Backing up Cloud Volumes ONTAP data to Google Cloud Storage

03/22/2021 Contributors Download PDF of this page

Complete a few steps to get started backing up data from Cloud Volumes ONTAP to Google Cloud Storage.

Quick start

Get started quickly by following these steps or scroll down to the remaining sections for full details.

Verify support for your configuration

You’re running Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.7P5 or later in GCP.
You have a valid GCP subscription for the storage space where your backups will be located.
You have a service account in your Google Cloud Project that has the predefined Storage Admin role.
You have subscribed to the Cloud Manager Marketplace Backup offering, or you have purchased and activated a Cloud Backup BYOL license from NetApp.

Enable Cloud Backup on your new or existing system

New systems: Cloud Backup can be enabled when you complete the new working environment wizard.
Existing systems: Select the working environment and click Activate next to the Cloud Backup service in the right-panel, and then follow the setup wizard.

Enter the provider details

Select the Google Cloud Project where you want the Google Cloud Storage bucket to be created for backups.

A screenshot that shows the cloud provider details when backing up volumes from a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system installed on GCP to a Google Cloud Storage bucket.

Define the backup policy

The default policy backs up volumes every day and retains the most recent 30 backup copies of each volume. Change to weekly or monthly backups, or select one of the system-defined policies that provide more options.

A screenshot that shows the Cloud Backup settings where you can enable or disable the feature and then choose your backup retention.

Select the volumes that you want to back up

Identify which volumes you want to back up in the Select Volumes page.

Restore your data, as needed

Restore a backup to a new volume. You can restore data to a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system in Google. A Service Account is required on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system where you are performing the restore.

See Restoring volume data from backup files for details.

Requirements

Read the following requirements to make sure that you have a supported configuration before you start backing up volumes to Google Cloud storage.

The following image shows each component and the connections that you need to prepare between them:

A diagram showing how Cloud Backup communicates with the volumes on the source systems and the destination storage where the backup files are located.

Supported ONTAP versions: Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.7P5 and later.
Supported GCP regions: Cloud Backup is supported in all GCP regions where Cloud Volumes ONTAP is supported.
License requirements: For Cloud Backup PAYGO licensing, a subscription through the GCP Marketplace is required before you enable Cloud Backup. Billing for Cloud Backup is done through this subscription. You can subscribe from the Details & Credentials page of the working environment wizard.

For Cloud Backup BYOL licensing, you need the serial number from NetApp that enables you to use the service for the duration and capacity of the license. See Adding and updating your Backup BYOL license.

And you need to have a Google subscription for the storage space where your backups will be located.
GCP Service Account: You need to have a service account in your Google Cloud Project that has the predefined Storage Admin role. Learn how to create a service account.

Enabling Cloud Backup on a new system

Cloud Backup can be enabled when you complete the working environment wizard to create a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

You must have a Service Account already configured. If you don’t select a service account when you create the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system, then you’ll need to turn off the system and add the service account to Cloud Volumes ONTAP from the GCP console.

See Launching Cloud Volumes ONTAP in GCP for requirements and details for creating your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

Steps

On the Working Environments page, click Add Working Environment and follow the prompts.
Choose a Location: Select Google Cloud Platform.
Choose Type: Select Cloud Volumes ONTAP (either single-node or high-availability).
Details & Credentials: Enter the following information:
1. Click Edit Project and select a new project if the one you want to use is different than the default Project (where Cloud Manager resides).
2. Specify the cluster name.
3. Enable the Service Account switch and select the Service Account that has the predefined Storage Admin role. This is required to enable backups and tiering.
4. Specify the credentials.
  
  Make sure that a GCP Marketplace subscription is in place.
Services: Leave the Cloud Backup service enabled and click Continue.
Complete the pages in the wizard to deploy the system as described in Launching Cloud Volumes ONTAP in GCP.

Result

Cloud Backup is enabled on the system and backs up the volume you created every day and retains the most recent 30 backup copies.

You can start and stop backups for additional volumes or change the backup schedule and you can restore entire volumes from a backup file.

Enabling Cloud Backup on an existing system

You can enable Cloud Backup at any time directly from the working environment.

Steps

Select the working environment and click Activate next to the Cloud Backup service in the right-panel.
Select the Google Cloud Project where you want the Google Cloud Storage bucket to be created for backups, and click Continue. This can be a different Project than where the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system resides.

Note that the Project must have a Service Account that has the predefined Storage Admin role, and that you cannot change the Project after the service has started.
In the Define Policy page, select the backup schedule and retention value and click Continue.

See the list of existing policies.
Select the volumes that you want to back up and click Activate.
- To back up all volumes, check the box in the title row ().
- To back up individual volumes, check the box for each volume ().