FAQ: SnapDiff Support in ONTAP

SnapDiff is an ONTAP feature that allows for the comparison of two snapshots of a filesystem and can be used to identify changes between the two snapshots and restore specific files or directories that have been deleted or modified

• SnapDiff v1 and v2 are deprecated in ONTAP 9.10.1 and replaced with SnapDiff v3
• After upgrading to releases ONTAP 9.10.1 to ONTAP 9.10.1P10, applications that use SnapDiff v1 or v2 for snapshot differential backup may not work as expected.
• ONTAP 9.10.1 to ONTAP 9.10.1P10 do not support SnapDiff v1 and v2.
• SnapDiff v1 and v2 ZAPIs were restored in ONTAP 9.10.1P11 and newer.
• In addition, SnapDiff v1 and v2 ZAPIs are available by default in these ONTAP releases:
  • ONTAP 9.11.1 P7 and newer
  • ONTAP 9.12.1 GA release and newer
  • ONTAP 9.13.1 GA release and newer
  • For cloud-only releases, SnapDiff v1 and v2 ZAPIs are re-enabled in 9.14.0 and later
• Contact your backup application vendor to get details on whether they support or plan to support SnapDiff v3
• For more details on SnapDiff v3, see this NetApp blog post

There are three versions of SnapDiff:

• SnapDiff v1 is the legacy SnapDiff engine using ZAPI which can be used for FlexVols only available through ONTAP 9.9.1
• SnapDiff v2 is a later version of SnapDiff using RPC and is available in Clustered Data ONTAP 9.0 through ONTAP 9.9.1
  • SnapDiff v2 supports FlexVols and is required for FlexGroup volume support in ONTAP 9.4 through ONTAP 9.9.1
• SnapDiff v3 refers to a set of REST APIs which include SnapDiff functionality as well as SnapMirror Cloud (SM-C) available to select, licensed partners.
  • SnapDiff v3 is also known as NetApp Backup Framework and is available in ONTAP 9.8 and later
  • SnapDiff v3 is the only available SnapDiff version in ONTAP 9.10.1 to ONTAP 9.10.1P10, but SnapDiff v1 and v2 API are re-enabled in ONTAP 9.10.1P11 and newer

• Your backup application may require specific Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) authentication and NAS access configurations
• Check with your backup application vendor's documentation on configuration requirements for SnapDiff

• SnapDiff v1 and v2 are supported for FlexVols in ONTAP 9.9.1 and earlier
• SnapDiff v2 is required for FlexGroup volumes in ONTAP 9.4 through ONTAP 9.9.1, inclusive
  • Attempts to use SnapDiff v1 against FlexGroup volumes will fail
  • For more information about SnapDiff v1 and FlexGroup volumes, see When performing a SnapDiff incremental backup of a FlexGroup volume, Spectrum Protect fails with "SnapDiff version 1 is not supported for Flexgroup" Check with your backup application vendor if you are unsure about what SnapDiff version they support.
• SnapDiff v3 supports FlexVols and FlexGroups in ONTAP 9.8 and later

• SnapDiff v1 and v2 are invoked through ZAPI calls from third-party backup applications
• SnapDiff v3 is only available to select licensed partners through REST API
  • SnapDiff cannot be invoked through the Command-Line Interface of ONTAP except to enable/disable the feature as described in How to enable SnapDiff