Restore FlashCopy session

A FlashCopy session can be restored such that the direction of a persistent FlashCopy relationship is reversed.

In performing a FlashCopy restore, the volume that was previously defined as the target becomes the source for the volume that was previously defined as the source (and is now the target). The changed data is copied to the volume that was previously defined as the source.

Note: Copy Services Manager can currently only perform a FlashCopy session restore operation on DS8000 and SAN Volume Controller systems.

You can restore a FlashCopy session if you want to restore a source volume (Volume A) to the point in time of the last flash operation. In effect, you are restoring the data on the source volume to the time of the last flash, which overwrites any updates since the last flash.

For DS8000 only: If the background copy process of a FlashCopy operation is not complete, a Fast Reverse Restore is done, which causes the original target volume to be unusable. Also, if the incremental option is not specified for the session, a Fast Reverse Restore is done. The Fast Reverse Restore operation does not exist for SAN Volume Controller.

There might be circumstances when you want to restore an original FlashCopy session. For example, suppose that you create a FlashCopy relationship between source volume A and target volume B. Data loss occurs on source volume A. To keep applications running, you can restore the FlashCopy session so that volume B is copied to volume A.