vxassist prepare


vxassist prepare
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Adds a snapshot mirror to the volume. It is a mirrored plex of the original volume that is broken off in the snapshot process. You can either add a new snapshot mirror or convert a mirror of the volume that already exists. A snapshot mirror is also referred to as a "snap plex."

Note:

Dynamic disks belonging to a Microsoft Disk Management Disk Group do not support the vxassist prepare command.

Note:

Either the prepare or snapstart keyword may be used in the CLI, however prepare is recommended.

The following attributes apply:

-b	Runs the command in the background.
-o notrackalign	Disable track alignment on the disk where the mirror resides.
-g<DynamicDiskGroupName>	Needed only if you use the internal volume name or internal disk name.
<VolumeName>	The path name of the volume, such as \Device\HarddiskDmVolumes\DynDskGrp1\Volume1.
<DriveLetter>	The drive letter of the existing volume.
<VmName>	Internal name of the volume; requires the use of the -g option (for example, -gDG1 Volume1).
<DrivePath>	A volume that is mounted on an NTFS folder; it is indicated by a path to that folder.
Type=<Type>	Type of volume layout. Types are: - Stripe - Spanned (Spanned is the default.)
<alloc_attributes>	Allocation attributes for mirroring and striping volumes. Attributes are: Mirror={diskclass {[!]diskclass:instance}} Wantmirror={diskclass {[!]diskclass:instance}} Stripe={diskclass {[!]diskclass:instance}} Wantstripe={diskclass {[!]diskclass:instance}}
Mirror=diskclass	Specifies a diskclass to use in mirroring. For example, Mirror=target specifies that volumes are mirrored between SCSI target addresses. Each mirror can contain disks from any number of instances of the diskclass, but different mirrors cannot use disks from the same instance of the diskclass.
Stripe=diskclass	Volumes are striped across instances of a particular diskclass. For example, Stripe=target specifies that volumes are striped between SCSI target addresses. Each column stripe can contain disks from any number of instances of the diskclass, but different columns cannot use disks from the same instance of the diskclass.
Wantmirror=diskclass	Specifies a diskclass to use in mirroring. However this constraint is ignored if the requested allocation cannot be satisfied.
Wantstripe=diskclass	Volumes are striped across instances of a particular disk class. However this constraint is ignored if the requested allocation cannot be satisfied.
diskclass {[!]diskclass:instance}	Diskclass specifies (or excludes) a particular type of disk grouping. For example, port specifies a group of disks on a port. Instance specifies which grouping. For example, p1 specifies a particular grouping of disks. Each type of diskclass has a particular format for specifying instances of the class. Multiple diskclass instances can be specified separated by a space. Diskclass can be one of the following: - target or t Specifies the disks that have the same SCSI target address of the same port. The target is specified in the form p#t# - enclr, e, or enclosure Specifies the disks belonging to a particular enclosure. - port or p Specifies the disks that are connected to a particular port. - channel or ch Specifies the disks that are connected to a particular channel.
Column=<n>	Number of columns. Required for RAID-5 and striped volumes.
StripeUnit=<Width>	Stripe width of RAID-5/striped volumes in blocks (512 Kbytes). Allows the user to specify the stripe unit for RAID-5 and striped volumes.
plex=<MirrorPlexName>	Converts a specified mirror plex to a snap plex. It can be the plex name (such as Volume1-01) or the GUID of the mirror plex. A GUID is a unique internal number assigned to the plex. To determine the GUID for a given plex, use the command vxvol -v volinfo for the mirrored volume that contains the plex.
[!]<DiskName>	The designated hard disk to include or exclude, which can be specified by the device name (such as Harddisk2) or the internal disk name (such as Disk2). The -g option must precede the internal disk name (for example, -gDG1 Disk2).
[!]<p#c#t#l#>	Another way to indicate a disk; the #s correspond to port, channel, target, and LUN of a disk.

If you do not remember the plex name, you can determine what it is by using the vxvol volinfo command.

When the snapshot mirror is synchronized with the volume, its state changes to Snap Ready and the prepare the volume for snapshot task exits.

More information is available on Snap Shot commands.

Examples

vxassist -b prepare E:

Runs the prepare the volume for snapshot process on volume E in the background.

vxassist prepare E: plex=Volume2-01

Runs the prepare the volume for snapshot process on volume E, converting the existing mirror plex Volume to a snap plex.

vxassist prepare e: plex=volume1-02

This command converts the plex named "volume1-02" from a regular mirror to a snapshot plex.

vxassist prepare e: harddisk2 harddisk3

This command creates a new snap plex on harddisk2 and/or harddisk3. You can indicate more than one disk to be used for the snap plex.

vxassist prepare d:\mount1

This command adds a snap plex to the volume that is mounted on folder d:\mount1.

Note:

Either the prepare or snapstart keyword may be used in the CLI, however prepare is recommended.

Note:

You should not use the vxassist break command to break off a snapshot mirror from its associated volume or the vxassist remove command to delete a snapshot mirror. Instead use vxassist snapshot to break off a snapshot mirror from the associated volume or use vxassist snapabort to delete it.