It always comes up, how can I copy single files, or large areas directly from the NetApp console? Generally the answer comes back, you can’t, use RoboCopy or rsync or another file migration tool. However there are definitely ways of copying files around directly from the filer itself, and often this is the most efficient way of doing it! However, these aren’t the most intuitive or well documented commands.

There may be other methods, and if you have something you have used in the past or you know of, please feel free to share! Not all methods are suitable for all tasks, but each has it’s own individual uses.

ndmpcopy

This is often overlooked as a file / folder copy command, and is often just used to migrate entire volumes around. In fact it can be used to copy individual folders or filers around, and even better can be used to copy data to other filers! Make sure ndmp is enabled first (ndmpd on). The syntax is quite simple…

ndmpcopy /vol/vol_source_name/folder/file /vol/vol_dest_name/file

Just to break this down, we are choosing to copy a filer from “/vol/vol_source_name/folder” and we want to copy it into “/vol/vol_dest_name”. This isn’t too restrictive, we don’t have to keep the same path, and we can even copy things about in the same volume (such as copying things into QTrees if you need). You can copy things from an entire volume, to a single QTree, down to single folders way down in the directory tree. The only real restriction is you cannot use wildcards, and you cannot select multiple files to copy.

If you want to copy files from one filer to another, we simply extend this syntax…

ndmpcopy -sa <user>:<pass> -da <user>:<pass> source_filer:/vol/vol_source_name/folder/file destination_filer:/vol/vol_dest_name/file

Replace <user> and <pass> with the source filer (-sa) login and the destination filer (-da) login. Here we copy a single file from one location on one filer, to another on another!

We can also define the the incremental level of transfer. By default the system will do a level 0 transfer, but you can define to do a single level 1 or 2 incremental transfer. If the data has changed too much, or too much time has passed since the last copy, this may fail or may take longer than a clean level 0.

This can be very useful, and as the filer is doing this at block level, all ACL’s are completely preserved. Take care to enable that the security style is the same on the destination to prevent ACL’s from being converted however.

ONTAP 7.2.6.1 manual page for this can be found - http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel7261/html/ontap/cmdref/man1/na_ndmpcopy.1.htm

mv

This is a “priv set advanced” command, and so apparently reserved for “Network Appliance personnel”. “mv” is very straight forward, give it a source and destination, and a single file will get moved. Remember this is a move, so it is not technically a file copy at all.

mv <file2> <file2>

flex clone

This is a real cheat, but a great cheat! You clone an entire volume based on a snapshot, then you split this volume off from the snapshot. This a great way of getting an entire volume copied with minimal disruption. The clone is almost immediately created, and can then be online and used live. The clone split operation happens in the background so you can move things and be live at the new location in very little time at all.

vol clone create new_vol -s volume -b source_vol source_snap

Where “new_vol” is the new volume you want to create, “-s volume” is the space reservation, “-b source_vol” is the parent volume that the clone will be based on and “source_snap” is the snapshot you want to base the clone on.

vol clone split start new_vol

Will then start the split operation on the “new_vol”

vol copy

Rather than a flex clone, if you haven’t got that licensed, you can do a full vol copy. This is effectively the same as a vol clone, but you need to do the entire operation before the volume is online and available. You need to create the destination volume first and then restrict it so that it is ready for the copy. Then you start the copy process.

vol copy start -s snap_name source_vol dest_vol

“-s snap_name” defines the snapshot you want to base the copy on, and “source_vol” and “dest_vol” define the source and destination for the copy. “-S” can also be used to copy across all the snapshots that are also included in the volume. This can be very useful if you need to copy all backups within a volume as well as just the volume data.

lun clone

If you need to copy an entire LUN, and again you haven’t got flex clone licensed, you can do a direct lun clone, and lun clone split. This is only really useful if you need a duplicate of the LUN in the same volume. It will create a clone based on a snapshot that already exists.

lun clone create clone_path -b parent_path parent_snap

“clone_path” being the new LUN you want to create, “parent_path” being the source LUN you want to clone from and “parent_snap” being a snapshot that already exists of the parent LUN. The you need to split the LUN to become independent with.

lun clone split start clone_path

SnapMirror / SnapVault

You can also use SnapMirror or SnapVault to copy data around. SnapMirror can be useful if you need to copy a large amount of data that will change. You can setup a replication schedule, then during a small window of downtime, you can do a final update and bring the new destination online.

dump and restore

This isn’t really a good way of copying files around, but it certainly a method. If you attach a tape device directly to the filer, you could do a dump, then a restore to a new location or filer. This can be the only method if you have a large amount of data to move to a new site, and no bandwidth or no way of having the 2 systems side by side temporarily.