I am scripting CLI commands to do a permanent failover to a copy in a group which has multiple non-production copies. The idea is to be able to do permanent failovers between two of the copies (in this case, named "Unity_400" and "vmax"). Here is the result of get_group_state before the script runs:

Script_test:

    Enabled: YES

    Transfer source: Unity_400

    Copy:

      Unity_400:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Storage access: DIRECT ACCESS (marking data)

      VNX_5500:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING IMAGES TO STORAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

      vmax:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING IMAGES TO STORAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

    Link:

      Unity_400->VNX_5500:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

      Unity_400->vmax:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

I am doing the following sequence of commands (failover from the Unity_400 to the vmax copy):

bookmark_image  groups=Script_test bookmark=Merge70211  consolidation_policy=never

enable_image_access  group="Script_test"  copy="vmax"  image=search_image image_type=user_bookmark search_text="Merge70211"

failover  group="Script_test"  copy="vmax"  -f

set_production_copy  group="Script_test"  copy="vmax"  -f

After the first failover, get_group_state again:

Group:

  Script_test:

    Enabled: YES

    Transfer source: vmax

    Copy:

      Unity_400:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING IMAGES TO STORAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

      VNX_5500:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING PRE REPLICATION IMAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

      vmax:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Storage access: DIRECT ACCESS (marking data)

    Link:

      vmax->Unity_400:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

      vmax->VNX_5500:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

Then the following sequence of commands to permanently fail back (from the vmax to the Unity_400):

bookmark_image  groups=Script_test bookmark=Merge70361  consolidation_policy=never

enable_image_access  group="Script_test"  copy="Unity_400"  image=search_image image_type=user_bookmark search_text="Merge70361

failover  group="Script_test"  copy="Unity_400"  -f

set_production_copy  group="Script_test"  copy="Unity_400"  -f

After the second failover, get_group_state again:

Script_test:

    Enabled: YES

    Transfer source: Unity_400

    Copy:

      Unity_400:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Storage access: DIRECT ACCESS (marking data)

      VNX_5500:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING PRE REPLICATION IMAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

      vmax:

        Enabled: YES

        Active primary RPA: RPA 1

        Journal: DISTRIBUTING PRE REPLICATION IMAGE

        Storage access: NO ACCESS

        Max journal size: 1.09 TB

    Link:

      Unity_400->VNX_5500:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

      Unity_400->vmax:

        Data Transfer: ACTIVE

        Sync mode: NO

My question is this: What does "DISTRIBUTING PRE REPLICATION IMAGE" mean? I noticed that after the first test, only the VNX_5500 copy showed that state, but after the second test, both the VNX_5500 and the vmax showed that state. Is this a problem? Will those copies eventually "catch up" and go back to DISTRIBUTING IMAGES TO STORAGE? Will the same sequence of commands work if I try to do a permanent failover again from the Unity_400 to the vmax? I just want to be sure I'm doing this properly and not inadvertently failing over to an old image.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.