Using Snapshot with AIM

Installing the DataCore Snapshot product on the AIM destination server allows you to enable a snapshot relationship on the AIM destination server. Issue an AIM marker on the source server at quiesce (quiet) points and when data is transferred the destination server will process the request and enable a snapshot of the AIM destination virtual volume at the remote location. Data is automatically flushed when a snapshot request is sent. The AIM destination virtual volume is also the snapshot source.

To successfully process the snapshot requests (sent via markers) on the destination server, you must pre-configure snapshot relationships through the Snapshot tab in SANmanager. The AIM destination virtual volume is used as the source of the snapshot relationship. (Refer to Creating Snapshot Sets, if necessary.)

There are four ways to enable snapshot relationships from the source server:

  1. Manually (refer to Manually Enabling Snapshots).

  2. Automatically (refer to Automatically Enabling Snapshots).

  3. Setting markers for a group (refer to Enabling Group Snapshots).

  4. Scripting with a CLI (refer to Using AIM CLI Commands).
    CAUTION:  When performing CLI commands, run the command window in Run as Administrator mode.

Using Snapshot at the Source

AIM can also replicate snapshots taken on the source server. Using a snapshot as the AIM source can be used to reduce the replication traffic by eliminating the transfer of blocks written more than once and only replicating the latest change to the block. An implementation of this would be to create a snapshot script incrementing the snapshot with a Complete Image command in time intervals (such as every 15 minutes) using the snapshot as the AIM source. In this scenario, every 15 minutes, as the snapshot increments, those latest changed blocks will be copied to the AIM source and transferred to the destination. The transmission of any multiple writes that may have occurred on any given block during the past 15 minutes would be eliminated. The usefulness of this implementation depends upon the file systems of the application and the server that owns the volume you are replicating.

Using Snapshot to View AIM Destination Data

You can easily view the data in the AIM destination virtual volume by using Snapshot. Refer to Viewing Destination Volume Data for instructions.  

Using Snapshot with AIM