Using the Create Copy Wizard

The Create Copy Wizard guides you through the  creation process. To learn more about the Wizard, see An Overview of the Create Copy Wizard, which follows.

Use the following procedure to create a virtual disk copy.

 Caution: Risk of data loss - A virtual disk copy performs the following actions:

• Overwrites data on the  
• Automatically makes the  to . You might want to keep this attribute enabled to preserve the data on the target virtual disk; for example, if you are using the target virtual disk for backup purposes, if you are copying data from one  to a larger disk group for greater accessibility, or if you are using the data on the target virtual disk to copy back to the  of a disabled or failed . If you decide not to preserve the data on the target virtual disk after the virtual disk copy is completed, use the  to disable the  attribute for the target virtual disk.

 Caution: Possible loss of access to data -  participating in a virtual disk copy are available for read I/O activity only while a virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress or Pending. Write requests are allowed after the virtual disk copy has completed.

If the source virtual disk has been formatted with a journaling file system, any attempt to issue a read request to the source virtual disk might be rejected by the   , and an error message might be displayed. The journaling file system driver issues a write request before it attempts to issue the read request. The RAID controller module rejects the write request, and the read request might not be issued due to the rejected write request. This action might result in an error message being displayed, indicating that the source virtual disk is write protected.

To prevent this issue from occurring, do not attempt to access a source virtual disk participating in a virtual disk copy while the virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress. Also, ensure that the read-only attribute for the target virtual disk is disabled after the virtual disk copy has completed to prevent error messages from being displayed.

Operation in progress icons are displayed on the source virtual disk and target virtual disk while the virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress or Pending.

Overview of the Create Copy Wizard

The following list summarizes the dialogs that are displayed by the Create Copy Wizard:

• The Introduction dialog defines what a virtual disk copy is and enables you to select a source virtual disk. The table displayed in this dialog contains all valid source virtual disks on the storage array, including the virtual disk you selected to start the Wizard.
• The Select Target Virtual Disk and Copy Priority dialog contains a table that lists the valid target virtual disks and enables you to set the . The copy priority determines how much of the system resources are used to complete the virtual disk copy as compared to service I/O requests. There are five copy priority rates available: lowest, low, medium, high, and highest. If the copy priority is set at the lowest rate, I/O activity is prioritized and the virtual disk copy takes longer. If the copy priority is set to the highest priority rate, the virtual disk copy is prioritized, but I/O activity for the storage array might be affected.
• The Preview dialog provides an overview of the selected source virtual disk, target virtual disk, and copy priority for the virtual disk copy.

After you have completed the Wizard, you can view the details of a virtual disk copy with a status of In Progress from the Virtual Disk Properties dialog or from the Copy Manager dialog.

Related Topics

Learn About Virtual Disk Copy

Using the Copy Manager

Re-Copying a Virtual Disk

Removing Copy Pairs

Viewing Virtual Disk Copy Properties