FlashCopy commands

Use this information to learn about commands available for FlashCopy® sessions. To issue a command, go to Session Actions > Commands and click the command.

Table 1. FlashCopy commands
Command Action
Flash Performs the FlashCopy operation using the specified options. Issue the Flash command to create a data consistent point-in-time copy for a FlashCopy Session with volumes on the following storage systems:
  • Systems running IBM Spectrum® Virtualize
  • DS8000®
Discover
Assimilates existing hardware relationships in a FlashCopy session on DS8000 and Spectrum Virtualize based storage systems.
Note: For DS8000 systems, although discovered pairs are set consistent, the session is not able to validate that they are consistent to the time of all other pairs in the session. Be careful when using the feature, and keep this situation in mind if a restore has to be performed.

See Assimilate FlashCopy relationships for more information.

InitiateBackgroundCopy Copies all tracks from the source to the target immediately, instead of waiting until the source track is written to. This command is valid only when the background copy is not already running.
Refresh States

Refreshes the states of the role pairs that are in the session (if applicable for the session type) and refreshes the state of the session if it is incorrect. This command queries the states of the copy sets on the hardware. You are not required to run this command under typical circumstances; Copy Services Manager refreshes the states of its sessions through multiple means. However, if you discover an inconsistency between Copy Services Manager and the hardware, you can use this command to enable Copy Services Manager to update itself.

This command triggers multiple queries on the hardware, which can impact hardware performance. Do not run this command more frequently than every few minutes in each session.

This command is not available if the session is in the Defined state.

Restore Restores the point-in-time relationships from the target volumes to the source volumes of the FlashCopy session, and overwrites any data on the source volumes.
Notes:
  • Copy Services Manager can currently only perform a FlashCopy session restore operation on DS8000 and SAN Volume Controller systems.
  • If Restore is not a command option, a flash operation has not been done. You must perform a flash at least one time before you can do a restore.
See Restoring a FlashCopy session for more information.
Start Performs any steps necessary to define the relationship before performing a FlashCopy operation. For DS8000, this command is not an option. Issue this command to put the session in the prepared state for the following storage systems:
  • Systems running IBM Storage Virtualize
Terminate Removes all active physical copies and relationships from the hardware during an active session.

If you want the targets to be data consistent before removing their relationship, you must issue the InitiateBackgroundCopy command if NOCOPY was specified, and then wait for the background copy to complete by checking the copying status of the pairs.

Add Update Associations This command can be issued from the Session Actions->View Modify->Session Associations drop down, or by clicking on the link next to the Associated Session on the Session Details panel. The command will pop up a dialog that will allow you to associate this FlashCopy session to another session defined on the server.

Associating the FlashCopy session to another session will cause the session to validate that all H1 volumes in the FlashCopy session match the volumes in the associated role of the associated session. If the volumes do not match, a warning will display on the FlashCopy session. In addition, the association may enable additional commands, such as the Flash 3rd Site command on the 4 Site Replication Enhanced session.

On the dialog, select a value for each of the following questions:
  1. Which session should be associated to this FlashCopy session? - Select a session in the table that should be associated to this FlashCopy session.
  2. Which role pair in the session selected above should be associated to the session? - Select which role pair in the session selected in question 1, contains the volume that is the H1 volume in this FlashCopy session.
  3. Which role in the selected role pair is the H1 volume in the FlashCopy session? - Select which role in the role pair selected in question 2, that is the same volume as the H1 volume in this FlashCopy session.
Remove Associated Session This command can be issued from the Session Actions->View Modify->Session Associations drop down. The command will remove any association to another session that may have been previously defined.