24-hr.png

 

 

 

 

parisi
8,220 Views

There's no way to control the backup schedules that I am aware.

 

The closest thing we have is the ability to save the backups to an HTTP server, but that wouldn't solve your performance hit.

dkorns
8,212 Views

Thanks Justin, so I just went ahead and decided to chnage my 8hour 'ly schedule and it nicely warned me exactly what else was using that schedule. In my case, nothing. So I went ahead and set 8hour down to just a 6:15pm backup. I think tha should temper the situation for my environment.

 

hq-stor::> schedule cron show

  (job schedule cron show)

Name                Description 

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

5min                @:00,:05,:10,:15,:20,:25,:30,:35,:40,:45,:50,:55

8hour               @2:15,10:15,18:15

daily               @0:10

hourly              @:05

weekly              Sun@0:15

5 entries were displayed.

 

hq-stor::> schedule cron modify 8hour -hour 18 -minute 15

  (job schedule cron modify)

 

Warning: Schedule in use by 0 volume Snapshot policy entries, 0 SnapMirror entries, 0 antivirus on-demand entries, 0 SIS policy entries, and 1 configuration backup

         settings.  This change will affect the schedule of all referenced entities. Continue with modify? {y|n}: y

 

hq-stor::> schedule cron show                            

  (job schedule cron show)

Name                Description 

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

5min                @:00,:05,:10,:15,:20,:25,:30,:35,:40,:45,:50,:55

8hour               @18:15

daily               @0:10

hourly              @:05

weekly              Sun@0:15

5 entries were displayed.

 

hq-stor::> 

 

parisi
8,209 Views

Ah, good find. I'd always assumed you couldn't adjust the scheduled backup jobs. 🙂

dkorns
8,111 Views

Having to re-do this for a new set of lab clusters I decided to document the actual commands to tamp down the system config backups over in the ONTAP Simulators forum.

 

http://community.netapp.com/t5/Simulator-Discussions/Helpful-ONTAP-Simulator-Settings-for-System-Config-Backups/td-p/126941

Public