What is a Physical Copy?

A physical copy is a fully usable LUN and can be remapped from the Pillar Axiom system to any host that has access to the DR Pillar Axiom SAN (target Axiom).

To create a physical copy, you take a bookmark or a given point in time and create a full block level copy to a physical LUN on the target side.

From the Pillar Axiom Storage Systems Manager, you first create a LUN on the secondary Pillar Axiom system. This LUN must be the same size or larger than the target LUN for which you want to create a physical copy. Then, on the MaxRep Appliance GUI, we map the new LUN to the target Appliance using the Map feature from the Toolkit. You create a recovery protection plan and wait for the copy to complete. The physical copy LUN is ready to be unmapped from the Toolkit and mapped to a Host from the Axiom GUI to access the data.

The main advantage of the Physical Copy is that you can access your data from a specified time on the DR site without stopping the replication (secondary Volume Rollback).

Create a Physical Copy

1)      Create a LUN on the target side Axiom that is the same size or larger than the target LUN for which you want to create a physical copy (you could thinly provision the target LUN as well).

Do not create any mappings.

2)      On the MaxRep GUI, 

Go to the Monitor tab and click on the Protection Plan that contains the replicated pair to make sure it is in Differential Sync (very important).

Go to the Settings tab, click on Manage Axioms and perform a Re-Discover on the target Axiom. Click on the History button a minute later to make sure the operation succeeded.

3)      Still under the MaxRep GUI, go to the Settings tab and click on Toolkit for MaxRep.

Select Map and click on Next.

Select the target Axiom and expand the UnMapped section.

Tick the physical copy LUN created on Step 1), click on Next and then on Submit.

Wait for the operation to complete (press the Refresh button on your browser if it is taking more than one minute).

4)      Now the physical copy LUN is mapped to the AIT ports of the MaxRep Engine (you can verify on the Axiom GUI). You are now ready to start the process of copying the relevant data to that new LUN.

On the MaxRep GUI, go to the Recover tab. Click on the More>> button (1) and click on Create Recovery Snapshots (2).

5)      In the Replication Pair Details table, select the replication pair for which you want to create the physical copy and then click Recover.

6)      Under Recovery Options, choose whether to create the physical copy for a specific point-in-time or for an application consistency bookmark.

7)      Specify the time or select a bookmark with the Recovery Point Accuracy button:

You can zoom in the timeline with the cursors: (1) and (2) and regenerate the graph (3).

And select an accurate time (4).

The Physical Copy LUN will have the data of the source LUN on the specified time.

8)      Under Drive Type, choose Physical.

9)      Under Physical Drives, select the destination LUN.

10)   Click Next.

11)   Verify the Recovery Details and click Finish.

12)   Wait until the progress reaches 100% before continuing.

The Engine is copying data from the target LUN to the physical copy LUN; it is also using the retention LUN to get the blocks that have been replaced between the specified time and now.

The activities can be tracked on the Axiom GUI under Monitor -> SAN -> LUNs.

13)   Verify on the Axiom GUI that there is no ongoing Write IOs to the physical copy LUN.

Release the physical copy from the Replication Engine on the MaxRep GUI:

Under the Recover tab, click on the More>> button, click on Monitor Snapshot/Rollback Progress.

In the Recovery Pair Status list, select the recovery pair and click Release Drive.

14)   Unmap the Physical Copy LUN from the MaxRep GUI:

Go to the Settings tab and click on Toolkit for MaxRep.

Select Unmap and click on Next.

Select the target Axiom and expand the UnMapped section.

Tick the physical copy LUN created on Step 1), click on Next and then on Submit.

Wait for the operation to complete (press the Refresh button on your browser if it is taking more than one minute).

15)   Now the physical copy LUN is no longer mapped to the MaxRep Engine (you can verify on the Axiom GUI). You are now ready to test the content of the Physical Copy LUN to a host or just leave this Physical Copy LUN as a backup.

Test a Physical Copy

1)       Map the LUN to a different host for validation:

On the target Axiom GUI, go to Configure -> SAN -> LUNs.

2)       Right-click on the physical copy LUN and choose Modify LUN (or double click on the LUN).

3)      In the Mapping tab, create the mapping for the host you will use to validate the data.

4)       Go to the server and perform a rescan operation to discover the new volume.

5)       Assign this volume, or partition, a drive letter.

If you have already assigned a drive letter on this server, the server might reuse your settings automatically when the drive comes online. Otherwise, assign an unused drive letter.

6)       Inspect the drive and verify the data.