EMC bcv restore steps

[Joanne Keegan]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone have the steps required to restore from a bcv to the standard device for an EMC Symmetrix connected to a HP server running HP-UX 11.00 and Symcli 4.1? I do have some information - but it is difficult to decipher!

Any help will be appreciated! And I do award points.

Regards,

Jo

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Jo,

Check these links out:

http://www.emc.com/pdf/techlib/symcli/tf_multi_conc_bcvs.pdf

http://www.emc.com/pdf/techlib/symcli/tf_bcv_pairs.pdf

In my dealings w/EMC THEY always did this - from the "controller" (a M$ laptop in the enclosure). We had service/maintenance contracts with them on all our arrays.
In fact we were NOT allowed to do any of this & were NEVER given the PWs to these units. They would generate the "bin" (basically the HW def incl array composition/LUN designation)file, replace failed disks & "resync" the replacements, add/remove disks, etc. All I could do was deal w/the LUNs on an OS basis

I know only that it was a proprietary SW pkg that bordered on an OS from what I could see of it.

Sorry I'm not of any more help, but I got the feeling from them that they did this to "box" you into purchasing the support contract.

Hope the links help,
Jeff

[Animesh Chakraborty · Accepted solution]

Hi,
What model of emc box you have?
If you are restoring on the same hp box where it was sync then
1.umount all file systems
2.deactivate all volume group(vgchange -a n )
3.symmir -g(symdg name) restore
4.do a inreamental restore(it will prompt)
5.symmir -g (symdg name) split
6.activate all volume group and mount file systems.

If you restoring to different server
then you have to do a vgimport with map files.
I need to restore from bcv very frequently in our developement environment.
Cheers
Animesh

[Krishna Prasad]

animesh's replay is very good.

Here are a couple of other things to consider.
Is your standards a database? Oracle,Sybase,Informix?

If yes depending on your system there are different methods to put your database in freeze mode or backup mode if you want to do the copy while the standards are active. This will also be important when you bring up the copied BCV's on the target system. Oracle will require a small recovery if you do the copy on-line. Also depending on your target system and what you define to be copied check any startup files like initSID.ora or listner,tnsnames files. I know Sybase has similar files that will need to be considered. This is only if you copy your database home directory in the copy.

Also, the users of the system need to be present on the target system with currect ownership to the data.

The good news is once you know what you need and what you want this can all be scripted.

Good luck and have fun.
I really do have fun doing this. ( They say I am a little sick)

[ian Dennison]

Answer One: Check out some old scripts, possibly in the /tmp or /usr/local/bin directory, looking for 'symmir' commands, on either INSM Server or Production DB Server.

There was definitely a hard time when I did this back there; try using the 'force' option on symmir or look for other possible command options. What do the Course Notes say?

Have you made sure all devices are unmounted, and correctly associated.

Answer Two: Ask Hamish (I have emailed him the link and your email address) or Les (do you still have support?)

Big hello to all the former team-mates (except Dave G, of course!)

Fred

[Joanne Keegan]

Thanks to those who responded. Animesh's response was great. I wasn't doing the deactivating the vg. Did this, and things worked beautifully.

Jo