Monday, September 22, 2014

SnapMirror vs SnapVault in CDOT

 In CDOT we’ve simplified the commands and protocol: to create a snapvault relationship, you run “SnapMirror create –type XDP.”  To create a SnapMirror relationship, you run “SnapMirror create –type DP.”  In fact, for CDOT we no longer call it snapvault, it is called XDP SnapMirror. 

e.g., vs2::> snapmirror create -destination-path vs2:dept_eng_dp_mirror2 -source-path vs1:dept_eng -type DP

The primary distinction between DP snapmirror and XDP SnapMirror is that snapvault allows you to keep more snapshots on the destination.  Essentially, XDP snapmirror is for long-term backups.  Other differences:
·         DP SnapMirror relationships can be reversed (swap destination and source)
·         DP SnapMirror can replicate every minutes, XDP SnapMirror once per hour.
·         DP SnapMirror destination volumes can be made read/write.

Do you have some datasets that would benefit from a quicker time to recovery or have stricter SLA’s?  If so, DP SnapMirror is the best choice.