Why are SnapMirror snapshots not cleaned up automatically after DR-test or initialization?
Applies to
- ONTAP 9
- SnapMirror
- Storage Virtual Machine Disaster Recovery (SVM DR)
- SnapMirror active sync (formerly SnapMirror Business Continuity, SM-BC)
Answer
- Baseline snapshots do not automatically roll-off at any point during
- the reverse resync
- when the relationship is back in its original direction
- first synchronization for a newly configured relationship
- Old baseline snapshots resulting from the reverse resync must be cleaned up (manually deleted) by the storage admin
- This is normal and expected SnapMirror/Snapshot behavior
- This is to prevent any baseline snapshot from being deleted within the role reversal steps which would prevent subsequent updates/resyncs and require an entire baseline transfer to re-establish the SnapMirror
- Once they are no longer needed, refer to How to identify and delete unneeded SnapMirror snapshots for information on how to identify and delete these snapshots
