Creating remote FlashCopy transactions

Complete this task to create a remote FlashCopy® (inband FlashCopy on the ESS 2105) at a target (remote) site using remote FlashCopy commands.

Remote FlashCopy operations can only be processed using the DS CLI and not the DS Storage Manager. (Part of the Remote FlashCopy operation requires that you create paths and volume pairs first. You can issue those requests using either the DS Storage Manager or the DS CLI.)

To establish a FlashCopy relationship at the target site, remote FlashCopy commands are issued to a source volume of a remote mirror and copy volume pair on a source (local) storage unit and sent across paths (acting as a conduit) to a target storage unit. This eliminates the need for a network connection to the target site solely for the management of FlashCopy relationships.

Limitation: Remote FlashCopy commands establish a FlashCopy relationship at the target (remote) site when a network connection to the target site is lost. The Remote FlashCopy operation is not supported through the DS Storage Manager, because network connections to both the source and target sites are required. If the network connection to the target site is lost, the DS Storage Manager cannot connect to the target site. Whether you use the DS Storage Manager or DS CLI for Steps 1 and 2, you must perform Step 3 from the DS CLI.
Note: You can perform all steps from the DS CLI. The details are described in "Processing Remote FlashCopy (inband) transactions."

The following example illustrates the required steps for creating a remote FlashCopy operation.

  1. Create paths between the source LSS and the target LSS. For example, IBM®.1750-1300861 and IBM.1750-1300871 You need to know which volumes are available for use before you can issue the request to establish the path.
  2. Create Metro Mirror volume pairs from the source LSS to the target LSS. For example, volume 2200 (IBM.2107-1300861/2200) from LSS22 and volume 2A00 (IBM.2107-1300871/2A00) from LSS22.
  3. Enable a Remote FlashCopy operation at the target site using volume B as the source volume and volume C as the target volume. Assume that the target site network connection is lost. You can create the FlashCopy relationship from volume B to volume C (both volumes at the target site). However, you cannot use the DS Storage Manager for this step because connections to the target site are lost.
Assume that you performed Step 1 and Step 2 from the DS Storage Manager (connections to both storage units at the source and target sites were available at that time) and the Metro Mirror relationship between the volume pair still exists. To create the Remote FlashCopy operation, you must perform Step 3 from the DS CLI using the following command as an example. (You must be logged into the DS CLI in interactive command mode.)
Note: Use LSS 22 on the local site as a conduit LSS for the new remote Flash Copy relationship on the remote storage unit that will use volume 2A00 as the source. The target can be any other volume on the remote storage unit (in this example 2A01)

dscli>mkremoteflash -dev IBM.2107-1300871 -conduit IBM.2107-1300861/22 2A00:2A01

where:
-dev
Specifies the storage unit ID, which includes manufacturer, machine type, and serial number.
-conduit LSS_ID
(Required) Identifies the source LSS of an existing remote mirror and copy relationship that is used as a conduit for communicating with the target storage unit. The source volume IDs that are specified in source_volume_ID:target_volume_ID must be the target volumes in a remote mirror and copy relationship in which one of the conduit LSS volumes acts as a source volume. You can specify a fully qualified LSS ID, which includes the storage unit ID.
source_volume_ID:target_volume_ID
(Required) Establishes a remote FlashCopy relationship for the source and target volume pairs with the specified IDs. You can specify fully qualified volume IDs, which includes storage image IDs, or a shortened version without storage unit IDs if the -dev parameter is specified. Separate the IDs of the FlashCopy relationships with spaces.

This report is displayed if your command input is correct.

Date/Time: February 7, 2005 4:29:42 PM IST IBM DSCLI Version: 5.0.0.0 DS: IBM.2107-1300871 FlashCopy Pair ID 2A00:2A01 successfully initiated. Use the lsremoteflash command to determine copy completion.

Verify that the transaction has processed successfully by issuing the following command:

dscli>lsremoteflash -dev IBM.2107-1300871 -conduit IBM.2107-1300861/22 2A00:2A01

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