This document describes a scenario for setting up a SnapMirror relationship between a source and destination system using tape due to a low-bandwidth connection. It involves backing up the initial snapshot from the source to tape, transporting the tape to the destination system, restoring the snapshot from tape to the destination, and then configuring incremental SnapMirror updates over the low-bandwidth connection.

1. SnapMirror source to tape to destination scenario
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SnapMirror source to tape to destination scenario
In this scenario, you want to establish a SnapMirror relationship between a source system and a destination system over
a low-bandwidth connection. Incremental Snapshot mirroring from the source to the destination over the low bandwidth
connection is feasible, but the initial base Snapshot mirroring is not.
In such a case, it might be faster to first transfer the initial base Snapshot image from source to destination using tape,
and then set up incremental SnapMirror updates to the destination system through the low-bandwidth connection.
This scenario uses the following configuration.
A low-bandwidth connection between the source and destination systems
A local tape drive attached to the source system
A local tape drive attached to the destination system
Note: To prevent extended tape-to-storage system transfer time, it is recommended that the destination system disks
be the same size and in the same RAID configuration as the source system disks.
You must follow this sequence of activities to set up this arrangement.
1. On the source system, use the smtape backup command to copy all volume Snapshot copies, including the
base Snapshot copy, to tape, and use the smtape continue command to continue the copy if more than one
backup tape is necessary.
2. Physically transport the backup tapes from the source system to the destination system.
3. On the destination system, use the vol create and vol restrict commands to set up a SnapMirror target
volume.
4. Use the smtape restore command to copy the initial SnapMirror tape to the destination system and, if
necessary, use the smtape continue command to continue the copy if it is stored on more than one backup
tape.
5. Either use the snapmirror update command to manually mirror an incremental update from the source to the
destination system over the low-bandwidth connection, or edit the snapmirror.conf file to set up an
incremental update schedule from the source to destination system.
6. After completing manual or scheduled incremental update over a connection, you can use the snapmirror
release command to eliminate the source-to-tape relationship and associated Snapshot copy.
For more information about smtape commands, see the Data ONTAP 8.0 7-Mode Data Protection Tape Backup and
Recovery Guide.
More information
Copying source to intermediate tape
For an initial, baseline transfer for a SnapMirror relationship, you might want to do the transfer using a tape. To do this,
you first need to copy the base data to tape.
Initializing a SnapMirror destination by using tape
For an initial, baseline transfer for a SnapMirror relationship, you might want to do the transfer using a tape. After
copying the base data to the tape, you need to copy the data from the tape to the intended destination, and initialize the
destination.
Parent topic: Deployment of SnapMirror
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Part No. 210-05003_A0
Updated for Data ONTAP 8.0.1 on 09 December 2010
12/23/2011 12:48 PM