White Paper

EMC VNXe3200 UNIFIED SNAPSHOTS

A DETAILED REVIEW

Abstract
This white paper reviews and explains the various operations,
limitations, and best practices supported by the Unified
Snapshots feature on the VNXe3200 system.

February 2015
Copyright © 2015 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as

of its publication date. The information is subject to change
without notice.

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” EMC

Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind
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specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or
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Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com.

VMware and VMware View are registered trademarks or

trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other
jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property
of their respective owners.

Part Number H13080.1

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................. 5
Audience ............................................................................................................................ 5
Terminology ............................................................................................................ 6
Unified Snapshots Overview .................................................................................... 8
Redirect on Write ................................................................................................................ 8
LUN Groups ........................................................................................................................ 9
LUN Group Considerations ........................................................................................... 10
Snapshot Use Cases......................................................................................................... 10
Local Protection ........................................................................................................... 10
Repurposing ................................................................................................................. 11
Snapshot Scheduling ....................................................................................................... 12
Snapshot Auto-Delete ........................................................................................... 15
Delete Eligibility ............................................................................................................... 15
Auto-Delete Thresholds .................................................................................................... 16
Snapshot Expiration ......................................................................................................... 19
Unified Snapshots Operations ............................................................................... 21
Block Snapshot Operations .............................................................................................. 21
Creating Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 21
Block Snapshot Host Access ........................................................................................ 23
Attaching and Detaching Snapshots ............................................................................. 24
Restoring Snapshots .................................................................................................... 25
Copying Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 27
Deleting Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 28
File Snapshot Operations ................................................................................................. 29
Creating Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 29
File Snapshot Host Access............................................................................................ 31
Restoring Snapshots .................................................................................................... 34
Copying Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 35
Deleting Snapshots ...................................................................................................... 36
Limits.................................................................................................................... 36
Best Practices ....................................................................................................... 36
Interoperability...................................................................................................... 37
LUN and File System Expansion ........................................................................................ 37
FAST Cache and FAST VP................................................................................................... 37
File Deduplication and Compression ................................................................................ 37
SMB 3.0 ........................................................................................................................... 37
File-Level Retention (FLR) .................................................................................................. 37

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 UFS64 .............................................................................................................................. 38
VNXe VSS HW Provider ..................................................................................................... 38
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 39
References ............................................................................................................ 39

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Executive Summary
EMC® recognizes data protection and management as critical business functions. IT
organizations continuously evaluate the latest technologies and solutions available
to protect their data. While evaluating technologies and solutions to protect data,
customers appreciate using simple methods to restore their data in the event of data
loss. Having the ability to easily manage, protect, and restore data from the storage
array allows IT organizations to better invest limited resources.
EMC introduced the Unified Snapshots software on the VNXe3200 system. The
VNXe3200 system is built with a unified architecture, offering both block and file
capabilities from the same enclosure. The Unified Snapshots feature enables the
creation and management of snapshots for both block and file storage resources.
Snapshots use the same storage pool as their storage resources, removing the need
to carve out separate storage pool space for snapshots. Unified Snapshots uses
Redirect on Write technology (ROW), which was first introduced with VNX Snapshots.
The VNXe3200 system includes LUN Groups, which provide the ability to group
multiple LUNs together. The same snapshot operations for LUNs are supported with
LUN Groups allowing a consistent snapshot across multiple LUNs. Unified Snapshots
also provides the ability to schedule automatic creation of snapshots, and Auto-
Delete options to enable the system to delete snapshots based on configurable
policies.
Unified Snapshots operations can be performed easily within Unisphere, providing
the ability to easily manage and protect data. This whitepaper describes the different
Unified Snapshots operations in detail.

Audience
This white paper is intended for EMC customers, partners, and employees who want
to understand how to leverage Unified Snapshots on the VNXe3200 system.

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Terminology
 Application Consistency – Ensures all incoming I/O for a given application is
quiesced while a snapshot is being taken. Application Consistency makes sure
that the application can restart from the point in time when a snapshot was taken.
This differs from Crash Consistency because I/O is quiesced at the host, instead
of being quiesced at the array.
 Block Storage Resources – LUNs, LUN Groups and VMware VMFS Datastores.
 Common Internet File System (CIFS) – An access protocol that allows users to
access files and folders from Windows hosts located on a network. User
authentication is maintained through Active Directory and file access is
determined by directory access controls.
 Crash Consistent Snapshot – A point in time copy of data. A crash consistent
snapshot addresses only the data level; it is not aware of the underlying
application(s).
 Deduplication – The process used to compress redundant data, allowing space to
be saved on a storage resource. When multiple files have identical data, the
storage resource stores only one copy of the data, and shares that data between
the multiple files.
 File Storage Resources – File Systems (NFS, CIFS) and VMware NFS datastores.
 Logical Unit Number (LUN) – A logical unit of storage created in a pool. A LUN can
be either a thick LUN or a thin LUN.
 LUN Group – A collection of LUNs which are grouped together. Snapshot
operations on a LUN Group affect all the LUNs contained in the group, providing
ease of management and crash consistency if the LUNs are dependent on each
other.
 Network File System (NFS) – An access protocol that allows users to access files
and folders from Linux/UNIX hosts located on a network.
 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) – File-based storage for a wide range of clients
and applications that access storage over network connections. Protocol-specific
file systems are located and managed on the storage system, which transfers data
to hosts over TCP/IP using either the CIFS or NFS file sharing protocol.
 Redirect on Write (ROW) – The technology behind Unified Snapshots. After a
snapshot is taken, new writes to the primary storage are redirected and written to
a new location within the storage pool.
 Share – A named, mountable instance of file-level storage, accessible through a
file system or VMware NFS Datastore. Each share is accessible through the
protocol (NFS or CIFS) defined for the file system where it resides.
 Snapshot – A point-in-time copy of data stored on the storage system.

