Creating a unified data protection relationship for FlexGroup volumes

Starting with ONTAP 9.5, you can create and configure SnapMirror unified data protection relationships to configure disaster recovery and archiving on the same destination volume.

1. Create a destination FlexGroup volume of type DP that has the same number of constituents as that of the source FlexGroup volume:
   1. From the source cluster, determine the number of constituents in the source FlexGroup volume: volume show -volume volume_name* -is-constituent true

      Example

      cluster1::> volume show  -volume srcFG* -is-constituent true
      Vserver   Volume         Aggregate    State      Type       Size  Available  Used%
      --------- ------------   ------------ ---------- ---- ----------  ---------- -----
      vss       srcFG          -            online     RW         400TB   172.86GB  56%
      vss       srcFG__0001    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25GB    10.86TB   56%
      vss       srcFG__0002    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.86TB   56%
      vss       srcFG__0003    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.72TB   57%
      vss       srcFG__0004    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.73TB   57%
      vss       srcFG__0005    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.67TB   57%
      vss       srcFG__0006    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.64TB   57%
      vss       srcFG__0007    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.63TB   57%
      ...
      
   2. From the destination cluster, create a destination FlexGroup volume of type DP with the same number of constituents as that of the source FlexGroup volume.

      Example

      cluster2::> volume create -vserver vsd -aggr-list aggr1,
      aggr2 -aggr-list-multiplier 8 -size 400TB -type DP dstFG
      
      Warning: The FlexGroup volume "dstFG" will be created with the 
      following number of constituents of size 25TB: 16.
      Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
      [Job 766] Job succeeded: Successful
      
      
   3. From the destination cluster, verify the number of constituents in the destination FlexGroup volume: volume show -volume volume_name* -is-constituent true

      Example

      cluster2::> volume show  -volume dstFG* -is-constituent true
      Vserver   Volume       Aggregate    State      Type       Size  Available Used%
      --------- ------------ ------------ ---------- ---- ---------- ---------- -----
      vsd       dstFG          -            online     RW         400TB   172.86GB  56%
      vsd       dstFG__0001    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25GB    10.86TB   56%
      vsd       dstFG__0002    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.86TB   56%
      vsd       dstFG__0003    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.72TB   57%
      vsd       dstFG__0004    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.73TB   57%
      vsd       dstFG__0005    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.67TB   57%
      vsd       dstFG__0006    aggr1        online     RW         25TB    10.64TB   57%
      vsd       dstFG__0007    Aggr_cmode   online     RW         25TB    10.63TB   57%
      ...
      
2. Create a job schedule: job schedule cron create -name job_name -month month -dayofweek day_of_week -day day_of_month -hour hour -minute minute

   For the -month, -dayofweek, and -hour options, you can specify all to run the job every month, every day of the week, and every hour, respectively.

   Example

   The following example creates a job schedule named my_weekly that runs on Saturdays at 3:00 a.m.:

   cluster1::> job schedule cron create -name my_weekly -dayofweek "Saturday" -hour 3 -minute 0
   
3. Optional: Create a custom policy of type mirror-vault , and then define a rule for the mirror and vault policy:
   1. Create a custom policy of type mirror-vault for the unified data protection relationship: snapmirror policy create -vserver svm_name -policy policy_name -type mirror-vault
   2. Define a rule for the mirror and vault policy that determines which Snapshot copies are transferred during initialization and update operations: snapmirror policy add-rule -vserver svm_name -policy policy_for_rule - snapmirror-label snapmirror-label -keep retention_count -schedule schedule

   If you do not specify a custom policy, the MirrorAndVault policy is used for unified data protection relationships.
4. Create a unified data protection relationship: snapmirror create -source-path src_svm:src_flexgroup -destination-path dest_svm:dest_flexgroup -type XDP -schedule schedule_name -policy MirrorAndVault

   In ONTAP 9.5, if the policy is not specified with the snapmirror create command, the MirrorAndVault policy is used by default.

   Example

   cluster2::> snapmirror create -source-path vss:srcFG -destination
   -path vsd:dstFG -type XDP -schedule Daily -policy MirrorAndVault
   
5. From the destination cluster, initialize the unified data protection relationship by performing a baseline transfer: snapmirror initialize -destination-path dest_svm:dest_flexgroup

   Example

   cluster2::> snapmirror initialize -destination-path vsd:dstFG
   Operation is queued: snapmirror initialize of destination "vsd:dstFG".