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Hello,

 

We have configured IntelliSnap and backup copy for a VM group, with the original snap residing in NetApp for 7 days/1 cycle and the backup copies residing in HyperScale for 30 days. The job is scheduled to run Daily incremental and weekly synthetic full.

 

The incremental snapshots are being retained endlessly, as the retention is set to 7days/1 cycle and the volume is filling up.

 

Now my questions:

  1. I understand that every snapshot created in Netapp is a full as it takes a snapshot of the active file system and marks all the active blocks at the time of the snapshot as read-only so that those blocks cannot be overwritten, so can I reset the snapshot retention to 7 days/0 cycle with the expectation that we will be able to restore the entire VM despite the base full Snapshot being aged off?
  1. I have seen intelli snapshot jobs fail owing to an existing backup copy job. Can we execute snapcopy jobs in parallel with backup copy jobs if the previous backup copy operations are delayed?

The customer expectation is to have a snapshot copy for faster restores and cannot afford to have a snapshot that is deemed useless due to the expiration of the base full snapshot if we change the retention to 7 days/0 cycles. Could you please provide feedback on my questions? 

 

Thanks for your help!

Hello @AaravR 

  1. They should not get retained endlessly and they can retain by number of snapshots if need be. The snaps will not age if the job has not been backup copied just like in an aux copy the job does not age from source if it has not been copied to destination (even if it meets retention). Are your backup copies failing or are they running slow?

  2. Backup copies have to run un sequence. As of now there is no way for us to copy them in parallel

  3. The 0 cycles will cause snaps to age (base snaps) if the days retention is met and cycles is set to 0

Hello @Collin Harper , thanks for your feedback.

The backup copies run fine, but the hardware snapshot copies aren't ageing off as per 7-day/1-cycle snap retention rule. 

 

There are weekly synthetic fulls on primary copy and daily incremetal backups enabled. 
I was reading the synthetic full backup article and it stated that synthetic full backups cannot run on intellisnap snap copies, which is why I believe the 1 cycle retention is not being met and we are only seeing incremental snap. According to the retention forecast report, Jobs did not meet its retention cycle requirements. It has yet to receive its next full backup, which is required to comply with retention policies.
Is my understanding correct? Would you recommend using weekly traditional fulls here instead of sync full? 

 

Also thought of changing the retention rules "Retention by number of jobs" setting on the storage policy to 7 days, but was not sure if it will still keep the base full because INC jobs that come after it depend on it?

Even though of using Retention by number of jobs" setting with "Ignoring Job Dependency Check for Snapshot Copies” to ensure the snaps are aged off in 7 days, but if we ignore the dependency checks, a base full backup job will age, which means we won't be able to restore from snap primary copy jobs. Is my understanding right?

 

Sorry for the confusion earlier. Appreciate your help.

Hello @AaravR 

You are correct. Synth Fulls are not supported for Intellisnap agents and it would be best to run a Traditional Full periodically to close the cycle and allow it to age.

Synthetic Full Backups - Supported Agents - https://documentation.commvault.com/11.26/expert/95247_synthetic_full_backups_supported_agents.html

Thanks for your feeback @Collin Harper.

Changing the "Retention by number of jobs" setting on the storage policy to 7 days aged off any old snap jobs, including Base Full. Few files from the incremental snap were successfully restored. But I'm curious if deleting the base full snap will impact VM recovery. can you please share your thoughts on this?
 

or since Netapp is a point-in-time snap, should commvault be able to restore data from incremental snap (even if base full snap is missing)?

Hello @AaravR 

Thank you for your patience.

We would still need the base snap. An incremental backups only protects new data, data that has been added or modified since the last backup. You cannot perform a Full restore without the base Full.

 

Thank you,

Collin

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