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This page provides details for how to protect your data.
NetApp Volumes supports volume backups to create offline backups
with long retention of your volumes and volume replication to create
asynchronous mirrors of your volume in different regions.
Best practices for protecting your data
For the best possible protection, we recommend that you use both volume
snapshots and volume backups. NetApp Volumes offers multiple
data protection options which can be combined to achieve your selected recovery
point and time objectives. A recovery point objective (RPO) describes how
recent the latest copy of your data is guaranteed to be, which depends on how
frequently the copies are made. A recovery time objective (RTO) defines how
long it takes to restore your data.
Protect your data with snapshots
Snapshots are virtual point-in-time versions of a volume that are taken on a
scheduled basis. You can access snapshots using standard file system commands.
Snapshots provide a RPO of as little as one hour. RTO depends on the amount of
data you have to restore and is primarily limited by the volume throughput
limit. Snapshots also allow users to restore specific files and directories,
which decreases RTO even further. Snapshots only consume additional volume
space for changes made to the volume.
Protect your data with backups
Volume backups provide independent point-in-time copies of your volume. They
can be used to store old backups and provide the necessary second copy of your
data. Daily, weekly, and monthly backup schedules allow for RPOs starting at
one day. Volume backups can only be restored as a whole. Creating a volume
from a backup (RTO) can take hours, depending on the size of the backup.
Protect your data with volume replication
Volume replication creates a copy of the latest data of a volume in a different
region, including all of its snapshots. If your workloads require a low RPO from
your disaster recovery plan and a low RTO for business continuity, you can
consider performing a volume replication.
While volume replication makes sure recent data is available in a different
region for you to use, you need to adjust your clients to use the volume in the
other region.
Recommendations for protecting your data
Use volume backups in conjunction with snapshots: using the two features
together ensures that you're able to restore your files from snapshots and
perform full restores in case of volume loss using backups.
Define a volume backup policy: make sure that the backup policy satisfies
your company requirements for backup age and frequency. We recommend keeping
a minimum of two daily backups for each volume.
Define a snapshot schedule: older snapshots are less likely to be used to
restore data. We recommend that you define a snapshot schedule that takes
into consideration the diminishing returns of keeping older snapshots against
the cost for additional snapshot capacity.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Protect your data\n\nThis page provides details for how to protect your data.\nNetApp Volumes supports volume backups to create offline backups\nwith long retention of your volumes and volume replication to create\nasynchronous mirrors of your volume in different regions.\n\nBest practices for protecting your data\n---------------------------------------\n\nFor the best possible protection, we recommend that you use both volume\nsnapshots and volume backups. NetApp Volumes offers multiple\ndata protection options which can be combined to achieve your selected recovery\npoint and time objectives. A recovery point objective (RPO) describes how\nrecent the latest copy of your data is guaranteed to be, which depends on how\nfrequently the copies are made. A recovery time objective (RTO) defines how\nlong it takes to restore your data.\n\nProtect your data with snapshots\n--------------------------------\n\nSnapshots are virtual point-in-time versions of a volume that are taken on a\nscheduled basis. You can access snapshots using standard file system commands.\nSnapshots provide a RPO of as little as one hour. RTO depends on the amount of\ndata you have to restore and is primarily limited by the volume throughput\nlimit. Snapshots also allow users to restore specific files and directories,\nwhich decreases RTO even further. Snapshots only consume additional volume\nspace for changes made to the volume.\n\nProtect your data with backups\n------------------------------\n\nVolume backups provide independent point-in-time copies of your volume. They\ncan be used to store old backups and provide the necessary second copy of your\ndata. Daily, weekly, and monthly backup schedules allow for RPOs starting at\none day. Volume backups can only be restored as a whole. Creating a volume\nfrom a backup (RTO) can take hours, depending on the size of the backup.\n\nProtect your data with volume replication\n-----------------------------------------\n\nVolume replication creates a copy of the latest data of a volume in a different\nregion, including all of its snapshots. If your workloads require a low RPO from\nyour disaster recovery plan and a low RTO for business continuity, you can\nconsider performing a [volume replication](/netapp/volumes/docs/protect-data/about-volume-replication).\nWhile volume replication makes sure recent data is available in a different\nregion for you to use, you need to adjust your clients to use the volume in the\nother region.\n\nRecommendations for protecting your data\n----------------------------------------\n\n- **Use volume backups in conjunction with snapshots**: using the two features\n together ensures that you're able to restore your files from snapshots and\n perform full restores in case of volume loss using backups.\n\n- **Define a volume backup policy**: make sure that the backup policy satisfies\n your company requirements for backup age and frequency. We recommend keeping\n a minimum of two daily backups for each volume.\n\n- **Define a snapshot schedule**: older snapshots are less likely to be used to\n restore data. We recommend that you define a snapshot schedule that takes\n into consideration the diminishing returns of keeping older snapshots against\n the cost for additional snapshot capacity.\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n[Backup your data](/netapp/volumes/docs/protect-data/about-volume-backups)."]]
