SRDF/A (STD-BCV-STD)

Question

Good day EMC Timefinder Gurus, I will brief about my environment and the approach I am going to. please advice if there is any other way and correct me if I am wrong. I have 2 sites (Production & DR+Test+Development). - DMX4 both sides. (50 KM apart) - SRDF/A between those two sites - Timefinder/Clone from R2 RDF devices (STD to STD) - 14 environemnts based in AIX platforms. at this moment: I am using SRDF/A. then using a symclone (create -precopy -diff options) to 8 environments. in order to clone to others, I need to terminate some of the 8 clones. however, I don’t want to do that, this is to keep all environments ready as fast as I can. so, after searching the forums + powerlink help. I thought of doing the below approach (which I need your help in if it is a good one or not) What will do: - keep SRDF/A as is. from there I will have my STD devices ready and synched. - create two device groups with BCV devices instead of STD 'clone from the R2 RDF devices'. (so I don’t terminate any cloning 'BCV devices allow that only temporary stopping' nor split the SRDF 'with the precopy option') - create 14 device groups with STD using TimeFinder/Clone BCV to STD. What do you think? and would that be consistent for the 14 environments. how would I go from there to better adjust the setup? looking forward for your responds and suggestion. Regards, Rida

dynamox · Answer

so you want to use BCV instead of regular devices to pair with you R2 ?  You can have more copies of R2 with TimeFinder Clone (16 copies - with 8 copy and 8 copyOnAccess) than Timefinder BCV. Have you considered TImeFinder/Snap ? There you can have up to 14 snapshots, you do have to understand how it works and if it's going to work for your business.

sauravrohilla · Answer

I think Snap wont work on R2 devices in SRDF/A.

navishpere · Answer

dynamoxdynamox,

thank you for the reply, I am using Timefinder clone as of now and a Full copy is more likely to be used instead of CopyOnAccess.

TF/Snap wont work with the precopy option. meaning I need to split the SRDF to use the R2 devices, correct?

my goals,

- have a Full copy

- no split of SRDF (I can achieve this by doing a -precopy option)

- Copy from Target device without terminating (I can achive this by BCV)

P.S: I see your answer has excluded the BCV option, is there a reason?

dynamox · Answer

i believe with TImeFinder Mirror (real BCVs not RAID5) you will run into mirror position limitation. How about doing a clone restore to another set of devices, it's always going to be a full restore but at least you don't have to terminate your existing clone sessions.

navishpere · Answer

hmmm Clone Restore? I will search about it.

but just a hint for me... can I do recreate on the clone restore? like "symclone -f file -recreate -copy"??

a fresh created clone copy take 4 hours to 100% complete. but with the recreate option I am within 30 minutes range. that is why I was thinking about BCV.

dynamox · Answer

clone restore to another device is always 'full restore'.  You can try the BCV route (make sure variable SYMCLI_MAX_BCV_PAIRS is set to the number of BCV relationships you want to maintain)

navishpere · Answer

Thank you,

I will take your suggestion into consideration and plan my environments with BCV or Snaps. and will feed the output.

while doing so, I do welcome any other suggestions or some live experinces by SRDF + Timefinder users.

Regards,

Symmetrix

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