NetBackup™ Snapshot Manager for Data Center Administrator's Guide

Discover assets

Snapshot Manager for Data Center discovers all the volumes that are created on the array. If a volume is part of a multi-volume volume set, Snapshot Manager for Data Center scans the volume set and extracts the individual volume information and then creates a list of all the unique volumes that are part of the volume set.

For snapshots, Snapshot Manager for Data Center scans all the snapshot sets and links each snapshot to its originating parent volume.

Create snapshot

Snapshot Manager for Data Center takes snapshots of all the volumes on the array.

When Snapshot Manager for Data Center takes a snapshot, it internally triggers a copy-on-write (COW) snapshot of the entire volume. If a volume is part of a multi-volume volume set, Snapshot Manager for Data Center takes a snapshot of the entire volume set and creates a snapshot set. The snapshot set contains snapshots of all the volumes that are part of that volume set. However, Snapshot Manager for Data Center associates that snapshot set only with the volume that was selected for the snapshot operation. Even if the volume set contains additional volumes, the snapshot set is associated only with the volume that was selected.

For example, consider a volume set that contains three volumes, vol-1, vol-2, and vol-3. If you use Snapshot Manager for Data Center to create a snapshot of vol-1, Snapshot Manager for Data Center creates a snapshot set that includes snapshots of all the volumes in that volume set. But the snapshot set is marked as a snapshot of vol-1 (the selected volume) even though the snapshot set includes additional snapshots belonging to the other volumes, vol-2, and vol-3.

Delete snapshot

Snapshot Manager for Data Center deletes the snapshot or the snapshot set (if parent volume is part of a volume set).

You can use Snapshot Manager for Data Center to delete only those snapshots that are created using Snapshot Manager for Data Center. If your RMC environment includes other snapshots, then Snapshot Manager for Data Center can discover those snapshots, but the delete operation is not allowed for those snapshots.

Restore snapshot

When you restore a snapshot, Snapshot Manager for Data Center only restores the particular snapshot corresponding to the selected volume. The snapshot set is a COW snapshot that can contain other snapshots belonging to the additional volumes in the volume set. However, Snapshot Manager for Data Center only restores the snapshot for the selected volume. The other snapshots are not used during the restore operation.

Ensure that the parent volume is unmounted from the target host before initiating a snapshot restore.

Export snapshot

When a snapshot export operation is triggered, Snapshot Manager for Data Center creates a new volume from the snapshot and then attaches the new volume to the target host.

If the selected snapshot is a snapshot set, then while creating a new volume, Snapshot Manager for Data Center creates a new volume set from the snapshot set. Even if the new volume set contains multiple volumes, Snapshot Manager for Data Center attaches only the volume that corresponds to the snapshot that was selected for the export. The other volumes are not used in the export operation.

The export operation is supported using the following protocols:

Deport snapshot

When a snapshot deport operation is triggered, Snapshot Manager for Data Center detaches the volume from the target host and then deletes that volume. If the volume is part of a multi-volume volume set, then the entire volume set is detached and deleted from the host.