Protecting your SnapVault backups through SnapMirror

About SnapVault secondary storage system protection

By setting up a SnapMirror relationship between the SnapVault secondary storage system and a SnapMirror destination filer, NearStore device, or tape backup unit, you can provide backup and standby service or backup and restore protection for the SnapVault secondary storage system data.

SnapMirror backup and standby service for SnapVault uses the SnapMirror destination device as a standby device to be activated as an alternate SnapVault secondary storage if the original secondary storage device goes down. For details see Backup and standby service for SnapVault.
SnapMirror backup and restore protection for SnapVault uses the SnapMirror destination device as a source from which you can restore backup data to a SnapVault secondary storage system that has suffered data loss or corruption. For details see Backup and restore protection for SnapVault.

The process of using SnapMirror with SnapVault

The SnapVault secondary storage system will carry out SnapVault operations on its filer sources as usual. Then on a scheduled per-volume basis, the system will replicate the SnapVault data to its SnapMirror destination partner or tape backup unit.

Under this configuration, SnapVault does not delete any snapshot version on the primary storage systems until that version has been successfully mirrored from the SnapVault secondary storage unit to its SnapMirror destination. This guarantees that a snapshot version will always be retrievable even if the SnapVault secondary storage system is disabled.

Backup and standby service for SnapVault

To set up SnapMirror backup and standby protection for the SnapVault secondary storage system:

Use the license command to confirm that the SnapVault secondary storage device has both SnapVault secondary storage and SnapMirror features licensed.
Use the license command to confirm that the SnapMirror destination device has both the SnapVault secondary storage and SnapMirror features licensed.
Set up SnapMirror replication from the active SnapVault secondary storage system to a disk-based destination device (another filer or NearStore device).
For a quick description of setting up a SnapMirror relationship with a disk-based destination device, see Setting up a basic SnapMirror operation.
If the active SnapVault secondary storage system is damaged or destroyed, convert the SnapMirror destination device to an alternate SnapVault secondary system to carry on the task of backing up data from the primary storage filers.
For details on converting a SnapMirror destination to a writable volume, see Converting a destination to a writable volume or qtree.
Activate the SnapVault license on the new SnapVault systems, and use the snapvault start and snapvault snap sched commands to complete configuration of the new SnapVault secondary storage system.

Backup and restore protection for SnapVault

To set up SnapMirror backup and restore protection for the SnapVault secondary storage system:

Use the license command to confirm that the SnapVault secondary storage device has both SnapVault secondary storage and SnapMirror features licensed.
If the SnapMirror destination device is a filer or R100, use the license command to confirm that its SnapMirror feature is licensed.
Set up SnapMirror replication from the active SnapVault secondary storage system to either a disk-based device or a tape device.
- For a quick description of setting up a SnapMirror relationship with a destination disk-based device, see Setting up a basic SnapMirror operation.
- For a description of setting up a SnapMirror relationship with a destination tape device, see SnapVault-to-tape backup scenario.
If the active SnapVault secondary storage system suffers data loss or corruption, use the appropriate SnapMirror commands to restore the necessary data from the SnapMirror destination device back to SnapVault secondary storage.
- For a description of restoring to a SnapMirror source from a destination (the SnapVault secondary storage unit would be the source, and the partner device would be the destination) see Disaster recovery: a special use for snapmirror resync.
- For a description of restoring to a SnapMirror source from a tape drive (the SnapVault secondary storage unit would be the source, and the tape device would be the destination) see Restoring to SnapVault from a local tape.