After deploying a new on-premises AFF cluster, you have been tasked with backing it up to StorageGRID. You have requested the NetApp ONTAP One…

To back up data from an on-premises ONTAP cluster to a StorageGRID object storage system, the SnapMirror to S3 feature (formerly known as SnapMirror Cloud) must be used. This functionality requires a specific SnapMirror license to be installed and active on the source ONTAP cluster. While the ONTAP One license bundle includes the SnapMirror feature license, the question isolates the specific component that enables the S3-based backup capability. The "SnapMirror Cloud API license" refers to this entitlement, which allows ONTAP to communicate with the S3 API of the StorageGRID system to perform backup and restore operations.

A. NetApp Cloud Backup service: This is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering managed through NetApp BlueXP, primarily for orchestrating backups to public clouds. The specified task can be configured natively within ONTAP System Manager without this service.

C. NetApp BlueXP tiering: This refers to the NetApp FabricPool feature, which automatically moves inactive (cold) data to low-cost object storage. This is a data tiering solution, not a data protection solution for creating separate backup copies.

D. NetApp BlueXP observability: This is a monitoring and analytics service provided through BlueXP. It offers insights into system health and performance but is not a component required for establishing a data backup relationship.

1. NetApp ONTAP 9.13.1 Documentation, "Back up and restore data using SnapMirror to S3": This official guide states, "To use SnapMirror to S3, you need a SnapMirror license." This confirms that a specific license is the prerequisite for the technology in question. Option B, while using slightly non-standard terminology, is the only choice that refers to this licensing requirement.

2. NetApp Technical Report 4570, "SnapMirror Configuration and Best Practices Guide for ONTAP 9.13.1", Section 2.1 Licensing: This report clarifies the licensing requirements: "A SnapMirror license is required on the source ONTAP cluster for SnapMirror Cloud (renamed SnapMirror to S3 in ONTAP 9.8)." This directly supports that the feature for backing up to an S3 target like StorageGRID is enabled by a specific license on the source cluster.

3. NetApp ONTAP 9.13.1 Documentation, "FabricPool overview": This document defines FabricPool as a technology to "automatically tier data from a performance tier (SSD) to a cloud tier (object store)." This clearly distinguishes it from a backup operation, making option C incorrect.

4. NetApp BlueXP Documentation, "Backup and recovery overview": This source describes NetApp BlueXP backup and recovery as a service for "backing up and restoring data from on-premises ONTAP systems...to object storage in the cloud." This identifies it as a BlueXP-managed service, distinct from a feature deployed directly and solely via ONTAP System Manager as implied by the question, making option A incorrect.