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Preparing Host Servers To Create A Virtual Disk Copy
CAUTION: Before you create a new copy of a source virtual disk, stop any data access (I/O)
activity or suspend data transfer to the source virtual disk (and, if applicable, the target disk) to
ensure that you capture an accurate point-in-time image of the source virtual disk. Close all
applications, including Windows Internet Explorer, to make sure all I/O activity has stopped.
NOTE: Removing the drive letter of the associated virtual disk(s) in Windows or unmounting the
virtual drive in Linux helps to guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the virtual disk copy.
Before creating a virtual disk copy, both the server and the associated virtual disk you are copying have to
be in the proper state. To ensure that the host server is properly prepared to create a virtual disk copy,
you can either use an application to carry out this task, or you can perform the following steps:
1. Stop all I/O activity to the source and target virtual disk.
2. Using your Windows system, flush the cache to both the source and the target virtual disk (if
mounted). At the host prompt, type SMrepassist -f <filename-identifier> and press
<Enter>.
See "SMrepassist Utility" in the Owner’s Manual for more information.
3. Remove the drive letter(s) of the source and (if mounted) virtual disk in Windows or unmount the
virtual drive(s) in Linux to help guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the virtual disk. If this is not
done, the copy operation reports that it has completed successfully, but the copied data is not
updated properly.
4. Follow any additional instructions for your operating system. Failure to follow these additional
instructions can create unusable virtual disk copies.
NOTE: If your operating system requires additional instructions, you can find those instructions
in your operating system documentation.
After your server has been prepared, see Copying The Virtual Disk to copy the virtual disk.
Copying The Virtual Disk
After first preparing the host server(s) as specified in the preceding procedure, use the following examples
to make a virtual disk copy.
The following syntax is the general form of the command:
create virtualDiskCopy source="sourceName" target=
"targetName" [copyPriority=(highest | high |
medium | low | lowest) targetReadOnlyEnabled=(TRUE | FALSE)]
NOTE: Use one or both of the optional parameters as needed to help define your configuration. It is
not necessary to use any optional parameters.
Once the virtual disk copy has started, the source virtual disk is read only to all I/O activity. Any write
attempts to the source virtual disk fails until the operation completes.
Once the virtual disk copy operation is completed register the target virtual disk with the operating
system to be used by performing the following steps:
• Enable write permission on the target virtual disk by either removing the Virtual Disk Copy Pair or
explicitly setting write permission.
– In Windows, assign a drive letter to the virtual disk.
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