NetBackup™ Snapshot Manager for Data Center Administrator's Guide

Discover assets

Snapshot Manager for Data Center discovers all the SAN volumes (virtual disks) that are part of storage pools that are created on the InfiniBox storage array. The plug-in sends a request to the array to return a list of all the volumes that have the type set to PRIMARY. Such volumes are considered base volumes and appear as disk assets.

To discover snapshot objects, the plug-in sends a request to the array to return a list of all the volumes that have the type set as SNAPSHOT and the depth attribute set as 1. Such volumes are considered snapshots.

InfiniBox arrays support creating a snapshot of a snapshot. The depth attribute identifies the snapshot type. A snapshot depth value greater than 1 indicates that it is a snapshot of an existing snapshot. Snapshot Manager for Data Center does not support discovery or operations on snapshot volumes that have a depth value other than 1.

Create snapshot

Snapshot Manager for Data Center takes a snapshot of all the SAN volumes that are part of a storage pool. When a snapshot is created, the Snapshot Manager for Data Center plug-in uses InfiniSDK to send a create_snapshot method request on the selected volume and passes a snapshot name as an argument in that request.

The InifiniBox array creates a snapshot volume, sets the type as SNAPSHOT and the depth attribute value as 1, and returns that information to Snapshot Manager for Data Center.

Delete snapshot

When a snapshot is deleted, the Snapshot Manager for Data Center plug-in sends a delete_snapshot method request on the parent volume that is associated with the snapshot and passes the snapshot volume name as an argument in that request. The InfiniBox array deletes the specified snapshot associated with the parent volume.

Restore snapshot

When a snapshot restore operation is initiated, Snapshot Manager for Data Center first gets details about the parent volume that is associated with the snapshot that is being restored. The Snapshot Manager for Data Center plug-in then sends the restore_snapshot method request to the parent volume and passes the selected snapshot as an argument in that request.

The array uses the selected snapshot to perform the restore on the parent volume. All the data in the parent volume is overwritten by the data in the snapshot volume.

Export snapshot

When a snapshot export operation is initiated, Snapshot Manager for Data Center searches for the target host based on the world wide name (WWN) or the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) specified in the export request. After the host is identified, the Snapshot Manager for Data Center plug-in sends a map_volume method request on the target host and passes the selected snapshot ID as an argument in that request.

The InfiniBox array returns a LUN ID as a response to the restore request. Snapshot Manager for Data Center stores the LUN ID and the target host ID mapping information internally in the Snapshot Manager for Data Center database. The export operation also creates a new virtual asset of type disk:snapshot:export and that is saved in the Snapshot Manager for Data Center database.

Deport snapshot

When a snapshot deport operation is initiated, Snapshot Manager for Data Center first gets the target host ID from the database. The Snapshot Manager for Data Center plug-in then sends an unmap_volume method request to the target host and passes the selected snapshot ID as an argument in that request. The InfiniBox array removes the snapshot volume mapping from the specified target host.