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 Storage Processor (SP) – A hardware component that provides the processing
resources to perform storage operations such as creating, managing, and
monitoring storage resources.
 Storage Pool – A group of disk drives used for configuring LUNs, Datastores, and
File Systems (thick and thin). Drives may only be a member of one pool.
 Storage Resource – An addressable and configurable storage instance associated
with a specific quantity of storage. LUNs and File Systems constitute a storage
resource.
 Unisphere – A web-based management environment used to create storage
resources, configure and schedule protection for stored data, and manage and
monitor other storage operations.
 Thick Storage Resources – Type of storage resource in which physical space is
allocated upon creation and is equal to the user capacity seen by the hosts.
 Thin Storage Resources – Type of storage resource where physical space is
allocated on-demand and can be less than the user capacity seen by the hosts.
 Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI) – The command line interface for managing VNXe3200
systems.

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Unified Snapshots Overview
With the introduction of the Unified Snapshots technology, the VNXe3200 storage
system allows you to take snapshots of both block and file storage resources using a
common snapshot technology.
With the VNXe3200 system, a storage pool can be used to create both block and file
storage resources (LUNs, file systems, and VMware datastores) from the same storage
pool. When a snapshot is created on that storage resource, the snapshot also
becomes part of the storage pool.
Unified Snapshots operations that are common to block and file storage resources
include: create, delete, copy, and restore. Snapshots for block-level storage resources
have the option to attach and detach a snapshot to a host, which can be used to
provide access of snapshot data to a host. Snapshots for file-level storage resources
can be one of the following types: read-only or writable. Read-only snapshots can be
used to restore data. Writable snapshots can be shared to provide full access to the
snapshot data.
Unified Snapshots also provide the ability to schedule a snapshot’s creation and
expiration. Scheduled snapshots are used to create periodic point–in-time copies of
data. Snapshots can be automatically deleted based on storage pool capacity
thresholds and expiration dates.
Throughout this paper, demonstrations of the various snapshot operations will be
described using Unisphere. If preferred, these operations can also be performed
using Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI) and SnapCLI.

Redirect on Write
Unified Snapshots uses Redirect on Write (ROW) technology. After a snapshot is
taken, new writes to the LUN, file system, or their snapshots are redirected and
written to a new location within the storage pool. New data is written to a new block
while the old data remains in place. This is more efficient than copy on write (COW) or
copy on first write (COFW) because no data needs to be moved from one place to
another.

Figure 1: Redirect on Write

In Figure 1, the source LUN has data pointing to locations A, B, C, and D. When a
snapshot of the LUN is taken, the snapshot’s pointers also point to those locations.

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When a user modifies the data in location D after a snapshot is taken, the new data is
simply written to a new location, D’. Similarly, if the snapshot is attached to a host,
and the data in location A is modified by that host, the data is written to a new
location A’. The pointers for the snapshot are updated with the new location. The
blocks required for writes after a snapshot is created are allocated from the same
storage pool where the storage resource is created. With Unified Snapshots there is
no need to pre-configure protection storage. The functionality of Redirect on Write
also applies to File Systems.
In a thick LUN or file system, space is allocated as soon as the storage resource is
created. The resource is in direct mode as there is a direct association between the
pointers to the storage resource and the location of the storage resource. Immediately
after it is taken, the snapshot of the storage resource also points to the same
location. As writes are written to the snapshot, the thick storage resource transitions
to indirect mode, where the pointers point to different locations as space is needed.
The thick LUN or file system remains in indirect mode as long as it has a snapshot.
When the last snapshot of the thick LUN or file system is removed, it automatically
reverts to direct mode. The indirect mode to direct mode conversion is a background
process.
Indirect mode is not applicable to thin LUNs or file systems. For a thin LUN or file
system, space is never directly allocated, it is always allocated as new writes are
written.

LUN Groups
The VNXe3200 system introduces the concept of LUN Groups. A LUN Group is a
collection of one or more LUNs and is used to preserve consistency. The Unified
Snapshots operations supported for a LUN can also be executed on a LUN Group. LUN
Groups can be used to group together a set of LUNs that belong to the same
application.
With Unified Snapshots, LUN Groups are able to provide crash consistency. Unified
Snapshots provide the ability to take point-in-time snapshots of all the LUNs in a
group, instead of taking an individual snapshot of each LUN at varying points in time.
When the snapshot of a LUN Group is taken, all writes to the LUNs within that LUN
Group are held until their snapshots have been created.
The most common use case for LUN Groups is for maintaining crash consistency
among LUNs. For example, a database application which has a Data LUN and a Log
LUN can be placed in a LUN Group (Figure 2). In this example, the information in both
the Data and Log LUNs are dependent on each other and a LUN group can be used to
perform operations on the LUNs together.

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 Figure 2: LUN Group
LUN Group Considerations
While operations that can be performed on LUNs can also be performed on LUN
Groups, there are some factors which should be considered with LUN Groups:
 LUN Groups can consist of LUNs from different storage pools. The space required
for snapshots of each LUN is consumed from the same storage pool associated
with each individual LUN.
 When adding a LUN to a LUN Group:
o A LUN that has existing snapshots cannot be added to a LUN Group. All
snapshots of the LUN must be deleted before adding the LUN to the LUN
Group.
o A LUN group with existing snapshots cannot add new LUNs.
o The snapshot schedule of the LUN will be overwritten by the schedule of the
LUN group.
 When removing a LUN from a LUN Group:
o Snapshots of the LUN Group must be deleted before the LUN can be removed.
The same rule applies to deleting a LUN that is the member of a LUN Group.
o A LUN removed from a LUN group will have its snapshot schedule removed.

Snapshot Use Cases

Unified Snapshots is a powerful tool that can be used for various applications and
use cases. The primary use cases are for local protection of storage and for
repurposing.

Local Protection
Snapshots can be used for creating periodical point-in-time copies of data. Unified
Snapshots provide the ability to restore data from a point-in-time in the event of a
data loss or corruption of data which is being accessed by a host. Snapshots provide
local protection; data can be restored directly from the storage array. Snapshots can
also be used for backups by providing snapshot access to a backup server.
In Figure 3, a LUN is scheduled for snapshots to be taken daily. Snapshots are taken
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If the data on the LUN is accidently deleted on

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Thursday, a restore operation can be performed from the snapshot taken on
Wednesday. Therefore, Unified Snapshots provide the ability to restore data locally.

