Administering volume snapshots 305

Traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots

Traditional third-mirror break-off snapshots

The traditional third-mirrorbreak-offvolume snapshot model that is supported by the vxassist command is shown in Figure 9-1. This also shows the transitions that are supported by the snapback and snapclear commands to

vxassist.

 

Figure 9-1

Third-mirror snapshot creation and usage
Startvxassist snapstart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vxassist snapshot

 

 

 

 

Original

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original

 

 

volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

volume

 

 

 

Backup

 

 

 

 

Snapshot

Snapshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refresh on

 

mirror

Cycle

volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

snapback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vxassist snapback

Back up to disk, tape or other media, or use to create replica database or file system.

Independent

vxassist snapclear

volume

 

 

 

The vxassist snapstart command creates a mirror to be used for the snapshot, and attaches it to the volume as a snapshot mirror. (The vxassist snapabort command can be used to cancel this operation and remove the snapshot mirror.)

Note: As is usual when creating a mirror, the process of copying the volume’s contents to the new snapshot plexes can take some time to complete. For methods of making snapshot plexes immediately available, see Full-sized instant snapshots” on page 307 and Space-optimized instant snapshots” on page 309.

When the attachment is complete, the vxassist snapshot command is used to create a new snapshot volume by taking one or more snapshot mirrors to use as