Safely Use Production Data For Test, Development, And Data Mining; Clone A Volume; Planning Smartclone Volumes; Space Requirements - HP StorageWorks P4000 User Manual

On your HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN Solution, you maintain master desktop images for each class
offering. These desktop images include all the software applications the students need for each class,
in the default configuration required for the start of the class.
To prepare for an upcoming class with 50 students, you clone the 50 student desktops from the master
image, without consuming additional space on the SAN. You configure the iSCSI connections and
the students are ready to start working. During the class, the only additional data added to the SAN
is the trainees' class work. When the class is finished, you can roll back all 50 SmartClone volumes
to the clone point and recreate the desktops.

Safely use production data for test, development, and data mining

Use SmartClone volumes to safely work with your production environment in a test and development
environment, before going live with new applications or upgrades to current applications. Or, clone
copies of your production data for data mining and analysis.
Test and development
Using the SmartClone process, you can instantly clone copies of your production LUNs and mount
them in another environment. Then you can run new software, install upgrades, and perform other
maintenance tasks. When the new software or upgrades testing is complete, either redirect your
application to the SmartClone volume you have been using, or delete the SmartClone volume and
proceed with the installation or upgrades in the production environment.
Data mining
Assume you want to track monthly trends in web requests for certain types of information. Once a
month, you create a SmartClone volume of the web server transaction, mount the volume to a different
server, and analyze and track usage or other trends over time. This monthly SmartClone volume takes
minimal additional space on the SAN, while providing all the data from the web server database.

Clone a volume

In addition to the cases described above, SmartClone volumes can be created as needed for any
purpose. These volumes provide exact copies of existing volumes without the need to provision
additional space, until and unless you want to write new data.

Planning SmartClone volumes

Planning SmartClone volumes takes into account multiple factors, such as space requirements, server
access, and naming conventions for SmartClone volumes.

Space requirements

SmartClone volumes inherit the size and data protection level of the source volume and snapshot.
(When creating a SmartClone volume, you first create a snapshot of the source volume and create
the SmartClone volumes from that snapshot, which is then called the "clone point.") You can select
the provisioning method when creating SmartClone volumes. See
complete discussion of volume and snapshot characteristics and space planning.
• The space required for the volumes created using the SmartClone process is the same as for any
other volumes on the SAN. SmartClone volumes can have schedules to snapshot a volume and
Chapter 11 on page 189 for a
P4000 SAN Solution user guide 235