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Easily Protect your FlexGroup volume in ONTAP 9.3
This recipe will show how to create a SnapMirror (or SnapVault/MirrorVault) relationship for FlexGroup volumes in ONTAP 9.3.
1. Open OnCommand System Manager. See if the volume is unprotected under “Volumes.” The volume we’re protecting is Tech_ONTAP (the Tech ONTAP podcast volume)
Clicking on the + sign will show more details.
2. Click on “Configuration” in the left menu, then on “SVM Peers” (for local snapmirrors) or “Cluster Peers” (for remote snapmirrors) if you haven’t already peered the source and destination. In this example, we’re peering SVMs to do a local SnapMirror.
3. Peer the SVM or cluster.
SVM Peering
Click “Create” and choose your SVMs. Click “Initiate SVM peering.” Within a few seconds, you should see “SVM peering successful.” Click done.
Cluster Peering
Cluster peering is needed if you plan on implementing an intercluster snapmirror. In OnCommand System Manager for ONTAP 9.3, this is done with “Cluster Peers.” Doing this also allows you to peer SVMs in the same configuration steps.
4. Next, click on “Protection -> relationships” on the left menu. Then click “Create.”
From here, go to the CLI – System Manager doesn’t currently support creating SnapMirror relationships for FlexGroup volumes. Create the destination volume. It must:
- Be type DP
- Have the same number of member volumes as the source FlexGroup
- Be the same size or greater than the source FlexGroup
The Tech_ONTAP FlexGroup has 8 member volumes and is 10TB in size.
This is the destination volume created. The destination volume must match the source volume’s member volume count and must be as large or larger than the source. Otherwise, a “geometry” error will be seen:
The FlexGroup spans a single aggregate and uses a multiplier of 8 to create 8 member volumes per aggregate. So, in this case, it’s a FlexGroup with 8 member volumes.
5. Decide on a snapmirror policy. You can apply a variety of policies to the mirror. For a DR SnapMirror, use “MirrorAllSnapshots.” If not specified, this is the default.
SnapVault/MirrorVault would use MirrorAndVault.
These are the specific policies and what they do:
6. Create the SnapMirror relationship.
7. Now, initialize the snapmirror. This will take some time, which will depend on the amount of data to transfer and the speed of your connection.
While you can’t currently manage a FlexGroup SnapMirror from System Manager, you can view it:
8. To make the mirror a SnapVault relationship (keeping more snapshots than just the ones on the source), modify the relationship policy to MirrorAndVault.
9. Consider also using a snapshot policy and label for your volume.
Note: Labels cannot be used with the async-mirror policy type.
The policy rules support only two combinations of these labels, either just “sm_created” or both “sm_created” and “all_source_snapshots”. The label is used to define the set of Snapshot copies that you want backed up to the version-flexible SnapMirror secondary volume. Other Snapshot copies on the primary volume are ignored by the version-flexible SnapMirror relationship.
Then, modify the volume to use the new policy:
10. Create a schedule to apply to the SnapMirror relationship using “job schedule create” and then apply it to your snapmirror.
Once a volume is successfully SnapMirrored, System Manager will show it is protected:
If using SnapMirror restore, keep in mind that the entire FlexGroup volume will get restored, not just files or single member volumes.
For more information, see the ONTAP 9 documentation center