Preparing the snapshot mirrors


Preparing the snapshot mirrors
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To prepare the snapshot mirrors in order to create a snapshot from the VEA or from the vxsnap command line, you can use either of the following methods:

The Prepare command from the VEA

You repeat the VEA console Prepare operation for each database volume.
The vxsnap prepare command from the CLI

Use the vxsnap prepare command to prepare a mirror for each of the volumes associated with the database.
The vxassist prepare command from the CLI

The vxassist prepare command can be used to prepare the volume in a similar manner to the VEA GUI snap prepare option.

The snapshot mirrors remain attached to the original volumes and continue to be updated until you use the VSS SQL Snapshot Wizard, the vxsnap create command, or the VSS Snapshot Scheduler Wizard to create the snapshot set.

For the snapshot volumes, make sure to select disks or LUNs that are not used for production data. You can create more than one snapshot volume on the same disk as long as there is sufficient space available and as long as the snapshots are of different production volumes.

Also ensure that the SQL Server VSS Writer service is started.

To create the snapshot mirrors using the VEA console

Right-click the desired volume, select Snap and then Prepare.
In the wizard, click Next.

Choose one of the following.

If the volume is not mirrored

Choose Manually select disks, use the Add and Remove buttons to move the desired disks to the Selected disks box, and click Next.

Or choose Auto select disks and any available disks will be selected.

Next, Specify the attributes and click Next.

Finally, Click Finish to prepare volume for flashsnap.

If the volume is mirrored and no additional disks are available to create a new mirror

Select existing mirror for snap and then click Next.

If the volume is mirrored and there are additional disks available on your system

Choose either to use an existing mirror for the snapshot or to create a new mirror.

To create a new mirror, select Do not use existing mirror for snap and click Next, then click Select Disk. Use the Add and Remove buttons to move the desired disks to the Selected disks box, and click Next.
To use an existing mirror, click Select existing mirror for snap, select the desired mirror, and click Next.

Repeat step 1 and step 3 to create a snapshot mirror for each volume associated with the database.

Note:

Verify that the lower pane of the VEA console indicates that the resynchronization process is complete before creating the snapshot set.

To create the snapshot mirrors using the vxsnap prepare command

Type the command, as in the following example:
```
> vxsnap prepare component=billing_DB/writer=SQLServerWriter
    source=L:/harddisk=harddisk3
    source=M:/harddisk=harddisk3
```
In this example, snapshot mirrors for the database and log volumes of the billing_DB database are created. The mirror for the volume mounted at L: is created on disk 3 and the mirror for the volume mounted at M: is also created on disk 3.

The complete syntax of the vxsnap prepare command is:
```
vxsnap prepare component=ComponentName/writer=WriterName
[server=ServerName][instance=InstanceName][-b]
[source=volume/harddisk=harddisk...]
```

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