Figure 3: Nightly Backup

Repurposing
Snapshots can be used for repurposing of data, by providing access to copies of data
to different teams or hosts for independent processing. Snapshots can be leveraged
in a test and development environment where snapshots of data are used for testing
without affecting the data used for development. An example of this is testing a new
application setting or patching a host.
For example, a company is testing a new application setting (Figure 4). A snapshot of
the data is taken on Monday and given to the QA team. The QA engineers have a copy
of the data, in the form of a snapshot, to perform their testing. Meanwhile the
development team continues to work on the storage resource itself and take nightly
snapshots for local protection.

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 Figure 4: Repurposing

Snapshot Scheduling
Snapshot schedules for a LUN or file system can be assigned both while creating a
snapshot and after the LUN or file system has been created. During the LUN or file
system creation process there is a step named Configure Snapshot Schedule (Figure
5). The snapshot schedule may be chosen from a group of predefined and user-
created snapshot schedules. Also, new schedules can be created.

Figure 5: Configure Snapshot Schedule

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There are three predefined snapshot schedules:
 Default Protection: Every day at 04:00, keep for 2 days – A snapshot is taken at
04:00 every day and that snapshot will expire after 2 days.
 Less Protection: Every day at 04:00, keep for 1 day – A snapshot is taken at 04:00
every day and that snapshot will expire after 1 day.
 More Protection: Every day at 04:00, keep for 7 days – A snapshot is taken at
04:00 every day and that snapshot will expire after 7 days.
In addition to the predefined snapshot schedules, new schedules can be created
using the Customize Schedule option (Figure 5). The customize schedule option
provides the ability to assign a name to the new schedule, and has the default
protection parameters selected. The schedule can be modified in the Modify
Schedule Rule window (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Modify Schedule Rule

While scheduling snapshots, there are various parameters which can be configured.
The parameters for snapshot frequency and time depend on the type of rule chosen:
 Every Specified Number of Hours: The frequency is set to take a snapshot regularly
after a specified number of hours. The time chosen decides the number of
minutes after the hour the snapshot should be taken. For example, take a
snapshot every 2 hours and 30 minutes.

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 Every Day: The frequency is set to take a snapshot at specified hours in a day
(maximum 2). The time chosen decides the number of minutes after the hour the
snapshot should be taken. For example: Take a snapshot at 02:30 and 12:30.
 Every Specified Number of Days: The frequency is set to take a snapshot after a
specified number of days. The time decides at what time during the day the
snapshot should be taken. For example, take a snapshot every 2 days at 12:00.
 On Selected Days: The frequency is set to take a snapshot on specified days of the
week. The time decides at what time during the day the snapshot should be
taken. For example, take a snapshot every Tuesday and Wednesday at 12:00.
 On the Specified Day of Every Month: The frequency is set to take a snapshot
every nth day of the month. The time decides at what time during the day the
snapshot should be taken. For example, take a snapshot every 5th of the month at
12:00.
The Auto-Delete Policy determines when the VNXe3200 system will automatically
delete snapshots. The following Auto-Delete Policy options are explained in further
detail in the Snapshot Auto-Delete section.
 Pool Auto-Delete Threshold Setting: The snapshot will be part of an Auto-Delete
operation based on storage pool threshold settings.
 Expiration Value: An expiration time or date is assigned to the snapshot. The
expiration time can be a maximum of 24 hours or 365 days.
 Do Not Configure Automatic Deletion: The snapshot is not included in Auto-Delete
operations.
The Access Type (file-based storage only) decides whether the file snapshot will be a
Hidden .ckpt folder (read-only snapshot) or Shares (writable snapshot). The access
types are further explained in the File Snapshot Operations section.
The customized snapshot schedule can also be modified and viewed on the Settings >
More Configuration > Snapshot Schedules page in Unisphere (Figure 7). Here you can
view all the system-defined and user-defined snapshot schedules. You can determine
if a snapshot schedule is associated with a storage resource by viewing the “In Use”
column. If a user-defined snapshot schedule is in use, it cannot be deleted. The
system-defined snapshot schedules can never be deleted.

Figure 7: Snapshot Schedules

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Note: The same snapshot schedules can be used for both block and file storage
resources on your VNXe3200 system.

Snapshot Auto-Delete
Unified Snapshots provide the ability to automatically delete snapshots. The main
goal of Auto-Delete is to manage pool space automatically, so that snapshots do not
consume space when they are no longer needed. As snapshots consume usable
capacity from a storage pool, it is important to balance protection needs with user
space. Snapshot Auto-Delete can be configured to delete snapshots based on the
space utilized in the pool or by expiration time.

Delete Eligibility
Auto-Delete can be enabled for snapshots of: LUNs, LUN Groups, file systems, and
VMware datastores. When a storage pool or storage resource is being created, the
Auto-Delete settings can be configured when assigning a snapshot schedule to a
storage resource. The Auto-Delete settings can also be modified after a pool or
storage resource has been created.
To view or modify the auto-delete option, navigate to the details page of your storage
resource, click the Snapshot tab, select the snapshot to modify, and click Details. In
the Auto-Delete tab, you can review and modify the settings (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Auto-Delete
If a snapshot is configured with the default Auto-Delete option of Pool auto-delete
threshold setting (Figure 8), the settings of the pool are used to decide when Auto-
Delete is initiated for a snapshot (Figure 9). By default, only the total pool space
threshold option is enabled, and Auto-Delete state is idle, which means it is not

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currently deleting any snapshots. The Auto-Delete settings can be modified based on
business needs in the storage pool details page.

