Flashcopy Or Snapshot Backup - IBM TotalStorage DS300 Best Practices Manual

4.11 Flashcopy or SnapShot backup

Flashcopy and SnapShot are different names for the same feature. IBM uses the
term SnapShot to refer to the Flashcopy feature. Other vendors may use the term
SnapShot. The command line interface uses also the term SnapShot.
ServeRAID Manager console uses Flashcopy.
A Flashcopy backup creates a point-in-time backup of logical drive data.
Flashcopy backup might be used for drive cloning or running a test system with
productive data without the need of stopping production. The greatest advantage
of Flashcopy is the reduction of the backup window for an large application like
an database. Backup of the files of the application requires that the application is
stopped or has at least closed all open files. The data are then in a consistent
state and a backup can be performed. Depending on the file size and number
several hours or days might be needed to backup everything. During this time the
application is not available for productive usage. This is usually not acceptably by
a customer. Flashcopy may help in such a situation.
After stopping the application and getting a consistent state of the data an
Flashcopy of the logical drives used by this application can be created. This will
create a new logical drive with the date in this consistent state. This will only
takes a few minutes. The application be started again and the new created
logical drive can be used to perform a regular backup
To create a Flashcopy logical drive, an array with at least one logical drive must
exist. The array needs space for the Flashcopy target logical drive.
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IBM TotalStorage DS300 and DS400 Best Practices Guide