11/12/2014

LasCon Storage - EMC Timefinder

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Snapshot backups using EMC
timefinder.

TimeFinder from EMC

EMC has three instant copy products, TimeFinder/Mirror, TimeFinder/Clone and TimeFinder/Snap
The key differences between the products are summarised in the table below.

Copy
methodology

TimeFinder/Mirror

TimeFinder/Clone

TimeFinder/Snap

Full mirror. The mirror is always in

synch. with the source until the split
command is issued.

Point in time copy based on pointers until copy

process is complete

Point in time copy always based

on pointers

Copy space
required

Full disk

Full disk

Partial space depending on

amount of data updates.
Typically 30% of source

Availability
of copy data

BCV cannot be split off until the copy

process is complete

Copy is available as soon as the PiT pointers

are established

Copy is available as soon as the

PiT pointers are established

Performance
Hardly any
impact

Initial copy is a background process. Some

performance impact if data is updated while
copy is in progress

All initial updates will require

extra processing to move data.

DR
capability

Full DR once copy is complete, but not if

Copyonaccess setting is enabled

Minimal DR as full disk is

reliant on pointers to original
disk

Accessability Not accessible until copy is complete

and the BCV is split from the standard
of copy
volume

Immediately accessible

Immediate

Protection

The clone copy can be RAID5

The snap copy can be RAID5

Full DR once copy is complete

The BCV cannot be RAID5

All products can be managed by the EMC Replication Manager, if used for Open Systems data. Also, all products
can use Copy Assist, a product which ensures a consistent Point-in-time copy over multiple disks, by temporarily
freezing IOs until the copy is complete.

TimeFinder/Mirror
TimeFinder/Mirror uses dynamic mirror volumes called Business Continuity Volumes, or BCVs. The TimeFinder
terminology is Standard Volume (SV) for the primary disk, and BCV for the copy disk(s). A BCV is a mirrored copy
of an SV, and has its own host address. You can have up to 16 copies, 4 of which can be actively copying data in
the background. A BCV cannot be accessed while it is in association with a standard volume, but if it is split from
the SV, then it can be accessed for backup, testing or whatever.
The TimeFinder/Mirror Commands are To set up a BVC you must first create a device group, add an SV to it, then associate a BCV device to the SV. The BCV
must be offline, and effectively becomes another mirror to the SV, so the BCV data is synchronised with the Standard
Volume. The commands below create a default type group called group1, add a Standard Volume 01f to it, associate BCV
device 110 to it, then starts to create the BCV data. As this is the first time the BCV has been created, then a full establish
is required.

Snapshot Backups
Snapshot products
Flashcopy from IBM
HDS Shadowimage
Timefinder from EMC
STK's Snapshot Copy
DRM from HP

Who are we?

Welcome to Lascon Storage. The
site was founded in 2000 and
provides hints and tips on how to
manage your data, strategic
advice, news items and a
discussion forum. Here is a list of
recent major updates
TSM hints and tips from IBM,
updated November 2104
IBM Notes section updated
October 2104
SMF and RMF pages, updated
October 2104
FDRviews , written September 2014
Oracle Databases updated August
2104
Storage Strategy updated July
2014
VMAX Overview updated June 2014
TSM SystemState backups updated
May 2104

symdg create group group1

symld -g group1 add dev 01f
symbcv -g group1 associate dev 110
symbcv -g group1 -full establish 01f bcv 110

To remove an association between the SV and the BCV you issue the split command. The point-in-time of the copy is the
time the Split is issued. The SV is unaffected by a split. TimeFinder keeps a record of changed tracks after a split, to speed
up a refresh of the BCV. The command below will split off a BCV once the copy operation is complete.
symmmir -g group1 split

The establish command is used to re-synchronise a BCV which was formerly established, then split. It copies over tracks
which have been changed on the Standard Volume, and also replaces tracks which were changed on the BCV with tracks
from the SV, to get the BCV synchronised again.
symmmir -g group1 establish

It is also possible to restore the SV from data on a split BCV. This will restore the Standard Volume back to the state it
was in at the start of the Split command, provided the BCV has not been updated. The first command just does a restore
of changed tracks, the second command does a full restore of all the tracks.

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symmmir -g group1 restore
symmmir -g group1 -full restore

If you want to report on the status of your BCV devices, use the following commands.
symmmir -g group1 query

For TimeFinder/Mirror, the point-in-time happens when the mirror split command is issued.

