The SnapVault secondary system allows you to keep a separate schedule of Snapshot copies from your primary system.

A fundamental feature of NetApp SnapVault technology is its ability to maintain a retention schedule on the secondary (destination) system that is independent of the primary (source) system's local Snapshot copy schedule. This is managed through a SnapVault policy on the destination cluster. This policy defines which Snapshot copies are transferred (typically based on labels like "daily" or "weekly") and specifies a separate, often longer, retention period for them on the vault destination. This allows an organization to keep a small number of recent Snapshot copies on the high-performance primary system for operational recovery, while archiving a larger number of historical copies for long-term retention and compliance on the secondary system.

The "False" option is incorrect because it contradicts the primary design purpose of SnapVault. If the secondary system were forced to mirror the primary system's Snapshot schedule, it would lose its value as a long-term archival and backup solution. The ability to have a separate, extended retention schedule is a core differentiator of the SnapVault feature.

1. NetApp ONTAP 9 Documentation

"Data protection overview": In the description of SnapVault

the official documentation states: "You can use SnapVault to create a repository of Snapshot copies on a destination system. You can configure the SnapVault secondary to store Snapshot copies for a longer duration than the primary." This directly confirms that the schedules can be separate.

Source: NetApp ONTAP 9.12.1 Documentation

"Data protection using SnapMirror technology"

Section: "Data protection overview".

2. NetApp ONTAP 9 Documentation

"Create a SnapMirror policy for SnapVault replication": The procedure for creating a SnapVault policy explicitly involves setting rules with a -retention-period parameter for specific Snapshot labels. This demonstrates that the retention is a configurable policy on the destination

separate from the source's local retention. For example

a rule can be set to keep Snapshot copies with the "weekly" label for 52 weeks on the vault

even if they are only kept for 4 weeks on the primary.

Source: NetApp ONTAP 9.12.1 Documentation

"Data protection using SnapMirror technology"

Section: "Create a SnapMirror policy for SnapVault replication".

3. NetApp Technical Report TR-4015

"SnapMirror Configuration and Best Practices Guide for ONTAP 9.1": This report explains the architecture of SnapVault policies. It details that the SnapVault policy

which resides on the destination cluster

controls the retention of Snapshot copies on the vault destination. It states

"The retention period in the SnapVault policy rule determines how long the Snapshot copy is retained on the SnapVault destination."

Source: NetApp TR-4015

Page 21

Section: "SnapVault Policies".