NetApp SnapDrive Installation and Configuration

With SnapDrive data management software from NetApp, you can reduce the cost and complexity of managing storage for your company, enable flexible and efficient utilization of storage resources, and improve data and application availability. SnapDrive software offers a rich set of capabilities to virtualize and enhance storage management for your Microsoft Windows, Linux, and UNIX environments. SnapDrive tightly integrates with your native file system and provides a layer of abstraction between application data and the physical storage associated with that data.

SnapDrive extends the capabilities of NetApp SnapManager software to virtual infrastructures. This means that you gain common data management tools for virtualized and physical servers and can accelerate the deployment of existing Windows applications on virtual servers. With SnapDrive, you can manage data in virtual machines and take full advantage of the applicationspecific data management capabilities of SnapManager products.

NetApp SnapDrive for Windows software, a protocol-agnostic solution, eliminates time-consuming and error-prone manual management of NetApp storage solutions. You can use NetApp SnapDrive for Windows software for quick scaling, to speed backup and restore, and to increase stored data availability.

NetApp SnapDrive automates storage provisioning tasks. It can back up and restore business-critical data in seconds using integrated NetApp Snapshot technology. With Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V and VMware ESX Server support, SnapDrive software can run on your Windows-based hosts in either a physical or virtual environment, including Hyper-V on SMB 3.0. You can integrate it with Windows failover clustering, and add storage as needed without having to pre-allocate storage resources.

NetApp SnapDrive for Windows software:

• Provides continuous data access
• Helps server administrators to self-manage their data
• Improves IT efficiency by automating provisioning
• Leverages the advanced capabilities of NetApp clustered Data ONTAP® software
• Facilitates rapid file system- and application-consistent backups and rapid data recovery for enhanced data reliability

1. Download the SnapDrive software from NetApp Support Site and Double click the setup file. The installation wizard will begin and next....

2. Select the SnapDrive License type. There are two types of licenses. 

           a) Per Storage System License (Enable the License in Storage Nodes)

           b) Per Server License (Enable the license in Hosts)

3. Provide the customer Information....  Next

4. Web Service Config port information... Next

5. Set the Storage Name and Preferred Storage System IP.

If you are using ONTAP9 then provide the SVM Management IP.

        a) Set the vsadmin password for the svm

        b) Unloack the vsadmin user account

        c) Create a LIF for SVM Management.

6. Enable the HTTPS Transfer Protocol settings with vserver vsadmin credentials ... Next...

7. Now press install, then installation begins.....

8. Installation Completed successfully...

9. Open the SnapDrive Application in Windows Host... Snapdrive services are running and is connected to the Host.

10. Disk Option provides to provision a new Disk(LUN), connect to an existing Disk and Manage the igroups of this host(both WWPN and IQN).

11. Click to Mange Igroups and add the SVM management IP or Name.

12. You will be able to create a new igroup or Manage the igroups.

13. Click the Create Disk, and Select the Storage name or IP, this will automatically discover the volumes.

      Select the volumes and specify the LUN Name.

14.  Specify the Drive letter to mount in windows Host and Specify the LUN size. 

15. Then Select the Igroup to MAP the LUN.

16. Complete the Disk Create wizard.

17. IN a single step this will create a LUN with the size and Partitioned, file system created and mount the file system also.

18. LUN is successfully created and Mounted on E Drive letter. Now you can manage this disk to expand or shrink or delete it. Also you can manage the snapshots also for data protection.

19. Now check and list in Cluster, New LUN is created and Mapped to windows host.

20. You can the new disk drive in device manager also.

ONTAP 9.5 NVMe Configuration and Management

What is NVMe:

NVMe (nonvolatile memory express) is a new storage access and transport protocol for flash and next-generation solid-state drives (SSDs) that delivers the highest throughput and fastest response times yet for all types of enterprise workloads.

NVMe (non-volatile memory express) is a host controller interface and storage protocol created to accelerate the transfer of data between enterprise and client systems and solid-state drives (SSDs) over a computer's high-speed Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus.

