HP StorageWorks SAN Virtualization Services Platform Manager user guide (AG781-96017, March 2009)

• High performance LAN-free and server-free backup — Administrators can create an independent
physical snapclone, allocate it to a backup server and execute the organization’s backup activities
through that server. No LAN traffic is needed (LAN-free backup), the original application server
is not involved (server-free backup), and the backup server may access a separate storage system.
In this way, the backup window is practically non-existent from the application standpoint, assuring
continuous availability of the enterprise’s online data.
• Rapid and reliable application testing — Using a snapclone, a variety of applications can be
tested with real data, enabling rapid and reliable application or operating system release testing.
This capability is enhanced even further when using a snapshot in conjunction with a snapclone.
• Support for Block Level Incremental (BLI) backup — BLI backup is an incremental backup method
that only backs up changed data blocks, virtually eliminating the database backup window. The
ability to back up only the changed blocks is important. With a traditional file level incremental
backup, an entire data file (which could be several hundred gigabytes) must be backed up if only
a single 2K block is changed. However, BLI backup enables just the modified 2K block to be
backed up. BLI backup offers several key benefits:
• Since only changed blocks are backed up, tremendous time and media savings are possible.
• Since the backup window is very short, both system and network overhead is greatly reduced,
thereby enhancing performance.
• More frequent backups are possible, so each backup contains a more up-to-date image of
data for improved recoverability.
• BLI backup enables faster database recovery from hot backup than traditional techniques.
A snapclone task requires as much free capacity in the destination storage pool as the capacity of
the source element that you copy.
Viewing the snapclone groups list
The snapclone groups list displays all snapclone groups for which the local domain is either the source
domain or the destination domain.
To display the snapclone groups list:
In the navigation tree, click the Snapclone Group node. The snapclone groups list appears in the list
area. The following information is displayed for each snapclone group.
Table 100 Snapclone groups properties
DescriptionProperty
The row number.No
The name of the snapclone group.Name
The name of the source element defined by the group. This may be a virtual disk,
a snapshot, a VDG, or a VDG snapshot.
Source Name
The source domain of the snapclone group.Source domain
Using snapclones234