Enabling The Snapshot Virtual Disk Feature; Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk With User-Assigned Physical Disks; Preparing Host Servers To Create An Initial Snapshot Virtual Disk - Dell PowerVault MD3620f Command Line Interface Manual

Enabling the Snapshot Virtual Disk Feature

The first step in creating a snapshot virtual disk is to make sure the feature is
enabled on the storage array. You need a feature key to enable the feature. The
command for enabling the feature key file is:
enable storageArray feature file="filename"
where, the file parameter is the complete file path and file name of a valid
feature key file. Enclose the file path and file name in quotation marks (" ").
Valid file names for feature key files usually end with .key extension.

Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk with User-Assigned Physical Disks

Creating a snapshot virtual disk by assigning the physical disks allows you to
choose from the available physical disks when defining your storage array
configuration. When you choose the physical disks for your snapshot virtual
disk, you automatically create a new disk group. You can specify which
physical disks to use and the RAID level for the new disk group.

Preparing Host Servers to Create an Initial Snapshot Virtual Disk

CAUTION:
Before you create a new point-in-time image of a source virtual disk,
stop any data access (I/O) activity or suspend data transfer to the source virtual
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 Snapshot.
Before creating a snapshot virtual disk, the server has to be in the proper state.
To ensure that the host server is properly prepared to create a snapshot virtual
disk, 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.
2 Using your Windows system, flush the cache to the source. At the host
prompt, type
SMrepassist -f <filename-identifier>
and press <Enter>. See "SMrepassist Utility" in the Owner's Manual for
more information.
Using the Snapshot Feature
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