Help deliver a high-bandwidth, low-latency user experience, the NVMe protocol accesses flash storage via a PCI Express (PCIe) bus, which supports tens of thousands of parallel command queues and thus is much faster than hard disks and traditional all-flash architectures, which are limited to a single command queue.

How NVMe works

NVMe maps I/O commands and responses to shared memory in a host computer over the PCIe interface. The NVMe interface supports parallel I/O with multicore processors to facilitate high throughput and mitigate central processing unit (CPU) bottlenecks.

NVMe supports 64,000 commands in a single message queue and a maximum of 65,535 I/O queues. By contrast, a SAS device typically supports up to 256 commands, and a SATA drive supports up to 32 commands, in one queue.

Benefits of NVMe for Data Storage

• ·   Unlike protocols designed in the days of mechanical hard disk drives, NVMe leverages not just solid-state storage, but also today’s multicore CPUs and gigabytes of memory.
• ·   NVMe storage also takes advantage of streamlined command sets to efficiently parse and manipulate data.

NVMe Use Cases

• ·  Real-time customer interactions such as finance, e-commerce, and software sales agents
• ·   Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data, and advanced analytics apps
• ·    DevOps, enabling you to run more iterations in less time

NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF)

NVMe is more than faster flash storage – it’s also an end-to-end standard that enables vastly more efficient transport of data between storage systems and servers.

·   NVMe over Fabrics extends NVMe’s performance and latency benefits across network fabrics such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand.

·     Provides higher IOPS and reduced latency from the host software stack all the way through the Data Fabric to the storage array.

NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)

With the recent release of NetApp^®ONTAP^®, NetApp’s data management platform provides NVMe over Fibre Channel support today.

Applications such as databases run much faster when using the NVMe/FC protocol compared to FCP (SCSI protocol with an underlying Fibre Channel connection). ONTAP NVMe/FC traffic can co-reside with FCP traffic on the same Fibre Channel fabric, so it’s easy to get started with NVMe/FC. For many customers with ONTAP AFF systems, this is simply a nondisruptive software upgrade.

Considerations for FC-NVMe configurations

Beginning with ONTAP 9.4, the non-volatile memory express (NVMe) protocol is available for SAN environments. FC-NVMe allows you to run NVMe over an existing FC network with an AFF system. FC-NVMe uses the same physical setup and zoning practice as traditional FC networks but allows for greater bandwidth, increased IOPs and reduced latency than FC-SCSI.

• Beginning with ONTAP 9.5 multipath HA pair failover/giveback is supported for NVMe configurations.

Path failover/giveback is not supported in ONTAP 9.4.

• NVMe can be the only data protocol on the storage virtual machine (SVM).
• FC-NVMe can be the only data protocol on data LIFs.
• Only one host can be configured per subsystem.
• LUNs and namespaces cannot be mixed on the same volume.
• You should configure one management LIF for every SVM supporting SAN.
• Cascade, partial mesh, full mesh, core-edge, and director fabrics are all industry-standard methods of connecting FC switches to a fabric, and all are supported.

A fabric can consist of one or multiple switches, and the storage controllers can be connected to multiple switches.

• In ONTAP 9.4, only one FC-NVMe data LIF can be configured per SVM.

In ONTAP 9.5, four FC-NVMe data LIFs can be configured per SVM

Create a SVM with NVMe Protocol only.

Enable the Protocol Service.

Check the status of NVMe Protocol service on SVM.

In ONTAP 9.5, four FC-NVMe data LIFs can be configured per SVM.
List the NVMe LIF's.

List the Subsystem.

To add a Host NQN to an existing subsystem.

Listing the NVMe Interfaces.

Listing the Namespaces.

Creating a namespace with size and Host type. But It is not mapped to any subsystem.

Creating new subsystem with OSType VMware.

Add the HOST NQN to the subsystem.

List the name and notice that it is not mapped to any subsystem.

Now Map the Namespace to an existing subsystem.

After this command, namespace is mapped to the subsystem. Now it is ready to discover the disk from host.

