Data ONTAP protection methods

Data protection methods

Data ONTAP provides a variety of methods for protecting data in an iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN. These methods, described in the following table, are based on Snapshot^TM technology in Data ONTAP, which enables you to maintain multiple read-only versions of LUNs online per volume.

Snapshots are a standard feature of Data ONTAP. A Snapshot copy is a frozen, read-only image of the entire Data ONTAP file system, or WAFL® (Write Anywhere File Layout) volume, that reflects the state of the LUN or the file system at the time the Snapshot copy is created. The other data protection methods listed in the table below rely on Snapshot copies or create, use, and destroy Snapshot copies, as required.

For information about NetApp data protection products and solutions, see the Network Appliance Data Protection Portal at http://www.netapp.com/solutions/
data_protection.html.

Method	Used to...
Snapshot	Take point-in-time copies of a volume.
SnapRestore®	Restore a LUN or file system to an earlier preserved state in less than a minute without rebooting the storage system, regardless of the size of the LUN or volume being restored. Recover from a corrupted database or a damaged application, a file system, a LUN, or a volume by using an existing Snapshot copy.
SnapMirror®	Replicate data or asynchronously mirror data from one storage system to another over local or wide area networks (LANs or WANs). Transfer Snapshot copies taken at specific points in time to other storage systems or NearStore® systems. These replication targets can be in the same data center through a LAN or distributed across the globe connected through metropolitan area networks (MANs) or WANs. Because SnapMirror operates at the changed block level instead of transferring entire files or file systems, it generally reduces bandwidth and transfer time requirements for replication.
SnapVault®	Back up data by using Snapshot copies on the storage system and transferring them on a scheduled basis to a destination storage system. Store these Snapshot copies on the destination storage system for weeks or months, allowing recovery operations to occur nearly instantaneously from the destination storage system to the original storage system.
SnapDrive^TM for Windows or UNIX	Manage storage system Snapshot copies directly from a Windows or UNIX host. Manage storage (LUNs) directly from a host. Configure access to storage directly from a host. SnapDrive for Windows supports Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003. SnapDrive for UNIX supports a number of UNIX environments. For a list of supported host environments, see the NetApp iSCSI Support Matrix, NetApp FCP SAN Compatibility Matrix, and SnapDrive & SnapManager Compatibility Matrix at http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/san/fcp_iscsi_config/. Note For more information about SnapDrive, see the SnapDrive Installation and Administration Guide or SnapDrive for UNIX Installation and Administration Guide.
Native tape backup and recovery	Store and retrieve data on tape. Note Data ONTAP supports native tape backup and recovery from local, gigabit Ethernet, and Fibre Channel SAN-attached tape devices. Support for most existing tape drives is included, as well as a method for tape vendors to dynamically add support for new devices. In addition, Data ONTAP supports the Remote Magnetic Tape (RMT) protocol, allowing backup and recovery to any capable system. Backup images are written using a derivative of the BSD dump stream format, allowing full file-system backups as well as nine levels of differential backups.
NDMP	Control native backup and recovery facilities in storage systems and other file servers. Backup application vendors provide a common interface between backup applications and file servers. Note NDMP is an open standard for centralized control of enterprise-wide data management. For more information about how NDMP-based topologies can be used by storage systems to protect data, see the Data ONTAP Data Protection Tape Backup and Recovery Guide.