NETAPP CONFIDENTIAL

NETAPP FAQ
Open Systems SnapVault (OSSV) FAQ
Robert Rikard, NetApp
March 2012
FAQ OVERVIEW
This FAQ is for NetApp field and channel partners to help answer some common questions around Open
Systems SnapVault.

OSSV FAQ -- Confidential 2
WHAT IS THE CURRENT VERSION OF OSSV?
OSSV 3.0.1 is the most recent version.

WHAT PLATFORMS AND VERSIONS DOES OSSV SUPPORT?
For the most up-to-date platform support, refer to the Interoperability Matrix Tool

WHAT NEW FEATURES OR CHANGES HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED?
OSSV 3.0.1 Enhanced supportability of Windows 2008/Windows 2008 R2 platforms, Enhanced LREP tool
support for MS SQL application, Enhanced usability of LREP tool

OSSV 3.0 Support for Microsoft SQL Server (2005 & 2008), Support for Microsoft Cluster Server (2-Node
cluster only), Dynamic throttling, Filter driver, IPv6 support, Support for volume mount points

OSSV 2.6.1 Windows 2008 support, File system exclusions for Unix / Linux, Support for NIC teaming,
Unbundling of NetApp Host Agent

OSSV 2.6 VMware integration (refer to separate FAQ)

OSSV 2.5 Support for 64bit Windows, LREP compression and encryption (128-bit AES), Network
compression (requires Data ONTAP 7.3 or higher), Block-level checkpoints, Event log support (application,
security, system)

IS OSSV FREE?
Yes, all OSSV client licenses are free. However, the SnapVault secondary license is not free.

CAN I TRANSFER OSSV LICENSE FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER?
Since OSSV licenses are now free (software and licenses available on NOW), there is no need to transfer
licenses.

WHAT APPLICATIONS DOES OSSV SUPPORT?
Microsoft SQL Server only. Please refer to the Interoperability Matrix Tool for information on which versions
of SQL Server are supported.

WHAT LICENSE DO I NEED TO DEPLOY OSSV FOR SQL SERVER?
You only need the OSSV client license. There is no additional client license required to backup SQL Server.

WHAT TYPES OF BACKUPS CAN I RUN WITH SQL SERVER?
OSSV supports the following backups with SQL Server:
Database backup (as often as every hour)
Transaction log backup (as often as every hour)
Local transaction log backup (as often as every 5 minutes) Note: OSSV cannot verify SQL Server
backups.

ARE TRANSACTION LOGS TRUNCATED AFTER BACKUPS?
Yes, they are truncated by default. This can be disabled.

DOES OSSV USE BLOCK-LEVEL INCREMENTAL WHEN BACKING UP SQL SERVER?
Yes.

HOW DO I ENABLE OSSV FOR MICROSOFT CLUSTER?
You enable clustering with the svcluster utility. Refer to the Installation and Administration Guide for details.

WHAT DOES THE OSSVResourceType DO IN MSCS?
It is used to restart the OSSV services on the client during a failover. It does not actually monitor the OSSV
service.

IN A MSCS ENVIRONMENT, IF A FAILOVER OCCURS DURING BACKUP, DOES THE BACKUP
RESTART FROM CHECKPOINT?
No. The backup will retry, but there will not be any checkpoint data to restart from.



OSSV FAQ -- Confidential 3
CAN I THROTTLE BANDWIDTH DURING BACKUPS?
Yes, with OSSV 3.0 and higher. Dynamic throttling allows you to impose scheduled throttles on a per client
basis. Dynamic throttling is configured with the wan.cfg file on the client. Dynamic throttling does not apply to
restores.

DOES OSSV SUPPORT IPv 6?
Yes, with OSSV 3.0 and higher.

DOES OSSV SUPPORT WINDOWS VOLUME MOUNT POINTS?
Yes, with OSSV 3.0 and higher.

WHY WAS NETAPP HOST AGENT (NHA) UNBUNDLED FROM OSSV?
Starting with OSSV 2.6.1 the NetApp Host Agent was unbundled and is no longer a part of the OSSV
installation. Because of various dependencies between OSSV versions, NHA versions, and client versions it
became very difficult to know which versions to bundle together.

NHA is not a requirement, but allows OSSV services on Windows and Linux clients to be restarted from
Protection Manager.

You can still install NHA on OSSV 2.6.1 (and higher) clients if needed. NHA can be downloaded from the
NOW site. Refer to the Interoperability Matrix Tool for NHA version information. Different OSSV versions
require different NHA versions.

For more information refer to the OSSV 2.6.1 Release Notes.

DOES OSSV CHECK FOR SUPPORTED VERSIONS OF NHA BEFORE INSTALLING THE PLUGINS.
No. Since OSSV no longer bundles NHA with itself, the user must ensure that correct NHA versions are
installed if NHA is required.

OSSV 2.6 AND EARLIER VERSIONS DO NOT SEEM TO WORK WITH NHA 2.7
This will occur due to some changes in registry entries by NHA 2.7. OSSV 2.6.1 will work with NHA 2.7 as
well as older NHA releases.

WHERE CAN I GET DETAILS ABOUT OSSV FOR ESX?
Refer to TR-3653.

DOES OSSV SUPPORT ESXi?
No.

CAN OSSV EXCLUDE FILES AND DIRECTORIES?
Yes. This is configured on the client by populating the file-exclude.txt and/or path-exclude.txt files.

CAN I EXCLUDE A FILESYSTEM?
Starting with OSSV 2.6.1 you can exclude filesystem types in Unix and Linux. This is not supported on AIX,
however. See the OSSV Installation and Administration Guide for details.

CAN THE ROOT FILE SYSTEM BE EXCLUDED?
No. Even if the filesystem type for root is excluded, the root filesystem is always suitable for backup.

