Refreshing a test environment


Refreshing a test environment
Prev	Creating and refreshing test environments	Next

Periodically, it may be required to resynchronize the test or development environment with current production data. This can be efficiently achieved using the Flashsnap feature of Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions products.

To refresh a test environment

Deport the testdevdg disk group from the test environment. This step requires stopping the usage of snapvol in the test environment.
```
# vxdg deport testdevdg
```
Import testdevdg into the production environment.
```
# vxdg import testdevdg
```
Reattach the snapvol to appvol in order to synchronize current production data. Note that this synchronization is very efficient since it copies only the changed data.
```
# vxsnap -g appdg reattach snapvol source=appvol
```
When you need to setup the testdevdg environment again, recreate the break-off snapshot.
```
# vxsnap -g appdg make src=appvol/nmirror=1/new=snapvol
```
Split the diskgroup containing the mirror breakoff snapshot.
```
# vxdg split appdg testdevdg snapvol
```
Deport the diskgroup from the production application host
```
# vxdg deport testdevdg
```
Import the testdev disk group on the host that will run the test environment.
```
# vxdg import testdevdg
```
Once this step is done, the snapvol present in testdevdg is ready to be used for testing or development purposes.

You can also create further snapshots of snapvol in order to create more test or development environments using the same snapshot. For this purpose, the following mechanisms can be used:

Mirror breakoff snapshots

See Preparing a full-sized instant snapshot for a backup.
Space-optimized snapshot

See Preparing a space-optimized snapshot for a database backup.
Veritas File System Storage Checkpoints

See Creating Storage Checkpoints.

For more detailed information, see the Storage Foundation^TM Administrator's Guide

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