EMC TIMEFINDER

To put in simple term, EMC TimeFinder is mirroring software that creates multiple
copies of the standard mirror referred as the Business Continuous Volume (BCV). This
allows one to run multiple business tasks at the same time. We can use this BCV as
standard in case of a disaster, during backups or for any business purposes.

The principal device is known as the standard device and remains online for regular
symmetrix operation from original production server. When we establish BCV with the
standard device the relationship is now called BCV pair. After the establish operation,
symmetrix retains changed track information of the BCVs. This way we can do an
incremental establish instead of a full which consumes time.

By default we can establish up to 8 BCVs with the standard. The maximum can be set to
16. Refer to TimeFinder environment variables for more details on same.

Setting up a BCV

Let us first start with a basic setup. The usual sequence would be as follows.

1) Create the device group

2) Add a standard device to the device group
3) Add a BCV to the same Device Group (DG)
4) Establish the initial BCV pair explicitly
5) Split the BCV pair for any business purpose

Creating device group and adding devices to it is the pre requisite for establishing a BCV
pair. Following commands show how. Also check is the new device group is listed.

viscosity# symdg create viscosity_test

viscosity# symdg list
D E V I C E G R O U P S
Num of Num of
Num of
Name Type Valid Symmetrix ID Devices GK's
BCV's
dc_snzy_meta_prod REGULAR Yes 000185700344 14 0
14
ERM_AVAILABLE_0344 REGULAR Yes N/A 0 0
0
ERM_SNZY_PROD_ST_* REGULAR Yes 000185700344 0 0
14
inertia_mred REGULAR Yes 000185700344 19 0
19
quantum_mgoo REGULAR Yes 000185700344 49 0
49
viscosity_test REGULAR Yes N/A 0 0
0
viscosity# symdg show viscosity_test
Group Name: viscosity_test
Group Type : REGULAR
Valid : Yes
Symmetrix ID : N/A
Group Creation Time : Thu Dec 2 2004
Vendor ID : EMC Corp
Application ID : SYMCLI
Number of STD Devices in Group : 0
Number of Associated GK's : 0
Number of Locally-associated BCV's : 0
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (STD RDF): 0
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (BCV RDF): 0

We can minimize the strain of typing long commands by setting environment variables.
In the following example SYMCLI_SID and SYMCLI_DG is self explanatory.
SYMCLI_NOPROMPT disables prompting for any control commands. Also verify the
environment variables after setting them.

viscosity# setenv SYMCLI_SID 0344

viscosity# setenv SYMCLI_DG viscosity_test
viscosity# setenv SYMCLI_NOPROMPT 1
viscosity# symcli -def
Symmetrix Command Line Interface (SYMCLI) Version V4.3.2.0 (Edit Level:
185) built with SYMAPI Version V4.3.2.0 (Edit Level: 185)

Current settings of the SYMCLI environmental variables:

SYMCLI_SID : 0344
SYMCLI_DG : viscosity_test
SYMCLI_NOPROMPT : 1

The following symld command adds standard device 49 to DG. With the current
environment settings there is no need to include “-sid 0344 –g viscosity_test”. You need
to look in for “Not grouped” devices in the symdev list. Only those devices can be added
with symld. Similarly for a BCV look in for “Never Established” devices using the
symbcv command an add those as the BCV device.

viscosity# symdev list |pg

Symmetrix ID: 000185700344
Device Name Directors Device
--------------------------- ------------- -----------------------------
Cap
Sym Physical SA :P DA :IT Config Attribute
Sts (MB)
--------------------------- ------------- -----------------------------
000 /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s2 11B:0 07A:C0 2-Way Mir N/Grp'd WD
8
001 Not Visible ???:? 16B:D3 2-Way Mir Grp'd (M) RW
34526
002 Not Visible ???:? 15B:D3 2-Way Mir N/Grp'd RW
8632
003 Not Visible ???:? 10B:D3 2-Way Mir N/Grp'd (m) RW
………………………………
viscosity# symld add dev 49
viscosity# symbcv list |pg
Symmetrix ID: 000185700344
BCV Device Standard Device
Status
------------------------------------ --------------------------- ------
Inv. Inv.
Physical Sym RDF Att. Tracks Physical Sym Tracks BCV
<=> STD
------------------------------------ --------------------------- ------
Not Visible 1F6 * 0 N/A N/A 0
NeverEstab
Not Visible 1F7 0 N/A N/A 0
NeverEstab
……………………………
Total -------- --------
Track(s) 178 0
MB(s) 5.6 0.0

Legend for the Attribute of BCV Devices:

(*): Associated with a group.
(+): Associated with a group and its paired STD device is a member of
same.
(-): Associated with a group but its paired STD device is NOT a member
of same.
viscosity# symbcv add dev 1f6

Verify the newly added BCV device and the logical device in the device group.

viscosity# symdg show viscosity_test

Group Name: viscosity_test
Group Type : REGULAR
Valid : Yes
Symmetrix ID : 000185700344
Group Creation Time : Thu Dec 2 10:55:45
2004
Vendor ID : EMC Corp
Application ID : SYMCLI
Number of STD Devices in Group : 1
Number of Associated GK's : 0
Number of Locally-associated BCV's : 1
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (STD RDF): 0
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (BCV RDF): 0
Standard (STD) Devices (1):
{
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sym
Cap
LdevName PdevName Dev Att. Sts
(MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DEV001 N/A 049 RW
8632
}

BCV Devices Locally-associated (1):

{
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sym
Cap
LdevName PdevName Dev Att. Sts
(MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BCV001 N/A 1F6 RW
4315
}