A good way to protect and retain data is to archive the SnapDrive Snapshot copies of the LUNs to offline, offsite media, such as near-line technology or alternate storage methods.
The practice of archiving Snapshot copies is particularly beneficial for disaster recovery.
What to back up
When archiving backups, it is important that you select the LUNs that are not in the active file system. The disks in the active file system are not consistent and, therefore, will not result in reliable backups. You must also select the Snapshot copies of the LUNs when creating backups.
Ways to archive SnapDrive backups
You can use the Data ONTAP dump command or an NDMP-based backup application to archive the Snapshot copies of your LUNs.
Process for restoring LUNs from archival media
First, restore the LUN file from your archive media to the active file system. After the file is restored, use the SnapDrive management interface to connect to the LUN file using its original drive letter.
Note: You cannot use CIFS-based or NFS-based backup products to archive the Snapshot copies of your LUNs.
For more information about LUN backups, see the Data ONTAP Block Access Management Guide. For more information about how to perform a recovery from an offline archive, see your backup application software documentation.
Note: Further steps might be required to bring online data recovered in LUN files. This holds true for all SnapManager products. For more information about recovering LUNs using SnapManager, see the current SnapManager System Administrator’s Guide for your product.
