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HyperCopy
Technical White Paper


Issue 01
Date 2012-04-20

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.



HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
Page 2 of 9

Copyright Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All rights reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means
without prior written consent of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Trademarks and Permissions
and other Huawei trademarks are trademarks of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
All other trademarks and trade names mentioned in this document are the property of their
respective holders.

Notice
The purchased products, services and features are stipulated by the contract made between
Huawei and the customer. All or part of the products, services and features described in this
document may not be within the purchase scope or the usage scope. Unless otherwise
specified in the contract, all statements, information, and recommendations in this document
are provided "AS IS" without warranties, guarantees or representations of any kind, either
express or implied.
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been
made in the preparation of this document to ensure accuracy of the contents, but all
statements, information, and recommendations in this document do not constitute the
warranty of any kind, express or implied.






Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Address: Huawei Industrial Base
Bantian, Longgang
Shenzhen 518129
People's Republic of China
Website: http://www.huawei.com
Email: support@huawei.com




HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
Page 3 of 9

Overview
With increasing application of centralized storage, customers' data becomes
more centralized and their demands for the stability of storage devices are
growing accordingly. However, manufacturers can neither ensure that accidents
do not occur to their high-stability products, nor prevent possible damage caused
by natural disasters from production systems. Backup and disaster recovery
become very popular in the current storage industry and can be realized through
multiple methods. The LUNCopy technology is one of them.
The LUNCopy, as its literal meaning, is to copy source LUN data in the disk array
to the target LUN. Generally speaking, the source LUN and target LUN are
allocated into different arrays, or even into different types of arrays.
The LUNCopy technology can be realized through many methods. Two most
commonly-used methods in the storage industry are the full copy and incremental
copy. Huawei's OceanStor Series Storage Product applies both full copy and
incremental copy to offer customers multiple choices to realize the remote
backup.
Chapter 1 LUNCopy of the OceanStor Storage
Array: HyperCopy
The LUNCopy of the OceanStor Series Storage Product is named HyeprCopy
and supports both full copy and incremental copy.
1.1 Working Principles of the HyperCopy
1.1.1 Working Principles of the Full Copy
The full copy means to copy all data of a source LUN to the target LUN. Its
working principles are displayed as Figure 1.
Stop services: A full copy can be performed only when services are offline.
Otherwise the copied data is only meaningless process data.
Start the full copy: Data can be copied through either the FC link or the IP
link. The capacity of the target LUN must be no less than that of the source
LUN. Otherwise the full copy will fail.
The process of the full copy is displayed in the source LUN until the full copy
is complete.


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
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Figure 1 Schematic drawing of a full copy



As shown in the schematic drawing, it will take long time to complete a full copy. If
the storage array supports the snapshot, the full copy can be realized through
reading the snapshot volume without service interruption and backup window.
1.1.2 Working Principles of the Incremental Copy
An incremental copy means to synchronize the data of a source LUN to the target
LUN when the incremental copy is first performed and then only copy the updated
data from the source LUN to the target LUN since the second copy, that is, only
the updated data is copied into the target LUN. Compared with the full copy, the
incremental copy can be performed online through the snapshot function. Its
working principles are displayed as follows:


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
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Figure 2 Schematic drawing of an incremental copy



Create a LUNCopy with the incremental feature in the OceanStor storage
array, and specify the source LUN and target LUN. As the LUNCopy is
created, the snapshot which will be used in the LUNCopy, is automatically
created by the system accordingly. The snapshot is kept inactive before
starting the LUNCopy.
Realize initial synchronization after starting the LUNCopy at the first time.
After staring the LUNCopy, the snapshot is activated. All data in the LUN is
considered as incremental data that will be copied into the target LUN. When
the copy is complete, the snapshot stops, and the initial synchronization of
data is realized.
When the new data is written, the incremental data will be recorded in the
array. After the LUNCopy is started again, the snapshot function of the
source LUN is activated to provide the data at a certain time for copy without
service interruption.
According to the incremental data recorded in the array, read the
incremental data from the snapshot volume and copy it into the target LUN.
The incremental data will overwrite the data in the target LUN, forming the
synchronous data at a new time.
Start later copies according to the step 3, 4, and 5.


