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NetApp SnapMirror

Score10 out of 10

15 Reviews and Ratings

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What is NetApp SnapMirror?

NetApp offers SnapMirror, a data replication option.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about NetApp SnapMirror.
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SnapMirror Is a Critical Tool for DR

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SnapMirror to replicate all production content to DR sites. It is a critical component of our disaster recovery plan.

Pros

  • Seeding is only required initially
  • Replication updates are very swift
  • Traffic can be reduced with network compression
  • It is well integrated with NetApp's SnapCenter backup tool

Cons

  • GUI interface lacks several options, requiring command line setup
  • Command line steps for removing a replication job can be tricky

Return on Investment

  • Cost savings would come in the event of a disaster, speeding up recovery significantly
  • The amount of storage needed to purchase for backups is significantly smaller due to NetApp's excellent compression and deduplication ratios

Usability

Alternatives Considered

NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management and Veeam Data Platform

Other Software Used

NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, Azure Virtual Machines

Good product, recommend.

Incentivized
Warren Schofield
Infrastructure Manager in Information Technology at Brabners LLP (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use NetApp for snapshots, snap vaults and snap mirrors. This is our preferred method for resolving our issues around ensuring we have quick and easy access to "older versions" of data. It is far quicker than the traditional method of backing up data. We use this solely to protect client data.

Pros

  • Takes very quick copies of data.
  • Ensures easy access.

Cons

  • A better user interface as some things still have to be with command line.

Most Important Features

  • Snapshot
  • Snapmirror
  • Snapvault

Return on Investment

  • Enables us to recover data very quickly reducing time to recreate documents.

Other Software Used

Veeam Backup & Replication, AvePoint Cloud Backup, iManage Work

Review of NetApp SnapMirror based on industry experience

Incentivized
Sarthak PanchalView profile
Consultant, Storage Operations - Shell, G.E.G in Corporate at T-Systems ICT India Pvt. Ltd. (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Well from my perspective we provide end-to-end support for NetApp Snapmirror. Troubleshooting issues like snapshot policy on the source and SnapMirror policy on destination( i.e. DR site). Currently, we have a large customer base and we have overhauled around 500+ SnapMirror relations this year. Response of business is quite spectacular.

Pros

  • It's a data protection Technology.
  • Highly stable.
  • Replicates read only backup copies from source to DR.

Cons

  • Cascade SnapMirror.
  • Broader bandwidth.
  • High resiliency.

Most Important Features

  • Business continuity.
  • High fault tolerance.
  • Point in time data replication and restores for snapshot.

Return on Investment

  • Well no negative impact yet.
  • There are no hindrances related to ROI.
  • Breaking the snapmirror relationship will cause the volume to be RW which causes some problems.

Alternatives Considered

NetApp FAS series, NetApp ONTAP Select and Azure NetApp Files

Other Software Used

Microsoft Azure, Azure NetApp Files, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

NetApp SnapMirror Makes Creating Backups a Snap

Incentivized
Brandon Burch
Coordinator of Network and Technical Services in Information Technology at Hudson Falls Central School District (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

  • Setting up SnapMirror and SnapMirror partners is extremely easy.
  • Monitoring the SnapMirror volumes is extremely easy in the System Manager GUI.

Cons

  • The volume size on the destination partner always has to be bigger than the source. This can get annoying. Not sure if they have made this automatic in future releases.
  • When you break a SnapMirror to use the destination volume you have to redirect all requests to the new volume. This isn't really a con but it is something you need to think about.

Return on Investment

  • The biggest impact SnapMirror has had in our environment is a change in our backup procedures. We still have individual backups within software/systems but the addition of the SnapMirror volumes to another location is an amazing layer of protection.
  • The biggest negative impact of the NetApp Snapshots/SnapMirror system is that you are putting a lot of your eggs in one basket. No one should rely on one device alone for all your backup solutions. Diversity is still key.

Alternatives Considered

Veritas Backup Exec

Other Software Used

NetApp ONTAP System Manager (formerly OnCommand), NetApp FAS series, VMware ESXi

NetApp SnapMirror Gets my Vote

Incentivized
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We leverage NetApp's SnapMirror at both the volume level and full SVM level for our NAS & SAN workloads for disaster recovery between multiple datacenters and Cloud locations. All of our NetApp storage systems are set up to use SnapMirror to help protect our data between sites for a really fast and reliable recovery option.

Pros

  • Ease of use.
  • Reliable.
  • Efficient.

Cons

  • Integrate with other technology providers.
  • Improve the initial Synch Process.
  • Make custom schedule creation easier.

Most Important Features

  • Retention capabilities.
  • Ease of use.
  • Reliability.

Return on Investment

  • NetApp SnapMirror has allowed us to recover critical data in a timely manner on multiple occasions.
  • We have been able to decrease our RPO objectives.
  • We have been able to decrease our DR costs as well.

Alternatives Considered

IBM Spectrum Protect

Other Software Used

Google Cloud Datastore, Google Cloud Deployment Manager, Google Cloud Persistent Disk