Dell PowerVault MD3200i - Manual (Page 53)

Planning: MD3200i Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 53
Virtual Disk Copy
Virtual disk copy is a premium feature to:
• Back up data
• Copy data from disk groups that use smaller-capacity physical disks to disk
groups using greater capacity physical disks
• Restore snapshot virtual disk data to the source virtual disk.
Virtual disk copy generates a full copy of data from the source virtual disk to
the target virtual disk in a storage array and can be performed either online or
offline.
Source Virtual Disk
When you create a virtual disk copy, a copy pair consisting of a source virtual
disk and a target virtual disk is created on the same storage array. When a
virtual disk copy is started, data from the source virtual disk is copied
completely to the target virtual disk.
Target Virtual Disk
When you start a virtual disk copy, the target virtual disk maintains a copy of
the data from the source virtual disk. You can choose whether to use an
existing virtual disk or create a new virtual disk as the target virtual disk. If
you choose an existing virtual disk as the target, all data on the target is
overwritten. A target virtual disk can be a standard virtual disk or the source
virtual disk of a failed or disabled snapshot virtual disk.
NOTE: The target virtual disk capacity must be equal to or greater than the source
virtual disk capacity.
When you begin the disk copy process, you must define the rate at which the
copy is completed. Giving the copy process top priority slightly impacts I/O
performance, while giving it lowest priority makes the copy process longer to
complete. You can modify the copy priority while the disk copy is in progress.
For more information, see the online help topics.
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