On 16/05/12 12:51, Fletcher Cocquyt wrote:
It sounds like (from the product video link) SnapProtect would allow the snapshots to replace the incremental tape backups
And if there a feature to retain make a set of incremental snapshots look like a full backup we potentially decrease frequency of full tape backups - or we could do those to a Netapp SATA JBOD equivalent (with dedup enabled))
This is what we have - VMware consistent NetApp snapshots taken with OnCommand Host, then sent offsite using SnapVault to a 2040. The incrementals are accessible as full snapshots so you can just grab the full VMDKs, or use the GUIs for restore. We don't do tape at all.
I do know of a site that doesn't bother with VMware consistency, and just uses normal (crash-consistent) NetApp snapshots, which hasn't been a problem for them.
It feels, as always like there lack of integration or consolidation for these Netapp products - a missed opportunity.
There is a bit, they have a lot of features and you need to think about how they mix together.
You mentioned OnCommand - what feature provides backup?
OnCommand Core/Host Packages. As I also mentioned, there's also Virtual Storage Center/SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure. Both of these are seeing active product development apparently, so which one to choose depends on your needs. For pure VM backups VSC/SMVI is a bit better, but requires scripts for SnapVault, whereas OnCommand Core/Host (which used to be known as DFM/Operations Manager/Protection Manager) is better for SnapVault and showing other SnapManager backups. And then you have SnapProtect, which I don't know anything about except that it's based on CommVault and so is a more traditional backup system with NetApp integration.