Adding a Metro Mirror relationship to an existing 3-site consistency group

To add a 2-site Metro Mirror relationship to an existing 3-site consistency group, you create an empty volume. If you are using Orchestrator 3.0, you must create empty volumes before you can adding a 2-site Metro Mirror relationship to a 3-site consistency group. Orchestrator 4.0 supports the ability to add a 2-site remote-copy relationship with data to a stopped 3-site consistency group.

If you are using Orchestrator 3.0, the new relationship must contain empty volumes that do not contain any data. This use case is for new relationships only. If you add a relationship with active data, inconsistent data can occur at the auxiliary-far site and prevent accurate disaster recovery. If you have existing relationships with active data, you must add these relationships to a 2-site consistency group and then convert the consistency group to a 3-site consistency group. For more information, see Converting a Metro Mirror consistency group to a 3-site consistency group.

If you are using Orchestrator 3.0, the following conditions must be met to add a new independent relationship to the 3-site consistency group.
  • The 3-site consistency group must be in consistent state.
  • No host I/O operations are running on the independent relationship. The volumes that are used at both the master and the auxiliary-near sites must not contain data.
  • Ensure that the new relationship is a Metro Mirror relationship.
  • All the attributes of the new Metro Mirror relationship must also match the properties of the 3-site consistency group that it is being added to.
  • The state of the new Metro Mirror relationship must be consistent_synchronized.

Orchestrator 4.0 supports the ability to add a 2-site remote copy relationship with data to stopped 3-site consistency group. If you are running Orchestrator 4.0, see Adding a Metro Mirror relationship with data to a 3-site consistency group.

Using the management GUI

To add a Metro Mirror relationship to a 3-site consistency group, complete the following tasks:
Create empty volumes on both the master and auxiliary-near sites
On the system at the master site, create an empty volume that is used as the master volume in the Metro Mirror relationship by completing these steps:
  1. In the management GUI, select Volumes > Volumes > Create Volume.
  2. Select the type of volume that you want to create.
  3. Specify a pool that provides capacity for the volume. If you select a data reduction pool, ensure that the volume that you create on the auxiliary-near site is also in a data reduction pool. Capacity settings for each pool must be the same between the master and auxiliary-near sites.
  4. Under Volume Detail, specify the number of volumes, the capacity of the volume, and a name for the volume.
  5. Click Create.
    Note: Do not map the volume to hosts. The new Metro Mirror relationship cannot have volumes that contain active data.
Repeat steps 1 through 5 on the system at the auxiliary-far site to create the auxiliary volume in the Metro Mirror relationship.
Create a new Metro Mirror relationship
To create a new Metro Mirror relationship, complete these steps:
  1. On the Remote Copy page, select Copy services > Remote Copy. Under Partnerships, select the master system in the left navigation. Then, select Independent Relationships tab.
  2. Select Create Relationship.
  3. Select Metro Mirror for the remote-copy type for the relationship. Under Metro Mirror, ensure that the Use Consistency Protection option is selected by default. Click Next.
  4. Select On another system and select the system at the auxiliary-near site from the drop-down list. Click Next.
  5. Select the master volume that is on the master site and the auxiliary volume that is at the auxiliary-near site. Click Add.
  6. Select your preference for Add Change Volumes with this relationship. Click Finish.
  7. If you have other empty volumes to add to the relationship, select more master volumes and the auxiliary volumes on the next page. Select your preference for using change volumes for each new set of volumes. After you have added all the empty volumes to the new relationship, click Next.
  8. Select Yes, the volumes are already synchronized and click Next. Click Yes on the warning message that displays.
  9. Select Yes, start copying now and click Finish.
  10. After the copy completes, verify that the new relationship displays in the list of relationships on the Independent Relationships tab. The state of the relationships must be Consistent Synchronized before you can add the relationship to a 3-site consistency group.
Add the Metro Mirror relationship to a 3-site consistency group
To add the new Metro Mirror relationship to a 3-site consistency group, complete these steps:
  1. On the Independent Relationships tab, right-click the new relationship, and select Convert to 3-site.
  2. Uncheck the This relationship contains data checkbox.
  3. Select the 3-site consistency group from the list that displays and select Next.
  4. Under Choose a pool, specify the numerical ID for the storage pool on the auxiliary-far site that provides capacity for the target volumes. To verify these details, select Launch the Aux-Far management GUI, and select Pools > Pools. If the selected pool is a data reduction pool, select This is a data reduction pool.
  5. Under Aux-Far pool settings, select the method for saving capacity that this pool uses.
  6. In the Volume base name field, enter a naming convention that identifies the volume as part of the 3-site consistency group. The names are automatically generated to include the specified base name, the name of the 3-site consistency group, and an incremental number.
  7. Click Convert.
  8. After the conversion completes, verify that the Metro Mirror relationship is part of the 3-site consistency group. Select the 3-site consistency group and verify that the new relationship displays in the list of relationships.

