Disaster recovery with Snapvault?

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

Hi,

We have a 3210 filer running 8.1RC3 where we use CIFS for Windows clients and NFS for VMware. We also have an older 3020 filer running 7.3.x. We have Snapvault licenses on both filers. They are in different locations connected with 10Gbit.

Im thinking of using SnapVault for a light version of Disaster Recovery. As I understand it SnapVault operates on qtrees and not on volumes. So I need to create qtree on the new flexvols and snap that. I'd like to setup a daily snapshot.

Since this will be a new deployment (new customer) I plan to do it like this:

VMware environment

- Setup a vfiler on 3210  (vmfiler) with a flexvol (vol_vm_dstore01) and a qtree (vm_dstore01).

- Setup a vfiler on the 3020 (vmfilerdr) with a flexvol (vol_vm_dstore01_dr) and qtree (vm_dstore01dr)

- In case of a problem Id like to remove the snapvault connection and schedule.

- Id like to export the vm_dstore01dr over NFS from vmfilerdr and connect it to our secondary VMware farm.

For CIFS services I would do the same

- Setup a vfiler on 3210 (fs01) with a flexvol (vol_fs01_data01) and a qtree (fs01_data01)

- Setup av vfiler on 3020 (fs01dr) with a flexvol (vol_fs01_data01_dr) and a qtree (fs01_data01).

- In case of a problem Id like to remove the snapvault connection and schedule.

- In preparation I would setup CIFS for the filer as (fs01dr).

- I would also use DFS so that when I can bring the DCs online again I can easily change the client mappings to the new vfiler on the 3020.

Is this possible?

-J

[HENRYPAN2]

Yes J,

It is possible.

You may wish to run a DR test after the setup to double check.

Good luck

Henry

[till_echterhof]

yes it is possible...

but you dont need to create qtree at destination site, the qtree will be created by initial run of the new snapvault job.

look at the best practices guide for snapvault, chapter 4 is a good example:

https://fieldportal.netapp.com/viewcontent.asp?qv=1&docid=39449

[HENRYPAN2]

Cool Till,

Would you be kind enough to send the best practices guide for snapvault to me ?

Thanks in advance & looking forward to read it soon.

Henry

[scottgelb]

Would you need the target writable?  SnapVault works if you need readonly but some more steps if you want to write to it...you can snapmirror convert the vault to make it writable, but you would have to resync the vault both ways after (full sync...snapmirror is easier since it can resync only the changes since the failover)... or are you looking at using flexclone on the vault then convert on the clone?  Also for VMs you need the sv-smvi script if you want to vault the snapmanager snapshots for vmware since snapvault updates are not built in smvi/vsc.  For CIFS no issue and you can use protection manager or the command line schedule.

[scottgelb]

Also prior to 8.1, vfilers don't work as a snapvault target (but vfiler0 does for volumes in the vfiler).  I don't know if PM supports a vfiler as of 8.1 though so might still need to authenticate to vfiler0 for the vault.

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

Hi Scott,

We have SnapVault running against a vfiler as a target on 7.3. I seems to be working and the snapvault status report looks good.

-J

[scottgelb]

Must be via cli. Pm shouldn't support it. There is a note in the online data protection guide that it isn't supported but I think because of some Burts. As a source it is supported. I think 8.1 is all set source and target now to the vFiler

Sent from my iPhone 4S

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

You're right! We did add it using the cli.

-J

[scottgelb]

As long as you don't vault anything to vfiler0 you should be ok but no guarantee... If I remember the burt correctly.

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

Hi Scott,

I dont have licenses for SnapMirror, SnapManager or FlexClone. The idea is to make DR on the cheap Im waiting for pricing for the licenses but past experience tells me that they are way to costly for a small businesses.

I know that this will be a crash consistent copy and not a application consistent

So there isn't any other way to make a snapvault target writeable?

My backup idea is to use either Veeam Backup or VMware SRM (with integrated replication in 5.0)

-J

[scottgelb]

The only way to make writable is to snapmirror convert. Then break. That needs a snapmirror license. You could clone too and convert. The issue is resync is a full after since the vault is broken after.

Sent from my iPhone 4S

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

So the only way if you want to accomplish this in a couple of hours after a disaster would be to have the SnapMirror license (or FlexClone). And if you have the SnapMirror license it would probably be easier to just use that (if you have it on the other filer).

A resync wouldn't be a problem since this would be a disaster recovery where the other site is gone (or permanently down)

-J

[scottgelb]

Correct...you would need a snapmirror license so may as well mirror at that point.  Volume SnapMirror would keep the same snap retention on source and target but SnapVault can keep different retentions on the target... but VSM also leverages dedup/compression of the data without rehydrating like qsm/snapvault.

[scottgelb]

How much data and how long would it take for a level 0 init?  a full resync could be a dr outage or long outage to get back to production.. another snapmirror advantage.

[JANAKE_RONNBLOM]

Im not sure what you mean by a level 0 init?

We have about 2TB data that we would like to protect (both CIFS and NFS(vmdks) included).

-J

[scottgelb]

All 2tb would have to be vaulted again after you make it writable and then want to fail back and resync to dr

Sent from my iPhone 4S

[mathieu_dewavrin]

You could also use NetApp Syncsort Backup

You would have a single panel of glass for both backup and DR needs and you only need SnapVault at the destination (and Syncsort Licenses)

http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/infrastructure/data-protection/backup-recovery/netapp-syncsort-integrated-backup.html

On the plus side it also protects physical servers...

[scottgelb]

I like Syncsort a lot. But he also has cifs shares on the source. He could use nsb for hosts but then has to address cifs. If the data is already on NetApp them NetApp tools are a great fit. Snapmirror in this case. If a mix of storage and you want all on NetApp for dr/backup nsb is a great fit.

[clackamas]

It will work, we have done it for tests, as you mention this is on the cheap, but I applaud you, it is better than nothing.  If this is "DR" ask your NetApp sales team for a temp/demo flexclone license.  Don't implement it, keep it in you DR plan and use it to create a flexclone of your SV targets at time of test or disaster, the license remove them when you don't need them.  Get a 90 day license, its good for 90 days of use (e.g. if you remove it you are not using it the counter stops).

Snapvault backs up to a QTREE, so it likes qtree sources, but you can snapvault an entire volume, even ones containing LUNS.  Go through TR/best practices guidde.  I believe its best practice to put LUNs in a qtree, either way you can non disruptively move a LUN into a Qtree within the same volume.  This will give you a nice clean source qtree to go with your destination qtree.

One caveat doing DR with snapvault is that you can't do a reverse resync in the event of a real disaster.  You will have to do a full sync, but I imagine that at the end of the day is not that big a deal.  You recovered.

[scottgelb]

He still needs a snapmiror license for the snamirror convert.  And to snapvault back would be qtree to qtree so non-qtree data on the source would become a qtree on resync back (full sync back)... brute force and not so clean.  Given no other option I could see it but wouldn't recommend using snapvault for DR with all the caveats.  And with snapmirror needed to convert it they should just use snapmirror... unless they can use a demo key for the convert and netapp is ok with that.