SnapMirror is a feature of Data ONTAP that enables you to replicate data. SnapMirror enables you to copy data from specified source volumes or qtrees to specified destination volumes or qtrees, respectively. You need a separate license to use SnapMirror.
After the data is replicated to the destination
storage system, you can access the data on the destination to perform the following actions:
- Provide users immediate access to mirrored data in case the source goes down.
- Restore the data to the source to recover from disaster, data corruption (qtrees only), or user error.
- Archive the data to tape.
- Balance resource loads.
- Back up or distribute the data to remote sites.
You can configure SnapMirror
to operate in one of the following modes.
- Asynchronous mode: SnapMirror replicates Snapshot copies to the destination at specified, regular intervals.
- Synchronous mode: SnapMirror replicates data to the destination as soon as the data is written to the source volume.
- Semi-synchronous mode: SnapMirror replication at the destination volume lags behind the source volume by 10 seconds. This mode is useful for balancing the need for synchronous mirroring with the performance benefit of asynchronous mirroring.
SnapMirror can be used with traditional volumes and FlexVol volumes.
