About Snapshot
DataCore Snapshot is a licensed product option of SANsymphony software. Snapshot allows you to create a usable image and/or a full usable copy of a defined collection of data from a specific point in time.
Snapshot provides a foundation to solve the following types of problems:
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Disaster Protection – Snapshot provides an efficient way to identify and return to a specific set of volume data.
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Application Testing – Snapshot allows you to perform test activities on a consistent and reusable copy of operational data while the original copy remains unaltered. Exposure to data corruption and system failure can be minimized by testing against a persistent image of real data before bringing new application changes online.
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Fast Replication – Snapshot allows fast duplication of data without disruption of data availability.
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Logical Error Protection – Snapshot allows faster and more frequent backups translating to faster recovery from problems due to logical errors.
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File-level Data Sharing – Snapshot allows you to present multiple copies of the same source volume to multiple machines. In other words, multiple users can have individual copies of the same data. By using Snapshot to provide file-level data sharing, you can:
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Offload machine cycles related to sharing data between machines
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Reduce data traffic of SAN and LAN
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Increase performance and data availability
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Allow better scalability
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A snapshot is a logical image of a source virtual volume at a particular point in time. The relationship between the virtual volumes used as the source and destination of the snapshot image is referred to a snapshot set or relationship. Snapshot sets are configured through the Snapshot tab in SANmanager. Once you have created snapshot sets, perform Snapshot commands using the Snapshot Utility in SANcentral Tools, or the command line interface (CLI). Snapshot sets can also be grouped to allow commands to be performed on multiple snapshot sets simultaneously.
A MapStore is a virtual volume designated to hold state information and bitmaps of all snapshot relationships, providing persistent storage. A MapStore ensures that snapshot sets remain valid, without loss of the destination virtual volume state or data, when a storage server is stopped or restarted while sets are enabled. When a set is enabled, the destination virtual volume becomes a logical image (snapshot copy) of the source virtual volume and the destination contents will reflect the data of the source at the particular point in time when the set was enabled.
Snapshot allows you to map the destination virtual volume (snapshot copy) to another computer in order to have a fully usable data image for application testing, backup, or in other situations where you could benefit from using a collection of data as it appeared at some previous point in time.
For suggestions on optimal storage allocation and performance using Snapshot, refer to Best Practices for Configuring and Using the SAN.
For a step-by-step guide to configuring and using Snapshot, refer to Getting Started with Snapshot.
For valid Snapshot configurations, refer to Refer to Supported Snapshot Set Configurations.
To add this feature to your license, contact your DataCore Sales Representative.
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