EMC Symmetrix Timefinder survival guide
During a previous project I had the opportunity to work very closely with the EMC people and Symmetrix arrays, in fact I got a couple of very good friends from that project. At the time I created a bunch of text files for my self reference about EMC SRDF and Timefinder technologies.
Today I decided to review that files, give them some order, well sort of, and put them here as a survival guide/quick reference in the hope that will be of help to any of you. The first of this guides will be about EMC Symmetrix Timefinder.
I don’t have sample output for every command, been more than a year since the last time I work with Timefinder, to complement my own samples I got several outputs from the Timefinder manuals.
This is not a complete Timefinder usage guide, just my personal notes taken from my direct experience with product.
Timefinder Basics
EMC Timefinder is a replication solution that creates full volume copies. For the full-HP guys out there this is very similar to the XP or EVA Business Copy product.
There are two basic types of replication:
- TimefinderClone - Creates point-in-time copies.
- Timefinder/Snap - Creates pointer-based replicas, snapshots, only the changed data is written.
There are several optional components.
- Timefinder/Mirror.
- Timefinder/CG (Consistency Groups)
- Timefinder/EIM (Exchange Integration Modules)
- Timefinder/SIM (SQL Integration Modules)
Timefinder allows to retain multiple copies at different checkpoints for lowered RPO and RTO.
Symcli basics
Following is a list of the most basic symcli commands necessary to get your way around when you perform any Symmetrix task, including Timefinder.
Get the list of the Symmetrix devices
root:/# symdev list
Symmetrix ID: 00029xxxxxxx
Device Name Directors Device
--------------------------- ------------- -------------------------------------
Cap
Sym Physical SA :P DA :IT Config Attribute Sts (MB)
--------------------------- ------------- -------------------------------------
0000 Not Visible ???:? 01A:C0 BCV Asst'd RW 8632
0001 Not Visible ???:? 16C:D0 BCV Asst'd RW 8632
0002 Not Visible ???:? 01B:D0 BCV Asst'd RW 8632
0003 Not Visible ???:? 16D:C0 BCV Asst'd RW 8632
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
0048 Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd RW 8632
0049 Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd RW 8632
004A Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd RW 8632
004B Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
004C Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
004D Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
004E Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
004F Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
0050 Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
0051 Not Visible ???:? ???:?? VDEV N/Grp'd NR 8632
0052 Not Visible ???:? 16B:D1 2-Way Mir N/A (SV) RW 8632
0053 Not Visible ???:? 01C:C0 2-Way Mir N/A (SV) RW 8632
0054 Not Visible ???:? 16B:C0 2-Way Mir N/A (SV) RW 8632
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
List all available devices from a device group
root:/# symld -g dg_oradev_01 list
List host physical devices
root:/# sympd list
List the disk groups:
root:/# /usr/symcli/bin/symdg list
D E V I C E G R O U P S
Number of
Name Type Valid Symmetrix ID Devs GKs BCVs VDEVs
dg_oracle_prod1 REGULAR Yes 00029xxxxxxx 26 0 26 0
dg_oracle_prod2 REGULAR Yes 00029xxxxxxx 21 0 21 0
dg_rac_01 RDF1 Yes 00029xxxxxxx 23 0 23 0
dg_clvx_01 RDF1 Yes 00029xxxxxxx 5 0 5 0
dg_oradev_01 REGULAR Yes 00029xxxxxxx 3 0 0 0
dg_timetest_02 RDF1 Yes 00029xxxxxxx 16 0 16 0
grupo1 RDF1 Yes 00029xxxxxxx 22 0 0 0
root:/#
Add devices to a disk group
- Add physical devices
root:/# symld -g dg_oradev_01 add pd /dev/dsk/c2t4d12
- Add Symmetrix devices
root:/# symld -g dg_oradev_01 add 006E
Get diskgroup detailed info.
