SnapDrive 4.0 for UNIX and later provides Snapshot restore capability at a volume level. This explains the various storage operations you can carry out using volume-based Snapshot restore.
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What volume-based SnapRestore is
Volume-based SnapRestore (VBSR) restores the volume with all its storage objects. The volume-based restore is faster than each storage object restored individually. VBSR also works with FlexClone volumes and vFiler configurations. VBSR for vFiler is available for Data ONTAP 7.3 and later.
Considerations for using volume-based SnapRestore
You can use volume-based SnapRestore (VBSR) with keeping few points in mind. Keeping these points in mind helps you to use the VBSR feature safely.
Mandatory checks for volume-based SnapRestore
Before volume based SnapRestore is carried out, SnapDrive for UNIX does some mandatory checks with the system. These checks are required so that volume based SnapRestore is used safely. The mandatory checks cannot be over-ridden by the user.
Checks that can be overridden by the user
Before volume-based SnapRestore is carried out, SnapDrive for UNIX performs some checks that a user can override using -force option. These checks are required so that volume-based SnapRestore is used safely.
Information about LUNs mapped to local or remote hosts
The only mapping information available from the volume to SnapDrive for UNIX during volume based SnapRestore is the initiator group information for a LUN. If the initiator groups used by you are always created by SnapDrive for UNIX, then the fully qualified domain name of the host is part of the initiator group name.
Host filespec information for a particular volume
SnapDrive for UNIX as part of volume restore preview report displays the LUN mapping information. This displayed information is relevant for the checks and the normal files are reverted. Finding out all the host filespecs based on LUNs on a particular volume is a time consuming process and slows down the volume restore process.
Volume-based SnapRestore for space reservation
For space reservation with volume based snap reserve you need to set space-reservations-volume-enabled option in the snapdrive.conf file.