Figure 9: Storage Pool Thresholds

Auto-Delete Thresholds

Pool Space Used Threshold

The Pool Space Used Threshold is a user-configurable parameter that determines
whether the system should monitor the space used in a storage pool, and delete
snapshots if required. This threshold is enabled by default and the following is
actively monitored:
 Pool Space Used High Threshold: When the pool crosses this threshold, the Auto-
Delete process is triggered. This process examines pool snapshots for destruction
eligibility in order of age, with the oldest first. When eligible snapshots are found,
the system deletes them one at a time. By default, the threshold is set to 95% of
the pool’s capacity.
 Pool Space Used Low Threshold: When this threshold is crossed, the Auto-Delete
process will stop looking for new snapshots to delete. By default, the threshold is
set to 85% of the pool’s capacity. It must be set smaller than the Pool Space Used
High Threshold.

Snapshot Space Used Threshold

The Snapshot Space Used Threshold is a user-configurable parameter that
determines whether the system should monitor the snapshot space used in a storage
pool and delete snapshots if required. This threshold is disabled by default. When
disabled, threshold values are retained by the system but snapshot space is not
actively monitored. When enabled, the following thresholds are actively monitored:
 Snapshot Space Used High Threshold: When the snapshot consumed space
crosses this threshold, the Auto-Delete process is triggered. This process
examines pool snapshots for deletion eligibility in order of age, oldest first. When

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 eligible snapshots are found, the system deletes them one at a time. By default,
the threshold is set to 25% of the pool’s capacity.
 Snapshot Space Used Low Threshold: When this threshold is crossed, the Auto-
Delete process will stop looking for new snapshots to delete. By default, the
threshold is set to 20% of the pool’s capacity. It must be set smaller than
Snapshot Space Used High Threshold.
The total Used Space and the Snapshot Size Used in a pool can be monitored under
the Utilization tab of the Storage Pool Details (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Used Space and Snapshot Size Used

Note: If a snapshot is attached it will not be deleted during the Auto-Delete operation.
For a snapshot to be subject to the Auto-Delete process, the Auto-Delete option must
be enabled at both the pool level and snapshot level (Table 1).
Table 1: Auto-Delete Behavior
Pool Snapshot Auto-Delete Behavior
ON ON Snapshot is subject to Auto-Delete
ON OFF Snapshot is exempt from Auto-Delete
OFF ON All snapshots in the pool are exempt from Auto-Delete
OFF OFF All snapshots in the pool are exempt from Auto-Delete
When the storage pool capacity exceeds the system defined pool threshold of 85%, a
pop-up appears in Unisphere (Figure 11). This is a warning alert to expand the storage
pool or delete any storage resources or snapshots which are no longer being used in
the storage pool.

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 Figure 11: Warning Message
If additional storage resources are configured on the storage pool, a sequence of
alerts appears, in order to warn you to take corrective action (Figure 12). Once the
Pool Space Used High Threshold is exceeded, the storage pool is set to a degraded
state. If a storage pool is in a degraded state, the health check will fail, preventing
system upgrades.

Figure 12: Alerts after Thresholds are exceeded

Once the Pool Space Used High Threshold is reached, the system begins the Auto-
Delete process. If additional snapshots cannot be deleted automatically to free
enough space, an alert appears in Unisphere (Figure 13).

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 Figure 13: Alert when Auto-Delete is paused
The Auto-Delete status of the pool is changed to System Paused. To recover from this
state, you can expand the pool, delete snapshots or storage resources, or change the
thresholds and click Resume Auto-Delete (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Resume Auto-Delete

Snapshot Expiration
Snapshots can be configured with an expiration value, which pre-determines when
they will be deleted. However, when the expiration value of a snapshot is reached,
the snapshot may not be destroyed immediately. The system scans for expired
snapshots once an hour and runs a deletion process which deletes eligible snapshots
during this scan. The name of a snapshot that is eligible for deletion is affixed with
Destroying, to show that the snapshot is being deleted.
Figure 15 shows that the expiration value for a snapshot can be set in the Auto-Delete
tab of the snapshot details. The minimum expiration value for a snapshot is 1 hour.
Once a snapshot is configured with an expiration value, the date and time when the
snapshot will expire is shown.

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 Figure 15: Snapshot Expiration
Setting an expiration value on a snapshot excludes it from the Auto-Delete process.
Expired snapshots are not deleted while they are attached or involved in a restore.

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Unified Snapshots Operations
Unified Snapshots leverages ROW technology for both block and file storage
resources on the VNXe3200 system. Snapshot operations such as create, delete,
copy, and restore can be performed for both block and file storage resources. Attach
and detach operations can be used to provide host access to block snapshots. File
snapshots can be accessed through the hidden read-only .ckpt folder (Previous
Versions) or through a share of the snapshot.
We will look at the Unified Snapshots operations and their differences in the
following sections.

Block Snapshot Operations

Block snapshot operations on the VNXe3200 system can be performed on LUNs, LUN
Groups, and VMware VMFS datastores. LUNs will be used as an example while
describing the block snapshot operations.

Creating Snapshots
Once a snapshot of a LUN is created, a point-in-time copy of the data of the LUN is
made. Immediately after a snapshot is created no space is allocated to the snapshot,
yet space will be allocated to the snapshot as new data is written. The space required
for the snapshot is allocated from the same storage pool from which the LUN was
created.
Snapshots can be created for both thick and thin LUNs. Once a snapshot of a LUN is
created, performance may be impacted on the newly written or snapped area of the
LUN. Depending on the workload, the first snapshot of a LUN may have a performance
impact, but performance will not be impacted as additional snapshots are created.
Performance will recover after the last snapshot is deleted.
To create a snapshot, select a block storage resource and click on Details. In the
Snapshots tab, you can you use Create Snapshot to create a snapshot of the storage
resource (Figure 16).
When creating a snap, you have to assign a name, a brief description (optional), and
configure the Auto-Delete policy. The default name for a snapshot is “Date_Time” (ex.
“2104-04-21_14.37.05”). The default option for the Auto-Delete policy is Pool auto-
delete threshold setting. Details of the Auto-Delete policy are explained in the
Snapshot Auto-Delete section.

