VERITAS Volume Manager 3.1 Storage Administrator Administrator's Guide

Volume Tasks
Creating a Snapshot Copy of a Volume
Chapter 4 175
Creating a Snapshot Copy of a Volume
This procedure prepares a volume for backup by creating a new volume
that is a snapshot copy of an existing volume. This is done by attaching a
new mirror to the existing volume, copying the volume’s data to the new
mirror, detaching the new mirror, and then creating a new (snapshot)
volume from the new mirror. The snapshot volume is an exact copy of the
original volume. You can use the snapshot volume to make a backup of
the original volume at a convenient time. After the backup is made, you
can remove the snapshot volume (see “Removing a Volume”). You can
also merge a snapshot volume with its original volume (see “Merging a
Snapshot Volume”) or permanently break the link between the snapshot
and the original volume (see “Dissociating a Snapshot Volume”).
To create a snapshot copy of a volume’s data
Step 1. Select the volume to be copied to a snapshot.
Step 2. Choose Volumes > Snapshot (Selected menu) or Volume Snapshot
(Command Launcher).
Step 3. Complete the Volume Snapshot dialog box as follows:
Step 4. When you have provided all necessary information in the dialog box,
click Snapstart to start the first phase of the snapshot procedure. This
creates a snapshot mirror of the volume to be backed up. This may take
Volume Name: If the correct volume name is not already displayed in
this field, type the volume’s name or click Browse to
select the volume.
Snapshot Name:Type the name for the snapshot copy of the volume.
Options • To place the snapshot on a specific disk(s), click
Assign Disks and select the disks you want to use.
• To enable the Fast Mirror Resynchronization (FMR)
feature for the volume, select Enable FMR. FMR
speeds up the resynchronization of mirrors in a
volume. Resynchronization is necessary when a
detached/unavailable mirror is (re)attached to a
volume.
• To create a read-only snapshot volume, select Read
Only.