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The system administrator needs to configure storage according to the requirements specified in the snapplan.
See Preparing hosts and storage for Database FlashSnap
Database FlashSnap allows you to check the storage setup against requirements set forth in the snapplan. Depending on the results, the database administrator may need to modify the snapplan or the system administrator may need to adjust the storage configuration. Properly configuring storage is the only aspect of using Database FlashSnap that requires the system administrator's participation.
To use Database FlashSnap, a database administrator must first define their snapshot requirements. For example, they need to determine whether off-host processing is required and, if it is, which host should be used for it. In addition, it is also important to consider how much database downtime can be tolerated. Database snapshot requirements are defined in a file called a snapplan. The snapplan specifies snapshot options that will be used when creating a snapshot image (such as whether the snapshot mode will be online, offline, or instant).
See Creating a snapplan (dbed_vmchecksnap)
After creating the snapplan, the database administrator must validate it to ensure that it is correct. During validation the snapplan is copied to the repository before using it to create a snapshot. Depending on the validation results, the database administrator may need to modify the snapplan or the system administrator may need to adjust the storage configuration.
After storage is configured as specified in the snapplan and the snapplan has been validated, the database administrator can create snapshots of the database and create database clones based on the snapshots on either the same host or a secondary one.
A database clone can be used on a secondary host for off-host processing, including decision-support analysis and reporting, application development and testing, database backup, and logical error recovery. After a user has finished using the clone on a secondary host, the database administrator can shut down the clone and move the snapshot database back to the primary host. Regardless of whether a snapshot is used on the primary or secondary host, it can be resynchronized with the primary database using Database FlashSnap. Database FlashSnap uses Veritas Volume Manager FastResync to quickly resynchronize the changed section between the primary and snapshot.
See the Veritas Volume Manager User's Guide for details about the Volume Manager FastResync.
Database FlashSnap can also be used to recover the primary copy of the database if it becomes corrupted by overwriting it with the snapshot. You can recover the primary database with a snapshot using the reverse resynchronization functionality of Database FlashSnap.