Using the command-line interface

To add an independent relationship to a 3-site consistency group, complete the following steps:

  1. Run the mkvdisk command to create empty volumes on the near sites. 
    Master Site 
# svctask mkvdisk -autoexpand -cache readwrite -deduplicated -iogrp io_grp0 -mdiskgrp 0 -rsize 2% -size 6 -unit gb -name Volume_1 
Virtual Disk,id [13], successfully created
    AuxNear Site 
# svctask mkvdisk -autoexpand -cache readwrite -deduplicated -iogrp io_grp0 -mdiskgrp 0 -rsize 2% -size 6 -unit gb -name Volume_1 
Virtual Disk,id [13],successfully created
  2. Run the mkrcrelationship command to create a stand-alone Metro Mirror relationship between the newly created volumes.
    # svctask mkrcrelationship -master Volume_1 -aux Volume_1 -cluster Auxnear -sync
RC Relationship,id [13],successfully created

    Run the lsrcrelationship command to view the results.

    # lsrcrelationship
id name master_cluster_id master_cluster_name master_vdisk_id master_vdisk_name aux_cluster_id aux_cluster_name aux_vdisk_id aux_vdisk_name primary consistency_group_id consistency_group_name state bg_copy_priority progress copy_type cycling_mode freeze_time
12 rcrel0 0000010035400E38 Master 12 Volume_0 0000010027C00EE8 Auxnear 12 Volume_0 master 0 rccstgrp0 consistent_synchronized 50 metro
13 rcrel1 0000010035400E38 Master 13 Volume_1 0000010027C00EE8 Auxnear 13 Volume_1 master consistent_stopped 50 100 metro
  3. Run the startrcrelationship command to move the relationship to the consistent_synchronized state.
    # startrcrelationship rcrel1

    Run the lsrcrelationship command to view the results.

    # lsrcrelationship
id name master_cluster_id master_cluster_name master_vdisk_id master_vdisk_name aux_cluster_id aux_cluster_name aux_vdisk_id aux_vdisk_name primary consistency_group_id consistency_group_name state bg_copy_priority progress copy_type cycling_mode freeze_time
12 rcrel0 0000010035400E38 Master 12 Volume_0 0000010027C00EE8 Auxnear 12 Volume_0 master 0 rccstgrp0 consistent_synchronized 50 metro
13 rcrel1 0000010035400E38 Master 13 Volume_1 0000010027C00EE8 Auxnear 13 Volume_1 master consistent_synchronized 50 metro
  4. Run the addnewrcrelationship command to add the stand-alone Metro Mirror relationship to the existing 3-site consistency group.
    # addnewrcrelationship -consistgrpname rccstgrp0 -pool 0 -iogrp 0 -deduplicated -thin rcrel1
3-site RC relationship created with volume id [15].
  5. Run the ls3sitercrelationship command to verify the addition of the new relationship.
    # ls3sitercrelationship
name consistgrp master_vdisk_id auxnear_vdisk_id auxfar_vdisk_id sync_copy_progress 
periodic_copy_progress status
rcrel0 rccstgrp0 12 12 12 100 complete
rcrel1 rccstgrp0 13 13 15 100 complete