Safeguarded volume group

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A volume group is a container for managing a set of related volumes as a single object. The volume group provides consistency across all volumes in the group. A volume group is called a Safeguarded volume group after a volume group is created and assigned with a Safeguarded policy.

With the Safeguarded Copy function, Safeguarded volume groups are consistently backed up and restored based on the Safeguarded policies that are set to a volume group. A Safeguarded volume group can contain volumes from different parent pools. However, ensure that all volumes in a volume group belong to parent pools with a child pool that is configured as a Safeguarded backup location. A Safeguarded policy cannot be assigned to a volume group unless a Safeguarded backup location is defined in the parent pools. After a Safeguarded policy is associated, all the volume group volumes that are associated with their respective parent pool are safeguarded at the Safeguarded backup location. Safeguarded source volumes in the Safeguarded volume group are backed up according to the associated Safeguarded policy.

For the Safeguarded Copy function, Safeguarded volume group have the following restrictions:

  • A Safeguarded policy cannot be set for a volume group if Safeguarded backup location is not configured with the parent pool.
  • A Safeguarded volume group cannot add a volume to the group if a parent pool with child pool is not configured as a Safeguarded backup location.
  • A Safeguarded volume group cannot be deleted if it contains volumes.

A Safeguarded volume group can be deleted by a system administrator and security administrator. If the Safeguarded volume group is deleted, then volumes in the volume group are no longer safeguarded. However, the Safeguarded backups and mappings that are created from the respective Safeguarded source volumes would exist until the configured backup expiration time.The Safeguarded backups expiration and retention time depend on the time that is configured in the Safeguarded policy. When the configured expiration time is reached, the system would automatically delete the Safeguarded backups. Safeguarded volume group does not support all types of source volumes.

A Safeguarded volume group can be created and managed by an administrator by using the command-line interface and GUI. You can change a Safeguarded volume group policy with a new policy by using the chvolumegroup command. Also, you can use the lsvolumegroup command to view Safeguarded policy IDs and names that are associated with a Safeguarded volume group.