NetApp SnapMirror traditional volumes to flex volumes

SnapMirror comes in two flavors: volume snapmirror (VSM) and qtree snapmirror (QSM). One major difference between the two is that VSM can be synchronous or asynchronous, while QSM is only asynchronous. Another important difference is that VSM is block based replication, while QSM is logical replication. More differences can be found in TR-3446, however, the most important difference (for me and this post) is the type of volumes the two replication methods support:

• VSM: TradVol - TradVol and FlexVol - FlexVol
• QSM: TradVol - TradVol, FlexVol - FlexVol and TradVol - FlexVol

QSM supports replication between traditional volume and flex volumes and that is the reason why I used QSM to migrate client`s data from an old filer using traditional volumes. Source filer is Filer1 and destination filer is Filer2. On Filer1 there is vol1 (trad) and on Filer2 there is client1 (flex vol). Being a QSM, destination for vol1 will be a qtree on client1 volume, but qtrees must not be created before snapmirror operation.

For each filer, check the license for snapmirror exists, if not added it:

Filer1# license add XXXXX

Filer2# license add XXXXX

Check snapmirror status:

Filer1# snapmirror status

Snapmirror is on.

Filer2# snapmirror status

Snapmirror is on.

Make sure that each filer is resolvable in /etc/hosts file (a best practice is to mount /vol/vol0 and edit the files, else use the infamous rdfile and wrfile commands)

Filer1# wrfile /etc/hosts

# All other host entries that already exist on Filer 1

# Filer2
192.168.1.2 Filer2

Filer2# wrfile /etc/hosts

# All other host entries that already exist on Filer 2

# Filer1
192.168.1.1 Filer1

Authorize destination filer to perform replication on source filer:
Filer1# options snapmirror.access host=Filer2

In order to reduce replication volumes and keep source and destination synchronized, configure snapmirro schedule (snapmirror.conf):

Filer2# wrfile /etc/snapmirror.conf
Filer1:/vol/vol1/- Filer2:/vol/client1/vol1 - 0 8,16,0 * *

Synchronizations will run automatically everyday, every 8 hours starting with 0:00.

The first synchronization is the baseline and it is manually initialized on destination (snapmirror is destination driven):

Filer2# snapmirror initialize -S Filer1:/vol/vol1/- Filer2:/vol/client1/vol1

In both snapmirror.conf and when issuing snapmirror command, the syntax for source is a bit different: Filer1:/vol/vol1/-. The hyphen ensures that trad vol1 is actually treated as qtree and not as volume. Snapmirror starts and you may check the status. When synchronization is finished or is no longer need, snapmirror has to be stopped. Do a final synchronization:

Filer2# snapmirror update -S Filer1:/vol/vol1/- Filer2:/vol/client1/vol1

Pause the destination qtree:

Filer2# snapmirror quiesce /vol/client1/vol1

Break snapmirror relationship on destionatino filer:

Filer2# snapmirror break /vol/client1/vol1

Stop snapmirror on source filer:

Filer1# snapmirror release /vol/vol1/- Filer2:/vol/client1/vol1

And do not forget to export the new qtree.

Filer2> exportfs –p sec=sys, rw=192.168.1.0/24,root=192.168.1.0/24,nosuid /vol/client1/vol1

As a best practice, use a different network link for snapmirror traffic than production networks. It tends to use a lot of bandwidth, even though QSM does not fill up the bandwidth because of its nature. If a dedicated network is not possible, then bandwidth usage can be limited:

• add kbps=value_in_kbps in snapmirror.conf file
• use -k option when issuing snapmirror command