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 Figure 16: Create Snapshot
You can view the created snapshots from the Snapshots tab in the storage resource
details page. A snapshot has various properties associated with it, including:
 Name: The snapshot can be assigned a name when it is being created. The default
name is the “Date_Time” of when the snapshot was created (ex. “2014-04-
04_13.27.14”). The name of the snapshot is unique across the system. The name
of the snapshot can be modified.
 Taken: This represents the date and time when the snapshot was taken (ex.
“2014-03-20 17:13”).
 Taken By: This provides information on which user took the snapshot or if the
snapshot was taken by a scheduled operation or restore operation.
 State: This represents the state of the snapshot. The possible states are: Ready,
Initializing, Offline, and Destroying.
 Attached: This represents whether the snapshot has been attached to a host.
When a snapshot is initially created the default state is “No”. The state will
change to “Yes” if a snapshot is attached to a host.
 Modified: This represents whether the snapshot has been changed. When a
snapshot is initially created, the default state is “No”. The state will change to
“Yes” after a snapshot is attached to a host.
 Last Writable Time: This represents the last time the snapshot was modified.
You can review the properties of a snapshot by selecting a snapshot and clicking
Details (Figure 17).

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 Figure 17: Snapshot Properties

Note: When a snapshot is initially created, the Attached and Modified values are set
to No. The snapshot becomes modified after it is attached to a host.

Block Snapshot Host Access

During the creation of a LUN, host access can be configured. There are four different
options for host access:
 No Access – The host will not have access to the LUN or snapshots.
 LUN – The host will only have access to the LUN.
 Snapshot – The host will only have access to snapshots.
 LUN and Snapshot – The host will have access to both the LUN and snapshots.
Figure 18 shows the available host access options that can be selected in the LUN
Wizard while creating a LUN. The host access options can also be modified from the
Host Access tab in the details page of a block storage resource.

Figure 18: Configure Host Access

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If a LUN is provided with Snapshot or LUN and Snapshot access, the host sees the
container used to present the created snapshot. To the host, this container looks like
a snapshot of the LUN. However, the container can only be accessed after a snapshot
is created and attached. This implementation allows a snapshot to be attached and
detached later without requiring a rescan on the host. If a host has access to both
LUN and the snapshot, only the LUN can be accessed.
The host access settings can also be changed after the block storage resource has
been created. The access settings can be modified by using the Modify Access option
under the Host Access tab in the storage resource’s details page. The Access Details
option in the General tab in the storage resource’s details page will also provide the
details of hosts that have access to the LUN.
For a LUN Group, the host access policy assigned will apply to all the LUNs within the
LUN Group. Host access can be configured or changed for the member LUNs in a LUN
Group after the LUN Group is created. If a LUN is removed from the LUN Group, it
retains the host access settings of the LUN Group. If a LUN is added to a LUN Group, it
will retain its own host access settings.

Attaching and Detaching Snapshots

After a snapshot of a LUN has been created, it can be attached to a host. Only one
snapshot of a block storage resource can be attached to a host at a time. Once a
snapshot is attached, the Attached State and the Modified State of the snapshot are
changed to “Yes”.
To attach a snapshot, select a block storage resource and click on Details. In the
Snapshots tab, you can use the Attach Snapshot option to attach a snapshot to a
host. Hosts which have access to the snapshot of the block storage resource can
access the snapshot after it is attached.
During the attach operation, Unisphere provides users the option to create a copy of
the snapshot. This option is enabled by default and if applied, a copy of the snapshot
will be taken before the host is attached (Figure 19). The copy can be used as a
recovery snapshot to discard any changes made to the snapshot while the snapshot
is attached.

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 Figure 19: Attach Snapshot

Note: After a snapshot is attached, the Attached and Modified states are changed to
Yes.
The detach option can be used to remove host access to a snapshot. When a
snapshot is detached from the host, the Attached State changes to No and the Last
Writable timestamp is updated to reflect the time when the snapshot was detached.
Storage is not returned to the pool after a snapshot is detached; it is only returned
after the snapshot is deleted.
To detach a snapshot, select a block storage resource and click on Details. In the
Snapshots tab, you can you use the Detach Snapshot option to detach a snapshot
from a host.
Note: Only one snapshot of a storage resource can be attached to a host. Hence,
snapshots which are not being used should be detached.

Restoring Snapshots
The snapshot restore operation provides the ability to revert a snapshot back to the
point-in-time when the snapshot was taken. The restore option is only available for a
LUN that is not currently attached to a host. For a LUN Group, the restore operation is
enacted on all LUN Group members.
To restore data from a snapshot, select a block storage resource and click on Details.
In the Snapshots tab, select a snapshot and use the Restore Snapshot option to
restore from the snapshot (Figure 20).

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 Figure 20: Restore Snapshot
To prevent unintentional data loss, the system automatically creates a backup
snapshot before initiating the restore. The new snapshot will have a default name
starting with “BackupSnapshot”, followed by the timestamp when the restore
operation was performed. This name can be modified. After the data is restored,
additional changes can be made. If data is accidently deleted, the backup snapshot
can be used to restore data back to the point when the backup snapshot was created.
You can review the properties of a backup snapshot by selecting a snapshot and
clicking Details. Figure 21 shows the details of the backup snapshot that was created
automatically during the restore process. Since this snapshot was created during the
restore operation, the Taken By attribute is set to “Snapshot Restore”.

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 Figure 21: Snapshot Restore Details
Copying Snapshots
Snapshots can be duplicated to provide the same point-in-time copy of data to
multiple hosts. The copy will contain the same data as the original snapshot, except
with a unique name. Attached and detached snapshots can be used to create copies.
 Detached Snapshots – Copy of a detached snapshot will be the source LUN.
 Attached Snapshots – Copy of an attached snapshot will be the snapshot. A copy
of an attached snapshot is also known as a hierarchical snapshot. There is a
maximum of two levels of hierarchy with block snapshots. Hierarchical snapshots
provide the ability to create a snapshot even when an attached snapshot is being
modified. Hierarchical snapshots can be used for repurposing data.
To copy a snapshot, select a block storage resource and click Details. In the
Snapshots tab, select a snapshot and use the Copy Snapshot option to create a copy
of the snapshot (Figure 22). A single copy or multiple copies can be created during
the copy operation. The default name is “Date_Time” if a single copy is created. If
multiple copies are created, the default name will be “Date_Time_Number”. The
starting number and number of copies can be chosen.

