3PAR InForm® OS 2.3.1 CLI Administrator's Manual (320-200180 Rev B, February 2010)

8.5
Physical Copies
InForm OS Version 2.3.1 3PAR InForm CLI Administrator’s Manual
For information on arguments which can be optionally specified with the creategroupsv
command, refer to the InForm OS Command Line Interface Reference.
8.3 Physical Copies
A physical copy duplicates all the data from a base volume to a destination volume. The base
volume is the original volume that is copied to the destination volume. The physical copy on
the destination volume becomes available if the original base volume becomes unavailable.
Unlike a virtual copy or snapshot, a physical copy maintains the performance of the base
virtual volume. Creating physical copies does not require a separate license.
A physical copy can only be made from a volume with enough free space to accommodate
writes to that volume during the physical copy operation. In addition, the destination volume
must meet the following conditions:
■ It must have snapshot space associated with.
■ It must have at least as much user space as the volume being copied.
■ It must not be exported to a host.
You can use the InForm CLI to perform the following physical copy tasks:
■ Create
■ Resynchronize
■ Promote
For additional information about the rules governing physical copies, see the 3PAR InForm OS
Concepts Guide.
NOTE: If the parent and destination volume are both Thinly-Provisioned Virtual
Volumes (TPVVs), only the actual used space is copied.
NOTE: The createvvcopy command can be issued multiple times. However, the
system allows only two physical copy tasks to run concurrently. Any additional
physical copy tasks are queued, pending the completion of the active physical
copy tasks.