Which NetApp technology is used for disaster recovery replication by copying data to another system?

• A. SnapVault
• B. SnapRestore
• C. SnapDiff
• D. SnapMirror

Answer: (D)

The concept being tested is the ability to keep a disaster recovery site in sync with the primary site by copying data to another system. SnapMirror is the NetApp technology designed for this kind of replication. It creates a relationship between a source ONTAP system and a destination ONTAP system and continuously updates the destination with changes from the source, so you have a near-real-time or scheduled copy at the DR site.

Key points that make SnapMirror the best fit: you establish an initial baseline copy and then transmit only the blocks that change, which keeps bandwidth usage reasonable while maintaining a usable replica. This setup supports failover to the DR site if the primary site becomes unavailable and then failback when the primary is restored, enabling effective disaster recovery and business continuity. Depending on configuration and distance, replication can be synchronous for tighter RPO/RTO or asynchronous for longer-distance setups, giving flexibility to meet different DR objectives.

Understanding the other options helps reinforce why SnapMirror is the right choice for replication-based DR: SnapVault is more about scheduled backups to secondary storage rather than maintaining an active replica for quick failover; SnapRestore is the restore operation from snapshots rather than ongoing replication; SnapDiff is a tool for identifying differences between snapshots, not a replication mechanism.