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Using the instant snapshot feature

VVR enables you to create instant snapshots using the vxrvg snapshot command. This command takes snapshots of the data volumes in the RVG. However, the snapshot volumes are not part of the RVG. Each data volume in an RVG can have more than one snapshot volume. When creating full instant or space-optimized snapshots, the snapshot volumes do not need to be synchronized beforehand, therefore the snapshots are available instantly. The snapshot volumes are then synchronized later in the background.


Snapshot naming conventions

The snapshot volumes must be created using the correct naming convention, that is, <prefix>-dv_name. You can create snapshot volumes with appropriate prefixes using the -P option. However, you must ensure that this prefix matches the prefix that you specified for the data volumes.

For example, if you specify the prefix as month, the name of each snapshot data volume will start with the prefix month; that is, it will be named as month-dv_name. Thus, a data volume hr_dv01 can have snapshot volumes such as june-hr_dv01, july-hr_dv01.


  Note   We recommend that you create snapshots with prefixes using the -P option so that the snapshots can be easily identified for restoring the data. However, if you do not specify any prefix, the default prefix SNAP will be used.


The instant snapshot feature provides the following methods to create instant snapshots: