Creating a one-time snapshot or snapshot set is a two-step process as follows:
The first step is to prepare the snapshot mirrors for the database volume or volumes. If you are creating a snapshot set after a snapback to refresh existing snapshot mirrors, you can skip this step.
The second step uses either the VSS SQL Snapshot Wizard or the vxsnap create command to create the snapshot set by detaching the snapshot mirrors from the original volumes. This step creates separate on-host snapshot volumes as well as a snapshot set XML file to store the application and snapshot volume metadata.
The VSS SQL Snapshot Wizard and vxsnap create command integrate with VSS to quiesce the database and then simultaneously snapshot the volumes in the database. This snapshot is done while the database is online and without disrupting the database operations. The resulting snapshot set provides a complete picture of the database at the point in time the command is issued.
The VSS SQL Snapshot Wizard can be run from either a local system or a remote node. The vxsnap utility must be run from the local system.
To create the snapshot set from the VEA console
This panel is displayed only in an environment using Symantec Storage Foundation Volume Replicator (Volume Replicator). Otherwise, you will be directly taken to the Schedule Information panel.
See Symantec Storage Foundation Volume Replicator Administrator's Guide.
To create the snapshot set from the command line
> vxsnap -x billing_DB.xml create source=L:/Newvol=billing_data source=M:/Newvol=billing_log writer=SQLServerWriter component=billing_DB backuptype=full
where billing_DB.xml is a name you assign the metadata file that is used to reattach the snapshot set or to recover using that snapshot set.
The complete syntax of the vxsnap create command is:
vxsnap -x filename create [-gDynamicDiskGroupName] source=Volume [/DriveLetter=DriveLetter] [/DrivePath=DrivePath] [/Newvol=NewVolName][/Plex=PlexName]... writer=WriterName component=ComponentName [server=ServerName] [instance=InstanceName] [backuptype=FULL|COPY][-O]
The WriterName and ComponentName are required. The component name is the name of the SQL database. The option to assign drive letters or mount points is useful for tracking volumes and for scripting purposes. You can use either a Full backup or Copy backup for restoring from a snapshot (recovery). However, if you want to replay logs in SQL Server as part of restoring a database, a Full backup needs to have been created earlier. When replaying logs, you can replay from the time of the last Full backup. A Copy backup does not affect this sequence of log replay and therefore is often used as an "out of band" copy for purposes such as testing or data mining.