What is a BCV? 2

[Mag0007]

I know it standard for a Business Continous Volume. What is it used for? What is the advantage of it?

TIA

 

[Chacalinc]

I guess you are talking about Symmetrix. A BCV is a device to be a clone of another device. In order to synchornize a BCV with a standard device (production device) you need to have installed TimeFinder (symmcli or GUI through EMC Control Center). So with TimeFinder you synchronize (copy) all data in a production device to a BCV device, then when the BCV is 100% synchronized with the standard device you can split that pair and mount your BCV device with another host, so all your production data is in the BCV.

Chacal, Inc.

 

[Mag0007]

Thanks!

What is your mirror server is offline for 10 hours? And restarted again, will the sync automatically happen? or do I have to do something on the host side?

 

[jjjon]

The BCV copy is performed by the Symmetrix, not the host.

To copy your standard device, you use the symmir ESTABLISH command (Solutions Enabler or ECC). While the relationship between Std & BCV is establish, your 'mirror server' will not have access to the device - will be 'Not Ready'
To use the BCV you need to use the symmir SPLIT command.Once split, the device will become rw enabled and the 'mirror server' will have access (may have to rescan the host)

Whether your 'Mirror Server' is up or down is irrelevant to the synchronising process. If not using the 'Mirror Server' you can leave the pair Established, and only Split when needed - the longer you have the pair Split, the further behind the BCV will be from the production disk.

 

[Mag0007]

Thanks!

I am learning more and more about SANs