For a process overview of the flashcopy logical drive creation process, refer to the Create FlashCopy Logical Drive Wizard: Process Overview – Windows Server online help topic.
You can reuse flashcopy logical drives for frequent backups or nightly backups. You can create flashcopy logical drives for one-time usage, such as speculative change or upgrade testing. For instructions about how to reuse a disabled flashcopy logical drive, refer to the Reusing FlashCopy Logical Drives online help topic.
Attention:
Risk of application errors – Windows operating systems traditionally support a Master Boot Record (MBR) disk partition format. The 64-bit version of the Windows Server 2003 operating system supports the GUID Partition Table (GPT) disk partition format. The 32-bit version of the Windows Server 2003 operating systems does not support this partition format and does not know how to correctly access a GPT disk. When a base logical drive mapped to a 64-bit Windows Server 2003 host is with the GPT disk partition format, any flashcopy logical drives that are created from this base logical drive also must be mapped to a 64-bit Windows Server 2003 host. If you map the flashcopy logical drive to a 32-bit Windows Server 2003 host, the operating system does not recognize the partition format of the flashcopy logical drive. Alternatively, you can initialize the base logical drive on the 64-bit Windows Server 2003 host with the older MBR disk partition format, and any flashcopys of that base logical drive are accessible by other 32-bit Windows hosts.
create snapshotVolume
For command reference information about creating a flashcopy logical drive, refer to the online help topics in the Enterprise Management Window.
disableSnapshot volume
For command reference-specific information about disabling a flashcopy logical drive, refer to the online help topics in the Enterprise Management Window.
create mapping volume
For command reference-specific information about creating a mapping, refer to the online help topics in the Enterprise Management Window.
Important:
Stop all activity to the base logical drive or suspend data transfer before starting this procedure. Stopping all I/O activity makes sure that an accurate point-in-time image of the base logical drive is captured. Close all applications, including Windows Explorer, to make sure that all I/O activity has been stopped.
SMrepassist -f <filesystem-identifier>
In this command, <filesystem-identifier> is the drive letter assigned to the base logical drive.
Example:
If the new disk drive for the base logical drive was assigned drive letter “E” using the Storage Partitioning Wizard, you would enter this command, and press Enter:
SMrepassist -f e:
The write buffers for the disk drive are flushed.
recreateSnapshot volume
For command reference-specific information about re-creating a flashcopy logical drive, refer to the online help topics in the Enterprise Management Window.
Important:
If you stopped I/O activity to the base logical drive or suspended data transfer, resume I/O activity to the base logical drive at this time, or start data transfer.You can reuse the flashcopy logical drive with your backup application, or you can use the flashcopy logical drive one time for speculative change and upgrade testing.
For information about how to reuse a disabled flashcopy logical drive, refer to the Reusing FlashCopy Logical Drives online help topic.
For command reference information about disabling or deleting a flashcopy logical drive, refer to the online help topics in the Enterprise Management Window.