topic Re: P4300 Backup Options in StoreVirtual Storage

P4300 Backup Options

imc_2 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:22:43 GMT

Hello,

I'm currently running a three shelf P4300 setup. We purchased a VSA license and have a box off site. I have each volume on the production P4300 set to run a remote snapshot off to the VSA.

What I didn't realize at the time of implementation was that the snapshot live on both the VSA and on the production SAN. So for a loaded 300 GB volume, I've got 300 GB tied up in a snapshot that I don't need on the production server. This seems like a lot of wasted space to me. Is there anything I can do differently with my current setup(software is up to date at 10.5)? Do I have any other options beyond the current set up?

Thanks for any advice.

Re: P4300 Backup Options

oikjn — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:40:47 GMT

are you using thin provisioning on the primary volumes? If you are, and 300GB is size of a single snapshot you are pretty much stuck. You need one snapshot on the primary site because it is critical for creating the NEXT snapshot otherwise how would the system know what change information to send remote? If that size is too large, its either because you aren't using thin provisioning or its simply because the amount of data changed over your time period is that large. If its the latter you have one of two options... 1. reduce the amount of data that changes with each snapshot. 2. increase the frequency of the snapshots.