NetApp snapshots

[marco_shaw]

*Sorry, I couldn't seem to find the best group to post.**

Someone asked me investigate doing "NetApp snapshots" of VMware disk/LUNs for recovering/DR, etc.  I know I'm running a NetApp E5600 series which is just a "block-based SAN" and simply presents LUNs to my VMware environment.

I'm 99% sure I can't use this feature with this SAN, but I'm asking.  I figured these snapshots would be file-based ("OnTap"?) and not block-based.

Is there any reference that can help me confirm my assumptions?

[Lalegre]

Hey ,

I interacted with some NetApp solutions for doing backup projects and one the features was taking volume snapshots to read the data and then writing to a repository. There is no such thing as file vs block snapshot. 

In NetApp you can use snapshot images or snapshot volumes as you can see here for the difference: https://mysupport.netapp.com/NOW/public/eseries/sam_archive1150/index.html#page/GUID-8538272A-B802-49D9-9EA2-96C82DAD26A2/GUID-0947EC47-B807-4206-BBBE-3B46505E4DA7.html. When you take a snapshot by using OnTap it will take a snapshot to the full LUN that you are presenting to your ESXIs.