What data gets backed up and restored through SnapVault

The data structures that are backed up and restored through SnapVault depend on the primary storage system.

On storage systems running Data ONTAP, the qtree is the basic unit of SnapVault backup and restore.
SnapVault backs up specified qtrees on the primary storage system to associated qtrees on the SnapVault secondary storage system. If necessary, data is restored from the secondary qtrees back to their associated primary qtrees.
On Open System storage platforms, the directory is the basic unit of SnapVault backup. SnapVault backs up specified directories from the native system to specified qtrees in the SnapVault secondary storage system.
If necessary SnapVault can restore an entire directory or a specified file to the Open System storage platform.

Note: You can back up the qtrees from multiple primary storage systems, or directories from multiple Open Systems storage platforms, to associated qtrees on a single SnapVault secondary volume.

Figure 1. Primary and secondary storage systems

Parent topic: What SnapVault is