In NetApp ONTAP, an asynchronous SnapMirror relationship is established between a source and a destination volume, forming a "mirror pair." Each relationship is managed independently and is associated with a specific SnapMirror policy and a schedule. The schedule dictates the frequency of updates, which in turn defines the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). To support multiple relationships with different RPOs, an administrator must create a separate mirror pair for each data set and assign a unique schedule to each pair corresponding to its required RPO. For example, one pair could have a schedule to update every hour (1-hour RPO), while another has a schedule to update daily (24-hour RPO).

A. "Mirror group" is not a standard ONTAP term for managing SnapMirror relationships with distinct RPOs. Schedules are applied to individual relationships or consistency groups.

C. A single consistency group is governed by one schedule and one policy. Therefore, all volume relationships within that group share the same RPO.

D. While multiple consistency groups can be used to achieve different RPOs for different groups of volumes, the fundamental and most direct method is creating individual mirror pairs, which is always required.

1. NetApp ONTAP 9 Data Protection Administration Guide

Document Version 9.11

Page 31

"Overview of the SnapMirror relationship configuration workflow". The guide states

"You create a SnapMirror relationship to protect a volume... A SnapMirror policy and a schedule are assigned to each relationship." This confirms that schedules (which determine RPO) are assigned on a per-relationship basis.

2. NetApp Technical Report TR-4015: SnapMirror Configuration and Best Practices Guide for ONTAP 9

Page 11

Section 2.2 "SnapMirror Policies". The document explains

"A SnapMirror policy is a set of rules that defines the behavior of a SnapMirror relationship... The schedule defines the RPO for the relationship." This directly links the schedule of an individual relationship to its RPO.

3. NetApp ONTAP 9 Command Reference

snapmirror create command documentation. The syntax snapmirror create -source-path... -destination-path... -schedule demonstrates that a schedule is applied when creating a specific source-destination pair

allowing for unique RPOs for each created relationship.