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
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1.1.3 Precautions of Applying the LUNCopy
The capacity of the target LUN cannot be less than that of the source LUN.
Add the resource LUN to the source LUN, which will be used in the snapshot
function.
During performing the remote LUNCopy, the quality and bandwidth of the
link is tightly related to the copy time. Therefore, the link quality should be
guaranteed by customers.
1.2 Technical Features of the HyperCopy
1.2.1 Supporting Both Full Copy and Incremental Copy
The OceanStor storage array supports both full copy and incremental copy,
providing multiple choices for customers' copy demands.
1.2.2 Independent of Services
The OceanStor storage array combines the incremental copy technology and
snapshot technology to realize the online copy without service interruption,
meeting customers' demands for the online copy. In this way, the data copy is
independent of services.
The LUNCopy of the OceanStor storage array is an array-based data copy,
independent of applications and operating systems, and does not impact services
and service networks.
1.2.3 Zero Backup Window
During the incremental copy, the incremental data is read from the snapshot
volume without service interruption. Therefore, it will not take long to complete an
incremental copy, that is, the backup window is not needed.
1.2.4 Supporting Multiple Copy Methods
The OceanStor supports the LUNCopy both between two arrays and in the same
array.
1.2.5 Supporting Dynamic Copy-Speed Control
When the LUNCopy is performed, the performance of the storage array will be
inevitably impacted. The OceanStor storage array supports dynamic copy-speed
control to avoid the conflict between copy tasks and production services. When
the system is detected very busy by the storage array, the LUNCopy speed will be
dynamically slowed down to spare system resources for services operation.


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
Page 7 of 9

When the system is idle, the LUNCopy speed will be dynamically increased to
avoid rush hours of services.
1.2.6 Supporting the LUNCopy in the Heterogeneous Storage
The OceanStor storage array not only supports the LUNCopy between the
OceanStor storage arrays, the LUNCopy between the arrays of the OceanStor
and other brands, and even the LUNCopy performed by storage arrays of other
brands to the OceanStor storage arrays .
1.2.7 Supporting the IP-based LUNCopy
Storage products in the storage industry support only FC-based LUNCopy.
Huawei's OceanStor storage array supports not only the traditional FC-based
LUNCopy, but also the IP-based LUNCopy that adopts iSCSI protocol, providing
flexible choices when customers deploy the LUNCopy services. Besides, since
the IP-based network becomes more popular, the cost of the IP-based LUNCopy
reduces, and its deployment and maintenance also become easier.
1.3 Application Scenarios of the HyperCopy
1.3.1 Fast Data Backup Between Arrays
The incremental copy of the OceanStor storage array can quickly realize the data
copy between arrays and obtain the latest source data from the target array. The
target array of the LUNCopy is not only the Huawei's OceanStor storage array,
but also arrays of other brands authenticated by Huawei. Compared with the full
copy and other traditional copies, the incremental copy features small data input
and fast speed. Therefore, the incremental copy is one of most commonly-used
copy methods.
The OceanStor storage array can create multiple LUNCopies for the same source
LUN to realize multiple data backups. In this way, data security can be greatly
guaranteed.


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
Page 8 of 9

Figure 3 Schematic drawing of a LUNCopy

Huawei OceanStor
FC
network
The third party array
The third party array
IP network
Huawei OceanStor
Huawei OceanStor

1.3.2 Fast Data Backup Inside Arrays
The incremental copy of the OceanStor storage array can not only realize the
data copy between arrays, but also support the LUNCopy inside the same
OceanStor storage array, which facilitates fast data recovery in the same array.
1.3.3 Realizing Remote Data Copy Through the LUNCopy
The LUNCopy is a one-off operation and activated by the administrator. Huawei
provides a LUNCopy remote copy script to copy the incremental data to the
remote backup array during a scheduled time. In this way, the asynchronous copy
of the remote data between arrays can be realized, which provides the remote
data disaster recovery for customers.


HyperCopy Technical White Paper CONFIDENTIAL

2013-7-29 Copyright Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012. All
rights reserved
Page 9 of 9

Figure 4 Realization of a remote copy through the LUNCopy

Application
LAN
Application
server
FC/IP
switch
Application
LAN
Remote storage
device


The remote data copy function of the LUNCopy of the OceanStor storage array
provides flexible applications for customers, such as:
Data migration: It can be easily realized in a cost-efficient way through the
LUNCopy. For example, the data in a data center will be copied to another
data center.
Data convergence: For example, the verge data is converged to the data
center or the data in the low-end storage to the high-end storage.
Data distribution: The data center distributes data to the verge data center or
the high-end storage distributes data to the low-end storage. In this way, the
verge data center will access the latest data on time.