Specifications

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3.3 NETAPP FLEXCLONE
When NetApp FlexClone® technology is combined with SnapMirror and SRM, testing the DR solution can
be performed quickly and easily, requiring very little additional storage, and without interrupting the
replication process. FlexClone quickly creates a read-writable copy of a FlexVol® volume. When this
functionality is used, an additional copy of the data is not required, for example for a 10GB LUN, another
10GB LUN isn’t required, only the meta-data required to define the LUN. FlexClone volumes only store data
that is written or changed after the clone was created.
The SRM DR testing component leverages FlexClone functionality to create a copy of the DR data in a
matter of seconds, requiring only a small percentage of additional capacity for writes that occur during
testing.
Figure 2 Example capacity required for DR testing with NetApp FlexClone
FlexClone volumes share common data blocks with their parent FlexVol volumes but behave as
independent volumes. This allows DR testing to be completed without affecting the existing replication
processes. Testing of the DR environment can be performed, even for an extended period of time, while
replication is still occurring to the parent FlexVol volume in the background.
3.4 UNIFIED ARCHITECTURE FLEXIBILITY
All NetApp storage systems run the Data ONTAP operating system. This allows for systems with differing
performance characteristics and different costs to be utilized at the primary and DR sites. For example,
depending on the capabilities required, the DR site might contain a lower model storage system, SATA disk
vs. FC disk, or the iSCSI protocol vs. FC. A unified architecture, from the low end of the NetApp storage
product line to the high end, also allows for one management and monitoring paradigm to be learned and
used by system administrators.
3.5 NEW FEATURES IN SRM FOR VSPHERE
The first version of SRM to support vSphere environments adds support for datastores connected by the
NFS protocol. Customers who have taken advantage of the capabilities provided by NetApp and the NFS
protocol for VMware environments can now deploy SRM. NetApp has provided a new storage adapter for
SRM to support NFS environments.
The new version of SRM also provides a new feature called shared recovery sites. Shared recovery sites
allow one vSphere environment to be used to provide DR protection for multiple protected or primary sites.
This feature requires multiple SRM servers at the single DR site and a single SRM server at each primary
site. Installing an SRM server at each protected site and a corresponding SRM server for each of those in
the recovery site, you can enable a single shared DR site to protect multiple remote offices or multiple
service provider customers. Please see the VMware documentation for more information regarding setup of
SRM servers to support the shared recovery site model.
3.6 NEW FEATURES IN THE NETAPP SRM ADAPTER FOR VSPHERE
NetApp has released a new unified storage adapter for vSphere SRM environments. Starting with version
1.4.3 this unified storage adapter supports new features that were not present in previous releases: