FlashCopy® for XRC

Remote Pair FlashCopy® (RPFC) is a solution for mirroring the results of a point-in-time copy (FlashCopy) from the primary volumes to the secondary volumes in a remote mirror configuration, without disrupting the mirror or consistency at the remote site. RPFC captures the parameters of a FlashCopy and sends those parameters to the secondary volumes, replicating the operation.

Remote Pair FlashCopy® for zGlobal Mirror (zGM or XRC) allows you to perform a FlashCopy between primary volumes at the application site which then get mirrored at the remote (D/R) site. This initiates a FlashCopy between secondary volumes without disrupting the mirror or consistency at the remote site.

See Figure 1 for an illustration of RPFC for XRC.

Figure 1. Remote Pair FlashCopy for XRC
An image showing an application site and a recovery site, with FlashCopy between primary volumes at the application site, which then get mirrored at the recovery site.

In order to use RPFC for XRC, the primary volumes must be in an active XRC session. When the FlashCopy is initiated at the application site, the primary pair may be in full duplex, copy, or pending state.

At the local site, you enable RPFC for XRC by:
  • Specifying the FCTOXRCPrimary keyword on the DFSMSdss COPY command. It is supported on all COPY commands, including FULL, TRACKS, and DATASET, for logical and physical data sets. Do not use the FastReplication(NONE), COPYVolid, or FCFastReverseRestore keywords with the FCTOXRCPrimary keyword.
  • Specifying FLASHCOPYTOXRC=YES in the DEVSUPxx member of parmlib and activating the parameters
At the remote site, you enable RPFC by:
  • Specifying RemotePairFlashCopy(YES) in the ANTXIN00 member of parmlib. This parameter takes effect only during XSTART. It cannot be changed using XSET while the session is active.
When defining a copy pool, you can specify whether an XRC primary volume is eligible to become a FlashCopy target volume for FRBACKUP or FRRECOV. In ISMF, you use these fields: FRBACKUP to XRC Primary Volumes allowed and FRRECOV to XRC Primary Volumes allowed.

For more information, see Remote Pair FlashCopy for XRC.