On our NS-960 Celerra we have multiple storage pools defined and one of them that is specifically defined for checkpoint storage. Out Of the 100 or so file systems that we run a checkpoint schedule on, about 2/3 of them were incorrectly writing their checkpoints to the production file system pool rather than the defined checkpoint pool, and the production pool was starting to fill up. I started to research how you could change where checkpoints are stored. Unfortunately you can’t actually relocate existing checkpoints, you need to start over.
In order to change where checkpoints are stored, you need to stop and delete any running replications (which automatically store root replication checkpoints) and delete all current checkpoints for the specific file system you’re working on. Depending on your checkpoint schedule and how often it runs you may want to pause it temporarily. Having to stop and delete remote replications was painful for me as I compete for bandwidth with our data domain backups to our DR site. Because of that I’ve been working on these one at a time.
Once you’ve deleted the relevant checkpoints and replications, you can choose where to store the new checkpoints by creating a single checkpoint first before making a schedule. From the GUI, go to Data Protection | Snapshots | Checkpoints tab, and click create. If a checkpoint does not exist for the file system, it will give you a choice of which pool you’d like to store it in. Below is what you’ll see in the popup window.
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Choose Data Mover [Drop Down List ▼]
Production File System [Drop Down List ▼]
Writeable Checkpoint [Checkbox]:
Data Movers: server_2
Checkpoint Name: [Fill in the Blank]
Configure Checkpoint Storage:
There are no checkpoints currently on this file system. Please specify how to allocate
storage for this and future checkpoints of this file system.
Create from:
*Storage Pool [Option Box]
*Meta Volume [Option Box]
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Current Storage System: CLARiiON CX4-960 APM00900900999
Storage Pool: [Drop Down List ▼] <—*Select the appropriate Storage Pool Here*
Storage Capacity (MB): [Fill in the Blank]
Auto Extend Configuration:
High Water Mark: [Drop Down List for Percentage ▼]
Maximum Storage Capacity (MB): [Fill in the Blank]
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