66 Understanding Veritas Volume Manager

FastResync

Table 1-1

Comparison of snapshot features for supported snapshot types

 

 

 

 

 

Snapshot feature

 

Full-sized

Space-

Break-off

 

 

instant (vxsnap)

optimized

(vxassist or

 

 

 

instant (vxsnap)

vxsnap)

 

 

 

 

Can be reattached to

Yes

No

Yes

original volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can be used to restore

Yes

Yes

Yes

contents of original

 

 

 

volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can quickly be refreshed

Yes

Yes

No

without being reattached

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snapshot hierarchy can

Yes

No

No

be split

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can be moved into

Yes

No

Yes

separate disk group from

 

 

 

original volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can be turned into an

Yes

No

Yes

independent volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FastResync ability

Yes

Yes

Yes

persists across system

 

 

 

reboots or cluster

 

 

 

restarts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synchronization can be

Yes

No

No

controlled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FastResync

Note: You need a Veritas FlashSnap or FastResync license to use this feature.

The FastResync feature (previously called Fast Mirror Resynchronization or FMR) performs quick and efficient resynchronization of stale mirrors (a mirror that is not synchronized). This increases the efficiency of the VxVM snapshot mechanism, and improves the performance of operations such as backup and decision support applications. Typically, these operations require that the volume is quiescent, and that they are not impeded by updates to the volume by other activities on the system. To achieve these goals, the snapshot mechanism in VxVM creates an exact copy of a primary volume at an instant in time. After a