topic Re: Volume Collection in Array Performance and Data Protection

Volume Collection

lindy37 — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:52:38 GMT

I have created some vmware volumes (6) on my Nimble. I initially chose "Protect as a standalone volume" for these volumes. I started with a daily snapshop and then added a daily replication for each volume you like this.

Could I create a Volume Collection and move these volumes into the collection? If I can I have some questions..

What happens to the current snapshots? Will they be deleted right away? If not will they be deleted when they reach their retention? (3 days)
What about the replication snapshots?
Can I have a daily local snapshot that is the same for the collection but then add a replication snap shot that is different for each volume in the collection?

Example would be take a local snap shot for the 6 volumes in the collection say at 9am. Then starting with volume 1 replicate it at 5pm, then volume 2 replicated it at 6pm etc. until all 6 volumes replicate.

Thanks for any help!

Re: Volume Collection

rugby0134 — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 16:28:09 GMT

Just ran this in the lab to make sure...

* Each standalone snap has it's own expiration date changing to volume collection will not remove existing snaps

* Moving to a VC will just start additional snaps with that policy.

* All snap will expire on there set date and times going forward

Re: Volume Collection

Nick_Dyer — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 09:31:14 GMT

Correct. If you were to change the retention date to something that automatically ages old snaps - they will not be automatically deleted. Instead, they are turned into "unmanaged" snapshots which you must manually delete. Reason being is that although you've changed your retention of snapshots, you may still need that data for compliance purposes. If we were to automatically clear down snapshots which are older than the new retention period and you were governed by data compliance then it could be a very bad idea.