Running on line backups on FC60 Disk Array

[Robert Campbell]

I am looking for some feedback to see if I am on the right track. I have an FC60 Disk Array with one enclosure consisting of 10 18.1gb disk drives. It is set up as a RAID 1 with 5 LUNS. I have an Unidata database with the database spread across the five Luns (5 File Systems). I have not software mirrored. I would like to perform on line backups. From my reading, I believe the way I can do this is by setting up software mirrors using non-strict allocation. I would only software those file systems that I want to backup online. This will allow me to split the mirrors, run the backup, and then merge it back. Does this make sense?

[Bill McNAMARA_2 · Accepted solution]

The LUN is your physical volume: ie your disk device
file. So there's no way to split that into two PV's
other than 'failing your LUN and vgimporting it!
Don't do that unless you have an XP!

To backup online you need onlineJFS and create a
snapshot filesystem (remember your filesystem is on
an lvol on your PV) and then backup.

With MirrorDisk or better termed mirror lvol
you create a mirror of your lvol that the filesystem is
on lvextend -m1 -s n (if there's only one PV in the VG)
vgname

Then split that mirror.
lvsplit
and merge it back after. lvmerge (watch systax)
then lvreduce -m0 to get rid of your mirror.

The fact that the FC60 mirrors is internal to your PV
you can't move RAID around dynamically.
ie: RAID 1 to two Individual disks.

[paul courry]

Whose backup product are you running? Most of them have online backup capability built into the software. Give your vendor a call.