Timefinder/Snap
Timefinder/snap works by creating a new image of a LUN that consists of pointers that reference the data on the
original LUN. If any updates are scheduled to the source, the original data is copied to the snap before the source
is overwritten. However, the snap does not reserve space for a full disk to cater for any updates. You allocate a
'Save Device', which is a common pool for original data which needs to be copied if updates are made to the
primary.
Unlike other implementations, TimeFinder/Snap is designed for applications that need temporary access to
production data, maybe for reporting or testing. It is not designed to be, nor is it suitable for disaster recovery, as it
is completely dependent on the existence of the source data.
The Snap utility can normally create up to 16 independent copies of a LUN, when the target data appears to be
frozen at the time that each Snap command was issued. You can increase this to 128 copies by issuing the
command
SET SYMCLI_MULTI_VIRTUAL_SNAPSIZE=ENABLED

The starting point for defining a snap copy is to set up a volume group that contains all the data that you want snapped.
The examples below refer to a volume group called SNAPDB. Once you have your volume group, you need to start the
session between a standard volume and a snap copy with a create command. The device numbers are for illustration only.
Use your own device numbers. addall means add all the ungrouped devices in the specified range, -vdev means the
command just applies to virtual devices
symdg create SNAPB
symld -g SNAPDB addall -range 00:09
symld -g SNAPDB addall dev -range 3E:37 -vdev
symsnap -g SNAPDB create

Activate starts the copy-on-write process that preserves the snap copy.
symsnap -g SNAPDB activate -consistent

If you want to 'refresh' your snap copy to make it look like a current copy of the source group, you need to terminate the
existing session, then re-establish the snap. This starts a new point in time copy using a differential update.
symsnap -g SNAPDB terminate
symsnap -g SNAPDB create
symsnap -g SNAPDB activate -consistent

RESTORE used to recover a volume back to the point in time state. This can be the original volume or a new volume.
symsnap -g SNAPDB restore

Timefinder/Clone
TimeFinder/Clone volumes are called clone copies, and can be BCVs. The Clone copies can be in RAID5 format
and do not require that a previous mirror has been established . You can have up to 8 concurrent clone copies.
Clone data is immediately accessable from a host, unlike standard BCVs where you need to wait for the copy to
complete.
TimeFinder/Clone has two activate modes; -copy and -nocopy. With the -copy mode you will eventually have a
complete copy of the original disk at the clone, as it was at the point-in-time the activate command was issued.
With the -nocopy mode, only updated tracks are copied and uncopied data is maintained at the clone with
pointers. Either option requires that the clone be the same size as the source. In open systems, Nocopy is the
default and as all the data is not copied, it cannot be used as a DR position. The create command has a -precopy
option that starts the full copy process off before the activate, so speeding up the process of creating a full copy. In
a mainframe setup, the SNAP command automatically starts a full copy process.
The TimeFinder/Clone Commands are Create initiates a session between a standard volume and a clone copy. You can initiate sessions for an entire device
group, between two devices in a group, or between two ungrouped devices. The first command below assumes a device
group called CLONEDB has already been defined and creates clone sessions to target devices within the group. The
second command will initiate a session between 2 specific devices. The third command uses the -precopy option so the
copy process begins as soon as the clone relationship is established, and -differential, which allows the clone to be
refreshed at at later date.
symclone -g CLONEDB -tgt create
symclone create DEV001 sym ld DEV002
symclone create DEV001 sym ld DEV002 -precopy -differential

Activate makes the clone available for read/write and with the -copy option, starts the data copy process from standard
volume to clone. The default action is no-copy, which means that only updated trackes are copied over from the source.
You can query the status of a clone, including the status of the copy process, with the third command below. The copy
status will be either 'copyinprog' or 'copied'.

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symclone -g CLONEDB -tgt activate -consistent
symclone activate DEV001 sym ld DEV002
symclone -g CLONEDB query

If the clone was started with the -differential option, it is possible to refresh the clone copy to the current point in time. To
do this you need to issue the recreate then activate commands below.
symclone -g CLONEDB -tgt recreate
symclone -g CLONEDB -tgt activate -consistent

You use RESTORE to recover a volume or group back to the point in time state. This can be the original volume or a new
volume. You need the -force option if your source volume is in an active RDF session with remote R2 devices. The
symclone query command will show the status as 'Restore in Progress' or 'Restored'. Once the restore completes you need
to split the clone before you can re-establish cloning in the normal direction
symclone
symclone
symclone
symclone

-g CLONEDB -tgt restore -force

restore DEV001 sym dev 0041
-g CLONEDB query
-g CLONEDB split

Use terminate to break a clone relationship into discrete volumes, but the clone must be in 'copied' status or the data on it
will not be complete
symclone -g CLONEDB query
symclone -g CLONEDB terminate DEV001 sym ld DEV002

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