NetApp Datastore "Protected by storage system" is empty

[chjones]

I have been tasked with implementing Veeam DR Orchestrator 5.0 for a customer to orchestrate DR Failover of all VMs on Datastores hosted by NetApp ONTAP.

We have a Veeam B&R Server with a backup job that targets the datastores and uses Storage Integration. The Backups run every hour, create a Primary ONTAP Snapshot and update a SnapVault destination. This job works within B&R and works well. We can restore manually from either site without issue.

Getting DRO 5.0 to orchestrate this, however, is proving to be a challenge. I have the vCenter, B&R Server and the source and destination SVMs added to DRO.

I've created a Storage Recovery Location with the settings:

Storage Vendor: NetApp ONTAP
Target Storage System: DR Site SVM (this is the SVM at the destination where the B&R Backup jobs transfers the storage snapshots to using Snapmirror)
Target Datacenter: DR Site Datacentre
Target Compute Resources: ESXi Hosts at the DR Site
Re-IP: None as the customer spans layer 2 networks
Network Mapping: None as the same VM Networks are configured at both data centres

I then have an Orchestration Plan with the following settings:

Plan Type: Storage
Storage Vendor: NetApp ONTAP
VM Groups: Prod Datastore VMs (when i click in the info button it lists all VMs on the datastores that are replicated by Snapmirror)

Now here is the issue. When I click the Info button I see:

Name: <datastore name>
Backup by storage system: Source Site SVM Name
Protected by storage system: Empty ... there is nothing here, just a dash (-)
Virtual Machines: This shows all the VMs on the protected datastores

I feel like I'm missing something basic here. Has anyone seen this and know who DRO is not recognising that the datastore is protected and has a snapmirror destination?

The rest of the Plan Settings are mostly just the defaults, with the VM Step to Shutdown the Source VMs added as the first step.

Thanks,
Chris

[Alec King]

Hi Chris,

So far your process looks correct.
Can you also please check two other places where storage configuration/status is shown -
* In the Admin Dashboard - there is a widget regarding 'Datastores in Storage Plans'. Is it green or red?
* In the Readiness Check report for this plan - there will be a detailed section on the Recovery Location.

Can you share details of above? Thanks!

[chjones]

I managed to fix this one myself.

What I found was the SnapMirror Policy being used within ONTAP for the datastores that are being protected was using a Policy Type of "Vault". I had this because I want Veeam to create the primary snapshot with a small retention, then trigger a SnapVault update to the destination storage and use a longer retention (most customers I work with do this, it makes sense).

As soon as i changed the SnapMirror Policy to a type of "Mirror-Vault" (or used the in-built MirrorAllSnapshots policy which is just an asyncmirror policy), Veeam DRO was able to immediately identify the protection of the datastores. I've now performed multiple storage failovers and reprotects and its working as expected. Phew!

So moral of the story is if you want longer snapshot retention at the destination but also want Veeam DRO to be able to failover the volume, use a SnapMirror Policy of type "Mirror-Vault", and in the Veeam B&R job ensure you add two secondary locations, one of SnapMirror and another of SnapVault with your longer retention. This works fine.