Create SnapMirror policy and rules workflow

Goal

The Create SnapMirror policy and rules workflow enables you to create a SnapMirror policy, which you can either configure to support SnapMirror protection relationships or configure to support SnapVault protection relationships.

Prerequisites

 

·         You must be running Data ONTAP 8.2 or later on the affected cluster.

About this workflow

The Create SnapMirror policy and rules workflow is executed to create a SnapMirror policy, which can either be configured to support a SnapMirror protection relationship or configured to support a SnapVault protection relationship:

·         For SnapMirror relationships, a SnapMirror policy specifies transfer priority settings and restart settings for SnapMirror protection relationships to which it is assigned.  You can maximize transfer efficiency from the source to the destination by assigning lower priority status to certain transfers, which are then scheduled to run after normal priority transfers.

·         For SnapVault relationships, a SnapMirror policy specifies SnapVault transfer priority settings, access time settings, and Snapshot copy retention rules for the SnapVault relationships to which it is assigned.

WFA user actions

 

1.       Click Portal > Data Protection > Create SnapMirror policy and rules to display the Executive Workflow dialog box for the Create SnapMirror policy and rules workflow.


 

2.       Specify values for the appropriate user inputs:

o   If you want to create a policy for SnapMirror relationships, specify values for the following fields:

o   Cluster Name

o   Storage Virtual Machine Name

o   SnapMirror Policy Name

o   SnapMirror Policy Comment

o   SnapMirror Policy Restart

o   SnapMirror Policy Transfer Priority

o   SnapMirror Policy Tries

o   If you want to create a policy for SnapVault relationships, specify values for the following fields:

o   Cluster Name

o   Storage Virtual Machine Name

o   SnapMirror Policy Name

o   SnapMirror Policy Comment

o   SnapMirror Policy Ignore Atime

o   SnapMirror Policy Transfer Priority

o   SnapMirror Policy rule details

3.       Click Execute

WFA User input descriptions

The mandatory and optional user inputs for the Create SnapMirror Policy and rules workflow are described below.

Input

Description

Cluster Name

(mandatory)

The name of the cluster in which the destination volumes of SnapMirror or SnapVault relationships to be associated with this policy reside

Storage Virtual Machine Name

(mandatory)

The name of the SVM in which the destination volumes of SnapMirror or SnapVault relationships to be associated with this policy reside.

·         If you specify the name of a specific SVM, this policy is can be assigned to any relationship whose destination volume resides on that SVM.

·         If you specify the same value as you did for the Cluster Name input, this policy can be assigned to any relationship whose destination volume resides anywhere on the cluster.

 

SnapMirror Policy Name

(mandatory)

The name of the SnapMirror policy being created

SnapMirror Policy Comment

(optional)

Comments on the policy

SnapMirror Policy Ignore Atime

(optional)

Whether incremental transfers are to ignore files which have only their access time changed.  This input applies to SnapVault relationships only.  Possible values include: “true,” or “false.”

SnapMirror Policy Restart

(optional)

The restart behavior of transfers associated with this policy if those transfers are interrupted. Possible values include: “always,”  “never,” and “default.” This input applies to SnapMirror relationships only.

SnapMirror Policy Transfer Priority

The priority to assign to data transfers associated with this policy. Possible values include: “low,” and “normal.”

SnapMirror Policy Tries

(optional)

The maximum number of times to attempt each manual or scheduled transfer associated with relationships assigned this policy. Possible values include any positive integer or “unlimited.”

SnapMirror Policy rule details

(optional)

Optional table specifying rules of retention for groups of Snapshot copies that have been assigned specified SnapMirror labels.  SnapMirror labels are text identifiers (for example, “Hourly,” “Daily,” or “Monthly”) that are typically assigned to groups of Snapshot copies whose creation is scheduled using a Snapshot policy on the primary volume. This input applies to SnapVault relationships only.  For each rule in the table, you can specify the following inputs:

·         Keep (mandatory field) The maximum number of transferred Snapshot copies associated with a specified  SnapMirror label to retain at the vault location

·         SnapMirror label (mandatory field) The label of the Snapshot copies for which this rule is to apply

·         Preserve (optional field) whether to preserve all existing transferred Snapshot copies associated with the specified SnapMirror label.

o   true preserves all existing transferred Snapshot copies associated with the specified SnapMirror label at the vault location even when the number of Snapshot copies with that label reach their specified limit. After the limit is reached, no additional Snapshot copies with the specified SnapMirror label can be transferred to the destination location.

o   false deletes the oldest Snapshot copies with the specified SnapMirror label when the number of stored Snapshot copies reaches the specified limit for that label. 

·         Warn (optional field, applicable only if the Preserve  field is set to “true”) The number of stored Snapshot copies with the specified label at which to issue a warning to the storage administrator that the storage limit for Snapshot copies with the specified label will soon be reached. This number must be less than the number specified in the Keep field.

 

 

Workflow sequence

 

When completing the default Create SnapMirror Policy and rules workflow, WFA executes the following sequence of tasks:

 

1.       Create SnapMirror policy. WFA calls the Create SnapMirror Policy - Perl command to create a SnapMirror mirror policy, which, depending on the WFA user inputs, is either configured to support a SnapMirror relationship or configured to support a SnapVault relationship.

 

2.       Add Rule to existing policy. If a policy for a SnapVault relationship is being created, WFA calls the Add Rule to SnapMirror policy - Perl command to add any specified new Snapshot copy retention rules to the new SnapMirror policy.

 

Result

 

After the Create SnapMirror Policy and rules workflow is successfully completed, a new SnapMirror policy is created, either configured to support a SnapMirror protection relationship or configured to support a SnapVault protection relationship. It can be assigned to protection relationships whose destination volumes reside on the cluster or SVMs specified for that policy.

Workflow customizations

 

The purpose of the default Create SnapMirror Policy and rules workflow is to create one or more SnapMirror policies, with preconfigured transfer priority, transfer restart, transfer retry or Snapshot copy retention settings, that you can assign to one or more SnapMirror relationship or SnapVault relationship when you specify inputs for those relationships prior to the execution of the WFA Create SnapMirror workflow or Create SnapVault workflow

However, if you prefer a workflow that allows you to configure those settings at the time you create a SnapMirror relationship or SnapVault relationship, you can clone the default Create SnapMirror workflow or Create SnapVault workflow and edit those workflows, inserting the “Create SnapMirror policy” task listed in this workflow into the cloned workflow tasks.