Figure 22: Copy Snapshots

The copy snapshot retains the properties of the source snapshot. A maximum of 256
copies of a single snapshot can be created. If the snapshot used to create a copy is
detached, the source of the copy snapshot is the source LUN. The source of the
“Detached_Copy” snapshot, “Marketing”, is the source LUN (Figure 23).

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 Figure 23: Copy of Detached Snapshot
If the snapshot used to create a copy is attached, the snapshot serves as the source.
In Figure 24, the “Marketing_Snapshot” snapshot is attached and used to create a
copy. The source of the “Attached_Copy” snapshot is “Marketing_Snapshot” instead
of the source LUN.

Figure 24: Copy of Attached Snapshot

Deleting Snapshots
Deleting a snapshot will reclaim space from a storage pool so it can be reused.
Snapshot deletion is an internal background process that is handled on a first-come,
first-served basis. The VNXe3200 system can delete up to 16 snapshots
simultaneously. Delete requests over this limit are queued until a thread becomes
available.
While a snapshot is being deleted, the state of the snapshot changes to "Destroying"
and the snapshot’s name is prepended with “Destroying_<timestamp>”. In this state,
the snapshot is still counted towards the snapshot limit. However, its original name
may be reused at this time.
Deleting a snapshot may generate a large amount of background I/O, as old blocks of
data (which are unique to that snapshot) are removed and the free space is
reclaimed. The amount of workload generated on the Storage Processor and the pools
is proportional to the number of simultaneous deletions. The amount of time a
deletion takes to complete depends on the amount of unique data on that snapshot.
As a result, it is recommended to plan snapshot deletions during periods of light
system activity.
The following scenarios may affect how long the snapshot delete processing takes,
and the overall impact to system performance.
 Pools which contain a large number of NL-SAS drives: When a snapshot is
deleted, the I/O associated with the snapshot’s deletion can end up on the NL-
SAS drives. Ideally, pools which make extensive use of snapshots should be
comprised of Flash and SAS drives.
 Large number of snapshots being deleted at the same time: This can be caused by
deleting snaps using a script, having a common expiration time set on many

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 snaps, or by reliance on the Auto-Delete feature. To remedy this, stagger the
deletions by adding delay into the script or pace the snapshot expiration times.
 Snapshot deletion overlapping with FAST VP relocation windows: It is advised to
start the snapshot deletions after the FAST VP relocation window has ended.
 Frequent creation and deletion of snapshots: The greater the frequency of
snapshot operations, the higher the background I/O will be to delete them.
Reducing the frequency of snapshots and their subsequent deletions will reduce
the background I/O load on the pool.
 Snapshots with thick LUNs and file systems: A mode conversion from thick to thin
happens when the final snapshot of a thick LUN or file system is deleted. It is
advised to keep at least one snapshot of the Thick LUN or file system remaining if
you plan on using snapshots on that storage resource again. Alternatively,
consider using a thin LUN, for its avoidance of this mode conversion.

File Snapshot Operations

File snapshot operations on the VNXe3200 system can be performed on file systems
(NFS and CIFS) and VMware NFS datastores. The snapshot operations supported are:
create, delete, restore, and copy.
File Systems can have two types of snapshots based on access type:
 Read Only – A read-only snapshot is a read-only point-in-time view of its
associated production file system. A read-only snapshot can be shared with
network clients by using traditional network file sharing protocols (CIFS and NFS).
Business applications that require access to point-in-time views of data, but not
real-time data, can take advantage of a read-only snapshot. On the VNXe3200
system, read-only snapshots are identified with an access type of Hidden .ckpt
folder (read-only).
 Writable – A writable snapshot is a read/write point-in-time view of its associated
production file system. A writable snapshot can be shared with network clients by
using traditional network file sharing protocols. However, unlike a read-only
snapshot, a writable snapshot can be modified (written to) by network clients so
that it no longer reflects a point-in-time view of the production file system. A share
has to be created using the writable snapshot before writing to it. Testing
environments used for software patch testing and configuration changes will
benefit from writable snapshots. After the changes are stabilized, the changes can
then be propagated to the production file system. On the VNXe3200 system,
writable snapshots are identified with an access type of Shares.
The CIFS file system is used as a reference in the following sections to describe the
various snapshot operations. The same operations can be applied to NFS file systems
and VMware NFS datastores.

Creating Snapshots
Once a snapshot of a file system is created, it creates a point in time copy of data of
the file system. Immediately after a snapshot is created there is no space allocated to
the snapshot. Space will be allocated to the snapshot as new data is written to the

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snapshot. The space required for a snapshot is allocated from the same storage pool
the production file system was created on.
Snapshots can be created for both thick and thin file systems. Once a snapshot of a
thick file system is created, it behaves like a thin file system until the last snapshot is
deleted. Depending on the workload, the first snapshot created of a thick file system
will have an impact on performance. The performance will not be impacted as
additional snapshots are created. Performance will recover after the last snapshot is
deleted.
To create a snapshot, select a file storage resource and click on Details. In the
Snapshots tab you can you use the Create Snapshot option to create a snapshot of
the file system.
When creating a snapshot, you have to assign a name, a brief description (optional),
and configure the Auto-Delete policy. The default name for a snapshot is “Date_Time”
(ex. “2104-04-21_14.37.05”). The default option for the Auto-Delete policy is “Pool
auto-delete threshold setting”. Details of the Auto-Delete policy are explained in the
Snapshot Auto-Delete section. When a snapshot is created for a file system, the
access type can be chosen to be either a “Hidden .ckpt folder (read-only)” or
“Shares” (Figure 25).

