Business Copy Overview; Business Copy Software; How Business Copy Works; Hardware And Software Components - HP XP P9500 User Manual

1 Business Copy overview

Unless otherwise specified, the term P9000 in this guide refers to the following disk array:
P9500 Disk Array
The GUI illustrations in this guide were created using a Windows computer with the Internet Explorer
browser. Actual windows may differ depending on the operating system and browser used. GUI
contents also vary with licensed program products, storage system models, and firmware versions.
Business Copy uses local mirroring technology to create and maintain a full copy of any volume
in the storage system.
This guide provides instructions for planning, pair operation, checking operational status, and
troubleshooting.

Business Copy software

With Business Copy software you create multiple copies of a data volume within the same storage
system. Business Copy backup data volumes can be used as backups or with target host
applications, data mining applications, and for testing — while the source business operations
continue to run at full capacity with the source data volume.

How Business Copy works

A pair is created when you:
Select a volume that you want to duplicate. This will become the primary volume (P-VOL).
Identify another volume to contain the copy. This will become the secondary volume (S-VOL).
Associate the source and secondary volumes.
Perform the initial copy.
During the initial copy, the primary volume remains available for read/write. After the copy is
completed, subsequent write operations to the primary volume are regularly duplicated to the
secondary volume.
The primary volume and secondary volume remain paired until they are split. When the pair is
split, the primary volume continues to be updated, but data in the secondary volume remains as
it was at the time of the split. The secondary volume contains a mirror image of the original volume
at that point in time.
S-VOL data is consistent and usable. It becomes available for read/write access by target
host applications.
Changes to the P-VOL and S-VOL are managed by differential bitmaps.
The volumes can be paired again by resynchronizing the update data from P-VOL-to-S-VOL,
or from S-VOL-to-P-VOL, as circumstance dictates.

Hardware and software components

A typical configuration consists of a P9500 storage system, a host connected to the storage system,
Business Copy software, a primary volume, a secondary volume or volumes, and interface tools
for operating Business Copy.
Interface tools include the HP Remote Web Console graphical user interface (GUI) and RAID
Manager.
Business Copy software 5