[Feature Request] - Retain Primary Snapshot

[chjones]

Hi,

When using storage snapshot integration, particularly with NetApp ONTAP systems, it is possible to integrate with Storage Snapshots and ONTAP replication (SnapMirror/Vault) and then backup to a Veeam Repository from the secondary snapshot.

However, there is no ability to retain the Primary ONTAP Snapshot at the source data centre. Veeam creates a snapshot on the Primary Storage named "VeeamTransferSnapshot_(Name_of_Backup_Job).(date & time).

After Veeam triggers the storage replication it will then mount the snapshot at the destination and backup the data into a Veeam Repository. This is often required if customers want to use the SOBR Capacity Tier to tier the backups to an S3 target.

After the secondary snapshot is mounted and the data is written into a Veeam Repository, Veeam will retain the secondary snapshot for whatever period we defined in the backup job, but will delete the Primary Snapshot.

Is there the possibility that when using storage snapshot integration and using the secondary snapshot (the SnapMirror/Vault destination) as the source for the backup into the Veeam Repository, that the Primary Snapshot can not be deleted? Having the ability to set the snapshot retention for the Primary Snapshot when performing backups with this method would be a very welcome addition.

Unless there is already a way to do this that I've just never been unable to find?

Chris

[chjones]

I should add one minor correction to this, the Primary Storage Snapshot is not deleted immediately. It remains until the next run of the job. Even still, that only leaves the latest backup at the primary site as a storage snapshot. The majority of restores are usually from within the past 14 days, so having to recover that data from across sites adds extra delays.

[foggy]

Hi Chris, for NetApp you already can achieve this by adding two secondary targets - NetApp Data ONTAP Primary Snapshot and NetApp Data ONTAP SnapMirror/SnapVault. In this case, you will be able to specify different retention for snapshots on primary and secondary storage, as well as perform backup from the secondary one.