Related Topics; Creating A Volume Copy From A Master Volume Or A Snapshot - HP P2000 Reference Manual

The following figure illustrates how volume copies are created.
Creating a volume copy from a standard or master volume
Source volume Transient snapshot
1. Volume copy request is made with a standard volume or a master volume as the source.
2. If the source a standard volume, it is converted to a master volume and a snap pool is created.
3. A new volume is created for the volume copy, and a hidden, transient snapshot is created.
4. Data is transferred from the transient snapshot to the new volume.
5. On completion, the transient volume is deleted and the new volume is a completely independent copy of
the master volume, representing the data that was present when the volume copy was started.
Creating a volume copy from a snapshot
Master volume
1. A master volume exists with one or more snapshots associated with it. Snapshots can be in their original
state or they can be modified.
2. You can select any snapshot to copy, and you can specify that the modified or unmodified data be copied.
3. On completion, the new volume is a completely independent copy of the snapshot. The snapshot remains,
though you can choose to delete it.
Figure 3

Creating a volume copy from a master volume or a snapshot

Snapshot operations are I/O-intensive. Every write to a unique location in a master volume after a
snapshot is taken will cause an internal read and write operation to occur in order to preserve the snapshot
data. If you intend to create snapshots of, create volume copies of, or replicate volumes in a vdisk, ensure
that the vdisk contains no more than four master volumes, snap pools, or both. For example: 2 master
volumes and 2 snap pools; 3 master volumes and 1 snap pool; 4 master volumes and 0 snap pools.
Guidelines to keep in mind when performing a volume copy include:
• The destination vdisk must be owned by the same controller as the source volume.
• The destination vdisk must have free space that is at least as large as the amount of space allocated to
the original volume. A new volume will be created using this free space for the volume copy.
• The destination vdisk does not need to have the same attributes (such as disk type, RAID level) as the
volume being copied.
• Once the copy is complete, the new volume will no longer have any ties to the original.
• Volume Copy makes a copy from a snapshot of the source volume; therefore, the snap pool for the
source volume must have sufficient space to store snapshot data when performing this copy.

Related topics

• Creating a volume copy
• Aborting a volume copy
• Viewing information about a volume
• Deleting schedules
Data transfer
Snapshot(s) Data transfer
on page 69
on page 70
on page 95
on page 75
New volume
New volume
HP P2000 G3 MSA System SMU Reference Guide 29