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Types of data protection relationships

Depending on your data protection and backup requirements, ThinkSystem Storage Manager for DM Series provides different types of protection relationships that enable you to protect data against accidental, malicious, or disaster-induced loss of data.

Mirror relationship (SnapMirror license required)​

A mirror relationship provides asynchronous disaster recovery. Data protection mirror relationships enable you to periodically create Snapshot copies of the data on one volume, to copy those Snapshot copies to a partner volume (the destination volume), which is usually on another cluster, and then to retain those Snapshot copies. If the data on the source volume is corrupted or lost, the mirror copy on the destination volume ensures quick availability and restoration of data from the time of the latest Snapshot copy.

For mirror relationships, the version of ONTAP that is running on the destination cluster must be the same version as or a later version than the ONTAP version running on the source cluster. However, version-flexible mirror relationships are not dependent on the ONTAP version. Therefore, you can create a version-flexible mirror relationship with a destination cluster that is running either a later ONTAP version or an earlier ONTAP version than the ONTAP version of the source cluster or an earlier version of ONTAP than the ONTAP version of the source cluster.
Note
The version-flexible mirror relationship feature is available only from ONTAP 8.3 onward. You cannot have a version-flexible mirror relationship with a volume in Data ONTAP 8.3 or earlier.

Mirror relationships are valid for FlexVol volumes and Infinite Volumes.

Vault relationship (SnapMirror or SnapVault license required)​

A vault relationship provides storage-efficient and long-term retention of backups. Vault relationships enable you to back up selected Snapshot copies of volumes to a destination volume and to retain the backups.

Vault relationships are valid only for FlexVol volumes.

Mirror and vault relationship (SnapMirror licenses required)​

A mirror and vault relationship provides data protection by periodically transferring data from the source volume to the destination volume and also facilitates long-term retention of data by creating backups of the source volume.
Note
The mirror and vault relationship feature is available only from ONTAP 8.3.2 onward. You cannot have a mirror and vault relationship with a volume in Data ONTAP 8.3.2 or earlier.

A mirror and vault relationship is valid for FlexVol volumes and FlexGroup volumes.