Recopying A Virtual Disk; Preparing Host Servers To Recopy A Virtual Disk; Recopying The Virtual Disk - Dell PowerVault MD3260 Cli Manual

Recopying A Virtual Disk

CAUTION: The recopy virtualDiskCopy command overwrites existing data on the target virtual disk and
makes the target virtual disk read‑only to hosts. The recopy virtualDiskCopy command fails all snapshot
virtual disks associated with the target virtual disk, if any exist.
Using the recopy virtualDiskCopy command, you can create a new virtual disk copy for a previously defined
copy pair that has a status of Stopped, Failed, or Completed. Use the recopy virtualDiskCopy command to
create backups of the target virtual disk, then copy the backup to tape for off-site storage. When using the recopy
virtualDiskCopy command to make a backup, you cannot write to source while the recopy is running. The recopy
might take a long time.
When you run the recopy virtualDiskCopy command, the data on the source virtual disk is copied in its entirety
to the target virtual disk.
Reset the copy priority for the recopy operation by using the recopy virtualDiskCopy command. The higher
priorities allocate storage array resources to the virtual disk copy at the expense of storage array performance.

Preparing Host Servers To Recopy A Virtual Disk

CAUTION: Before you create a new copy of a source virtual disk, stop any data access (I/O) activity or suspend
data transfer to the source virtual disk (and, if applicable, the target disk) to ensure that you capture an accurate
point-in-time image of the source virtual disk. Close all applications, including Windows Internet Explorer, to make
sure all I/O activity has stopped.
NOTE: Removing the drive letter of the associated virtual disk(s) in Windows or unmounting the virtual drive in
Linux helps to guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the virtual disk copy.
Before creating a new virtual disk copy for an existing copy pair, both the server and the associated virtual disk you are
recopying have to be in the proper state. To ensure that the host server is properly prepared to create a virtual disk
recopy, you can either use an application to carry out this task, or you can perform the following steps:
1. Stop all I/O activity to the source and target virtual disk.
2. Using your Windows system, flush the cache to both the source and the target virtual disk (if mounted). At the host
prompt, type SMrepassist -f <filename-identifier> and press <Enter>.
See "SMrepassist Utility" in the
3. Remove the drive letter(s) of the source and (if mounted) virtual disk in Windows or unmount the virtual drive(s) in
Linux to help guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the virtual disk. If this is not done, the copy operation reports
that it has completed successfully, but the copied data is not updated properly.
4. Follow any additional instructions for your operating system. Failure to follow these additional instructions can
create unusable virtual disk copies.
NOTE: If your operating system requires additional instructions, you can find those instructions in your
operating system documentation.
After your server has been prepared, see Recopying The Virtual Disk to recopy the virtual disk.

Recopying The Virtual Disk

After first preparing the host server(s) as specified in the preceding procedure, use the following examples to make a
virtual disk copy.
62
Owner's Manual for more information.