Recovery options: Copy-on write vs redirect-on-write snapshots
Snapshots are a very popular way to create virtual copies of an entire system in order to facilitate very quick (or even instant) recovery. A properly designed snapshot-based recovery system can recover very large volumes in just minutes and can often do so to a point in time just minutes ago. In contrast, a typical restore of such size would likely take many hours and would typically lose at least a day’s worth of data.There are two distinct approaches when it comes to creating snapshots: copy-on-write and redirect-on-write. Let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages associated with each method, as they will greatly determine the impact on system performance, and therefore your ability to keep snapshots for a long time.To read this article in full, please click here