Why Migrate SnapManager to the SnapCenter Plug-in for SQL Server?
Manohar Kulkarni
SnapCenter[/caption]
If you’re running NetApp® SnapManager® management software in a SQL Server or Exchange Server environment, it’s time to migrate to the NetApp SnapCenter® for Microsoft Plug-ins.
In 2018, NetApp announced end of availability (EOA) for NetApp SnapManager for Microsoft SQL Server, SnapDrive and Microsoft Exchange Server. SnapManager for SQL Server won’t be supported with NetApp ONTAP® 9.4 and later.
SnapManager for SQL Server leveraged SMVI services (SnapManager Virtual Interface) to protect databases on VMWare virtual disk. SMVI which is part of VSC 6.x (Virtual Storage console) is supported only upto vSphere 6.5.
VMware announced its end of general support for vSphere 5.5 and suggested upgrading to vSphere 6.5 or vSphere 6.7. Also, SnapManager won’t be supported with Microsoft SQL Server 2017, Exchange Server 2019 and Windows 2019 operating system. Further, NetApp won’t be making any enhancements to SnapManager, and won’t support new versions.
In December 2018, NetApp released SnapCenter 4.1.1 software. SnapCenter qualified latest builds on the Microsoft platform and vSphere, exploiting rich data management capabilities from ONTAP 9.4 and later.
Along with SnapCenter 4.1.1, NetApp released Single Mailbox Recovery (SMBR) 8.2, which eliminates the requirement of installing an SMBR client along with an Outlook client on Exchange Server. Instead, you can now manage an SMBR client from a different server. And the SnapCenter Plug-in for Microsoft Exchange continues its support for NetApp SnapVault® and SnapMirror® software, a capability that was introduced in SnapCenter 4.1.
SnapCenter 4.1.1 features are similar to SnapManager capabilities, but SnapCenter provides additional benefits for centrally managing data protection of resources with rolebased access control (RBAC). This capability empowers application administrators to work securely in a delegated environment.
Because of an improved UI and extended support for newer versions of Exchange and the database server, and the ability to take advantage of enhancements in future releases, NetApp recommends that you migrate SnapManager to SnapCenter.
To learn how to migrate a SnapManager based SQL Server to the SnapCenter Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server, and to see a demo of migrating SnapVault copies to SnapCenter, watch the video Migrating SnapManager SQL Server to SnapCenter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx-m6dr8LP8
Check out more demos on YouTube under SnapCenter playlist.
Manohar Kulkarni
Manohar Kulkarni is a Technical Marketing Engineer (TME) focusing on data protection of Microsoft applications on ONTAP storage systems at NetApp. Being in product management, he helps in product designing, strategizing, developing new ideas, and on a need basis providing consulting and sales assistance. He likes troubleshooting problems and coding to automate tasks to simplify day-to-day tasks.
