Considerations for using Smtape to seed a SnapMirror relationship over USB/disk on Clustered Data ONTAP?
Applies to
- Clustered Data ONTAP 8.X
- ONTAP 9.X
- ONTAP Select
Description
Smtape is used to replicate data that cannot be sent over a WAN. Smtape allows you to seed the initial SnapMirror transfer over tape and then establish a SnapMirror relationship by utilizing the WAN for future updates.
IMPORTANT NOTE: As of Clustered ONTAP 8.3, using SMTape for tape seeding is only supported for tape. When the -file-path option is used to direct the data stream to disk image, the baseline copy will be written at a maximum of 5 MB/s, slower than most WAN connections. For this reason, use of the -file-path option as an alternative to transferring SnapMirror data over the WAN is not recommended and is not supported.
Note that the below process can be used only in Testing Scenarios.