Psssstttttt….Don’t check this option #RecoverPoint
Alright a little forward I admit but I wanted you to feel my point…
Ok. What option am I talking about? Namely the, “Consolidate snapshots between bookmarks”. Now a couple of things:
- The option has its purpose <to someone no doubt>. What it means is that the ONLY snapshots that will be consolidated are the ones between user defined bookmarks. ONLY…
- The option is unchecked by default. So its not EMC’s fault if you check the option and consolidation doesn’t work as intended. Know your options <myself included>, Although to me this should say Only Consolidate Snapshots between bookmarks as that is the producible outcome within the GUI.
- IMO the reference in the admin guide (page 51) is a bit, shall we say, poo-poo laden…
Consolidate snapshots between bookmarks. Default = disabled. The system will snap the start and end times of the consolidation to a bookmark with the time stamp nearest to the times specified when daily and weekly consolidations are configured—within a ten percent range.
NOTE: This setting has no effect on the Maintain all snapshots for
period.
Where is this option located? See below, but under the replica volume within your CG > policy configuration tab> protection settings…
<-------Select the secondary copy under your CG 
What a consolidated snapshot looks like ---------->
Seems so sweet, so natural, to check this box, you know? It might as well be laced with white fluffy bunnies. One would think you would want to consolidate snapshots between bookmarks but oh no checking this option will cease system automated snapshot consolidation. As noted it only ceases automation, you can still consolidate snapshots outside of user defined bookmarks manually via the CLI.
For your reference the Primus number is emc216467 below…
| Environment: | EMC SW: EMC RecoverPoint 3.1 |
| Environment: | EMC SW: EMC RecoverPoint 3.1 SP1 |
| Environment: | EMC SW: RecoverPoint with Snapshot Consolidation |
| Problem: | Automated Snapshot Consolidation does not appear to be working. |
| Problem: | No consolidated snapshots listed in journal. |
| Problem: | Snapshot Consolidation taken manually using the CLI work as expected when executing 'consolidate_snapshots'. |
| Root Cause: | This is a configuration issue. User enabled "consolidate snapshots between bookmarks" when configuring snapshot consolidation. This check box means that the snapshots that will be consolidated will be only the 'user' created bookmarks. |
| Fix: | Using the RecoverPoint Console, go to Policy and disable consolidate snapshots between bookmarks. |
| Fix: | Support Center: For more information consult Bugzilla defect number 17027 and 18199. |
recoverpoint in recoverpoint 
Reader Comments (3)
[...] I, apparently, have not found the documentation the follow source has. The feature is “Consolidate Snapshots Between Bookmarks” and is documented Joe Kelley, who’s blog I’ve just discovered. Read for more [...]
Joe,
I agree with you on the lack of solid guidance in the admin guide on this option and it is being addressed, but just so you know there are good use cases for this functionality.
For example take a customer that has a windows application (exchange, SQL..etc) that supports VSS framework and schedules and automated VSS Bookmark every 2 or 4 hours, if they set this option then RecoverPoint snapshot between bookmarks feature will consolidate based on these regular bookmarks there by allowing the customer to utilize these quiesced application specific point in times to be used for long term backup and archival purpose, or recovery , Test/Dev Refresh etc.. As in all solutions there are trade offs for certain feature/functionality in this case the trade off is that you can not use the daily , weekly consolidation as these would be opposing requirements so it is an either or option.. either you use the consolidation between bookmarks, or you use the daily/weekly .. you can't have your cake and eat it too as the phrase goes.
Hope this helps in understanding why the limitations are there.
-rick
Rick,
Thanks for the clarification and thanks for reading. I understand it has its use case, my thoughts were why would anyone use this feature when you have long term consolidated snapshots that could be utilized, I was playing up cons snapshots which are worth their weight in gold IMO. I guess this option would come into play more so with the insertion of Replication Manager into your RP environment? So would it be safe to say if you are using VSS integration for app consistent bookmarks, that this is the option you would use(under the control of RM that is)? Also, EMC is very much a company built on "having your cake and eating it to", do you think this ability to use daily, weekly and monthly consolidation with user defined bookmarks will eventually make it to RP? : )
thanks again, rick..