Dell 34XX, 38XX, 32XX, 36XX Creating a Virtual Disk Copy, Enabling The Virtual Disk Copy Feature

Creating A Virtual Disk Copy

Before creating a virtual disk copy, ensure that a suitable target virtual disk exists on the storage array, or create a new target virtual disk specifically for the virtual disk copy. The target virtual disk must have a capacity equal to or greater than the source virtual disk.

You can have a maximum of eight virtual disk copies in progress at one time. Any virtual disk copy greater than eight has a status of Pending until one of the virtual disk copies with a status of In Progress completes.

The following steps show the general process for creating a virtual disk copy:

1.Enable the Virtual Disk Copy feature.

2.Determine candidates for a virtual disk copy.

3.Create the target virtual disk and source virtual disk for a virtual disk copy.

Enabling The Virtual Disk Copy Feature

The first step in creating a virtual disk copy is to make sure the feature is enabled on the storage array. You need a feature key to enable the feature. To enable the feature key file, use the command:

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 a .key extension.

Determining Virtual Disk Copy Candidates

All virtual disks might not be available for use in virtual disk copy operations. To determine which candidate virtual disks on the storage array can be used as a source virtual disk, use the show virtualDiskCopy sourceCandidates command. To determine which candidate virtual disks on the storage array can be used as a target virtual disk, use the show virtualDiskCopy targetCandidates command. These commands return a list of the expansion enclosure, slot, and capacity information for source virtual disk and target virtual disk candidates. You can use the show virtualDiskCopy sourceCandidates and the show virtualDiskCopy targetCandidates commands only after you have enabled the virtual disk copy feature.

A source virtual disk can be a standard or thin virtual disk. A target virtual disk can be a standard or thin virtual disk in a disk group or disk pool and, if the legacy version is enabled, a legacy snapshot base virtual disk.

Creating A Virtual Disk Copy

CAUTION: A virtual disk copy overwrites data on the target virtual disk. Ensure that you no longer need the data or have backed up the data on the target virtual disk before starting a virtual disk copy.

When you create a virtual disk copy, you must define which virtual disks to use for the source virtual disk and target virtual disks. Define the source virtual disk and target virtual disk by the name of each virtual disk. You can also define the copy priority and choose whether you want the target virtual disk to be write enabled or read only after the data is copied from the source virtual disk.

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