NetApp SnapMirror Business Continuity

Standard NetApp SnapMirror replicates data volumes between ONTAP storage clusters for backup and disaster recovery at the storage layer. SnapMirror Business Continuity (SMBC) adds application-aware orchestration, enabling automated failover of multi-volume consistency groups so that entire applications and their dependent storage fail over together. SMBC is designed for near-zero downtime scenarios where standard SnapMirror alone would require manual recovery steps.

Yes, SMBC supports both synchronous and asynchronous replication between primary and secondary NetApp ONTAP clusters. Synchronous mode ensures zero data loss (RPO of zero) by writing data to both sites before acknowledging the write to the application, while asynchronous mode offers better performance over long distances at the cost of a small replication lag.

SnapMirror Business Continuity requires ONTAP 9.6 or later, with additional features and improvements added in subsequent ONTAP 9.x releases. Organizations should verify that both their primary and secondary clusters are running compatible ONTAP versions and that their hardware platform supports the SMBC feature set.

SMBC provides automated failover capabilities using consistency groups, but the degree of automation depends on how the organization configures failover policies. Administrators can set SMBC to fail over automatically in response to site failures or require manual confirmation. The system also supports planned failover for maintenance windows, ensuring data consistency across all volumes in the group.