root:/# /usr/symcli/bin/symdg show dg_prod_01
Group Name: dg_prod_01
Group Type : RDF1 (RDFA)
Device Group in GNS : No
Valid : Yes
Symmetrix ID : 00029xxxxxxx
Group Creation Time : Mon Nov 29 18:49:29 2007
Vendor ID : EMC Corp
Application ID : ECC
Number of STD Devices in Group : 2
Number of Associated GK's : 0
Number of Locally-associated BCV's : 2
Number of Locally-associated VDEV's : 0
Number of Remotely-associated VDEV's(STD RDF): 0
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (STD RDF): 0
Number of Remotely-associated BCV's (BCV RDF): 0
Number of Remotely-assoc'd RBCV's (RBCV RDF) : 0
Standard (STD) Devices (2):
{
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sym Cap
LdevName PdevName Dev Att. Sts (MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DEV001 N/A 01C8 RW 8714
DEV002 N/A 01C9 RW 8714
}
BCV Devices Locally-associated (2):
{
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sym Cap
LdevName PdevName Dev Att. Sts (MB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BCV001 N/A 08A8 RW 8714
BCV002 N/A 08A9 RW 8714
}
Device Group RDF Information
{
RDF Type : R1
RDF (RA) Group Number : 2 (01)
Remote Symmetrix ID : 000287xxxxxx
R2 Device Is Larger Than The R1 Device : False
RDF Pair Configuration : Normal
RDF STAR Mode : False
RDF Mode : Synchronous
RDF Adaptive Copy : Disabled
RDF Adaptive Copy Write Pending State : N/A
RDF Adaptive Copy Skew (Tracks) : 32767
RDF Device Domino : Disabled
RDF Link Configuration : Fibre
RDF Link Domino : Disabled
Prevent Automatic RDF Link Recovery : Disabled
Prevent RAs Online Upon Power ON : Enabled
Device RDF Status : Ready (RW)
Device RA Status : Ready (RW)
Device Link Status : Ready (RW)
Device Suspend State : N/A
Device Consistency State : Disabled
RDF R2 Not Ready If Invalid : Disabled
Device RDF State : Ready (RW)
Remote Device RDF State : Write Disabled (WD)
RDF Pair State ( R1 <===> R2 ) : Synchronized
Number of R1 Invalid Tracks : 0
Number of R2 Invalid Tracks : 0
RDFA Information:
{
Session Number : 1
Cycle Number : 0
Number of Devices in the Session : 491
Session Status : Inactive
Session Consistency State : N/A
Minimum Cycle Time : 00:00:30
Average Cycle Time : 00:00:00
Duration of Last cycle : 00:00:00
Session Priority : 33
Tracks not Committed to the R2 Side: 0
Time that R2 is behind R1 : 00:00:00
R1 Side Percent Cache In Use : 0
R2 Side Percent Cache In Use : 0
}
}
root:/#
Timfinder commands
Associate BCVs to a device group. There are two ways:
root:/# symbcv -sid xxxx -g dg_oradev_01 associate dev 0001
Establish the mirrors
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 -full establish DEV001 BCV001
Split operations.
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 split
There are several additional split modes and/or modifiers.
- Instant
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 split -instant
- Force
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 split -force
- Differential
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 split -differential
- Reverse
root/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 reverse split
- Reverse differential
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 reverse split -differential
Restore the BCV mirrors.
The restore operation will copy the data from the BCV to the Standard device.
- Differential restore
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 restore
- Full restore
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 -full restore
Reestablish operations.
It is very important to tell the difference between Restore and Reestablish. Reestablish will do a differential update from the Standard device to the BCV device.
root:/# symmir -g dg_oradev_01 establish
Get the list of BCV devices
root:/# symbcv list
Symmetrix ID: 00029xxxxxxx
BCV Device Standard Device Status
------------------------------------ --------------------------- ------------
Inv. Inv.
Physical Sym RDF Att. Tracks Physical Sym Tracks BCV <=> STD
------------------------------------ --------------------------- ------------
Not Visible 0030 (M) 0 N/A N/A 0 NeverEstab
Not Visible 0031 (m) - N/A N/A - NeverEstab
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
c4t1d0s2 0088 0 c4t0d0s2 0084 0 Split
c4t1d1s2 0089 0 c4t0d1s2 0085 0 Split
c4t1d2s2 008A 0 c4t0d2s2 0086 0 Split
c4t1d3s2 008B 0 c4t0d3s2 0087 0 Split
Get the state of mirroring of the device pairs within a device group
root:/# /usr/symcli/bin/symmir -g dg_oracle_prod_01 query
Device Group (DG) Name: dg_oracle_prod_01
DG's Type : RDF1
DG's Symmetrix ID : 00029xxxxxxx
Standard Device BCV Device State
-------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------
Inv. Inv.
Logical Sym Tracks Logical Sym Tracks STD <=> BCV
-------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------
DEV001 0184 0 BCV001 039C * 0 Split
DEV002 0186 0 BCV002 039E * 0 Split
DEV003 0187 0 BCV003 039F * 0 Split
DEV004 0188 0 BCV004 03A0 * 0 Split
DEV005 0189 0 BCV005 03A1 * 0 Split
DEV006 018E 0 BCV006 03A6 * 0 Split
DEV007 018F 0 BCV007 03A7 * 0 Split
DEV008 0190 0 BCV008 03A8 * 0 Split
DEV009 0191 0 BCV009 03A9 * 0 Split
DEV010 01C7 0 BCV010 08A7 * 0 Split
DEV011 01CD 0 BCV011 08AA * 0 Split
Total ------- -------
Track(s) 0 0
MB(s) 0.0 0.0
Legend:
(*): The paired BCV device is associated with this group.
root:/#
List all BCV sessions in a Symmetrix array
root:/# symmir list -sid xxxx
Symmetrix ID: 00000000xxxx
Standard Device BCV Device State
-------------------- ----------------------- --------------
Invalid Invalid GBE
Sym Tracks Sym Tracks STD <=> BCV
-------------------- ----------------------- --------------
002B 0 0E0B 0 ... Synchronized
002E 0 0E00 0 ..X Synchronized
002E 0 0E0A 0 ... Synchronized
0032 0 0E0F 0 ... Split
00FF 0 00FD 0 ... Split
0DF5 0 0DA5 0 ..X Synchronized
0DF5 0 0DA4 0 ..X Synchronized
0F70 0 001B 3592 X.. SyncInProg
0F71 0 001C 4496 X.. SyncInProg
0F93 0 0DF9 0 ..X Split
1015 0 1069 0 X.. Synchronized
Total -------- --------
Tracks 0 8088
MB(s) 0.0 505.5
And we are done. As I said this is not a full guide so please if there is anything that you don’t get please leave a comment and I will try to clarify. Also if any of you have additional tips or recipes for Timefinder please comment.
Juanma.
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