Listing Namespace and Subsystems using System Manager.

Using System Manager also you can create a subsystem, namespace and map it.

ONTAP 9.5 FlexCache

What is FlexCache:

FlexCache is a remote caching capability that simplifies file distribution, reduces WAN latency, and lowers WAN bandwidth costs. It enables distributed product development across multiple sites, as well as branch office access to corporate datasets.

NetApp FlexCache

With NetApp FlexCache technology, a feature of ONTAP 9 software, cache only the actively-read data, rather than entire files or volumes, either locally within a datacenter or geographically dispersed at remote sites. 

Improve the speed and productivity of collaboration across multiple locations:

·    For content generation workflows such as software development, corporate marketing, and animation 

Increase data throughput:

·    For read-intensive applications such as movie rendering, chip-design, seismic analysis, and financial simulation 

By serving Hot Data, data that needs to be accessed frequently, from multiple controllers in a cluster you can increase the performance delivered to key applications. And by caching Hot Data local to users at multiple locations around the world, you can enhance their collaboration by enabling simultaneous access to centralized datasets while also reducing the response time they receive when accessing the Hot Data.

Benefits of FlexCache

Deploying NetApp FlexCache software allows users to scale out storage performance for read-heavy workloads. But there are several other benefits:

• ·    Speed data access for remote users by reducing remote access latency
• ·  Increase performance economically with minimal incremental storage by caching only accessed data, not entire volumes.
• ·    Improve storage system ROI by consolidating more workloads and lowering WAN bandwidth costs
• ·    Increase flexibility to handle workload spikes by enabling cache instances to be created on demand, without additional storage investment 

FlexCache is supported on AFF, FAS, and ONTAP Select systems running ONTAP 9.5 or later versions.

In this initial release:

• FlexCache is only supported in NFSv3.
• Licenses are not included in the premium bundle and are a per-cluster add-on (based on total cluster cache capacity). Subscription terms are 1 or 3 years.
• Both origin and FlexCache volumes can be provisioned on AFF, FAS, or ONTAP Select, but not all combinations make sense, so think carefully about where to deploy them.
• Both Intra-cluster origin and FlexCache volumes can be in the same SVM or in different SVMs, giving you some flexibility in deployment.
• You can only provision 10 FlexCache volumes per origin FlexVol volume, and up to 10 FlexCache volumes per node. 
• FlexCache volumes are FlexGroup volumes by default, and origin volumes must be FlexVol volumes (FlexGroup volumes are not supported, neither are Qtrees and quotas on origin volumes).

Create a new flexcache volume using volume flexcache command.

List the flexcache volumes in System Manager.

List the flexcache volume in CLI.

ONTAP 9.5 SnapMirror Synchronous SM-S Configuration

SnapMirror Synchronous (SM-S):

Finally SnapMirror Synchronous comes to ONTAP to  meet regulatory and industry mandatory requirements.

SnapMirror Synchronous allows user to replicate volume level – data, cross a Wide Area Network connection with zero Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and very low Recovery Time Objective (RTO). This helps to address regulatory and industry mandated needs for synchronous replication. SnapMirror Synchronous will have two different modes available in the initial release.

StrictSync

•     Read and write to primary denied, if any failure in replication at secondary

Sync

•      Read and write to primary will continue without any disruption

In the initial release of SnapMirror Synchronous, NFSv3, iSCSI and FCP will be supported. Licensing will be capacity-based, in addition to the base SnapMirror® license.

1. In Protection Tab, Volume relationships and then create.
Then Select the Destination Volume SVM.

Note: Prior to this do the cluster peer and SVM peer relationship.

2. Select the Replication Type (Sync or Async)

Then select the Sync Mode (Strict Sync or Sync)

Select the Source Volume and Destination Volume.

3. Select the SnapMirror Policy (StrictSync) and Initialize the relationship.

4. Now it is transferring the data to destination volume.

4. The state changed to snapmirrored and transfer state is InSync.

You can use the " Help Me Choose" in System Manager.

As per your selection this will provide replication type.