WHY ARE RELATIONSHIPS FOR EXCLUDED FILESYSTEMS CREATED WHEN PROTECTING THE
ENTIRE CLIENT IN PROTECTION MANAGER?
If you set up a filesystem exclusion after a client has been added to Protection Manger it could take up to an
hour before Protection Manager discovers newly created exclusions.

CAN I BACKUP A MAPPED NETWORK SHARE?
No. OSSV does not support backing up a network map or mount point.

HOW DOES THE NETWORK COMPRESSION FEATURE WORK?
OSSV 2.5 and higher along with Data ONTAP 7.3 and higher allow for OSSV network compression. When
enabled, OSSV data is compressed over the wire only. It is uncompressed prior to being written to disk.


OSSV FAQ -- Confidential 4
DOES OSSV LINK COMPRESSION ALSO APPLY TO RESTORES?
Yes

CAN I DUMP OSSV BACKUPS TO TAPE?
Yes, with caveats. Protection Manager has no tape integration, so it cant be done there. You can do it
manually. Note that when you restore from tape, you restore to a volume that knows nothing about your
OSSV relationship. Therefore you cant do a snapvault restore. You could copy the files back to the host
manually. This may work fine for data files, but presents a problem if used to restore the OS.

CAN I INSTALL OSSV IN THE SOLARIS GLOBAL ZONE?
Yes. OSSV is not supported in non-global zones, but can be installed in the global zone.

CAN I REPLICATE OSSV BACKUPS USING VOLUME SNAPMIRROR?
Yes. An OSSV to VSM cascade is supported.

CAN I REPLICATE OSSV BACKUPS USING SNAPVAULT?
No. OSSV to SnapVault cascades are not supported.

DOES OSSV SUPPORT FAS DEDUPLICATION?
Yes, beginning with Data ONTAP 7.3 OSSV integrates with FAS Deduplication. When an OSSV destination
volume has sis enabled, deduplication is automatically invoked after every OSSV update. For more
information on FAS Deduplication and SnapVault interaction, refer to the SnapVault and Deduplication
Solution Summary/FAQ in the SnapVault section of SalesEdge.

Note: Protection Manager requires Data ONTAP 7.3.1 or newer and Operations Manager 3.8 or newer.

CAN I BACKUP A SINGLE OSSV SOURCE TO MULTIPLE DESTINATIONS?
Yes. This is supported. A single OSSV Client source path can be backed to multiple destination
paths, this includes multiple secondary destinations filers.
HOW DOES OSSV HANDLE SYMBOLIC LINKS?
OSSV will backup symbolic links. It can also restore them. However, you cant restore a link alone. It must
be a part of a directory being restored. Protection Manager follows this behavior as well.

DOES OSSV HAVE SUPPORT FOR QoS?
No.

IS A REBOOT REQUIRED AFTER I INSTALL OSSV?
OSSV installations on Windows 2003 and 2008 do not require a reboot. Installing on Windows 2000 with
OFM does require a reboot.

DOES OSSV SET THE ARCHIVE BIT IN WINDOWS?
Yes, OSSV will set the archive bit.

CAN OSSV ENCRYPT DATA?
No encryption is performed on data prior to backing it up, during backup, or while its on the destination.
There is support for encrypting your data with LREP v. 1.2 for seeding your baseline.

HOW OFTEN DOES OSSV TAKE CHECKPOINTS DURING BACKUP?
By default it will take a checkpoint every 5 minutes during the data transfer phase of the backup.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOURCE IS DELETED WHILE DATA IS TRANSFERRING?
Backup will proceed and, it will skip all the files that have been deleted on the next update.

CAN I EXCLUDE DRIVES/MOUNT POINTS FROM TAKING THE SNAPSHOT?
Yes drive/mount points can be excluded from taking the snapshot by entering the drive/mountpoint name in
'List of Drives/mount points not to backup' in OSSV Configuration Tool.

WHAT IS THE FILTER DRIVER?
The filter driver is used by OSSV to track the changed blocks in the file system in real time in order to reduce
backup time. It is enabled by default for SQL Server data and disabled by default for regular file data. The
filter driver feature is only available on Windows hosts.
OSSV FAQ -- Confidential 5
WHAT IS THE TOOL/COMMAND THAT DEALS WITH FILTER DRIVER?
The tool/command that deals with filter driver is 'filtercfg' and is located at snapvaultdirectory\fltdrvr\.
For example: C:\Program Files\NetApp\snapvault\fltdrvr\

HOW DO I KNOW FILTER DRIVER IS INSTALLED OR NOT(INSTALL STATUS)?
Use the command: C:\Program Files\NetApp\snapvault\fltdrvr\filtercfg installstatus

HOW DO I KNOW FILTER DRIVER IS LOADED OR NOT(LOAD STATUS)?
Use the command: C:\Program Files\NetApp\snapvault\fltdrvr\filtercfg filterstatus

HOW DO I LOAD/UNLOAD FILTER DRIVER?
To load the filter driver: C:\Program Files\NetApp\snapvault\fltdrvr\filtercfg load
To unload the filter driver: C:\Program Files\NetApp\snapvault\fltdrvr\filtercfg unload

CAN I RESTORE BACKED UP DATA FROM FILER WITHOUT USING OSSV RESTORE?
Yes, Use a CIFS share or NFS mount for this. Create a share from the backed-up qtree on the SnapVault
secondary storage system to the primary storage system using CIFS in case of Windows or NFS in the case
of Unix or Linux.

WHEN TROUBLESHOOTING A CASE, WHAT DATA NEEDS TO BE COLLECTED?
OSSVINFO tool is a data collector that is included with OSSV 2.6.1 and greater. Please refer to the OSSV
IAG for collecting this output.
















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