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ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager 14.2 Operator's Guide

10.1.1 General notes

This section provides general notes on backup and replication.

10.1.1.1 Storage Server locale

The locale (software localisation information) of the internal code system (the code system specified when AdvancedCopy Manager is installed on the Storage Management Server) used by AdvancedCopy Manager must be installed on all Storage Servers.
Action is required if there are differences between the language environments (LANG) of the Storage Management Server and the Storage Servers. The following table shows the actions required for various combinations:

Table 10.1 Storage Management Server and Storage Server language environment combinations

Storage Management Server

Storage Server

Action required

Windows (SJIS)

Windows (SJIS)

None

Solaris (EUC)

Install the SJIS package on the Storage Server.

HP-UX (EUC)

Install the SJIS package on the Storage Server.

Linux (EUC)

None

Linux (UTF8)

None

AIX (SJIS)

None

AIX (EUC)

Add the SJIS language environment on the Storage Server.

In accordance with the Solaris locale setting (standard: EUC)

Windows (SJIS)

None. (If the Storage Management Server is EUC, Storage Server processing is problem free.)

Solaris (EUC)

None (if the code is the same).

If the Management Server is SJIS, install the SJIS package on the Storage Server.

HP-UX (EUC)

None (if LANG is the same).

If the Management Server is SJIS, install the SJIS package on the Storage Server.

Linux (EUC)

None

Linux (UTF8)

None

AIX (SJIS)

None (if LANG is the same).

If the Management Server is EUC, add the EUC language environment.

AIX (EUC)

None (if LANG is the same).

If the Management Server is SJIS, add the SJIS language environment.

Linux (EUC)

Windows (SJIS)

None. (If the Storage Management Server is EUC, Storage Server processing is problem free.)

Solaris (EUC)

None

HP-UX (EUC)

None

Linux (EUC)

None

Linux (UTF8)

None

AIX (SJIS)

Add the EUC language environment on the Storage Server.

AIX (EUC)

None

Linux (UTF8)

Windows (SJIS)

None

Solaris (EUC)

Add the UTF8 language environment on the Storage Server.

HP-UX (EUC)

Add the UTF8 language environment on the Storage Server.

Linux (EUC)

None

Linux (UTF8)

None

AIX (SJIS)

Add the UTF8 language environment on the Storage Server.

AIX (EUC)

Add the UTF8 language environment on the Storage Server.

In addition, if inter-server replication is executed, the code system at the replication source server must be installed on the replication destination server at the same locale.

10.1.1.2 Backup and Replication Exclusions

The following devices must not be backed up or replicated:

10.1.1.3 Consistency of data on volumes

Table 10.2 Consistency of data on volumes

Data in transaction volume

Maintenance of data integrity

Operation

File system

An AdvancedCopy Manager command unmounts the file system to maintain the integrity.

Refer to "Appendix A Pre-processing and Post-processing of Backup and Restoration", and "Appendix C Pre-processing and Post-processing of Replication".

Other than the above

The data integrity must be maintained in operations.

Take appropriate action, such as stopping transactions during execution of backup or replication.

10.1.1.4 Fetching Device Information

Before starting either the backup or replication operation, 4.4.5 Fetching device information on a Storage Server that is managed by all the Storage Servers using the GUI client of AdvancedCopy Manager. The time taken to complete this operation is proportional to the total number of devices defined on the selected storage servers. If many devices are involved, perform this operation while the CPU or I/O load on the system is low.

As a guide, about 0.5 seconds are required per device (i.e., disk) when there is no load on the system.

10.1.1.5 Notes for multipath configurations

When the device has a multipath configuration, a path switch is not carried out automatically, even if one of the two paths is blocked.

When one of the two paths is blocked, please perform the backup or replication again after taking the following steps:

  1. Execute the following command on an available device to switch the path:

    /usr/sbin/lspv hdisk*
  2. Execute the backup or replication command again.

