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Protect with ONTAP SnapMirror active sync for NAS

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Configure SnapMirror active sync for NAS

Beginning with ONTAP 9.19.1, you can configure SnapMirror active sync for NAS configurations.

Before you begin

  • Both clusters in the SnapMirror active sync relationship must be running ONTAP 9.19.1 or later.

  • You must be a cluster administrator.

  • You must have configured ONTAP Mediator or ONTAP Cloud Mediator.

  • The source and destination clusters must be peered.

ONTAP supported and unsupported features with SnapMirror active sync for NAS

The following table describes supported and unsupported ONTAP features with SnapMirror active sync for NAS.

ONTAP feature Supported by SnapMirror active sync Additional information

Application consistency groups

No

Audit

Yes

Only consolidated logs in the SVM are replicated.

DP volumes

No

FabricPool

Partially

The all tiering policy is not allowed on SnapMirror active sync NAS volumes.

File System Analytics

Partially

On the secondary SVM, File System Analytics is set to Off by default, and you must manually set it to On after a failover.

FlexCache volume

No

FlexGroup volume

No

Fpolicy and antivirus scan

Yes

Load-sharing mirrors

No

In ONTAP 9.19.1, SnapMirror active sync for NAS supports only 2 nodes in an AFF cluster.

MetroCluster configuration

No

Multi admin verify for NAS commands

No

S3 NAS

No

SAN volumes in a SnapMirror active sync NAS protected SVM

No

SnapMirror active sync for NAS inititialization fails if volumes hosting LUNs exist in the SVM.

SnapLock

No

SnapMirror to cloud

No

SVM migrate

No
About this task

To enable SnapMirror active sync for NAS, you create a destination SVM. The destination SVM remains dormant until a failover occurs.

Steps

You can use System Manager or the ONTAP CLI to configure SnapMirror active sync for NAS.

System Manager

  1. From the source cluster, navigate to Cluster > Storage VMs.

  2. Click Menu options icon next to the name of the SVM you want to configure and select Protect.

  3. In the Protect Storage VM window, choose the destination cluster.

  4. Choose AutomatedFailOver as the replication policy.

  5. Enter a name for the storage VM being created on the destination.

  6. Choose the volumes to protect:

    1. Protect all volumes – by default, all volumes are protected

    2. Choose volumes to protect - only the selected volumes are protected

    3. Choose volumes to exclude - the selected volumes are excluded from protection

  7. Click Initialize relationship.

  8. Click Save.

  9. In the Protect Storage VM window, verify the SVM protection status in the Protection column.

CLI

  1. On the destination cluster, create an SVM of type dp-destination:

    vserver create -vserver <SVM name> -sub-type dp-destination

    Example:

    destination::> vserver create -vserver vs_b -sub-type dp-destination

  2. Create an SVM peer relationship to the source SVM:

    vserver peer create -vserver <destination SVM> -peer-vserver <souce SVM> -peer-cluster <source cluster> -applications snapmirror

    Example:

    destination::> vserver peer create -vserver vs_b -peer-vserver vs_a -peer-cluster SiteA -applications snapmirror

  3. On the source SVM, accept the peer request:

    vserver peer accept -vserver <source SVM name> -peer-vserver <destination SVM name>vserver peer accept -vserver <source SVM name> -peer-vserver <destination SVM name>

    Example:

    source::> vserver peer accept -vserver vs_a -peer-vserver vs_b

  4. Create the SnapMirror relationship:

    snapmirror create -source-path <source SVM name>: -destination-path <destination SVM name>: -policy AutomatedFailOver

    Example:

    destination::> snapmirror create -source-path vs_a: -destination-path vs_b: -policy AutomatedFailOver

  5. Verify the relationship was created and check the status:

    'snapmirror show'

    Example:

    destination::> snapmirror show
Progress
	Source            Destination Mirror        Relationship   Total             Last
	Path        Type  Path        State         Status         Progress  Healthy Updated
	----------- ---- ------------ -------       -------------- --------- ------- --------
	vs_a:       XDP  vs_b:        Uninitialized Idle           -         true    -

  6. On the destination SVM, initialize the relationship:

    snapmirror initialize -destination-path <SVM name>:

    Example:

    destination::> snapmirror initialize -destination-path vs_b:

  7. Check the initialization status:

    snapmirror show

    Example:

    	destination::> snapmirror show
	                                                                             Progress
	Source            Destination Mirror        Relationship   Total             Last
	Path        Type  Path        State         Status         Progress  Healthy Updated
	----------- ---- ------------ -------       -------------- --------- ------- --------
	vs_a:       XDP  vs_b:        Snapmirrored  InSync         -         true    -

Create an unprotected volume in a SnapMirror active sync NAS configuration

You can exclude volumes from SnapMirror active sync if protection is not required; for example while creating a FlexClone volume for development testing.

Step

You can use System Manager or the ONTAP CLI to exclude a cloned volume from SnapMirror active sync for NAS.

System Manager

  1. From the source cluster, navigate to Storage > Volumes.

  2. In the list of volumes, click Menu options icon next to the name of the volume you want to clone and select Clone.

  3. In the Clone volume window, ensure that Include clone in protection for business continuity is deselected.

  4. Click Clone.

CLI

  1. From the source cluster, add an unprotected volume to an existing SnapMirror active sync configuration:

    volume clone create -vserver <SVM name> -flexclone <clone vol name> -parent-vserver <SVM name> -parent-volume <vol name> -parent-snapshot <snapshot name>
    volume add -vserver <SVM name> -volume <volume name> -smas-protection unprotected

Use the ONTAP CLI to exclude a volume from a SnapMirror active sync NAS configuration

You can exclude a volume from a SnapMirror active sync NAS configuration if protection is no longer needed, or if you want to delete the volume.

Note Marking a currently protected volume as unprotected initiates a shrink operation on the SnapMirror active sync relationship. The shrink operation deletes SnapMirror entries for the volume on both the source and destination.
Note Marking a volume as unprotected does not automatically delete the volume on the primary or secondary relationship. If you want to delete the volume, you can manually delete it on both the primary and secondary SVM.
Step

  1. Remove a volume from SnapMirror active NAS protection:

    volume modify -vserver <SVM name> -volume <volume name> -smas-protection unprotected

Convert an SVM DR relationship to a SnapMirror active sync relationship

In ONTAP 9.19.1, you cannot directly convert an SVM DR relationship into a SnapMirror active sync for NAS relationship. Instead, you must delete the SVM DR relationship, create a new destination SVM, establish a new SnapMirror active sync relationship, and initialize the relationship.

Note The snapmirror resync command is not currently supported.

  1. On the destination cluster, delete the SnapMirror relationship:

    snapmirror delete -destination-path

  2. On the primary cluster, release the relationship information:

    snapmirror release -relationship-info-only true

  3. On the destination cluster, create an SVM with the dp-destination subtype:

    vserver create -vserver <SVM name> -sub-type dp-destination

  4. On the destination cluster, create the SnapMirror relationship using the AutomatedFailover policy:

    snapmirror create -source-path <source SVM name> -destination-path <destination SVM name> -policy AutomatedFailOver

  5. On the destination cluster, initialize the relationship:

    snapmirror initialize -destination-path <SVM name>

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