Figure 25: Create File System Snapshot

File system snapshots will have the following attributes:
 Name: The snapshot can be assigned a name when it is being created. The default
name is the “Date_Time” of when the snapshot was created (ex. “2014-04-
04_13.27.14”). The name of the snapshot is unique across the system. The name
of a file system snapshot cannot be modified once created.
 Taken By: This provides information on which user took the snapshot or if the
snapshot was taken by a scheduled operation or restore operation.

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 Taken: This represents the date and time when the snapshot was taken (example:
2014-03-20 17:13).
 State: This represents the state of the snapshot. The possible states are: Ready,
Initializing, Offline, and Destroying.
 Shared: This represents whether the snapshot is shared. This will always remain
“No” for read-only snapshots but is modified to “Yes” for writable snapshots
when a share is created using the snapshot.
 Access Type: This represents the access type of the snapshot. The two options
are: “Hidden .ckpt folder (read-only)” and “Shares”.
 Modified: This represents whether or not the snapshot has been changed. When a
snapshot is initially created, the default state is “No”. It will remain “No” for read-
only snapshots, and modified to “Yes” for writable snapshots when a share is
created using the snapshot and the share is written to.
 Last Writable: This represents the last time the snapshot was able to be written to.
You can view the details of the snapshot by selecting the snapshot and clicking on
Details. The snapshot details section has two tabs: the General tab, where the details
of the snapshot can be viewed, and the Auto-Delete tab, which has options for the
snapshot’s Auto-Delete policy (Figure 26).

Figure 26: File System Snapshot Details

File Snapshot Host Access
Read-only snapshots are accessed based on the type of share configured. For CIFS
shares, the snapshots can be accessed via the Windows operating environment:
 With Windows 7 and later, browse to the share, right-click the folder, select
Properties, and view the Previous Versions tab (Figure 27). The “Date modified”
parameter corresponds to the time when the snapshot was taken. You can select

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 the snapshot and use the Open and Copy options to access data from the
snapshot. This leverages the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
feature. The restore operation can be used to restore data to a previous version.
 With older versions of Windows, enter “\.ckpt” in to the Address Bar, after the
name of the share, to open the hidden snapshot folders. Windows VSS can also
be used.

Figure 27: Windows Previous Versions

For NFS shares, read-only checkpoints can be accessed through the root of the file
system on a UNIX host. Once the NFS share is mounted, you can list the snapshots by
running the command “ls –a”. You can access the files in the snapshot by navigating
to the folder starting with “.ckpt” (Figure 28).

Figure 28: Viewing NFS Snapshots in Linux

Writable snapshots can be accessed by creating shares using snapshots. When a
share is created using writable snapshots, the modified state of the snapshot
changes to “Yes”. Writable snapshots cannot be accessed through Windows VSS.
To create a share using a writable snapshot, you should have a file system snapshot
created with an access type of shares. Navigate to the file system details page, and in
the Shares tab, click Add Share to create a share.

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When creating a share there are two options:
 File System: Creates a share for the file system.
 Snapshot: Creates a share for a writable snapshot (Figure 29).

Figure 29: Creating a Share Using Snapshot

The Local Path may be left blank, which will mount the share to the root directory. If
specifying a Local Path, ensure that the complete path, including the subdirectory, is
provided and the directory existed in the file system when the snapshot was taken. In
Figure 30, “dir1” is a directory created on the file system before the snapshot was
taken.

Figure 30: Share Local Path

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After the share is created, select the share and click Details to view the information
about the share. In Figure 31, the Share Source is “Share_Snapshot”, which is the
name of the writable snapshot that was used to create the share, and the details of
the export paths are provided. After a share using a snapshot is created, the shared
state of the snapshot will be modified to “Yes”.

Figure 31: Share Details

Restoring Snapshots
The snapshot restore operation provides the ability to revert a snapshot back to the
point-in-time when the snapshot was taken. Only file system snapshots which have
not been used to create shares can be used for restore operations. This is because a
shared file system snapshot may no longer reflect the point-in-time data of the file
system. Windows VSS can also be used to restore from snapshots.
To restore data from a snapshot, select a file storage resource and click on Details. In
the Snapshots tab, select a valid snapshot and click on Restore.
To prevent unintentional data loss, the system will automatically create a backup
snapshot before initiating the restore. After the data is restored, additional changes
can be made. If data is accidently deleted, the backup snapshot can be used to
restore data back to the point when the backup snapshot was created.
You can review the properties of a backup snapshot by selecting a snapshot and
clicking on Details. The default name of the backup snapshot is
“BackupSnapshot_<timestamp>”, with the timestamp referring to the time when the
restore operation was performed. The Taken By parameter of the backup snapshot is
set to “Snapshot Restore” and Access Type is modified to “Shares”. All other
parameters remain identical to the snapshot that was used for restore (Figure 32).

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 Figure 32: Backup Snapshot Details
Copying Snapshots
Snapshots can be duplicated, where the copy will contain the same data as the
original snapshot. Snapshot copies can be taken for both read-only and writable
snapshots. Copies of snapshots can be created to provide point-in-time copy of data
to multiple clients or users.
On a copy of a read-only snapshot (.ckpt), only the name and access type are
modified.
Name: Represents the name assigned when a copy is created
Access Type: The access type of a copy snapshot is changed to “Shares”
On a copy of a writable snapshot, the parameters that are changed depend on
whether or not a share has already been created using that snapshot.
If a share has not yet been created for a writable snapshot, only the name of the
copied snapshot is modified.
Name: Represents the name assigned when a copy is created
If a share was already created using the writable snapshot, the copy is referred to as a
hierarchical snapshot. The following parameters are changed when a copy is created:
Name: Represents the name assigned when a copy is created
Source: The snapshot that was used to create the copy
A hierarchical snapshot will provide the ability to create a copy of snapshot which is
used to create a share. Figure 33 shows an example of a hierarchical snapshot where
the snapshot “Share_Snapshot” is used to create a share and also used to create a
snapshot. Copying “Share_Snapshot” will create a point-in-time copy of the snapshot
and the source of the snapshot will be set to “Share_Snapshot” instead of the source
file system.

