Mounting a emc split bcv device to AIX

[rondebbs]

Hello,

I'm trying to get familiar with out new EMC DMX that is part of our AIX 5.2 environment. In our test environment I am trying to learn and understand the EMC DMX product. With EMC's TimeFinder commands, I have established a mirror of a standard device to a Business Continuity Device (bcv). The standard device contains a complete AIX volume group (symtestvg) with one Logical Volume and one File System (/sysmtest). This same structure should exist on the bcv volume.

At this point I would like to "mount" the file system on the bcv and verify that it has the correct data. I'm not sure how to do that. Do I need to use importvg to import the volume group from the bcv (hdiskpower10)? I don't think this will work since the origional symtestvg already exists on this box. Can I import it with a different name (symtestvg2) and then somehow change the name of the bcv file system (/symtest2)?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[p5wizard]

If you want to experiment with the bcv 'mirrored' VG disks on the same server that has the original VG's disks, you need to use the recreatevg command. Google for that command or look at the man page and you will find out how/what.

If you can experiment with another server to import the bcv-ed VG, then importvg works fine.


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[rondebbs]

Excellent, used "recreatevg hdiskpower10" to create a new vg00 and /fs/symtest. I mounted /fs/symtest and compared to the original /symtest - both identical. I'll add some new data to /symtest then re-establish/split the mirror again to see if I get the new data in the bcv /fs/symtest.

I think this will help us with the backup of our progress database which currently requires progress being down for 90 minutes while we backup to tape. The split and recreatevg and mount of new file system takes less than 1 minute.

Is it practical to do the following each night?

0. Bring Production Progress DB down
1. Split the standard to the bcv
2. Bring Production Progress up once we have a good split
3. Use recreatevg on the bcv to create a new VG for backup
4. Mount the new bcv filesystem
5. Backup the bcv filesystem to tape while the production progress db is already back online.
6. Re-establish the mirror for the next night.

Thanks for the help - I realize this goes beyond the normal AIX question.

 

[p5wizard]

looks OK to me, but...

-3. unmount all "splitvg" filesystems
-2. varyoffvg "splitvg"
-1. exportvg "splitvg"
0. Bring Production Progress DB down
1. Split the standard to the bcv
2. Bring Production Progress up once we have a good split
3. Use recreatevg on the bcv to create a new VG for backup
(I'd use -y to name that new vg "splitvg" or whatever you like - amend items -3. to -1. then)
4. Mount the new bcv filesystem(s?)
5. Backup the bcv filesystem(s?) to tape while the production progress db is already back online.
6. Re-establish the mirror for the next night.
(not sure what you mean by this item 6?)

Also I'm pretty sure you can script all these actions including the bcv stuff from AIX, but I don't have any EMC experience myself. Google around a bit and you'll find some withepapers or redbooks on the subject with some interesting stuff. (No need to reinvent the wheel...)


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[aixTim]

EMC's 'solution enabler' will give you a command line interface to do you splits and syncs.

Watch out for the two Gotchas:

1) The aix commands give a return code of zero when the DMX has said 'yes I will do that' not 'yes I have done it'.

2) All SE commands are suspended during a disk rebuild.

hope that helps.

aixTim