10.1.1.6 Mounting of disks from other servers

Before backup/restoration or replication of a volume that can be mounted from multiple servers, cancel all mounting from the other servers.

For disks that need not be mounted from other servers, prevent multiple servers from detecting or accessing the same logical disk by setting up hardware, such as devices in the ETERNUS disk storage systems and Fibre Channel switches, accordingly.

10.1.1.7 Notes on copy operations targeted at file systems

For a copy operation targeted at a file system, unmount the relevant volume to prevent data access and maintain the data integrity.
If backup/restoration and replication are performed without unmounting the volume, an error occurs since a volume in use cannot be unmounted.

Note the following about processing where unmounting is enabled:

Unmounting is required only during command execution. Normal operations can be resumed after command execution.

10.1.1.8 Notes on executing copy between different operating systems

Copies can be made between different operating systems by using replication operations.
Use the following combinations to execute copy between different operating systems:

Table 10.3 Combinations for executing copy between different operating systems

Copy destination

slices

Logical Unit (disk)

Copy source

slices

Y

N

Logical Unit (disk)

Y

N

Y: Possible
N: Not possible

10.1.1.9 Notes when using the -m option

When replication occurs between servers, the -m option can be specified in the following commands in order to avoid communication processing to non-operating servers:

When the -m option is specified, any one of the following conditions must apply in order to ensure that problems do not arise as a result of not performing volume pre-processing and post-processing at the non-operating server:

  1. The non-operating server has been shut down.

  2. Manual pre-processing and post-processing is performed for the volumes on the non-operating server.

  3. The target volume is a RAW device (Oracle, etc., that does not need pre-processing and post-processing), rather than a file system.

10.1.1.10 Copy processing performance of Advanced Copy

The Advanced Copy processing is performed by the ETERNUS disk storage systems. Therefore, direct enquiries concerning copy processing performance to the support department for the ETERNUS disk storage systems.

10.1.1.11 Server restart after backup or replication

When restart the server after executing backup or replication, the backup volume will be disabled because its status will change from "active" to "defined". Furthermore, the backup volume may be newly detected by another device name. In this case, the backup management/replication management command will become one of the following errors.

When this occurs, the newly detected device must be deleted and the backup volume that can no longer be detected must be recovered.
Please follow the steps below:
(The examples below explain the cases where the transaction volume is described as vg02 created in hdisk2, the backup volume is described as vg04 created in hdisk4, and the newly detected device name is described as hdisk17.)

  1. Unmount all volumes in the transaction disk

    # umount /mnt/vg02
  2. Deactivate the volume group of the transaction disk

    # varyoffvg vg02

    Check the disk status

    # lspv
    hdisk0    005f74da1705160e    rootvg   active
    hdisk1    005f74da6688a970    None
    hdisk2    005f74da8a1b6e2f    vg02     active
    hdisk3    005f74da70e35fc7    vg03     active
    hdisk5    005f74da8af5069d    None
    hdisk16   005f74da6fd209eb    vg16     active
    hdisk17   005f74da8a1b6e2f    vg02     active  <- The backup volume detected with a new name. 
  3. Delete the disk definition newly detected

    # rmdev -l hdisk17 -d
    hdisk17 is deleted 
  4. Activate the volume group of the transaction disk

    # varyonvg vg02
  5. Mount all the volumes in the transaction disk

    # mount /mnt/vg02
    /dev/lv00 log is recreated 
  6. Status of the transaction disk is activated.

    # mkdev -l hdisk4
    hdisk4 can be used
  7. Check if the backup volume can be activated for use

    # lspv
    hdisk0    005f74da1705160e    rootvg   active
    hdisk1    005f74da6688a970    None
    hdisk2    005f74da8a1b6e2f    vg02     active
    hdisk3    005f74da70e35fc7    vg03     active
    hdisk4    005f74da8a2d04e0    vg04
    hdisk5    005f74da8af5069d    None
    hdisk16   005f74da6fd209eb    vg16     active