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 Figure 33: Hierarchical Snapshot

Note: A maximum of 10 levels of hierarchy is supported for writable snapshots that

are shared.

Deleting Snapshots
The snapshot delete operation for file storage resources works identically to the
delete operation on block storage resources. More details are provided in the
Deleting Snapshots section.

Limits
Table 2 displays the numerical limits for Unified Snapshots on the VNXe3200 system.
Table 2: Unified Snapshots Limits
Name Limit
Maximum LUN Snapshots per Array 1000
Maximum Snapshots per LUN 256
Maximum Block Snapshot Level 2
Maximum File System Snapshots per Array 250
Maximum Snapshots per File System 96
Maximum File Snapshot Level 10
Maximum User File Systems + Snapshots per Array 500

Best Practices
Best practices when using Unified Snapshots include:
 It is recommended to use thin (default) LUNs and file systems if snapshots are
going to be enabled. Snapshot creation will have lower performance impact on a
thin storage resource as compared to a thick LUN or file system. Thin LUNs and file
systems also improve space efficiency.
 Plan snapshot deletions to occur during non-peak times. If snapshots have to be
deleted during peak hours, reduce the number of concurrent snapshot deletions.
On a thick storage resource, do not delete the final snapshot if additional
snapshots will be taken in the future.
 Place LUNs that depend on each other into a LUN Group in order to maintain crash
consistency. Perform snapshot operations on the LUN Group.
 Auto-Delete policies should be configured on your storage resources to have the
system automatically delete snapshots which are no longer needed. This
mitigates the potential of reaching threshold limits that prevent new snapshots

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 from being created. The default Auto-Delete policy is based on pool auto-delete
threshold settings.
Refer to the EMC VNXe3200 Best Practices for Performance - Applied Best Practices
Guide for more information.

Interoperability
Unified Snapshots is designed to work with the other VNXe3200 features. This
integration enables easy management and the ability to utilize the features with
snapshots created on the VNXe3200 system.

LUN and File System Expansion

Expansion of thick and thin storage resources with snapshots is supported. Any
snapshot taken after the expansion will reflect the newer size. During the restore
operation, data will only be restored to the size of the LUN when the snapshot was
taken.

FAST Cache and FAST VP

Unified Snapshots is fully compatible with FAST Cache and FAST VP. The changes to a
LUN with a snapshot are written to a new location in the same pool. These new blocks
will have the same tiering policy and initial allocation rules as the source storage
resource. This also applies to changes made to writable snapshots. New blocks can
be promoted and relocated in the same manner as regular storage resource blocks.
For more information, refer to the Introduction to the EMC VNXe3200 FAST Suite white
paper on EMC Online Support.

File Deduplication and Compression

Snapshots are supported on file systems that have compression and deduplication
enabled. For more information, refer to the EMC VNXe3200 File Deduplication and
Compression white paper on EMC Online Support.
SMB 3.0
Snapshots are supported with SMB 3.0 features such as Continuous Availability (CA)
and protocol encryption.

File-Level Retention (FLR)

File-Level Retention is a software feature that can be used to protect files from
modification or deletion until a specified retention date. It is commonly used when
regulations require maintaining data for a certain period of time. FLR is configured per
file system, but snapshots of the file system are also supported by FLR. For more
information, refer to the Using a VNXe System with CIFS File Systems white paper on
EMC Online Support.

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UFS64
UFS64 is limited to VMware NFS datastores and does not support any array-level data
services such as Unified Snapshots. If snapshots are required, VM-level snapshots
can be created in vSphere.

VNXe VSS HW Provider

The VNXe VSS HW Provider runs as a Windows service and provides the interface
between the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and VNXe3200 system.
The VNXe VSS HW Provider enables VSS requestor applications, such as VSS-enabled
backup applications, to make snapshots of VNXe LUNs. The VNXe VSS HW provider
can be used to create application consistent snapshots for block storage resource in
windows. For more information, refer to the EMC VNXe Series Using a VNXe system
with Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUNs guide on EMC Online Support.
Snapshots can be taken by VSS-enabled backup applications. You can review the
properties of a snapshot by selecting a snapshot and clicking Details (Figure 34).
When the snapshot is taken by the VSS provider, the “Taken By” value for the
snapshot will show EXTERNAL_VSS.

Figure 34: Snapshot Created by VSS

VSS helps in creating and managing snapshots for Windows servers on local block
resources. The File Server Remote VSS Protocol (FSRVP) is a remote procedure call
(RPC)-based protocol that is used for creating shadow copies of file shares on a
remote computer. This protocol facilitates the backup applications' tasks in
performing application-consistent backup and restore of VSS-aware applications
storing data on network file shares. EMC VNXe3200 supports the ability for FSRVP to
also create snapshots for file systems.

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Conclusion
With the introduction of Unified Snapshots in the VNXe3200 storage system, a
common snapshot technology is used for both block and file storage resources. The
Unified Snapshots feature provides the ability to create point-in-time views of data
and the ability to restore data. LUN Groups provide the ability to create crash
consistent snapshots.
Snapshot scheduling provides the capability to automatically create snapshots based
on business needs. The Auto-Delete feature provides the ability for the system to
reclaim storage space automatically.
The ability to create, delete and manage snapshots from Unisphere allows users to
easily manage their data.

References
The following documentation can be found on EMC Online Support:
 Introduction to the EMC VNXe3200
 Introduction to the EMC VNXe3200 FAST Suite
 Unisphere for the VNXe3200: Next-Generation Storage Management
 Using a VNXe3200 System with CIFS File Systems
 Using a VNXe3200 system with Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUNs
 VNXe3200 Best Practices for Performance
 VNXe3200 File Deduplication and Compression

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