Dell 38XX, 34XX, 32XX Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk, Enabling The Snapshot Virtual Disk Feature

•You must satisfy the requirements of your host operating system for creating snapshot virtual disks. Failure to meet the requirements of your host operating system results in an inaccurate point-in-time image of the source virtual disk or the target virtual disk in a virtual disk copy.

Creating A Snapshot Virtual Disk

The create snapshotVirtualDisk command provides three methods for defining the physical disks for your snapshot repository virtual disk:

•Define each physical disk for the snapshot repository virtual disk by enclosure ID and slot ID.

•Define a disk group in which the snapshot repository virtual disk resides. Optionally define the capacity of the repository virtual disk.

•Define the number of physical disks, but not specific physical disks, for the repository virtual disk.

When using the create snapshotVirtualDisk command to create a snapshot virtual disk, the standard virtual disk name for the source virtual disk is the minimum information required. When you provide only the standard virtual disk name, the storage management software provides default values for the other required property parameters for a snapshot virtual disk.

NOTE: In some cases, depending on the host operating system and any virtual disk manager software in use, the software prevents you from mapping the same host to both a source virtual disk and its associated snapshot virtual disk.

An error message appears in the command line when the utility cannot distinguish between the following:

•Source virtual disk and snapshot virtual disk (for example, if the snapshot virtual disk has been removed)

•Standard virtual disk and virtual disk copy (for example, if the virtual disk copy has been removed)

If you are running a Linux operating system, run the hot_add utility to register the snapshot virtual disk with the host operating system.

NOTE: The hot_add utility is not available for Windows.

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.

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