Determining the Round Trip Time
You specify a time limit for data to be transferred from the P-VOL to the S-VOL when you set up the GAD association between the primary and secondary storage systems. This value is the reference value to control the initial copy pace automatically and to lessen the impact to host response time of the remote I/O for the update I/O.
The default value of the Round Trip Time is 1 millisecond, and the range of the Round Trip Time is 1 ms to 500 ms. If the distance between the primary and secondary storage systems is large, or if a delay is caused by the line equipment, you need to change the Round Trip Time to a value that is appropriate for your environment. If the initial copy operation is performed with the default Round Trip Time value of 1 ms instead of a more appropriate value, it might take an unexpectedly long time to complete initial copy operations.
Note the following Round Trip Time considerations:
- If the difference between the Round Trip Time and remote IO response time is significant, for example, 1 ms for Round Trip Time and 500 ms for remote I/O response time, the storage system slows or even interrupts the initial copy operation so that update copy can continue.
- If the difference between the Round Trip Time and remote IO response time is insignificant, for example, 1 ms for Round Trip Time and 5 ms for remote I/O response time, the storage system allows initial copying to run at the specified pace.
To determine the Round Trip Time value
The round trip time can be set to a value between 1 ms and 500 ms, inclusively. The value can be determined using the following calculation:
[Round Trip time] (ms) = round trip time between the primary and secondary storage systems × number of the response sequence + initial copy response time (ms)
If the physical path between the primary and secondary storage systems is a Fibre Channel path, the number of response sequence depends on the host mode option (HMO) 51 (Round Trip Set Up Option) setting.
| HMO 51 | Number of responses |
| OFF | 2 |
| ON | 1 |
If the HMO 51 setting is OFF (default), you must double the round trip time because each data transfer between the primary and secondary storage systems involves two response sequences for each command issued. If the HMO 51 setting is ON, you do not need to double the value of the round trip time because the sequence is one response for each command issued.
If the physical path between the primary and secondary storage systems is an iSCSI path, the number of response sequence depends on the initial copy speed.
| Initial copy speed | Number of responses |
| 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 10 |
| 3 | 14 |
| 4 | 18 |
The number of response is determined in proportion to the initial copy speed because the transferred data is divided into 64 KB.
- For the "round trip time" in the formula, ask
Hitachi Solution Support Center, or use the
pingcommand. If you are not using channel extenders between the primary and secondary storage systems, specify "1". - The "initial copy response time" in the formula is the response time required for multiple initial copy operations. Use the following formula to determine the initial copy response time based on the initial copy pace, the number of maximum initial copy VOLs, and the bandwidth of the channel-extender communication lines between the primary and secondary storage systems.
Initial copy response time (ms) = (1[MB] / "Data path speed between the primary and secondary storage systems [MB/ms]1") × ("initial copy pace2 / 4) × (number of maximum initial copy VOLs3 " / "Number of data paths between the primary and secondary storage systems"4)
- When you connect the primary and secondary storage systems without extenders, set the value of the "data path speed between the primary and secondary storage systems" according to the link speed as follows:
- 2 Gbps: 0.17 MB/ms
- 4 Gbps: 0.34 MB/ms
- 8 Gbps: 0.68 MB/ms
- 10 Gbps: 0.85 MB/ms
- 16 Gbps: 1.36 MB/ms
- 32 Gbps: 2.72 MB/ms
- For "initial copy pace" in the preceding formula, see the following table.
- For "number of maximum initial copy volumes", use the value set up per storage system. The default value is 64.
- Even if the "number of maximum copy VOLs" / "Number of data paths between the primary and secondary storage systems" is 16 or more, specify "number of maximum initial copy VOLs" / "Number of data paths between the primary and secondary storage systems" as 16.
- When you connect the primary and secondary storage systems without extenders, set the value of the "data path speed between the primary and secondary storage systems" according to the link speed as follows:
The following table shows the initial copy pace used for the response time calculation.
|
Interface |
Initial copy only in progress |
Initial, update copy in progress | ||
|
When initial copy pace specified at the time of pair creation is 1 to 4 |
When initial copy pace specified at the time of pair creation is 5 to 15 |
When initial copy pace specified at the time of pair creation is 1 to 2 |
When initial copy pace specified at the time of pair creation is 3 to 15 | |
|
RAID Manager |
User-specified value at the time of pair creation |
4 |
User-specified value at the time of pair creation |
2 |
|
Device Manager - Storage Navigator |
User-specified value at the time of pair creation |
4 |
User-specified value at the time of pair creation |
2 |
The following table shows example settings.
|
Round trip time[ms] |
Data path speed between the primary and secondary storage systems (MB/ms) |
Number of data paths between the primary and secondary storage systems |
Initial copy pace |
Number of maximum initial copy VOLs |
Round trip time specified [ms] |
|
0 |
0.1 |
4 |
4 |
64 |
160 |
|
30 |
0.1 |
4 |
4 |
64 |
220 |
|
100 |
0.1 |
4 |
4 |
64 |
360 |
