BlueXP Blog

Video: Disaster Recovery with Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Written by Dan Shotland, Cloud Software Sales | Jun 6, 2019 12:30:03 PM

In the face of a cyberattack, a natural disaster, or even just run-of-the-mill maintenance, it’s essential to be able to quickly restore data, applications, and infrastructure that have been shut down. To do so, businesses must have a solid disaster recovery (DR) strategy, of which one of the key elements is data replication.

In the video below you will learn how to do just that, by setting up a disaster recovery copy in NetApp’s Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

So Why Use Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

Before we get to the video, let’s take a second to get to know this signature product from NetApp. Cloud Volumes ONTAP, which is designed for both AWS and Azure, allows you to establish a data replication relationship quickly and efficiently, while addressing crucial and cost-saving settings along the way, such as update scheduling and optimizing storage tiers for DR data.

Some cloud providers offer native DR tools and resources, as is the case with Azure disaster recovery, but which may not be enough to help you successfully navigate the complexities of the cloud and ensure that you have the best DR strategy in place. Others don’t offer native solutions for DR, which is the case with AWS disaster recovery. Cloud Volumes ONTAP addresses this need, by reducing challenges such as automation, data transfer, data protection, and minimizing DR costs.

Watch the video below to find out how you can set up a DR copy in Cloud Volumes ONTAP in a few simple steps that will take only minutes:  

 

Features and Benefits of Data Replication with Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Here’s an overview of some of the great features and advantages that come with setting up a DR copy using Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

Quick and easy set up
With Cloud Volumes ONTAP, you can establish a data replication relationship between your on-premises source and an ONTAP cluster through a simple drag and drop. A wizard will then guide you through all of the replication parameters. After that, Cloud Manager will take it from there, and within a few minutes your replication relationship will be established.

Data replication technology 
SnapMirror® utilizes ONTAP snapshots to replicate data from the primary dataset to the cloud-based DR copy and keep them synced. 

Lower data transfer costs
SnapMirror is extremely cost efficient. Once the entire dataset has been copied, SnapMirror updates the DR copy incrementally, syncing only where necessary. Since all of this changed data is transferred after Cloud Volumes ONTAP deduplicates and compresses it, both storage and transfer costs are lowered even further.  

Storage optimization
While setting up your DR copy, Cloud Volumes ONTAP allows you to seamlessly transfer infrequently used data to lower-cost object storage (Blob storage in Azure and Amazon S3 in AWS), using automatic tiering to object storage.  

All of this is covered in the video, so give it a watch to find out more.

Try Cloud Volumes ONTAP for DR

NetApp has helped enterprises optimize their DR plan in a variety of use-cases. Sign up for this 30-day trial on AWS or Azure to find out how Cloud Volumes ONTAP can benefit your business as well.  

Video Transcription

Hi! Today we are going to set up your Disaster Recovery copy with Cloud Volumes ONTAP in a few simple steps.

Step-1:
As the first step we need to add a new environment.
Since this is a DR use case we select “Discover” to find our source, an existing ONTAP cluster.

Step-2:
Enter our credentials.
Select “On-Premise” and click “Continue”.

Step-3:

Now we can see the on-premises and Cloud Volumes clusters of ONTAP on the main screen.
By a simple drag and drop, we start the data replication relationship between the source, our on-premises cluster, and destination in the cloud via SnapMirror®. 

Step-4:

Now the wizard will guide you through all of the replication parameters.
Select the port, the volume, give it a name.

Step-5:

Select your disk type and choose whether you want to enable “S3 Tiering” to object storage, which could save you thousands of dollars each month.

Step-6:

You also have the option to throttle, if you are working with limited bandwidth.
Then select your backup option, whether you want to use long term retention, or choose “Mirror”.

Step-7:

Select your update schedule. We usually recommend every 8 hours for most users.
“Review and Approve” your selections and just click ”Go”.

Step-8:

And Cloud Manager will take care of the rest and in a few minutes, you’ll notice the arrow turn from gray to blue when your replications relationship is established.